Essendon half-forward Paul Chapman insists revenge won’t be on his mind when the Bombers take on his former AFL club Geelong for the first time this season at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.
Chapman was controversially traded by the Cats last year after a stellar 251-game career at Kardinia Park, where he won three premierships. While the decision didn’t sit well with many Cats diehards, Chapman said he felt no ill-feelings towards the club.
“While it’s good for the hype that I got dumped last year and there might be vengeance and stuff like that, there’s no ill-feelings from me,” he said. “That’s footy these days. Things happen and you’ve got to make some hard decisions.”
While revenge won’t be motivating Chapman, he and his teammates would undoubtedly love a victory against the Cats. The Bombers have endured a tumultuous season off the field – the drama climaxing earlier this month when ASADA issued show-cause notices to 34 past and current players over the club’s controversial supplements program in 2012.
Chapman, who wasn’t at the Bombers when the alleged drugs violations occurred, said he was doing what he could to support teammates. “The guys have handled it very well, and on game day and training they’ve been very professional,” he said. “But you can see that it does affect them a little bit.”
For their part, the Cats are wary of an ambush after suffering a shock 40-point loss to the Gold Coast last weekend. Some critics saw the Suns defeat as proof the ageing Geelong roster is waning as a premiership force, but Cats coach Chris Scott disagrees and believes his side remains in title contention.
“We think we’ve got a lot of players coming back into our team that will help us and we’ve got ourselves into a reasonable position coming into Round 15, with quite a few of our really good players being a little bit less than their best,” he said. “Some people might say that’s a problem and an issue for us. We’d prefer to look at it glass half full.”
