Upon taking over from Ben Rutten as Essendon coach Brad Scott said the club's future success would boil down to hard work, discipline and unity.
His first public appearance in red and black took place at the Bombers’ best and fairest in September of last year; he had this blunt message for the players.
“I talked about the opportunity that we’ve got and that we don’t have any time to waste. The condition that the players come back in on day one of pre-season will tell a story in it of itself,” Scott said.
Jake Stringer didn't heed the warning; we shouldn't be surprised, he never does.
I was taken aback when photos emerged of Stringer presenting for day one of pre-season.
By an elite athlete's standards, he was overweight. Again.
And now he's injured, and his pre-season has been interrupted. Again.
In 10 seasons, Stringer has played 20 or more games three times, and he will fail to reach that mark again this year.
As his Essendon teammates completed match-simulation at training today, Stringer watched on.
In a 2021 interview with Fox Footy, Stringer admitted he was out of shape during the previous season.
“I've leaned down a bit, about seven kilos, I must've been carrying a few last year, but it's all part of the development and growing.”
Stringer was 26 back then; he's now 28, and the time for development and growth is long gone.
Staggeringly, he revealed this on a podcast in 2022, in which he proudly described his more disciplined off-season, which led to a career-best 2021 season.
“Pound the pavement and teach yourself how to run long distance and learn how to be able to do that,” he said.
“Because before that I probably hadn’t run over 2km straight in probably eight years.
“Like, you go for a run and you do 1km warm up and then we would do like 200m, 300m, 400m, we’re not going to do a 5km jog – well I wasn’t.”
Motivated by being out of contract, Stringer got fit that year and produced an outstanding season; the Bombers rewarded him with a multi-year contract extension.
Now he's back to square one, overweight, injured and watching on.
This week South African cricketer Dane Van Niekerk was controversially omitted from the T20 World Cup for failing to reach a 2km time trial target.
Essendon needs to follow suit.
Until Stringer achieves strict fitness and body measurement goals, Scott should not consider picking him in the senior team.
In Scott's words, Essendon requires hard work, discipline and unity to achieve long overdue success- unfortunately, his most talented player has shown none of the three.
Jake Stringer is destined to be another talented player than never reached their potential. He only has himself to blame.
