So like on a spit?
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Yeah, rotiserie like.
His mamma call him Huss, imma call him Huss!
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Yeah I’d be doing whatever she told me to do too
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Hawthorn have the wizard and they go dressed in wizard outfits.
We have the hustler and should dress as follows.
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Reckon he will end up playing a lot of vfl because the fitness just isn’t there, but he got so much of what we lack.
Feel like he’s going to end up a pure crumbing type while Kako plays up the ground a bit more
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His nickname should be el Camino
That’s correct in English and Hebrew
Apologies if this is already posted - couldn’t see it
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Congrats to Huss on his debut selection. 
(For some reason, nobody mentioned it in here in the last 24 hours.)
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Just to confirm, is all the talk about his “lack of fitness” based on anything other than his body shape, via the armchair view? Or is this based on combine testing, particular game observations?
It just seems to be preached as gospel but I’m not sure anyone has seen enough yet to say he can’t run out games…
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His combine testing was very very low for endurance. IMO is why he fell back late in the draft.
it sounds like his fitness has improved a lot since then.
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What do they measure by these days? Beep, 2k?
Obviously a watch to see both how he can run out a game and how he works on his endurance levels this year and next preseason but keen to see us with 2 genuine smalls for once
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I hope he is up and about early in the game and kicking goals with both feet. Go well young Huss, tear the Dawks apart.
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Will be able to be coddled a bit hopefully with 5 on the bench (if needed)
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No pressure Huss but we need 3.
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Kicks goals and is creative at every level he plays. Go well against the Hawks young man!
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Nothing gets past you!
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Far from me wanting to set a precedent of agreeing with “Wreck It Ralph” (Yes it really says this on his byline!) but I think this is a reasonable take about El Achkar below.
Good on him for getting through the pre-season, and doing enough to make the round 1 team, but he seems a long way off with his conditioning. Playing him too early might actually do him a disservice in the long run, so hopefully he got a taste of it, can go back in the two’s and work hard to get him proper fit and get some confidence so next time around he can have a bit more impact.
Jon RalphWreck It Ralph
March 16, 2026 - 6:40PM
Dons TORCHED for defensive effort
Hussein El Achkar never stood a chance on Friday night.
Thrown to the wolves as a debutant against Hawthorn’s hard-charging half backs, he was the victim of Essendon’s aggressive rebuild.
One that has dispatched at least eight senior players since the end of 2024 and left him literally gasping for breath as Jarman Impey and Karl Amon left him in their dust.
In 50 games the No. 53 draft pick might well be a player – and he had moments of magic after a solid pre-season as a crafty goalsneak.
Hussein El Achkar battles with two Hawks for the ball. Picture: Getty Images
But watching from the boundary line on Friday night it was apparent how long this Dons rebuild might take as Amon and Impey consistently put 20 metres on him within seconds as the young Essendon forward line utterly failed to stop the Hawks bouncing from half back.
El Achkar could have slotted into the VFL practice match had Jake Stringer still been around but instead the 171cm goalsneak learned the hard way how tough AFL will be for him this year.
At times as he bent over double trying to regain his breath in the middle of the ground, Amon and Impey were charging through the offensive 50m line trying to boost an eventual 145-point score.
Impey left El Achkar in his wake. Picture: Getty Images
At the other end of the ground Mason Redman learned he is not a one-on-one defender amid a series of challenging match-ups against Hawthorn’s trio of key talls including Jack Gunston.
Had Jayden Laverde remained on the list he might have been able to play his usual freewheeling style, but instead the last-line defender was playing for the Giants.
Laverde played hurt all year with hip issues but was still delisted.
The full-blown rebuild is not dead – with North Melbourne winning 20 games in six years but finally showing some of that latent promise against Port Adelaide.
But the huge concern for Essendon this year is that they have gone so young in an era when that path seems such a recipe for disaster or at least long-term pain as the Roos and Eagles have shown.
Jayden Laverde. Picture: Getty Images
Jake Stringer. Picture: Getty Images
The fear is that not only will Merrett want to move on again, but that it will be impossible to secure Zak Butters types when the road ahead looks so rocky.
In the past 18 months the Dons have moved on Dyson Heppell, Stringer, Laverde, Jake Kelly, Nick Hind, Todd Goldstein, Ben Hobbs and Dylan Shiel and handed Sam Draper a modest deal that allowed him to choose Brisbane as his new home.
No one would argue all of those players should have stayed, but Essendon is so young and so raw.
The four new Bombers who played on Friday night. Picture: Getty Images
How in god’s name do they compete in a competition where so many rivals have decided a full-blown top-to-bottom rebuild puts you into a 5-8 year cycle of pain?
St Kilda went to the draft for three years then used $4 million of banked cap space to go to the market.
Melbourne traded out Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver for cultural reasons but brought in Jack Steele, Brody Mihocek, Changkuoth Jiath and Max Heath.
Richmond has perfectly timed its rebuild but kept Nathan Broad, Nick Vlastuin, Tom Lynch and co to tutor the kids.
Essendon will have better days than against a chastened Hawthorn side desperate for redemption after an opening round loss.
02:34
Hawks fly high over Merrett and Bombers
AFL: Hawthorn proved far too strong for Essendon as Jack Gunston kicked five goals.
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And yet the rationale of keeping Zach Merrett (despite Hawthorn’s offer of three first-rounders) was that they could show him how far they have progressed by round 24.
Instead they could be in for a year of pain that only entrenches his view that he should be elsewhere.
The club did well to cauterise the wounded as Jordan Ridley and Kyle Langford at least pondered moves before staying and Darcy Parish sucked up his reservations over the club’s injury management.
Essendon will have better days than against a red-hot Hawthorn but they need to come soon if they are to keep Merrett and co. past this season.