The article said players were complaining about team selection, including asking why Bachar Houli and Courtenay Dempsey were not being picked, and also said the selection of Irish youngster Michael Quinn against Adelaide had led to coaching box arguments.
The Bombers have been struck by injury and poor form, and the pressure on coach Matthew Knights has been increasing despite the fact that he took over a club that required a massive rebuild after the Kevin Sheedy era.
Some poorly-worded comments from the club hierarchy earlier in the week did nothing to release that pressure.
The club has released a statement on its website, signed by chairman David Evans, CEO Ian Robson, Knights and captain Jobe Watson which, while failing to guarantee that Knights would see out his contract, read: “As senior coach, Matthew Knights, has a clear mandate from the board by virtue of a contract that runs to the end of the 2012 season.”
The strongest refutation of the article read: “While we accept the right of the media to scrutinise and question the club’s progress, we do not accept reports based on fabrications and rumour. This is certainly the case with a number of reports that have challenged the relationship between the playing group and the senior coach.
“Most recently, comments in an article written in today’s Age, by Caroline Wilson - in regard to player selection in recent weeks - are completely unfounded.”
The statement comes after former premiership-winning captain Tim Watson called some Essendon supporters to account for what he believed to be intentional efforts to destabilise the coach.
Watson strongly criticised supporters of the club who were still complaining about the departure of former coach Kevin Sheedy, and said they needed to “grow up”.
Speaking on SEN radio, Watson said people working against Knights needed to start supporting the club rather than trying to repair their own power bases that disappeared when Sheedy left Windy Hill.
“There are people that have never been able to let go of the fact that Kevin Sheedy was not re-signed as the coach,” he said.
“There are people around the club who talk about the fact that they are really strong Essendon supporters, who at one point actually had a power base because they were around Kevin. When Kevin was no longer there, they lost that power base.
“They’ve never been able to forgive the club for that - those people need to grow up.”
Watson suggested any supporters seeking to destabilise the club and coach should consider their allegiances and whether they wanted to remain Essendon supporters.
“All they’re trying to do from the outside is dismantle the Essendon Football Club,” he said.
“They’re being divisive, and it’s not the right thing for a football club.”
