Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd has vowed to repay the injured Scott Lucas for his efforts in holding up the Bombers' forward line last season while Lloyd was out of the team with a long-term injury.
Lucas will spend at least 12 weeks on the sidelines after yesterday tearing his posterior cruciate in the first quarter of the Bombers' victory over North Melbourne. It is the most significant injury the centre half-forward has suffered since he fractured and dislocated an ankle in 1999.
Such an injury does not require surgery, but Lucas will be forced out of the game for three months while the torn tendon scars over and repairs.
"He has been our best player over a three-year period," Lloyd said. "A lot of times when I haven't been there he covered. So now a year after my year-ending injury I am confident I can really take charge while he won't be out there . . . It is disappointing but I am ready for it he has done it for me.
"We just need to win as many as we can early while the young kids are running the way they are and while Scotty isn't playing because I am sure he will come back pretty well, and carry us through that second half."
Essendon doctor Bruce Reid said the injury was a grade-three tear that "tend to be 10 weeks out but then he has to get match fit so probably three months before he is playing".
"I didn't see it but he was leading out of a pack and he didn't know what he hit but it was just below his knee," said Reid. "He has had no knee injuries before . . . He has been good (with injuries)."
Essendon coach Matthew Knights said several players who could take Lucas' place in the side, such as Scott Gumbleton or Jay Neagle, were still two to four weeks away from fitness.
Knights said he had planned to use the two ruckmen on the ground with the resting ruckman dropping back across half-forward regardless of Lucas' injury but that tactic would now assume greater significance.
"It's a really disappointing injury and disappointing for Scott because he has had a stellar pre-season and he was really looking forward to putting his stamp on the forward line with Matthew and mixing up playing key high and deep at times. So it is frustrating for Scott," Knights said.
Despite the injury it was an impressive start for the Bombers under their new coach.
Essendon had not beaten North Melbourne since the famous comeback game of 2001 when they turned around a 69-point deficit. Yesterday the Dons trailed by 27 points in the second quarter before winning by 55.
"I think I was probably still running around myself the last time we beat them, I had probably lost a yard or two, too," said Knights. "It is significant (to defeat a bogey side in North). It is good, I could easily say that with a new coach and a new team it doesn't really matter but the reality is we haven't beaten the Kangaroos for a long, long time and that is the reality.
"And it was good for the club to win today under those circumstances."
Knights said he encouraged his team to be bold and aggressive. "I feel good, I feel pleased we have won the game. (The) Kangaroos are a pretty sharp outfit," he said.
"We knew they would be well organised, but we are all about developing us as a club.
"We will not be intimidated, we will go out and play our game and play hard and see what flows from that. Just like we did today, no one was quite sure what was going to happen, what the result was going to be, we just knew we wanted to take the game on, play hard and I want to give my players the licence to be creative and make things happen.
"I think we made a step forward today at times but there were still times when we should have executed better and we were a little crude early, especially with some of our tackling so we have to get that right.
"There wasn't a lot going right early but we did hang tough until we swung some momentum our way."
The coach praised the run and endeavour of younger players such as Courtenay Dempsey whose season last year was cruelled by four hamstring injuries, and Adam Ramanauskas whom he termed the spiritual leader of the club for twice battling cancer to return to playing football.
"Adam, spiritually, is enormous … to see him come back and gather with players and give a springboard from attack. What do you say, it is an amazing story he is an amazing person. He has got his spring and his speed back which is a big part of Adam's game. He will be very good for our club this year."
North coach Dean Laidley lamented his side hitting the post six times in the match, particularly in the crucial second quarter when it relinquished a 27-point lead.
"I think David Hale was one of the main culprits, I think he kicked three points in the first quarter and a half," he said. "The third quarter they just outplayed us."
