how goods the rollercoast of ‘oh ■■■■ hes sprinting past 4 players’, to down the throat of a defender turnvoer
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His two best mates want to leave.
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Nothing says Essendon more than our captain having the option of kicking to either Huss or caddy who are both one out with an opponent and McGrath kicking a rainmaker to huss
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Do we think McGrath’s position as Captain is vulnerable with a new coach coming in? For example, Hird has publicly spoken highly of Durham; I could see that change being made.
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I’d give McGrath another year if only to shield the new captain for a further season as next year will likely be equally grim.
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I can’t see it being made but it definitely should happen, his poor kicking has been the elephant in the room for years, no way you can have a successful team when the captain is one of the worst kicks out there.
Need the Capt to set the example and uphold that standard amongst the players and he is unable to do so, not great for a young developing team either.
He took the game on. I like that.
But holy frijoles, he cannot be our capain.
I was happy to roll the dice with him as captain to see how it played out. Looks like I got that one wrong.
Our club doesn’t have the balls to strip him of the captaincy.
I think it depends on the new coach.
We could easily sell a message of new coach, new era, young captain (with McGrath as an experienced VC - which I think most would be ok with) to lead the whole thing.
But I suspect the captaincy at Essendon at the moment is more about being able to do all the off-field stuff and not being susceptible to the pressures which come from leading a very poor football team. Just to make sure the kids can focus 100% on their own development.
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He is one of the few that will run and carry and try and break the lines. The only problem is he is a horrible kick on the run. And it’s never changed. How is that possible?
Does he not put the hours in off the field to try to improve?
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Whoever the new coach is will allow it to be player driven. Just like every other club in the country.
As fans, we keep swinging from ‘we need a relationships person’ (call this the happy clapper) to the ‘we need a hard arse who tells it like it is’ (call this the doomer and gloomer). This is pretty much Heppel / McGrath to Merrett / Goddard. I’d love to find the better balance of the ‘inspirational player’ (this was Hird / Jobe) but Durham is the closest to it and I think that’ll be too much resting on his shoulders.
We need a good group of players making it their own. The McGrath, Redman, Langford ones are not making it their own (if they are, it’s not a successful one) and are just placeholders until the next generation (Robey, Caddy, Roberts, Sharp, Farrow) are ready to take this club forward.
As time passes, the list with the type of players Rosa is picking should over shadow the ‘softly softly’ approach by our current veterans.
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He’s Canadian. Just be thankful he can kick better than an 8yo girl
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The players are football players, they aren’t the smartest tools in the shed
If you were to poll the players they would all pick McGrath cause that’s what they think is the right answer.
You need to put the criteria in that ensures someone other than McGrath gets put in.
Tough, uncompromising, gets inspired by their actions. They will pick Durham.
Whilst I agree, I doubt it happens.
Clubs in general allow players to choose who represents them in the leadership group.
I also don’t think McGrath was a ‘coaches call’. If he’s pretty good with players coming in to the club, he’ll be popular within the group. Until that no longer becomes important to a group, I think McGrath will be the captain.
I’m not too worried about who gets the captaincy title. He’s a leader by title and does any media stuff. This is fine for McGrath to do. The guys who lead us on the field through their actions and habits this year has been Durham. Other than him, there’s Prior. Roberts is in there too, but I’d prefer him focus on his game and naturally lead, than trying to force it on to him.
Sadly, he only does that once every couple of games.
Lucky for him he was drafted with pick #1 not #5.
There’s degrees of horrible
Woeful captain, bum taps and BBQ’s only.
Worse captain, even worse was the decision to make him. Never understood it and could not see it.
It was his because he was next inline only, didn’t deserve it or earn it though.
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I know McGrath was a divisive choice but I genuinely couldn’t imagine he would be this invisible as captain.
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2016 was a dark time - but Brendon Goddard would never have stood for this. McGrath ain’t it.