Players are not only ones hurting
The Essendon players and staff are not the only people who have been affected by the ongoing drug investigation and controversy regarding the Essendon Football club. Only ‘real’ Essendon fans can relate to the hardship and distress that I am going through.
I am an Essendon diehard member. I have several Essendon posters hanging from my wall, I go to most games in Melbourne, and watch the away games on TV. My weekend’s mood is always determined by Essendon’s result. All pre-season I was counting the days until the round one Essendon v Adelaide game. I followed the team’s pre-season trips through social media and watched replays of the previous season’s matches. Just as the season approached, this bombshell broke.
When I saw the breaking news, I had never pre-empted that it would still be going on intensely through the media to this day. I just thought it was another scandal like the Adelaide salary cap scandal, or the Melbourne tanking scandal. But boy I was wrong; this drug scandal has been nauseously long, intense, worrying and mystifying.
When it first broke, I trusted that we had done nothing wrong, as my idols strongly stated that through the media (Watson, McVeigh and Hird). When people asked me what I thought about the situation, I just simply replied “Watson, McVeigh and Hird said we did nothing wrong, and I trust them - they wouldn’t lie would they?” Then as the story developed through the media, the statements made by these guys became less and less convincing. They started saying that they had no idea what was going on, and “it was not their fault” instead of “we did nothing wrong”. I still, to this day trust the three of my heroes, and am hopeful that the truth will come out in Essendon’s favour.
The worst part for me is the jokes and banter you get when you go to school and anywhere else daily. When someone asks you which football team you support (which is incredibly often when you live in Melbourne), I tell them, and they either snigger, say “unlucky” or “pfff, drug cheats”. Lots of Essendon fans would laugh or go ‘shut up’ to the teasing, but every time I hear one of these jokes, I feel instantly angry. I have no evidence to back up the Essendon football club in the issue. Just like the whole of Australia, I have to wait until the truth comes out. The other thing I hate, is after Essendon has a great win and everyone at school goes “the drugs must work”. I have no comeback to this, and I end up having to change the topic, or just ignoring them out of intense anger and frustration!
Just about the only positive to come out of this whole controversy, is that it has made each of our wins more special. The round three comeback win in Fremantle (after the Hird rumours), the Anzac day win in front of a packed house (which I went to), the round 11 thrilling win v Carlton (which I also went to) and the win v West Coast (after Jobe’s admission). The memories of these games will stay with me for the rest of my life and I am hopeful I will be able to tell my kids about them in the future.
One of the happiest days of my life was when my idol Jobe Watson won the Brownlow last year. And now, one of the saddest moments of my life to date, was the realisation that Jobe may lose the Brownlow.
Although there is a lot of uncertainties at the moment for me about the whole saga, the one certainty for me, is that I will stick by the Essendon football club ‘whatever it takes’ (no pun intended), for however terrible the situation gets. The Bombers are just about my life, and I cannot imagine my life without supporting them.
Comments
Robert Allen 20 November 2013
A well written piece Max. Just think - surely next year can only get better! Keep the faith and keep writing ...
Jim McBride 10 December 2013
I understand to a degree how this young man feels as I've stayed firm is my support of Melbourne throught thick and thin these many years......it has been a long time since there was anything positive about the Dees
Paul Genis 2 February 2014
It's not James Hird's fault it's bloody Steven Dank's fault he did it at Essendon and he did it at Cronulla and Manly he may have even done it in the A-League we just don't know how messy it is atm
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