John Worsfold has spoken out against Dennis Cometti's comments. Photo: Wayne Taylor
Essendon coach John Worsfold says he agrees with captain Brendon Goddard that Dennis Cometti's pre-season call to strip the Bombers of their traditional spot on Anzac Day was an affront, describing the commentator's comments as "insulting" towards former Dons coach Kevin Sheedy.
In a column he wrote last month in The West Australian, Cometti claimed that the Dons should not play in this year's game in the wake of January's Court of Arbitration for Sport decision, which left 12 Bombers suspended for the season.
"What the heck are they doing playing in this year's game?" Cometti wrote.
Goddard discussed the issue last weekend, and Worsfold said on Friday he concurred with his captain that the veteran caller had badly missed the mark.
In particular, Worsfold took exception to Cometti's comments because he felt they did not take into account the effort of Sheedy — who is back working for the club after being sacked as coach in 2007 — to create the fixture in 1995. The match is now widely viewed as the highest-profile annual home and away game.
"It's probably a little bit insulting towards Kevin Sheedy and his vision for what the game is about and how big the game is," Worsfold said after training at Tullamarine on Friday.
"Collingwood and Essendon, what they've built up to make this one of the premier sporting days on the Australian calendar. It's a little bit disrespectful to those clubs who have got it to where it is because obviously it wasn't this big when it started."
In any case, Worsfold said his team had to take the match as though it were any other, despite the hype that surrounds the game. "There's a little bit of excitement [in the group]. Anzac Day is a big day for the country, and it's a big day for Essendon and Collingwood to run out together.
"[But] my mantra as a coach has always been 'that it doesn't matter where you're playing, which ground, how many people turn up, the challenge at AFL footy, elite sports, is to mentally prepare the same way.'"
Worsold met suspended Dons skipper Jobe Watson on Thursday, but would not be drawn into revealing details of the "private" conversation. Watson is heading away on holidays as he ponders his football future.
"It was just a chance to catch up with him and see how he's felling before heads away, basically," Worsfold said.
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