Essendon and its embattled supporters cannot have enjoyed a round as much as this in years. A first victory for the season secured in just the second week of a campaign that would have surprised few had it ended winless. Moreover, a triumph dominated by the blossoming Joe Daniher and sparked by the youthful Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish.
“It was an amazing win. It’s probably up there with Fremantle in 2013 and the Anzac Day game in 2009,” David Zaharakis told SEN radio. “It’s one of the bigger wins for the club in recent memory.”
The win was no fluke either. John Worsfold stacked his midfield with experience and they hustled in close forcing a woeful Melbourne into error upon error. Outside, the pace of Merrett and the livewire Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti broke Demons lines. Ahead, Daniher towered above Melbourne’s undersized and disorganised backline. In matches to come similar 15-mark hauls will earn Daniher considerably more than just the two goals. Behind, James Gwilt barely gave the out of sorts Jesse Hogan a sniff. “It has been a big day for the club,” Worsfold told reporters afterwards with typical understatement.
Furthering the revivalist theme, only four of the 22 Dons on display were top-ups. The increased exposure for the likes of 19-year old Kyle Langford and 20-year old Orazio Fantasia was always going to be one of the upsides of the enforced list changes. Nobody could have expected it to bear fruit so quickly.
Daniher was the standout though, despite a violent snap-hook limiting his impact on the scoreboard. He seized the initiative at different times throughout the afternoon, moving up the ground to claim clearing kicks to relieve pressure on his defence as well as presenting at every opportunity inside 50 regardless of the number of Demons in his vicinity. Daniher will feature alongside the likes of Hogan, Darcy Moore, Tom Boyd and Jeremy Cameron in discussions of the most potent key forward of his cohort. Two rounds into the season he has stated his case for selection clearer than his rivals.
Add the four points to the re-signing of the suspended Heath Hocking and the recommittal of major sponsors, and the sense of the corner being turned continues to grow. The show of strength from the Essendon faithful on their march to the MCG before the game could not have been better timed.
But what of the non-Dons? Is the broader football supporting community ready and willing to share in this moment and extract some vicarious pleasure? Not if social media is any judge. Nor if the straw poll of supporters of other clubs this column canvassed over the weekend is anything to go by. To them, Brent Prismall’s soberly delivered revelations on ABC radio were the Essendon story of the round.
The term creeping into common usage to describe this sensation is the linguistically satisfying gluckschmerz. Think of it as you would the anti-schadenfreude where instead of revelling in a rival’s failure you’re experiencing pain and disappointment at their success. There was an abundance of gluckschmerz on Saturday.
But is it perhaps time for those of us not part of Essendon’s record membership to consider moving on? By failing to park our grievances are we denying ourselves one of the purest expressions of joy this season is likely to serve up? It sounds a fanciful bleeding heart concept because the tribalism of sporting allegiances inevitably blinds us to the far greater commonalities.
Throughout the saga there has been a “there but for the grace of God” go the rest of us aspect that has largely gone unacknowledged. Think about the situation with a different club in the firing line and its hero in the stocks. If it was your club, how would you react? As Bombers fans have proven, it’s been a succession of no-win situations. Defend the club to the hilt and risk ridicule for wearing a tinfoil hat and a duffel coat too tightly. Ditch the club on principle and you undermine one of the basic tenets of supporting a football club. Throw in a messianic agitator and there’s no wonder emotion has challenged rationality. Would it be any different anywhere else?
Essendon’s next opponents are Port Adelaide, a club that two seasons ago proved with the right personnel a swift rebrand can succeed. Three rounds later they face Carlton, a club with its own on-field challenges and embarking on a similar public relations exercise. In the personable Worsfold and the clutch of exciting youngsters the Bombers have the tools at their disposal to change minds, if not yet hearts. If only we can get over our gluckschmerz.
