Essendon supporters at Saturday's clash with Melbourne. Credit:Getty Images But they've worn as much of the fallout. The public savaging of their club's reputation, the endless jibes of opposition supporters, the feeling of being pariahs in the football world and of guilt merely by association. Which goes some way to explaining the strength of the guttural roar which emerged from probably 80 per cent of the 50,000-strong MCG home crowd when Darcy Parish ran into goal to effectively seal Saturday's win. If in years to come one moment is identified as the circuit-breaker in Bomber fans' attempts to move beyond the nightmarish past three years, that goal from the hugely-talented and exciting draftee might be the one. It was the culmination of a rare day of positives in the gloom of recent times. There were important sponsorship announcements. The re-signing of the first of the group of suspended players, on-baller Heath Hocking. The rallying of former greats around the rag-tag bunch of Bombers running on to the MCG. And the "Make A Stand" march of around 10,000 supporters from Federation Square to the ground.

Even that attempt to have fans unite behind a club kicked from pillar to post had been misrepresented as a show of defiance against the CAS suspensions. And while they were marching came more recriminations as former Bomber Brent Prismall was interviewed on radio about the supplements program. On Saturday night, Essendon fans attempting to enjoy the moment of victory received the usual social media taunting and advice to forget the win and listen instead to what Prismall said. Many would already have heard the interview and been as disturbed by what they heard as everybody else. Because for all the barbs about "cultists" and those who resolutely stood behind former coach James Hird in the drugs saga, you won't find more than a handful of the club's supporters who won't freely admit what transpired in terms of philosophy and governance was a reprehensible disaster of epic proportions. That tends to get lost in the hyperbole about a club supposedly a stain on the AFL competition. And which continues to take the whacks despite the fact it was dealt the heaviest penalties in league history two-and-a-half years ago and now has had its players who were involved punished as well. And despite the fact it has virtually an entire new executive and football staff from those who were present when the nightmare began. They've desperately sought a fresh start. They're also smart enough to know it may be years, perhaps decades, before some people allow that to happen.

Essendon supporters? Well, to paraphrase Andrew Demetriou, they didn't inject anyone. They had no say in what went on and how their club, its coaches and administrators chose to handle the fallout. But they continue to barrack for a club they have loved in many cases long before those involved in the saga, even James Hird, were part of the Essendon fold. That's why they've continued to sign up to the cause, go to games, and treat with appropriate disdain the cries of rival club supporters that they should turn their backs on the Bombers. That sort of resilience deserves reward. And there was at least some on Saturday afternoon. The further evidence that Joe Daniher is a superstar in the making. Zach Merrett a future elite midfielder. And, after just two games, maybe one day Parish, too. There was payback in the first signs that Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti could be a lot more important than merely a cult figure. And in the best senior games yet played by Kyle Langford and Marty Gleeson. They're the signs from which Essendon supporters will continue to take heart this season regardless of how many thrashings they endure. And they'll keep reminding themselves that is what 2016 is about far more than wins and losses.

Yet having a sense of patience and playing the waiting game becomes a lot more palatable if you can just occasionally have a lick of the ice cream. Essendon fans got a double scoop of it on Saturday. And after what they've been through, it tasted sweet indeed. AND WHILE I'M AT IT ... We've said it before. You need to be very careful about leaping to too many conclusions based on a couple of rounds of a season. But to simply ignore what's going on with Fremantle would be equally dangerous. Here's the facts. Taking in the end of last year, the Dockers have now lost six of their past eight games after having dropped only six from the previous 34. That appears more of a trend than an aberration. The defensive indicators are just as worrying. In three full seasons prior to round one, Fremantle had conceded 100 points in just eight of 73 games, and two of those occasions came when they were fielding virtual reserves sides. Now it's happened twice in two weeks.

Then there's the coach, Ross Lyon. In his 10th season in the caper with St Kilda and Freo, none of his teams had until Saturday dropped the opening two games of a season. The closest shave was the Saints in 2011, who lost their first game in the last seconds and drew their second. Pep talk: Ross Lyon tries to rally his troops at three-quarter-time. Credit:Getty Images That tardy start would precede a slump that left the Saints having won just one of their first seven games. From there, they'd scramble desperately to make the final eight, from which they were bundled out in an elimination final. It's that analogy that should have Dockers fans more alarmed than the possibility that some tinkering by Lyon of his team's mechanics isn't having the desired impact. That's possible, of course. Lyon has continually stated publicly that he wants his Dockers to score more, and in their brilliant start to last year, they were in fact averaging 97 points per game. Pre-season this year, he alluded to "tweaks we'll make with the ball [that] will make us better defensively and it should help our offence."

Fremantle did manage to kick 100 points themselves in Saturday's loss to Gold Coast. But they've conceded almost 60 scores in just two games to date, 57 and 51 inside 50 entries to the Western Bulldogs and the Suns, and 15 and 14 marks inside those defensive 50s. That's more than loose. And the bigger fear is that sort of defensive sloppiness betrays a playing group that, having come close enough now three years in a row, simply doesn't have a lot of energy left to give. Lyon has taken on three new assistant coaches in David Hale, Brent Guerra and Anthony Rock. He's tried to delegate more. And again he's recognised that steely defence on its own is no longer nearly enough to climb the premiership mountain. But a famously hard taskmaster has always demanded a lot from his coaches and his players. And when those demands don't result in more tangible rewards, determination to keep fronting up again can only last so long. Is it possible that like the Saints of 2011, Fremantle of 2016 have had their hearts broken once too often? A derby against West Coast this week then a tough away clash with North Melbourne will certainly help answer that question.