Lid on 2018 - have we gone to soon? Nervously hanging out for Friday

My daughters are 16 and 12 and have seen no success whatsoever! Worst of all we live in Geelong!

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Yeah I donā€™t think rebuilding needs to take 5 years. In fact Iā€™m sure it doesnā€™t.
The elite kids are real hard to get. That hasnā€™t changed. But, because the 18s system is so closely aligned with AFL, you can find players really quick these days if youā€™re prepared to give kids opportunities.

By my count Freo had 12 guys* in their 22 that werenā€™t there, or hadnā€™t played much, at the start of 2016. Thatā€™s a lot in 2 off seasons. And thatā€™s a side coached under Rosco Lyon, whoā€™s not exactly known for his list development.

  • balic, blakely, kersten, grey, mccarthy, B Hill, tucker, Langdon, weller, Hughes, hamling, taberner

The thing that gets me is weā€™ve got a great nucleus for the next 5-8 years. Zerrett MCGrath Parish Heppell and Francis. We just need to go balls deep into the rebuild for 1 or 2 more years. The critical factor is opportunities.

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Itā€™s quite sad actually. At 18, a bit over a 5th of my life has been consumed by the saga. At 1 we won the flag, was too young to remember, when I was 5 was the last time we won a final, thatā€™s about it for me :joy: Essentially just suffering mediocrity ever since FML.

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I blame 9/11. We just smashed Richmond by 12 goals, Lloyd kicked his 100th and things were looking good. Stupid terrorists gave Bombers a bad name.

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I was a kid during the 90s and it was expected that we play finals every year and we expected a premiership every couple of years. Sadly the powerhouse club I grew up with, is no more. I was proud to call my self an essendon supporter, we had arrogance but it was justified, we went into everyone game wanting and expecting a win. Weā€™re essentially like the rest now, those teams we made fun of for never having success such as Melbourne, Richmond, st kilda, will probably all taste success before we do. Weā€™re so far off and havenā€™t looked like being anything but mediocre for over 10 years. Iā€™ll be suspending my membership next year and continue to do so until this club shows some improvement. A sad time for the essendon fc

Good post and one which could harm us in future years. If you are a kid growing up now why would you choose to follow Essendon unless your parents are members/supporters?
I do fear that down the track we could lose a whole generation of supporters and whilst we have done an amazing job to keep the supporters we have I do worry that this wonā€™t always be the case. Kids these days donā€™t have anywhere near the club loyalty that many from my era has

Okay, Iā€™m going to be a traitor to the thread I started.

My assessments havenā€™t changed a lot, and I do predict a loss next week, but I think I have over estimated some teams, and I do predict we will start to become more cohesive from the West Coast game onwards.

It is a ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  hand we were dealt early in the season with players trying to re-acclimatise to the game, cope with quick turn arounds and a ā– ā– ā– ā–  load of travel. We showed we could come up after a break against Collingwood and we will start to do so after the Geelong match and we will also start to cope with 6 day breaks.

Iā€™m thinking weā€™ll turn at the bye with 6 wins and get another 6 to 7 wins in the last 10 games.

It might not happen, but I am seeing Hooker improve, we will get Ambrose back and if Stewart comes up/ Francis improves we may have the luxury of being able to put Hooker back if needed.

A lot of ifs and buts, but it is a very close season with lots of upsets and that may keep us in it.

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I donā€™t necessarily think youā€™re wrong, but Iā€™ll pose this question: should this change anything?

Iā€™ve thought all along we could sneak into 8th, but that doesnā€™t mean weā€™re above playing kids.

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The core is there ā€¦and I know Iā€™m in the wrong thread here, and I should stay out of this one after we just coughed up a lead that should have been match winning against a mediocre opposition playing with a younger side than usā€¦but the core is really there. What we need is to actually develop that core, and have them playing properly and in a sustainably successful game style week in week out.

Itā€™s weird to say, but if it feels like weā€™ve gone backwards in that from last year at the moment. Is that personnel, cohesion, what?? Probably a combination of a lot of things, but that doesnā€™t mean that the core of that side, which we could all see slowly growing together towards the end of last year, is gone.(and yes, I realise that we got caned a lot last year, but in the second half of last year I saw us put in highly competitive performances against glamour sides GWS and WBD amongst others. We lost both fairly convincingly but they were both games that it felt like we were in the match for large periods. And then we finished with a caning of Carlton, which didnā€™t mean much but made us feel good.)

So anyway, when Iā€™m drawing my trend line into the future I find it very difficult. There was improvement, there was the disaster that was 2015, and then the step backwards with the suspensions and then what felt like relatively good improvement. I guess I was expecting / hoping for a step up with the returning players, and then continued improvement. What we have had was a bit of a step upwards, but then a plateau with little noticeable improvement across the first 7 rounds, and in some areas itā€™s felt like weā€™ve gone the other way.

I still think thereā€™s a lot of balance and cohesion issues, but it might be that our most balanced and cohesive side for the future is not anywhere near our best side for the present, and to make that call is going to be difficult. This year was always going to be challenging from the perspective of integrating what were 10 of our best players back into a squad where the best thing for our future is that they were no longer 10 of our best players.

F**k I have no idea what Iā€™m talking about.

But as long as the core this year (once the core is fit) is

         Ambrose McGrath
          Hurley Francis
         Heppell

Laverde Daniher Tippa
Langford Hooker Fantasia

Leuenberger Parish Z. Merrett

Weā€™re going to be alright.

Iā€™ve deliberately left out older players except Hooker and Hurley (and I guess Luenberger), but that is a good basis. We just need to fit around that with the right players, whether itā€™s Watson or Stanton or Goddard or Kelly or Baguley, or McKenna or Gleeson or Jackson Merrett or Bird or Colyer or Hocking or Myers or Mutch or Begley or Long or Morgan or Redman or etc etc

Find some guys that can play their roles in an intelligent and sustained manner. Who understand structures and can implement them, and who can run and run and run in both directions.

Our current talls can beat their men. Zac and Hep and Darcy can win enough of the ball at the coal face. Fantasia and Tippa can provide the razzle dazzle. McGrath can run all day and organise the defensive half. We just need to find the guys that can fill the roles around these guys, today and for the future.

I donā€™t know whether this post is lid on or lid off, but Iā€™m disappointed in today. We did everything right early, but were unable to change the dynamic in the second half when the match was there to be won. Freo were a young side as well, so it was disappointing. But Iā€™m still hopeful about the future, just not as hopeful about the next 2 months as Iā€™d have liked to be.

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I think we are playing a significant number of younger players, Francis, McGrath, Parish, Langford (Laverde when fit and in form will come in I believe), and we will bring in Mutch before too long and there are developing players like McKenna and McNeice, Hartley and Ambrose and also the established younger players like Zerrett, Raz, Walla, Joe, Gleeson (at least in terms of time in the side), and even Hepp, Green and Trav are 25 or under. We will bring in Stewart and Begley in the not too distant future. Clarke should also be considered if his kicking is good enough.

I think for this year for the young guys to be rotating in and out of the side with the older guys doing the same is great experience with good mentoring and if we scrape into the finals, we should play our best side with a bias towards youth when it comes to the fringe.

If we could win a final, that would be a definite progression for the team and if we have a strong improvement in the second half of the year with a finals win, then we may be well placed to be a destination for free agents.

This is still pie in the sky at this stage, and a bottom half finish is still quite likely, as I have indicated all along, if we are below 6 and certainly if we are below 5 wins at the bye, it will definitely be roll on 2018.

But because of the inconsistency of so many sides, we are still in it, I believe, and a top 8 finish with a crack at winning a final is a worthwhile objective, but it wonā€™t be the end of the world if we donā€™t. And regardless, we will play 18 to 20 players who are 25 or less this year.

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Do they really count considering both were against us and richmond?

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The bye canā€™t come quick enough.

Bottom line is - they are not fit enough or hard enough to play out a full game. No point in blaming umpires.

Same story for 15 years. Midfield is garbage

Zerrett and Heppell are all we have. Parish will be good, but sometimes I have my reservations about him. He still has a way to go imo but the talent is there. Get McGrath in there asap, but with Kelly, Stanton, Gleeson no chop, heā€™s needed down there. We need two of him

Beyond them three midfielders I listed, thatā€™s it. Colyer is good on the outside, but inconsistent. Donā€™t get me started in zaka. The rest is no good. We need to have a look at Mutch/Clarke/begley asap

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Thereā€™s still a possibility we could do an inverted 2012 and win all games after the bye.

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That actually made me gasp. Very uncharacteristic. Are you ill?

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Gonna hope for the possibility :slight_smile:, but probability tells me no. :worried:

Iā€™m not as dire as you, but agree the midfield is a concern. I think Woosha has identified it, hence his direction to focus on ball winning mids in the draft.

I donā€™t think weā€™ve played more than 3 of those guys under 21 in the same side. Carlton had 7 teenagers in one week. Freo and Brisbane are doing similar. Theyā€™re also turning the corner. We havenā€™t got there yet.

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I agree.

Look at Brian Lakes impact during Hawks flags. If Hooker did go back eventually nothing stopping him playing good footy well into his 30ā€™s.

Staying fwd maybe not so. But we need him there at the moment.