I just don’t understand why you feel an immediate urgency, HAP. Can you make a strong argument for not seeing how this year begins panning out?
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Started typing a long post. Realised I’ve typed the same thing about 4 times already in this thread.
Basically. List is pretty old, teams pretty average and I don’t see why we’d bother going through the pain of bringing them all back and hoping we can get them back where they were, when they weren’t that good to start with.
Best case we have a bunch of 28 year old C graders? Yay?
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Didn’t get the pair of rose coloured glasses I guess.
respectfully there is very, very little chance of Essendon seeing the ultimate success with Watson, Goddard and Stanton. In my view we have 2017/18 to prepare for our next opportunity 2019/2020 with Hurley, Hooker getting to the pointy end. If we are looking at that “window” we need to be very active for ready made players in the three off seasons. In reality I think our best chance is to build around Heppel generation and back which includes all our young guys now, but that’s a hard sell, to fans, boards, senior players etc…
It’ll be a hard sell if we do it after Jobe et al have retired, and those guys are the leaders. If we do it now?
In reality, only Hurley and Hooker are definitely best 18; Zaha and Baguley are probably best 22 too. So keep them, no problem here.
The rest: Hocking, Howlett, Bird, Myers, SMack, Brown, Bellcho, Leuey.
If any of these guys, in basically their prime years, play more VFL than AFL, with the list we’ve got? That speaks volumes to me. Would be a waste of their time and ours.
We could do a fair clearout without really affecting the run-on best side each week. And if we can, we should.
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I agree, although there really isn’t any trade value amongst those types. But yes I’m certainly in the building for the future as opposed to now camp. I think we will play our best 22 for the first half of the year and reasses.
We thought Melksham had no trade value. Never know until you ask.
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I reckon Hopper will be one of the young mids we are after referred to by Fog in another thread. Could well be wrong, but he’s out of contract and is just what we need.
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Last night, more than anything, showed the difference between a side firing on all cylinders and a side that’s a bit disjointed and still working itself out.
The “other guys” (not the 12) when the ban-hammer fell were (in decreasing order of games played) the likes of Hibberd, Melksham, Carlisle, Dempsey, Gwilt, Cooney, belcho, Chapman, Fletcher & NO’B. Zerrett and Ambrose were around then, but went from fringe players then to key players now.
The only real constants from then to now are Zaha, Joe, Goddard, Baguley and Gleeson.
Which is all to say, anyone expecting this side to play with the chemistry and understanding required, was expecting a lot.
That said, there are still some real positives. Zerrett, Zaha, McGrath, Joe, Ambrose, Colyer, Tippa, Langford, Brown and Fanta all showed a bit. On top of Heppell, Hooker & Hurley; who will come good sooner rather than later. That’s a handy core to build around - but build we must.
All aboard the “not-quite-a-rebuild” train, 2017.
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Oh boy, there WERE actually people who thought we could win the flag this year
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We’re a great looking side on paper
So are Sydney
Game’s not played on paper
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We don’t need to decide if we rebuild, we’re already 2-3 years into it. I think the ASADA stuff has masked the extent of our rebuild to the fans.
Below I’ve listed the players who would have been in their prime(25-30) now to challenge if this was our window. We’ve already retired or traded out a big proportion of them. Our current list is predominantly young guns and aging warriors which doesn’t make up for the fact the core of our list right now is threadbare.
Dyson Heppel (24)
David Zaharakis (27)
Micheal Hurley (27)
Leeroy Jetta (28)
Scott Gumbleton (28)
Jake Carlisle (25)
Tom Bellchambers (27)
David Myers (27)
Cale Hooker (28)
Travis Colyer (25)
Heath Hocking (29)
Ben Howlett (28)
Bachar Houli (28)
Jake Melksham (25)
Micheal Hibberd (27)
Stewart Crameri (28)
Paddy Ryder (29)
Noting that from moving on some of the above we have picked up Parish, Zerret, Morgan, Langford, Begley. I don’t see any other conclusion that the rebuild is currently underway. Some current players were probably kept longer than normal due to the bans but I expect Woosha to be pretty ruthless come year end.
I have come to expect ranting posting from some, but not rambling posts from you.
Having Adelaide spank us by 11 goals was hardly unexpected given the red hot form they were in and our patchy start to the season.
We do have a good if not very good forward line; from Joey, Klunk, Raz, Walla, Green, Laverde, Langford, Stewart.
We have a solid backline that probably needs Klunk to return to it to make it good.
But we struggle in the clearances and need Jobe, Zerrett, Dois, Colyer, Darce and Zaka to bring their best game every week, and a ruckman to stand up in the hitouts AND around the ground.
You reckon HAP that we have a bunch of 28 year old C graders, while I reckon we have too many B grade to maybe A graders that never play a whole game. And while Zerrett is a champ, I do not see him dominate a game like Jobe at his peak or Dangerfield now. In fact when was the last Essendon game where we had someone dominate?
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You mean apart from the bloke who’s worst game has been 29 touches, obviously.
I’m clearly talking about the list as a whole, not just the best 18. In fact it’s the continued absence from said best 18 of a whole group of players that is the crux of my point. They’re not contributing. So move them on.
Even a really early call for you.
I agree with your 80/20 comment, least I think it was you. Last year showed that it get games into some, like Zerrett, Darce, Walla, Raz, Ambrose, Langford, Hartley and even Gleeson that you get improvement and see the future.
So play Begley, Laverde, Francis, Mutch, Morgan etc so we can see what they have., but don’t chuck out the others until they have a chance to show they still have it.
Brilliant glimpse of the obvious, but if you added Ryder and Carlisle to our Team it would be something.
It seems that every year we can clean out 6-8 players, how does this keep happening? We have a decent bunch of mids coming through but we are still short in that department by a couple.
Defense sees us need a good small defender and another KPP.
And as said above, we need a ruckman. We haven’t had a consistent ruckman since Somerville. Salmon came back for a year (or two) and was good, as was Allan for a season and a bit. Hille then came up, played a great season or (if he didn’t make AA he was very close), then did his knee. Finally got a good season or two out of Ryder then he went all Judas on us. We desperately need a ruckman who will end up being the same sort as a Jacobs, Martin, Goldstein etc.
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6-8 list changes a year is about average, the issue is the kind of players leaving. You want ideally to be losing 1st/2nd year players you’ve judged won’t make it and old guys who are retiring after long and decorated careers.
When you’re talking about guys either recently traded in or who have spent 3+ years on the list and aren’t any good it feels like a waste, and we’ve been delisting a lot of players like that over the last few years.
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You know what we are missing that all top teams have? A bogan with a sleeve tattoo, that’s the missing ingredient
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We lost Kyle Remiers…
Are you a bogan if you have a sleeve? I’m ultra bogan then, as I have two. The club should draft me
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