Essendon fans, welcome back to finals.
That’s Kane Cornes’ message to the Bombers’ faithful after a triumph over Richmond on Saturday night took the club to five wins for 2023 and grew optimism on the club's prospects in 2023.
Cornes now believes Essendon is set to break back into the finals and feature in September again after missing out last year.
The Port Adelaide great broke down exactly how it’s going to happen.
“Essendon will play finals,” Cornes declared on SEN’s Sportsday.
“Five wins they’ve got, they’ll win their next three, West Coast, North and Carlton at the MCG I’m giving them.
“Then they’re 8-5 at the bye. Then comes a really difficult five-week stretch for them where they just need to win one: Fremantle, Port Adelaide at the MCG – that’s a very realistic possibility they can win that – Adelaide, Geelong, Western Bulldogs.
“Just win one of those five after the bye. It’s a hard one, but then it becomes easy.
“Sydney at Marvel, West Coast again, North Melbourne again, GWS and Collingwood. They win four of those five which gets them to 13 wins at a minimum and they make the eight.
“Essendon fans, welcome back to finals for you.”
Cornes added that Brad Scott is set to be aided by several returning players from injury in Essendon’s run home.
Darcy Parish and Peter Wright are the biggest names on the list and are still listed at four and eight weeks away respectively.
But other names such as Jayden Laverde (shoulder, four weeks), Jake Kelly (concussion – likely a test), Will Setterfield (foot, TBC), Nik Cox (back, one to two weeks) and others are also likely to play a role in the run home.
But Essendon supporters would no doubt be dreaming of bigger things than just a September appearance, having not won a final since September 4, 2004, the longest streak in the AFL.
However, Brad Scott’s finals record makes for better reading, having won four times in September from eight attempts while coaching at North Melbourne.