We failed to invest in recruitment and development and that was a whole of club thing, not just PJ. Other clubs saw that the draft was going to change things and reacted way earlier than we did.
We were bloody lucky to get Lucas and Lloyd thanks to Freo’s fuckup but our drafting and development fell way behind the league towards the end of the century
Wouldn’t even have mattered if we went down the rebuild path. If you’re picking Shane Harvey, Josh Reynolds and Simon O’Keefe with three picks under #35 in the draft of the century then something is really wrong.
We started to get drafting right in 2005 and have drafted ok since then but our development program hasn’t fulfilled the potential of our draftees. Plenty of rising stars, plenty of 22 under 22 selections, no superstars.
And McPhee hardly qualifies as a senior player with whom Essendon were “topping up”. We were going to pick him in the 2000 draft, but Fremantle got in ahead of us. He spent two years at the Dockers for 25 games, then wanted to come home to Melbourne, so we got him in a deal. He played regularly for us, 2003-2009, for 142 games, then, because of that prize prick Knights, he left and went back to Fremantle, 2010-2012, for a further 56 games before retiring. 2004 was his best year - he won the Crichton, and was selected in the All Australian team on the HBF. Hardly a “top-up” player.
Egg saviour Crooked-mouth had nothing to do with him.
Jackson trying to rewrite history to make him out as the good guy.
Yep much of the Board including Sheedy wanted to go full rebuild after Jackson forced out Hardwick etc, but Jackson and MacMahon won the argument and Sheedy had to handle cast-offs.
Not that I reckon we were much good at recruiting at that stage with poor salary cap management and Jackson ruling the club.
As I was told it, Sheeds still thought he still had a flag winning team after 2001 GF loss and though made the finals, won some but never got past the second week. He always spoke up the players like Mal Michael and Campo etc, but he believed the loss of Dimma, Caracella, Heffernan meant they needed new young blood.
Draft recruits were Angus Monfries (2004), Paddy Ryder and Courtney Dempsey (2005), Gumby and Jetta (2006); not the much to build a team around with declining stars in Hird, Lloyd, Johnson and Lucas.
Remember even while Sheeds was a very controlling figure, he did not control the salary cap and the problems were due to Jackson being too clever, and forecasting a large increase in the cap, so when only a very small increase was allowed Bombers were in the crap again and after the salary cap problems before, Jackson and the Board panicked and got rid of some they maybe should have kept.
Sheedy in private is a pretty honest character, and he admits his mistakes. Not so much in public. But I didn’t hear that directly from him, it was from a Board Member at that time, and he didn’t like Jackson at all.