Our 2022 midfield lacked defensive accountability, yet we draft a kid who averaged 1 tackle a game as a junior.
Our 2022 midfield already had kicking issues with Parish, Shiel and McGrath, the latter moving out of there midway through the year. So why do we go and draft another kid who has kicking as a weakness.
I don’t say this to say I think Tsatas can’t make it. We were just never the club to have the right players around him to allow him to make it
Maguiness is a 100%, genuine, A-grade plodder so I can totally believe this.
We clearly want to fill the list with hacks that run a lot to shoot for a year where we overperform and fluke a final.
Brad Scott is the least ambitious person in football.
I could imagine we were pushing for Tsatas for Maguinnes and a second or something like that
Rowell didn’t do much the other night… Anderson however.
We played him on the wing last year against the Hawks. I think we followed that up against Sydney the next week and played him predominantly wing / half forward.
I didn’t mind it. It’s what other clubs usually do when they can’t fit a player into the midfield rotation. And it makes the player improve their endurance and stamina which will be needed regardless of where they play. And they also have to learn other positions to extend their career. Hobbs in particular has had to do this.
His kicking was patchy as well at best for memory and he probably needed more repetition at VFL level to get comfortable.
But I was surprised that a decent amount of posters (maybe they were just loud) didn’t think it was a good way to play him. For memory it was ‘play him in the middle or not at all’. And being subbed off was not an option.
And now we’re here. He’s playing in the middle or not at all. Blitzers don’t want him as sub either (unless there’s no VFL game). That has also morphed into he must play greater than 60% time on field. We’re using him solely for his strengths.
It’s really up to Tsatas now. He will get another opportunity. This isn’t the end. When he gets the opportunity, he needs to show his best. Go for the contested ball. Do your best and keep up with his direct opponent. Work with the others in the midfield group to get the best out of that combination.
More importantly, he doesn’t have to feel like he shouldn’t kick because it’s a weakness. I’m fine to see a few rough kicks (even shanked ones), but he’s got to take them. If he takes a mark, he has to assess the situation and go back and kick it if need be. Not what he did against North and handball off to Merrett who had to rush a kick forward.
He’s going to fail a lot. He’s going to hear the groans in the crowd. It’s a reality of the situation he is in. He’ll have to overcome it if he wants to succeed.
He was given priority at the beginning of the season. So he isn’t too far away. It’s rough he got injured, but Setterfield had the opportunity and he hasn’t done anything wrong. He works well with the group of midfielders he’s playing with. He isn’t getting exposed for speed. His kicking has been good and his decision making has been very good (much to my surprise).
I know people think Shiel is keeping him out of the team, but it isn’t entirely him. Since Tsatas got injured, Setterfield and Shiel are both playing getting more midfield minutes. Shiel was up in the Port game but has slowly reduced since then. Setterfield has gone the other way. If I had to choose between Setterfield and Shiel to combine with Tsatas in the midfield, it’ll be Shiel, not Setterfield. It’s a far better fit. Regardless of who the 3rd midfielder is.
Based on Setterfield’s history, his form won’t last long though. It’s getting to the middle of the year which is around the time he finds an injury. So when that happens and Tsatas’ time comes, he has to take it. And he and the team will be better for it.
The more I think about how Scott and essendon are managing him, the more irritated I become.
Scott Lauded him for his preseason application and commitment, essentially said he would be straight back after his hand injury (and wasn’t) and then when he did come back he was promptly dropped.
Brad is largely responsible for absolutely killing the kid’s confidence. Think about how many times he has been sub as well in his 14-15 games. Kids develop in spite of him not because of him imo.
I’ve said many times and people can believe whatever they want but Scott was very, very influential in us picking Elijah, otherwise it was going to be Phillipou. This is fact not fiction.
Hard to disagree with this. Scott picks Tsatas when his flaws were pretty clear. Then doesn’t pick him because of those flaws. Like what do you expect
Shows why coaches should not have control over list management decisions. I could imagine that Dodoro stayed around as long as he could because he just did what the coaches told him
He’s not that bad, when your looking down the barrel of a 3rd rounder I reckon I would take my chances and just play him.
There’s a team out there that needs his skillset, let him put that on show.
Tsatas was the first player drafted who was born after Essendon haven’t won a final.
Dodoro said they decided a couple of hours before the draft started on Monday night to hold onto the pick.
“We would have lost a really good player to accept later picks in the draft,” he said.
"A lot of people had him (Tsatas) in the top three or four (picks) on talent.
"We did the right thing by not declaring our hand - everyone in the industry knew we were sincere about listening to offers.
More like “everyone else in the industry knew I was asking overs so didn’t want to deal with me and we are now stuck with the pick”
Apart from the obvious ones like sheezel and wardlaw who were already gone anyway, Josh Weddle is the one I’d have liked. This is said with hindsight admittedly. He’s a sensational player
which one is he?
His biggest problem now is that he panic kicks when under pressure and coughs it up.
Once he gets a bit stronger and more confident in his body that could change but until then it is a fatal flaw that doesn’t belong in an AFL team.
Yes I get the argument that we should be getting games into him but respectfully disagree. We need to play each game to win. It’s sport and anything can happen. The worse thing would be to send a negative message to the other players.
When a player is soft and coughs up the ball under pressure it is demoralising for the whole team and that is the thing we cannot afford.
Until that is fixed let him build in the seconds. He’ll get his chance. He will still be a clearance beast and if he has remedied the “cough up under pressure” he will keep his spot, move past Parish, Shiel and Hobbs and we will all live happily ever after.
Humphrey and Phillipou.
Hindsight says wrong choice obviously
But players often are picked for particular strong traits in the belief when they are in an AFL system they can improve significantly on weakenesses.
Tsastas has had a mountain of work done to help him improve his kicking, does appear though this year from preseason on that had become at least serviceable. Was noted on here that he just wasn’t previously replicating what was doing at training on game day.
Many junior mids can have poor defensive game, especially when they are used to just being the ball getter. Then it’s about them changing their attitude, bringing defensive intent. That hasn’t happened, which is on the player.
The choice for Tsatas is on Brad
An agreed Dodoro likely often went along with coaches wishes. Not always. Was reported however Knights wanted Sidebottom but Dodoro wanted Hurley so that’s what happened, I guess Knights as a first time coach had far less clout though.
Does it though?
The assumption in this is that the others would have been as good as people think they are even when picked by this club.
Hindsight would strongly indicate that would not be the case.
Once Twomey announces that an Essendon
player is gettable, its like a tsunami hitting Blitz. What caused the tsunami? A player manager getting some interest from other club(s) wants to stir things up and makes just one phone call ?
Essendon has perhaps the best kicking coach in the AFL. Be sure they are working on his disposal.
Meanwhile this thread is indicative of sheer panic. Calls of calm your farm are falling on deaf ears. I reckon at least 50 people have stated their views including me. Its a bit pointless going on about it .
I think Mackenzie would have been our best choice.
Great kick. His contest work is coming along.
He’s proven to be adaptable. He can play off a wing and also as a high half forward. Is now a full time midfielder.
During his development, he’s continued working on his weaknesses. Was sub many times. Dropped to VFL. Held back from VFL to be an emergency too.
In time, I think he’ll be the most consistent out of everyone selected after Tsatas. I’m sure others will have their better games, but Mackenzie is Merrett like (consistent high level). And it would have been great to have them both together, one learning off the other.
This is on the entire club, and particularly recruiting.
How the Fark you can use a top 5 pick on someone with known kicking deficiencies is mind boggling. And the arrogance to think they could fix a fundamental AFL skill, that’s essentially an innate skill from a young age, is just a bad.
Can understand things such tank and defence can be trained in, but reteaching an 18 to kick is something for a pre-season rookie selection.
Twoomey was another that rated him highly yet there were people on blitz that were questioning his kicking just from highlights packages.
Strange how these so called experts can still get a top 5 pick so wrong these days.