And he was given a life line by bringing good assistants around him
Maybe it’s the coach that doesn’t attract a player?
His first season at Richmond was 2010. So has made a grand final in season 8. That isn’t too bad. Considering essendon hasn’t made a grand final in the last 16 seasons.
2 Likes
Do people really rate the coaches this highly? Does anyone seriously believe Dimma suddenly worked out how to coach in 2017? Whats been the biggest difference is the list. They always had a few standout stars that have won them enough games to make finals a few times over his tenure but its only now that they finally have a deep enough list to contend.
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Would have been sacked 5 times by now
Our problems ran SO much deeper than Sheeds and only now do we have a club administration that (appears to be) competent from top to bottom
1 Like
Exactly. Knights was a lamb to the slaughter.
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8 years… Very interesting.
Sheeds wins flag in 85.
Next flag win 93 - 8 years later with 1 GF loss in between
Next flag win 2000 - 7 years later with no GF in between
Sacked in 2007 - 7 years later.
Sheeds had a ton of finals wins in between with 3 prelim final losses, 2 by a point.
Getting as far as playing, not winning.
Hardwick would have been lucky to have made it through 2011 if he was at Essendon. He should be thanking us.
He might have, don’t think Hirdy would’ve stepped in to effectively knife a former premiership teammate.
5 Likes
Fixed.
(couldn’t let 84 not rate a mention, was my first GF and it was grand)
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It’s all over now! The Dons might just about be home!
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At least we would have avoided the drug saga, and wouldn’t have to put up with everyone calling us drug cheats.
Yes and no.
Hardwick would have been given much, much more leeway than Knights.
We love our former players coaching, and we hate outsiders.
I doubt Lloyd would have spent 2010 publicly bagging the sh*t out of Hardwick at every opportunity either.
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And I reckon the faithful would have cut Dimma a bit more slack than they did Knights
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Knights should never have been appointed.
Remember what that Rsole Peter Jackson said - they would replace Sheedy with “the best coach in Australia”.
Not the best available. The best coach.
At that time Knights was even doing a crap job coaching the reserves team. Anyone with any brains could see he would do no better with the seniors.
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I agree.
Also Dimma would have walked in and rejuvenated the list, got rid of some lost cloggers and traded out some older players.
Add to that he took over the worst list in the aFL and a basket case off field.
I’m not saying he is great or anything but if he win next sat then he is a premiership coach and as such we should have taken him rather than bog average middle of the road knights.
I think he would have been less inclined to make changes.
At the time he was marked down for saying the list needs drejuvenation where as knights said I’d had the talent.
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