2018 Season in Review: The Clapper v Gloomer Deathmatch

Clark_Griswold · August 25, 2018, 6:40pm

For me…well I have this long term prediction to return to, which I made after JLT (before Round 1):

Lid on 2018 - have we gone to soon? Nervously hanging out for Friday

I have felt, over the last few days…we could get stuck in mid-table limbo for a few years.

Firstly, I think it is where we will end up this year…Over summer I thought we were borderline to make the 8, but my expectations are drifting lower with the games I have seen thus far, and with the injuries.

Looking beyond 2018…as time goes by, I become more pessimistic about those players that we drafted off the back of the trades of Ryder, Melksham, Carlisle, Hibberd. Some are already basically done…the saga is still a visible scar on our list quality.

So I don’t think we have an outstanding group of youngsters. A few, yes, but not enough of a cohort to really stand out in this competition.

Therefore, I think we could find ourselves mid-table…and mid-table breeds mid-table.

The only possibility to escape, IMO, is another aggressive trade period, where we benefit from players nominating us…And we need to make some use of free agency, targeting players who still have as many years as possible left on the clock (because we won’t be challenging for a while).

I think as Essendon fans we are generally biased towards being optimistic…but the older I become, the more I realise that a small dose of pessimism, or perhaps cynicism is a better word, is needed to pull me in line with what is actually realistic.

I’m shocked when I read things on Blitz like “we need to do this and that to make top 4 this year”. It seems delusional to me. If this thread is right, those people are going to fall hard as the season unfolds.

The main thing that I would change now, is the assessment I made about the kids:

Francis has gone from potentially quitting football, to a rising star nomination.
Langford has gone from ‘positive signs’ at VFL level, to ‘positive signs’ at AFL level (I’m not so surprised about that one).
Parish finished the season well.
Redman has been rejuvenated by switching to the half back line.
Laverde showed some signs as a clearance mid, late in the VFL season.
When I made the above post, I probably hadn’t seen much of Guelfi…probably hadn’t seen anything of Zerk/Mynott…all low draft picks, and I think they have potential.

These positive signs from the kids makes me encouraged about the future…now that I think about it, I like the attitude of the young guys. They all seem pretty diligent, like they want to compete, like they’ll work hard to try to succeed…so currently, I’m feeling like where we just finished on the ladder for 2018, should really be a low watermark for several years. As long as we tick off a decent trade period/draft, I am going to start 2019 with my median expectation being finals.