Yeah…Nah!
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Hard to actually find one ‘average’ player in that line up
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Any one of those players would walk straight into today’s team
The 2001 team had a lot more “average” players and was a heatwave/lack of needles/injury to Hird away from being premiers. And some of the above (e.g. Wallis or Alessio) get the traditional tag of “good ordinary players”.
But the comment above was presumably about “best” teams any given year, not the GOAT.
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And there in the problem lies.
Some refuse to accept the fact that players are employees and playing contracts are essentially contracts of employment. They are pursuing careers within an industry framework. Some sit in leadership positions while others are developing and perhaps aspire to be in leadership positions. Some are happy to be journeymen and play their role without huge aspiration. Successful Teams and businesses need all types. From time to time clubs terminate players still in contract (James Stewart) … is that breaking a contract probably not, I assume he was paid out in accordance with the contract. Businesses do the same.
So How is that much different to other walks of life such as Corporate world. With the exception of course of the types of employment contracts that are available being dictated by AFL industry body. Employees don’t generally Willy Nilly jump ship from one to another, they make considered decision and seek to advance their opportunities or station in life. Some may be seeking a new employer because the sh@t the bed with the existing one and have overstayed their welcome. Doesn’t that happen in the AFL, ie Jake Stinger and Dogs.
Players are people and would know as employees that the best income earning years of their lives could well be within their AFL careers. They have every right to maximise that earning potential.
The challenge for clubs is to keep the aspirations of the club and the individual aligned. If misalignment emerges then both or either will look at their contractual rights and opportunities to advance their priorities.
We are seeing this happen quite extensively this year. Jack Steele suddenly no longer captain of Saints, by whose choice? Too many players (free agents) to count jumping ship left right and centre. High profile players on long term contracts seeking to jump ship. It is what it is.
I understand the desire for us die hard fans and members to live and breathe Essendon, it is who we are, not by choice of employment, its hard to explain exactly why, it runs much deeper and in some ways is an intrinsic part of who we are and have always been.
Imagine if you grew up with that kind of club allegiance and became an AFL player and was drafted to a Club that was the arch enemy of your allegiance. At what point in time do you become heart and soul of your once arch enemy and abandon your allegiance.
I guess as an employee, seeking to achieve the most they can, they probably need to isolate themselves a bit from that kind of blind faith, it’s great when the everything aligns, but if it doesn’t then players will rightly put the profession and themselves first.
As clubs, to some extent we need to think of players as pawns on a chessboard and not overly concern ourselves with concepts of loyalty. If they need to be sacrificed to fulfill our greater aspirations, so be it, but we can handicap ourselves by hanging on to the glory days of yesteryear. We need to get ruthless and professional and build a list that succeeds . If we can do that and build Club Legends at the same time, great.
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But Geelong have more young talent then Essendon
I don’t really care. His primary focus seems to be his hair.
We knew they were ■■■■■■ but damn thats grim for FCFC
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Was there a single speaker on the night who mentioned to word “premiership”? I didn’t hear it.
No wonder we’re going nowhere.
Why would they mention premierships we want to be ■■■■ for a few years and rebuild via the draft
Zach mentioned it in his speech.
I’m almost certain he did. Although, I think the context was more “yeah, Essendon ain’t close to one now”.
If you really believe that then you’re an idiot. Nobody ever built success on wanting to be crap.
I don’t recall that but I think I did switch off towards the end
If the club came out said they want to win a premiership in people minds it means the club is topping up for a crack,not bottoming out,list is not good enough for a tilt etc
You can say you’re aiming for it. I was waiting to hear something like that. Of course I wouldn’t expect it from Scott; what I expected from him was what we got, meaningless waffle about team and unity and process, etc, etc, but I thought maybe Welsh would do better.
I am expecting zero improvement next year.
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Well yeah we probably wont see any improvement in 2026 Essendon will be a very young list with majority of the players on long term injuries probably not back till the msd bye
Every club is aiming for a premiership.
We’re absolutely nowhere ■■■■■■■ close to one though, no matter how many times someone says the word.
Of all the problems with the club, not mentioning the word premiership would have to be right down near the bottom.
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I don’t agree. The club needs a reset. Somebody needs to stand up and say that from today, right now, we are getting back to the basics and aiming towards a premiership. Challenge every player, coach and administrator to do better. Train harder. Work harder. Aim to win.
But no. None of that. Just waffle and word salad.
Note I’m not disagreeing with anything else you’ve said.
I too would have preferred a Voss style speech.
All I said was that not using the word “premiership” in the BnF was way way way down on our list of issues.
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