He had the potential when drafted, but never built the tank anywhere near the required level.
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Nor the body
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We had a pretty reasonable run with injury last year - canât assume itâll be the same next yr.
If we want to take the next step then Truck needs to be (and is) thinking âwhoâs my best 30â not best 22.
Frang, Cutler, Waterman should be important players for us next yr in a rotation of best 30
Nein
Nish nish
Plot twist, no need for a KPF in 2 years time as Baldwin and Jones cement their spots. We sign Simpkin as a RFA next year to come home to his childhood team like he wanted to in his draft year.
Merrett, Simpkin, Parish, Shiel, McGrath, Lang, Stringer.
Mike drop
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Simpkin. Yes please
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Ah, that old chestnut. The fall back line of all those who hailed him as a star in the making when he was drafted.
âI wasnât wrong about him, he just didnât get fit enough.â
â â â â happens. He had the tools. It hasnât clicked and it probably wonât.
But that just makes the story sadder. Itâs easier to pretend there was never hope than to deal with the loss of that potential.
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Did we⌠i thought we had a bad run of injury last year, most of year we had atleast 3 players missing from our best 22 + more
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Nah, we had a fair to good run with injuries. There was a spell there where we were pretty thin, but no more than 4-5 weeks.
Yep we definitely had a better than average run. The only downside to our injuries this year, was that they were mainly concentrated in one part of the field. But arguably that might end up helping us in the long term because of what happened with Parish and Stringer this year and even with guys like Perkins, Cox and Durham all getting more games then they otherwise probably would have
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Caldwell Perkins Wanganeen Milera Cox all running through there as well.
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Oh to the contrary, Iâm quite certain itâs more difficult for people on here to admit they made a misjudgement.
Caldwell!
Its nice to have such a glut of midfield options you actually forget a (potential) quality name!
What a changing of the times.
Clearly we should have gone for someone else at 6 in hindsight. I donât know what if any signs were there that Francis would run into the mental demons heâs been having. The draft is a lottery, you are trying to predict a 12 year career off a few interviews with an 18 year old.
Iâm also curious what impact the clubâs poor development and fitness programs had on him. The Worsfold era wasnât brilliant for developing kids. Someone like Francis who wasnât capable of being 100% self driven could have suffered more under that program than the kids who were self sufficient.
I just feel sorry for him. Heâs an awesome bloke by all reports and has an incredible natural talent. But modern AFL demands more than just talent. I really hope it works out for him, more as a human than as an Essendon player.
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I remember watching draft related video early in the year, where the recruitment team and the coaching team were talking about the players available in the 2020 draft.
Dodoro talking about Perkins, says to Rutten âIf he gets through happy to take him, are you happy to have him? It is okay for us to pick guys, but it needs to be a collective buy in. Where is the game going, what do we need? Because we are in a good position to bring in 3 really good kids.â
Then watched the interview posted on the Essendon website of Mahoney on 28 September. He talks about drafting and says something like âThe key thing is that we need to have a plan and we have been able to develop a plan. We know where we are now and what we need. What you wonât see is, us going all different waysâŚwe will be selective and that is the way we will go from now on.â
- That is quite disturbing to hear that Dodoro had the keys to do what he wanted, with no accountability at all, all these years.
- Basically, we didnât have a plan, didnât have a buy in from the coaches.
- Didnât have conversations with coaches on where they see the game heading and what they need to focus on.
- All those years, when we desperately needed midfielders and he kept getting in KPPs, it was just Dodoroâs gut feel of what we needed.
- Even that convo with Truck, it needed to happen the day he got the job. So at the meeting shown in the video you are actually presenting saying these are the guys that fits what you want.
- Explains why we have been an awful club for years and years.
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Youâve extrapolated all of that from 20 seconds of conversation in a bit of marketing.
What a load.
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I think it is unfair to blame Dodoro. Problems stem from the clubâs leadership/ board had no direction, assessment of the list and overall strategy. Even the worlds best recruiter canât draft players for 5 different coaches in the last decade plus years.
I agree with your observation Josh Mahoney has been able to pull all areas of football Dept in alignment with coaching strategy.
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