THERE were times Brent Stanton doubted whether he would reach his 250th AFL game, but now on the verge of the milestone, the Essendon midfielder is confident his side can get back to finals success during his career.
The last year Essendon won a final – 2004 – was Stanton's first season at the club, with the then teenager featuring in the Bombers' elimination final victory over Melbourne.
He, and the Bombers, have played in just three finals since that season (elimination final defeats in 2009, 2011 and 2014). But in the lead-up to Essendon's round two clash with the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night, the 30-year-old Stanton says the club is moving into an promising period.
"It is exciting to get these personal milestones in your career, but the only reason we play this game is to get team success and hopefully we can get that sooner rather than later and I'm still around to be involved in it," Stanton said on Wednesday.
"There's definitely some good signs. We still have a lot of areas to work on and we're under no illusion we're only going to improve under hard work.
"But definitely the structures are in place with a great balance of age and personality in terms of the people around who can take this football club forward again."
The Bombers' stirring 25-point win over Hawthorn on Saturday night was filled with emotion after the return of six players from anti-doping suspensions served last season, including Stanton.
Stanton, who has been extremely durable throughout his career and played 20 or more games for 10 consecutive years before 2016, weighed up whether to return to the club during last year.
He acknowledged there were moments where he thought he may remain stuck on 248 games.
"There were always doubts, especially over the last four years [given] what individuals have been through. The footy club has done a fantastic job of reintegrating us in the way they have, and we're very excited to be able to move on with football now and play a free spirited football," he said.
Now back, Stanton said the Bombers need to turn their focus to the Lions, who started their season with an exciting victory over Gold Coast.
Michael Hurley trained lightly away from the main group at Tullamarine on Wednesday, but Stanton said the important key defender had gotten through a full session earlier in the week.
Ruckman Tom Bellchambers was involved in the training session and after two practice games at VFL level could be close to senior selection. Stanton said the Bombers wouldn't be getting carried away with their early season win.
"Definitely it was more emotional than what you would have every other round one, but we've got to be realistic in all of this and move on from what we experienced last week," he said.
"It will always be in the back of our mind what we were able to achieve after a long four-year period and we're not hiding away from that. But the fact is we're still here to win games of footy and that's what we're going to be judged on.
"We've switched over pretty quickly to concentrating on Brisbane."
