TOP 5 FROM 2025

Well, thank God that’s over … finally!

Essendon’s 2025 campaign will without a shadow of a doubt go down as one of the most miserable seasons in the club’s history. At times, even the Bombers horrific 2016 campaign was beginning to look easy compared to the week after week disappointments that met fans this season.

Injuries and almost everything else you could imagine killed the club’s chances to compete at all in 2025. At the conclusion of this campaign, Essendon left the season on a 13-game losing streak, yes … another unpleasant streak. The last victory the Bombers enjoyed this year was on Friday, 23 May against the Tigers on Dreamtime. By the time the ball is bounced again in 2026, signalling the return of true competitive footy again, the Dons will have waiting roughly 10 months to get back on the winners’ list.

But it wasn’t without its positives … as hard as some were to find.

But for this blog, I’ve put together five that I consider the top of the tree. In a season bereft of much joy, I feel it’s necessary to find the positives.

Starting with …

ROUND THREE

After a suspended Opening Round against the Gold Coast Suns and two losses to Hawthorn and a crushing defeat to Adelaide, a win against Port Adelaide was much needed!

After trailing for the vast majority of the game, the Dons came home hard and kicked 4.4 goals in the final quarter to get over the line by two goals!

Nate Caddy and Sam Draper (remember him), led the scoring with two goals apiece, while Zach Merrett (what a surprise) led disposals with 34, while Xavier Duursma and Sam Durham collected their fair share of the ball, too

This was also the period of the year where the team was tackling with extreme intensity, led by Jade Gresham (7 tackles), Dylan Shiel and Jye Caldwell (5 tackles).

This was the start of the club’s only winning streak of the year (three games), going on to beat the Demons during Gather Round and then West Coast in Perth.

Having only collected six wins from 24 rounds of football this season, those precious ‘good wins’ felt all the more special, especially when looking at them from the backend of the year.

Let’s just hope there are more to speak about when we reach this point of the season in 2026.

One of the club’s brightest prospects and brightest successes of a painful year.

ARCHIE ROBERTS DEVELOPMENT

I’ve covered this territory recently, as have a large contingent of the AFL media community.

Roberts at just 19 years of age, has impressed all with his tenacious performances, his maturity and growing position as a leader within this Essendon team.

Roberts took out his second AFL Rising Star nomination this season, along with starring performances in games against Melbourne, Richmond (34 disposals and 31 disposals), Fremantle (25 disposals and 8 marks) Geelong (33 disposals and 7 marks) and 28 disposals at 89% efficiency against Carlton quite a few Thursdays back. His reliability down back has also shone brightly in 2025, leading the club in intercepts (119) just ahead of defensive stalwart Andrew McGrath (114).

He is everything Essendon fans could have hoped he’d blossom into, and from the depths of the 2023 AFL Draft, he’s all the more impressive. When 2026 rolls around, I don’t think it will a shock to anyone to see that Archie Roberts name has made its way into the Bombers leadership group.

Let’s just hope his game continues to develop as well as it did this season, because damn, that’ll be one hell of a player!

And at just 20.

Vigo debuts. Vigo re-signs. Vigo good.

DEBUTANTS

Despite the pain that caused their introductions into the senior side, having been able to blood 15 new names into this Bombers’ side gives the club (hopefully) a head start in the progress of our next competitive team.

You only need to think about how quickly guys like Isaac Kako and Angus Clarke have developed in just a single season.

Isaac Kako came into the team with hype aplenty, and although he has only tallied up 15 goals, it’s a hell of an effort considering the side he has been surrounded by in his debut season. But it’s been his overall game, especially through the back half of the season that has impressed most. Although not in the midfield for long stints, Kako showed real aptitude for the role and showed he has more than a few strings to his bow.

Angus Clarke was not one I expected to see in 2025. But that is the nature of the season just past. The 18-year-old shone and got himself a Rising Star nomination as a reward (one of four Bombers to achieve a nomination this year). His marking this year has been labelled Elite via the AFL website, he’s nabbed five goals, and his disposal efficiency is sitting at 72%. These aren’t exciting number by any stretch, but damn he’s shown a lot and leaving season ’25 I feel fairly comfortably saying that come the beginning of the 2026 AFL Opening Round, Clarke will be in Essendon’s best-22.

But as I stated a little earlier on, the silver lining of all these injuries this season has been the opportunity given to the youth. I’ve listed the clubs debutants and the amount of opportunities they got in 2025:

Archer May – 7 games

Lachlan Blakiston – 11 games

Oskar Smartt – 4 games

Liam McMahon – 7 games

Angus Clarke – 14 games, Rising Star Nom R.11

Isaac Kako – 23 games, Rising Star Nom R.17

Tom Edwards – 2 games

Saad El-Hawli – 9 games

Lewis Hayes – 1 game

Archer Day-Wicks – 5 games

Luamon Lual – 12 games

Zak Johnson – 9 games

Rhys Unwin – 3 games

Jayden Nguyen – 5 games

Vigo Visentini – 2 games

Poor seasons need a positive and the blooding of these kids is that. Let’s just hope they can amount to careers worth celebrating.

And that 2025 wasn’t a total waste of a year.

He can kick goals. The end.

MCMAHON FOUND

At the time of writing this, Liam McMahon remains without a contract for next year and beyond. And that is insane!

McMahon has only had a small amount of opportunities to show his craft, yet impressed and proved he can be a valuable piece to this ever-unfinished Essendon puzzle. In just seven games McMahon has notched up 12 goals, cracking the club’s top 5 goal-kickers for the season. In year of significant lows for the club, this was somewhat of a highlight.

Overlooked in a number of drafts and underappreciated at VFL level, McMahon has taken his chance by the scruff of the neck. He’s proven to have good hands, good vision, good technique and more importantly for a side without a true lead-up forward … decent leading patterns!

I expect, or at the very least hope that the Dons will reward McMahon with a new contract – one year would suffice for now. Given the state of things at the club in regard to the list, signing a proven goal-scorer would be a smart move from Matt Rosa and co.

Dear God let’s not repeat the Massimo debacle!

FUTURE FIXTURING

This is slightly left field but still … surely our fixture is good next season!

What cruel bastards those at AFL House would be to hit Essendon with a slew of brutal matches against top 8 teams in 2026, and in prime time too, if history repeats.

Let’s all hope for some nice old-school 1:10pm Sunday games at Marvel Stadium for this young side to play, away from the insane spotlight that they suffered this season on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night footy.

It might seem defeatist, but I think some more low-key timeslots would assist this maturing list.

The Essendon Football Club has endured arguably the worst season of injuries any club in the modern era has. Change has begun with Sean Murphy departing, and I imagine a number more will follow. Investigations have been made into the grounds at The Hangar out at Tullamarine and a selection of players look set to head overseas for specialist assessment.

It’s easy to say this, but 2025 sucked.

But it’s obvious that the club is making moves to remedy the issues affecting the team’s ability to perform. This should be commended. Huge change has occurred within the walls of Tullamarine, massive even. Change takes time and that time can often be filled with seasons of pain, anxiety and disappointment.

The season just past was certainly that.

But I walk out of this year an optimist (more than likely an idiot as well), believing that the pain, anxiety and disappointment we all suffered in 2025 won’t be repeated in 2026.

I’m probably wrong.

But what else is new?

Go Planes