Essendon has made a habit of proving its critics wrong this season and Jobe Watson hopes it will be the case again when the Bombers make the trip to Adelaide to battle the Crows this Friday night.

Many have already written off Essendon’s chances of being competitive, let alone making it past the first elimination final, but the 24-year-old believes anything is possible with this exciting young crop of baby Bombers.

“There is genuine excitement amongst the players,” Watson said.

“At the mid-year break we thought we had posted a reasonable start to the year and finals were a realistic aim for the club. It has been a bit up and down since then, and there have been times when we have dropped off, but that inconsistency just comes with a young side.

Add to that the fact that only 12 of Essendon’s 46 players have had finals experience - three of whom (Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas and David Hille) have already been ruled out of contention - and the scale of the task becomes more apparent.

However, despite the omissions and lack of finals experience, Watson believes Essendon has the ability to beat the odds and can deliver a competitive contest against an in-form Adelaide.

 “You need guys to be able to carry the load when the slack comes and there are also young guys that have developed really quickly in their leadership,” he said.

“There’s a group of players now that are seen within the group, and within the club, as leaders and that is what you need.

“The guys who are first and second year players have also begun to show leadership within the group and that is how you cover losses of players. We have a big enough group of leaders to cover them.

“We have had a lot of players that have played a lot of finals but there are going to be 15 or 16 guys that run out for the Essendon Football Club on the weekend that have never experienced finals. It is terrific and shows where the list is at and how quickly the list has been turned around and the development of some of these young guys.