Essendon midfielder Brent Stanton was confident that, following Tuesday's anti-doping not guilty verdict, his team would safely negotiate an emotional tightrope on Saturday when they face Sydney at ANZ Stadium.
The veteran Bomber explained that not only would he and his teammates have to keep a lid on the jubilation of the decision which saw the 'Essendon 34' cleared of taking performance-enhancing drugs, but also ensure they don't suffer a flat spot after such a euphoric high.
While Stanton was naturally overjoyed with the result, he stressed that, when all is said and done, he and his teammates' primary concern as professional footballers was to play in and win games of football.
And Stanton went as far as to say the 26-month ordeal was a "blessing in disguise" with regards to safeguarding the team from feeling flat against the Swans as they became accustomed to picking themselves up each week over the past two seasons to play footy on the weekend, while the uncertainty of the drugs probe hung over their heads.
"It was probably spoken about on Tuesday a little bit – yes, we got the result that we were after but in the end we're still here to play football and win games of football (and) this is what this great football club is about," Stanton said after training at Tullamarine on Thursday.
"I suppose you're always going to go through flat periods throughout this whole thing and probably the blessing in disguise is we've gone through this for so long and there have been ups and downs through the time and I suppose we've been able to pick ourselves up for the games each week.
"There's probably lull times during the week when players are a bit flat but this is what we're excited about, this is what we're here for, we play the game to play in big games – it is a big game, they (Sydney) played in the grand final last year."
Stanton wasn't concerned that the vast majority of Essendon's team will come into the game on Saturday without match practice after they sat out the NAB Challenge in an attempt to protect the anonymity of the players who were charged by ASADA.
"I think the football staff, the coaching staff, the fitness staff have really prepared us in a way that we're ready to play," Stanton said.
"There's always going to be a few players who don't play throughout the NAB Cup – yes, it is extraordinary circumstances in this case but I suppose the level of professionalism that these players (have) now, hopefully we can perform in Round 1 without any sort of match practice."
Despite admitting there was "some angst" about ASADA chief Ben McDevitt not ruling out appealing the anti-doping tribunal's decision, Stanton described the last 48 hours as exciting and said he felt more relaxed since the verdict was delivered.
The 226-gamer also told reporters it would be up to each individual player over timeto decide if they would take legal action against the club for subjecting them to the highly-contentious 2011-12 supplement program which McDevitt described as an "injection regime" on Wednesday.
But for now, Stanton was looking forward to playing footy with a clear mind after two years and agreed that expectations on the team would now rise with the darkest chapter in the club's history behind them.
"It's certainly something that we're striving for, we've been striving for that for two years," Stanton said.
"I suppose we've come up against a few hurdles across the way but ... it's an expectation that we're trying to become the team that we want to and that's a successful one."
Stanton expected "two or three" new faces to play against Sydney.
