Not even close. As the season continued and no improvement was shown, more than one scout was heard to comment that an embiggened spirit would be needed
No tagging role? Clarke out. Myers in.
Or am I thinking of the âoldâ Essendon?
I would rate Fiorini as their best midfielder, and the only one id consider tagging.
But a head to head matchup versus Brodie would be interesting. Brodie got a bit of the ball against the blues and is a similar inside mid.
Not even close. As the season continued and no improvement was shown, more than one scout was heard to comment that an embiggened spirit would be needed
I always thought he was short, because heâs broad across the shoulders, but it turns out heâs not short, and still stocky. I imagine you wouldnât have any criticism of his build if he were standing in front of you.
Swallow is their best clearance player IMO.
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I had to laugh at the Woosha interview where he was asked about Clarke taking another scalp. He responded that âwe donât talk about taking scalps at the clubâ. The very next day on the Essendon website, there was an article titled along the lines of âClarke takes another scalpâ and an interview with one of our players who commented that âClarkey took another scalp todayâ
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I think it has been really telling that we traded in great talent in the last 2 trading periods, and yet, none of our young kids were asking to go elsewhere. Clearly the players feel that something is building, and the environment is a positive one.
Having said that, some of these guys have the talent to play every week for another team, and must be wondering how they will get a chance to push their way into our team. Sooner or later, one or two will ask for an opportunity elsewhere. And that will be no bad thing for us, because weâll get picks back to spend on the next batch of young talent that we seem to be so good at developing lately.
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Brodie may have hurt his hamstring in the last qtr.
Just an observation, kicking reminds me a bit like Buddha Hocking. Plays a little like him too.
This is a good thing.
Buddha had a much better haircut though.
Not sure what Clarke is running with, but looks like some kind of undercut youâd see in Ringwood circa â93
93 was a good year, so may not be a bad thingâŚ
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Do we give Woosha credit for finally blooding players like Clarke (and playing him as a tagger) or critcise him for taking so long.
Nearly all of Blitz had been calling for Myers, Baguley to be dropped for months. Once he makes these moves we start winning
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I am a Woosha detractor. Yet even I think he deserves credit for blooding Clarke, and more importantly sticking with him.
While Myers and Baguley could have played VFL earlier, there is a team morale thing where the coach has to balance the expectations of the playing group so that they continue to want to play for him and trust him. I would argue that in both cases this process has been managed very well. This is Wooshas strength as a coach.
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At least when Clarke came in he was more than ready to go. And has continued that form since the Carlton game.
Worsfold stated today that the coaches are trying hard to evaluate to what extent playing Clarke in his current âroleâ has helped us win. He states that although we started winning consistently when Clarke came into the side, we might have won those games anyway. 
Its my belief that Worsfold still does not believe in tagging opposition mids. He is very reluctant to use the T word and calls it a âroleâ. But maybe there is belief among the underling coaches, like Rutten, and Kelly that tagging works, and Worsfold was forced to concede to them, when he was under a lot of pressure to get wins. It would be naive to assume that the issue of tagging was never discussed in coaches meetings.
The Worsfold philosophy may be that tagging initiates a tagging arms race, and opposition side will respond by tagging Zerret in particular.
However, our players have been tagged a lot over the years since John took over and his main response to opposition taggers has often been simply to give them coaches votes after games when taggers have helped opposing teams beat us.
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IMO he dislikes having guys flipflop between 1s and 2s.
He picks young guys when heâs confident theyâll be able to make it stick
He drops old guys when heâs confident theyâre proper done.
(Of course, there are exceptions)
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Clarkeâs role has varied between a full-on, 100% tag and just a tag at the stoppage, letting them go in general play.
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Controlling Cripps, jom, Parker, Cunnington, Sloan and stopping them running riot went a very long way to winning those games. Would we have won without tagging them? Maybe, that would seem to be a pretty specious argument.
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