Cut booing, Woosha tells fans

JOHN Worsfold has urged the Essendon faithful to stop booing former players after Patrick Ryder was continuously jeered on Saturday night.

Ryder left the Bombers in 2014, the tipping point when a stranger asked his partner if his newborn son was “going to grow up to be a drug cheat like your dad?”

He was booed for most of the comprehensive Bombers win, bizarre given the hell most former Essendon players have endured through four years of ASADA dramas.

Worsfold was noncommittal post-match but said yesterday the booing did not sit well with him.

It came as he revealed he would soon sit down with Jobe Watson, himself roundly booed during the ASADA turmoil, to ask if he wanted to play on next year.

“The point I was trying to make is I don’t like it as part of the game,’’ he told 3AW.

“I wasn’t sure why they were booing. It didn’t appear Paddy did anything in the game to earn their wrath.

“If it was just the fact he has left the club, as an industry we understand that’s part of the game.

“We had Josh Green who was playing well for us and James Kelly coming from other clubs.

“I don’t enjoy seeing any player booed for any reason. If they are just a player moving on we have to understand that’s part of the way it goes.”

Watson has still averaged more than 25 possessions this year but lacked impact and kicked the ball poorly at times.