DESPITE remaining a slim chance to make the finals, Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd says the club is not playing well enough to deserve a spot.
Plenty hangs on Sunday's twilight match between Essendon and Richmond at the MCG, given it could be the last time coach Kevin Sheedy and captain James Hird represent the club in Melbourne.
The Bombers, sitting outside the eight with 10 wins, need to beat Richmond to keep alive their chances of making the finals.
Lloyd says the club wants to head west for next week's match against West Coast at Subiaco Oval still believing it is a chance, but the skipper conceded it needed to play much better.
"We want to go to Perth thinking that if we win, we're a chance to make it," Lloyd said.
"That would just make that game so much better. But we're not playing well enough to be thinking finals at the moment — we've just got to get past the Tigers."
The club has planned a number of celebrations for Sunday's game, including a pre-match ceremony, an Essendon guard of honour and fireworks after the game.
The match looks like being a sellout and Lloyd says it will be a big occasion.
"The chance that it might be the last game for James and Kevin hopefully will be a positive emotion for us on Sunday night," Lloyd said.
Bottom-of-the-ladder Richmond is in an unenviable position this weekend, forced to play second fiddle to Essendon's week of celebrations for its soon-to-be-departing champions.
The Tigers' plight could be likened to that of the Washington Generals, who were the designated whipping boys for basketball's Harlem Globetrotters, losing more than 13,000 games in four decades.
While Essendon would savour a victory to give its famous pair a happy send-off, Richmond coach Terry Wallace said yesterday the Tigers were determined to put up a fight and were not just there for decoration.
"Do you know who the Washington Generals are? They used to play against the Harlem Globetrotters and they were just there as part of the show … weren't expected to win," Wallace said.
"We don't see ourselves as the Washington Generals — we see ourselves as coming to a game to have a real crack at the match."
If the past three meetings, which have been decided by eight, 16 and four points are any indication, the Bombers will not have it all their own way.
"Our games over the last couple of years have been fabulous games of footy; they've been neck-and-neck," Wallace said.
"They've been really close, hard-fought encounters each and every time and nearly every time we've played them, the result's been sort of up for grabs in the last couple of minutes of the game." AAP
