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ESSENDON coach John Worsfold says the club has to "live with" the suspensions to its players and move forward, starting with the likely appointment of Brendon Goddard to replace Jobe Watson as captain.
Fronting the media for the first time since 12 Essendon stars were slapped with bans, Worsfold was keen to focus on the future, despite the suspended players' legal teams exploring all avenues to appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport's verdict.
"Right at this moment, I know that they're unavailable for us so we have to prepare with that focus," Worsfold said.
"We sign up to a code, we sign up to play the sport and we are governed by the people who make the rules. So we have to live by that decision.
"We've got to now move on and deal with what we've been handed."
"You don't sit around and sulk. We've got a lot of stuff that we've got to do now, we're preparing for a footy season and we're focusing on that."
One of the first tasks will be to replace a decimated leadership group after Watson, vice-captain Dyson Heppell, Michael Hurley, Cale Hooker and David Myers were banned for next season.
Worsfold said a decision on a new captain "won't be far away", with Goddard the standout candidate.
"It appears to be an obvious choice. He's in our leadership group … so I can see why people would say it was an obvious choice," Worsfold said.
John Worsfold supervises Essendon training on Thursday. Picture: AFL Media
Goddard was among a group of about 30 players who hit the training track at Tullamarine on Friday who were cheered onto the oval by several hundred fans.
No 'top-up' players were sighted, although Worsfold said the Dons had started a list analysis to dissect what types of players they need to fill the 10 available spots granted by the AFL.
"Anyone we bring into this footy club has to have the same attitude we're looking for from our current squad – wanting to improve, wanting to really add value to us and be competitive, (wanting) to train hard," he said.
"If they're unfit now and it was too big a task to get them to AFL level fitness then that's going to make it very tough."
Worsfold said morale was still strong among the remaining players and, despite the Bombers rocketing to outright favouritism for the wooden spoon, he was adamant the club would still compete throughout 2016.
"I think the morale's pretty strong within the group, but the emotional side and the shock and the sadness that they feel for each other is real," he said.
"I'll be focusing on improving and helping these guys grow as footballers. My view would be is that we're going to be as competitive as we can throughout the whole year.
"We're going out there to win games of footy.
"If we have one or two bad losses, I won't be saying 'Let's shut up shop now' and cower away."
