Are you offering me a job Baccus? Because I can definitely bring an air of comfortable laziness in spades for a good decade to come. Make sure it pays well! Let me know. 
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Pass
Bacchus you spend all day on Blitz so how would you know what any of your staff are doing?
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Hereâs a futiles:
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You are making excuses for all these players. I need to point out that young players are supposed to improve each year until they are about 25. Its unfortunate that this year none of those mentioned have improved and its a bit like a âclusterâ.
Take a look at the trajectory of say, a Clayton Oliver in his second and third years. there are lots of others. I just want to know why we have a cluster of core players that are not improving. That is where our improvement is supposed to come from, because the older players like BJ, Baguley, Myers, Hooker, etc they will not improve only hold performance or regress as they get older.
I will need time to consider and rebut each of your appraisals, but lets take Raz first.
Goals, down to 1.17 goals a game from 1.95 and 1.53 in the past 2 years. average inside 50s was the same last year, about 50 per game. More clearances and more contested possessions , no increase in disposals. Marks down , contested marks down, marks inside 50 down. He is a forward, he is not hitting the scoreboard as much but is getting 1 more clearance a game than he did last year. As a mid he is getting 1.6 clearances a game.
I call that going backwards. But I agree he has only played 6 games of the 11
Lol.
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Trust
What follows is not destructive criticism, but its a key part of why we have been losing games by 3-4 goal margins eg. Carlton, Freo, Anzac Day. So many of the young players have not improved, in fact they have gone backwards.
I will preface this by pointing out that we have been getting 50 inside 50s a game, same as last year.
If Stewart has not regressed, why has he been dropped, finally after giving him 11 games to even stay at the level he was last year ? In the first 4 games he was playing really well, but now for the last 4 games he has averaged less than 1 goal a game and struggled to win any one on one, was playing way too high up the field to get a kick.
Raz, Regressed. I covered him in a previous post. He has not reached the level he was at and his midfield work is not particularly good, but he will stay in the side because he is just too good a player.
Zerret. Regressed He was our best player for several years. He has not beaten the tag and all his stats are down by at least 25% and he really is not really a significant factor in our team so far this year. I have to attribute this to concussions. There is no other possible explanation for it. Up to this point he will be lucky to get one Brownlow vote.
Tippa. Regressed. If the club was playing him, he must have been fit ? Right? He is down in all the key stats, and running at 66% in goals kicked compared with last year.
Darcy. If he has not regressed, why was he dropped to the VFL 3 games ago ? Down in most key stats by 25 to 33%
McGrath. OK, he has not regressed, but is playing mostly on the wing, and we are being sliced up by teams like Richmond on the outside the failure of the outside midfield and half back line to defend was key to the size of that loss.
So IMO we have had a âperfect stormâ of a large number of young players not improving as expected in fact going backwards. Add in Joey, for so long a lynch pin of our forward line we are at least 4 goals a game down because of the failure of these young players to improve, leaving aside Hooker being sent down back.
So many are blaming Myers, or BJ, Hurley or Zaharakis, but this group of young players is the the real reason we have failed in our 2018 campaign and it has cost us a spot in the 8.
Do the line coaches have any responsibility for this ? Did the tinkering with the game plan confuse the younger players ? I would say in part. Which coaches are at fault ? Most of the young players who have regressed are forwards.
Sayonara 2018. 2019 will be different. I expect the kids to get back on track and play much better.
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I agree with most of that but Raz gets a pass in my book due to his injuries and then slotting back into a side with major structural flaws in comparison to last season.
He hasnât regressed.
Offer him the top job.
From the 2000 side you also ignored Moorcroft, M. Johnson, Wallis and Barnard. Lloyd, Wellman and Long werenât exactly soft either. To say the 2000 team wasnât a hard as â â â â team is ridiculous. Did you watch that team play???
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So in other words - they tanked.
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Yes but no
Tanking is terrible just to get a better draft pick. Heâs saying he took a long term approach. I donât think anyone takes issue with that. Most Essendon fans have been desiring this kind of tanking this year from woosha. Donât bring hers back, put Joe and Hurley on ice. Play the kids.
He deliberately chose teams that had a lower chance of winning. He did it because it improved their long term chances. How much was for the pick versus development is moot.
And to be clear, I think he did the right thing.
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what a load of tripe
Wow. Just absurd beyond belief. Total stats reliance, with absolutely zero understanding, or acknowledgement, of circumstance, role modification, development strategy or any other factors. I know you are not an idiot mate, but that is kindergarten level analysis.
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No Boot, not total stats reliance. I went to all the Melbourne games and watched all the interstate games live and formed the view that those players were not improving. The stats just reflect the fact that those players have not progressed this year as expected. 2 of the 5 players I mentioned have actually been dropped so its pretty obvious the match committee hold a similar view.
Ok, Whatever.
From my point of view.
Stewart: Was playing as the third tall (the role that Laverde took over) until Hooker went back, and then had to play second tall, where he struggled. Stewart basically plays smaller than he actually is, and is great as a lead, gain separation, and mark relatively uncontested player, but as a genuine key forward, contested, pack marking/splitting player he doesnât really have it. They gave him some time to come to grips with it, but he didnât, so itâs back to the magoos for some schooling and retuning. Absolutely nothing to do with regression and everything to do with role change, and education. Itâs skill set upgrade time. Simple.
Raz: Quite simply has been injured and needs time to get back to his best. Nothing what so ever to do with regression.
Zach: Has, as you rightly pointed out, has struggled with getting over a tag, although he seems to be improving there. Also, as you pointed out, has taken a while to shake off the effects of a couple of major concussions. He has been asked to play a more inside this year also, which not only means his numbers would more than likely drop whilst learning a new role, but it is a position where you are almost inevitably going to rack up less possessions than you did as a free wheeling outside runner. Hardly regression, any of it.
Tippa: Tippa definitely isnât what he was, but that is more to do with form, and not having the same players/structures around him. So basically asked to shoulder more of the load than in the past. And bear in mind Tippa is not the greatest player on our list. He is a magnificent kick, but he relies heavily on his speed and aggression as the cornerstones of his game. If any of those factors drop, even slightly, so does his effect. That is not regressing, just not being at your peak. And if those around him are not providing the situations/conditions he needs to thrive it will definitely effect his game. No regression that I can see with him. Just form (both his and players around him) and changes in role and expectations.
Darcy: Darcy would be the closest to having regressed, but Iâd say itâs more that he hasnât progressed as we would have liked. Combine that with the desire to rejig the midfield, others being tried at half forward, and itâs back to the magoos to get the hunger back. No problem with how heâs tracking for me. He did really well at the very start, and now heâs struck a flat spot. Pretty typical for a young player I would say.
McGrath: As you said, hasnât regressed, just changed roles. So I donât really understand why you even have him on your regressed list. Heâs learning to play a new position, and now a modified game plan, and is a young kid. What he needs is time rather than unfounded criticism and unreal expectations.
Looks to me you are unhappy with how the season has panned out and are looking to lay blame somewhere. And from where I sit you have got it totally wrong.
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Didnât say the 2000 team were soft, quite the opposite. I did use the word âothersâ to acknowledge that there were others in the 2000 team that were hard (instead of listing a third of the team)⌠and said itâs ânearly 20 yearsâ since we had that rep for being hard âŚin other words, the 2000 team were the last hard team.
Not sure what your issue is.