At a sports media conference this week, Melbourne CEO Cameron Schwab gave a rueful smile when asked about the Demons' chances of achieving the great things being predicted of them in 2011.

Schwab explained how he wished Herald-Sun football writer Mike Sheahan had not predicted the Demons to finish in the top six in 2011. The club's expectations at the moment, he said, are about "respecting the supporter base". In other words, not feeding false hope while managing a young list that only a year ago collected its second consecutive wooden spoon.

Realism is a trait not often associated with AFL administrators. Though half the competition is unable to make the finals, nobody within the game concedes they're settling for anything other than a flag at the start of a given season. What's false hope when there are memberships to sell?

2010 is a perfect example of the administrator's dilemma. Deep into September and the last four standing are Geelong, St Kilda, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs. Déjà vu? This quartet comprised last season's Preliminary Finalists while three of these sides made this stage in 2008 and two in 2007.

Unfortunately this acknowledgment of the natural order of things doesn't sit well in football. Supporters are impatient for success and all too eager to let their clubs know about it. This breeds a culture of hyperbole, and individuals or sides that fail to meet such lofty expectations can expect to receive criticism that is as immoderate as it is unrealistic.

Nowhere is this more evident than at Essendon, the highest-profile underachiever of 2010. The side finished eighth in 2009 on the back of a Round 22 mugging of the previous year's premier. In hindsight, this result was a burdensome overachievement that marked Matthew Knights' own line-in-the-sand. The win might have secured finals footy for the Bombers but it was under-acknowledged that it was a poor eighth, secured in a mediocre season for mid-table sides.

Professional sports teams are duty bound to use the previous year as their benchmark for the coming season. At Essendon this meant anything other than finals footy in 2010 would be considered failure. But how realistic was this aim?

In a season in which the six oldest lists all made the finals, Essendon ranked above only Richmond, Melbourne and North Melbourne in the average number of games played by those on their roster. The Bombers were also handed a fixture list that included 12 out of a possible 14 matches against the previous year's finalists. Add on the destabilising influence of the departures of Andrew Lovett, Matthew Lloyd and the pressure facing a young coach approaching only his third season and you have a recipe for a difficult year, not one of rapid progression.

Factor in the advances made by the likes of Fremantle, Sydney, Melbourne and North Melbourne and Essendon's resting place of 14th, while not pretty, is at least understandable.

The problem is that Knights was appointed with a three-year remit of consistent finals footy and a five-year plan for that to be in the top four. In July, club president David Evans defended these ambitions and restated his belief that the Bombers can challenge for a flag as soon as 2012. Poor Mark Williams.

Ambition and hope drive footy clubs and it's important a club's leaders remain optimistic, especially in adversity. But ambition has to be grounded in reality. Failure to do so ensures that when reality bites the pain is as severe as it is unexpected.

Schwab is right to temper expectations for his inexperienced side. As the recent history of preliminary finalists shows, there should be plenty of time to crow once they get there.

(Jonathan Howcroft is a freelance journalist and BPL contributor.)