It highlighted how much work we have ahead of us to bed down roles, structures and build chemistry amongst each other. St Kilda exposed this yesterday and they were a much more advanced looking outfit in these respects.
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It will take time to pull all the team based stuff together, Nino. Love to be bullish but Iād be amazed if we fix all this in a week, let alone 4 weeks.
Give them a month of the season, cāmon! Letās be reasonable and pragmatic.
I get that but effort should be a non negotiable
Dosent take rocket sicence to tell the players to go out there tackle and defend like your life depends on it.
They had months to work on the things they needed to do and plan for this game.
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Yes. Effort was disappointing but it was a trial game. If thatās the effort in round 1 then we panic. But for now, chill a little. The challenges wonāt go away, we just have to work through the team based stuff and hope they get it sooner rather than later.
I hope your right but im holding my breath
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We seem to recruit a lot of coaches that take 5 years to change our team gameplan and culture, only to find out that the new team culture is the same as the old and so is the gameplan, players and excuses.
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Nor am I!
Choosing the wrong coaches has been the problem, not sacking many coaches, because each of those coaches deserved what they got.
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Ross second year in charge and already the team looks to be on thier way.
Kingsly in his first year takes them all the way to a pre lim yes they have more talent then us but still didnt take them long to learn what the coach wants from his team.
Meanwhile at Essendon muliple coaches,changes etc and still cant farking do the basics or learn game plans.
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Iām no Scott apologist - heās got huge question marks on him as far as Iām concerned - but he and all other coaches weāve had for the last 17 years are operating with one arm tied behind their back given the shithouse lists theyāre given to work with, year in year outā¦
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How long is the club is farked thread? It it could be turned around in one year, the club probably isnāt that farked. Our club was (is?) farked. Just hope we are less farked than last year.
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Bloody Dodoro
Its probably going to take another 20 years to fix our recruiting/drafting under this new regime
Imagine if we go through another 10 years with only (say 1) Finals win to show for it ?
How many of us will turn into crusty old c$&@s on this site ?
A large proportion are already there, including yours truly.
I find myself spending less and less time in the footy threads.
Itās just too depressing 
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Honestly itās not the coach at this point. We have had how many coaches in the past 15 years?
Tom Brady summed it up best āwe loved it when other teams sacked coaches because it helped us even moreā
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St Kilda were in the semi final 3 years ago. GWS Giants were in a prelim in 2019 (I think?). These are clubs and systems much further down the track than Essendon.
Essendon is 12 months into yet another plan and program. Yes, itās been 20 years but weāre starting againā¦ So, as you saw yesterday, itās going to take a bit more time. You can see that, surely? Like you I was hoping theyād be more organised and more advanced. However itās one games āevidenceā as they call it.
If weāre no further advanced as a group, structurally, chemistry, consistency of effort by years end thereās going to be a problem no doubt.
I just hope they donāt all succumb to injury and we end up making wholesale changes weekly again which will dramatically impact the rate of improvement and growth. Fingers crossed, if nothing else, they remain healthy.
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The positive for you if that happens is that youāll have another excuse not to apportion blame on the recruitment and list management.
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No. If you read my posts on Dodoro Iāve been clear. Iāve always been of the view that I didnāt sheet home significant blame the last 10+ years in large part to recruiting because I donāt think Essendon provided the high performance program and environment necessary of players to grow, develop and succeed. They arrived at Essendon and were allowed to flounder and drift.
A club distracted, a footy dept underfunded in critical areas, a fitness and conditioning program that saw players break down and end up wheel spinning in and out of rehab. A culture that wasnāt ruthless, a culture that was overly empathetic, apologetic and sympathetic resulted in corners being cut, poor behaviours not acted on and allowed to fester. Critical moments of failure batted away with a smile as Dyson Heppel and David Myers symbolic represented the Essendon culture the last decade or more. Thatās culture. And thatās why thereās no growth.
As Iāve said with recruiting, I want to see what an Essendon list can achieve in a high performance culture where standards are high, leadership is strong and uncompromising, fitness and conditioning is being delivered with great outcomes, footy dept resourced with great coaches, a resilient and focussed club. I want to see how Essendon progresses in this backdrop over a 24 month period.
If Essendon is still not showing progress and improvement individually or collectively after a period where they have great support and systems and a great environment then I will be much more comfortable the players are either completely brain dead and unable to comprehend and learn what theyāre being coached, or just not good enough. Or both.
Thats what Iāve always said, and still do.
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Was there a a game on yesterday?
I donāt watch much football.
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How dare you take the name of God in vain !!!