Questions have been asked about the culture internally at Essendon following a tumultuous 2020 which saw three players exit in the trade period.
West Coast champion Glen Jakovich was the latest to call for change at the Bombers, saying something was “amiss internally” at the club.
“From my intel over in Melbourne, there seems to be a lot of Essendon people that demand they play finals every year, but they don’t understand it’s a national competition,” Jakovich said.
“Until they understand that and the AFL system, then I see them missing the eight again this year because there’s so many off-field issues regarding their administration, their board, their members are frustrated and that pressure hampered John Worsfold last year, you could see that.”
Heppell, however, believes in what the club is building under new head coach Ben Rutten.
“You hear things like that (about culture) and I couldn’t disagree more with some of the statements that were getting thrown out (in the 2020 trade period),” Heppell told reporters on Thursday.
“Obviously everyone’s trying to build a really strong culture and it’s something that we are certainly working towards.
“At the moment, that’s a great focus of ours over this pre-season, really trying to build our relationships right across the club and I think that will stack up really well.”
According to Essendon’s injury report, Heppell remains a month away from entering full training as he continues to rehab an ankle injury from 2020.
The Bombers skipper is just happy that he can now train without pain.
“You certainly go through phases where you want to be out there with the boys and trying to lead from the sidelines definitely makes it tough at times,” he said.
“It’s certainly nice to have a run at pre-season now. My body’s feeling great and being able to get amongst it certainly helps.
“There’s certainly phases where it eats away at you and you have some pretty flat days because you’re used to be able to run pain-free … When (the injury) just stays there for a prolonged period of time, it certainly chews you up.
“But coming out the other side of that, now I’ve got a pain-free ankle, certainly makes me a lot happier.”