Essendon is hanging out for the completion of the 2026 season, according to Six Points AFL podcast co-host and former Hawk Daniel Harford.
The Bombers fell to the Adelaide Crows on Sunday, suffering their 18th loss of the season, and falling to the bottom of the ladder after Richmond toppled West Coast on the same day.
Harford, who was witness to Essendon's poor performance, believes the players have checked out.
"Dean Solomon has had a really rough initiation as a caretaker coach. The players look, although they had moments yesterday, the players just look like they're waiting for the footy trip as well," he said.
"Now I've been there four of the last five weeks I've seen them live, and it just feels like they're just punching the clock, get to work, get out and just wait for the next week to roll around.
"You've got a team at the top of the ladder, taking on a team at the very bottom of the ladder, you're going to get a relatively average game of footy, but the Essendon fans aren't there, they've had enough, they've checked out.
“There is no vibe, this is the whole thing, it's a horrible experience, as a neutral is a horrible experience, even for Essendon fans I reckon, they make no noise, there's no energy in the stadium, now 20,000 in a 50,000 stadium's hard to sort of build energy anyway.
"Clearly they're voting with their feet that they don't want to be a part of the journey, the next phase of the evolution of the Essendon footy club."
Essendon are searching for a new coach, but Harford doesn't think the new coach is going to fix the Bombers.
“There's no real soul about Essendon at the moment; it's about 8000 days now since they've won a final. It's ticked over 8000 days," Harford said.
"I just wonder how much damage is being done, and how quickly they can rectify this on the back of a new coach coming in; I'm not sure it's going to be a quick fix for any of them.”
