{"id":350593,"date":"2023-11-30T19:04:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T20:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=350593"},"modified":"2023-11-30T23:01:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:01:57","slug":"bombers-warned-to-back-up-off-season-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=350593","title":{"rendered":"Bombers warned to 'back-up' off-season hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne champion David King has sent a warning to Essendon<\/a> ahead of 2024, saying the pressure is on to live up to the off-season hype the club has created.\ufeff<\/p>\n

In addition to the hype of a strong trade and draft period, which included locking down key Roos defender Ben McKay<\/a> and Port Adelaide speedster Xavier Duursma<\/a>, the Bombers were quick to condemn their failed 2023 campaign and promise more in 2024.<\/p>\n

It comes after senior coach Brad Scott<\/a>\ufeff said his playing group would come into pre-season "with a sick feeling in their stomach", after a major drop saw them fall from fifth spot in round 17, to 11th by season's end.<\/p>\n

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Essendon managed 11 wins, but ended their season with just three victories from their last 10 outings.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Key leaders and club youngsters also took their destiny into their own hands in October, as a group of more than 15 players undertook a high altitude training camp in Arizona<\/a>, in hopes of ending the club's 20-year finals win drought.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

Essendon key forward Kyle Langford confirmed the camp was player-driven, in hopes of revitalising the group that fell away late 2023.<\/p>\n

"Scotty (coach Brad Scott) hasn't really driven this. This is player driven\ufeff," Langford said.<\/p>\n

"Obviously we had a lot of hard conversations at the back end of the year."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffNow King wants to see the club live up to the expectations they have projected to the rest of the league.<\/p>\n

\"Bombers<\/p>\n

"If you talk to the rusted-on Essendon fans, it's got to go past words, that's the discussion," King said on SEN radio on Thursday.<\/p>\n

"The talk is, 'Hey, we're not accepting this, these are the standards. If you're not this, this and this, you're not getting played'.<\/p>\n

"Well, I reckon they played a few last year that weren't meeting those standards.<\/p>\n

"Did selection match the words? I don't think it did last year.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"If you're going to put those hooks to the playing group, you've got to follow them through and see them through."<\/p>\n

Essendon have not won a final in more than 7,000 days, with King worried the club may just be all talk.<\/p>\n

"We talk about Essendon a lot and they talk a lot," he said.<\/p>\n

"It is a little bit, do their actions back up what they say?"\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/essendonfc\/status\/1730103387138748663<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite his hesitations, King lauded the Bombers' initiative to drive their club forward.<\/p>\n

"It's great signs though. All those young guys going off to training camps together and investing their own money," King said.<\/p>\n

"They've actually personally invested in themselves as a mini business if you like, to deliver upon their end of the bargain."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne champion David King has sent a warning to Essendon ahead of 2024, saying the pressure is on to live up to the off-season […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":325990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350598,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350593\/revisions\/350598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}