Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell has explained why the club stood by coach John Worsfold earlier in the season.
Worsfold found himself under immense external pressure when the Bombers started the season 2-6, with some labelling the decision to re-sign the coach a mistake.
However, the Dons have since turned their form around winning eight of their past 11 games, and Campbell has opened up on the struggling times earlier this year.
“The game’s a bit like that, there are some strong views and that’s understandable,” he told SEN’s Crunch Time about the criticism Worsfold received.
“It (the criticism of Worsfold) started to get a bit toward that (over the top).
“For a guy who has a great integrity, an amazing track record playing and coaching.
“I thought it probably went a little too far one way but John didn’t get flustered and for us, we are in a good position now and John is a key ingredient for that.
“At 2-6, I didn’t feel like it was the wrong decision (to extend Worsfold’s contract) because I still saw the faith the players had in the program and that’s a really critical element for where your football program is going.
“I have a lot of discussions. Every second week I catch up with John and Richo (Dan Richardson), we spent an hour together and we talk about where our football program is at.
“They’re good, honest discussion. John welcomes feedback, he gives feedback to myself and Richo, and that’s exactly how it should be.
“You’re always trying to challenge yourselves to improve. The modern game is different both from an administrative perspective and probably from a coaching perspective as well.
“The generation of players coming through now are very different to what they were 10-15-20 years ago. We all got to keep evolving ourselves to ensure we put ourselves in the best position to have the greatest impact on those players.”
Listen to Xavier Campbell’s chat on SEN’s Crunch Time in the player below