The Bomber coach has been under almost weekly scrutiny throughout the second half of the season as his side slipped firstly out of finals contention, and then towards the lower rungs of the AFL ladder.
On Saturday night Essendon’s season came to a close with a 29-point loss to top-four side the Western Bulldogs, the gulf in class apparent as despite their willingness and tenacity, the Bombers couldn’t use the ball efficiently going forward.
“We started well and we had a couple of shots early in the game where we could have got to three goals to zip ... then the Bulldogs obviously held sway for a fair proportion of the game,” Knights said.
“They were just a lot more polished when they went forward.
“I thought their forward entries were really crisp and precise and they got good reward for their effort going inside 50 whereas I didn’t believe we got the reward going inside 50 we probably deserved.”
The loss was Essendon’s 15th for the year and meant it looks set to finish 14th in 2010 - something Knights knows is not good enough for a club that is not only used to playing finals football but also did so 12 months earlier.
“The aim of the Essendon Football Club is to play finals each and every year, so we haven’t achieved that so that’s a failure on that level - no question about that,” he said.
Despite that bottom line, he has been pleased with the amount of game time his youngsters have seen this year.
He said Saturday night’s result further demonstrated how much hard work his list had to do over the summer. And, unlike recent years, few are likely to be going anywhere as the coach suggested he wouldn’t alter his list too greatly in the off-season.
“We’ve pruned the list pretty hard the last three years,” he said.
“I think there’s been a turnover of 24, 25 players in the last three years, so that’s massive.
“We certainly haven’t been a list like Western Bulldogs or St Kilda who have moulded a group for five, six, seven years now.
“We’re third year into moulding our group, so I don’t think delistments will be as heavy this year as they have been.”
As for his own feeling of 2010 winding up, the coach said he wasn’t relieved.
“Yes it has been a challenging year on many fronts ... but it’s about the resilience you show during these tough periods and we’ve had a tough year at the Essendon footy club,” he said.
“But I’m sure our supporters will keep backing us and keep believing in this young group.
“There’s no easy way to the top, and the teams that are on the top have proved that, that you do take time to get up there and that’s what we’ve got to keep working at.”
