Best it has looked in many years.
And the most expensive recruit wasn’t in it.
I was all over trading shiel out during trade week if we could get a first rounder or upgrade 22 to one…
Now we are stuck with him. There still are positives, he is a professional and could play well into his later years. Still has pace. Still may get moved on next year for a draft pick He may appreciate BD SCott hard stance.
And just such a balanced group too.
Parish and Stringer as great clearance players to balance out Merrett being more outside
Stringer being bigger to be able to match up against opposition bigger midfielders to free our smaller kids up
Merrett and Stringer as good kicks to balance out Parish’s kicking
Stringer balancing out Merrett and Parish not kicking goals
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If Stringer is fit, he starts in the middle for mine.
If he’s not fit enough enough to do that, then he shouldn’t play at all.
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We may have overpaid. But that’s not Shiel’s fault. He’s played how we thought he would.
When we got Shiel across from GWS, we got Shiel not Chris Judd.
Shiel is doing what Shiel did at the Giants.
In arguably his best season in western sydney - 2017- he averaged 26 disposals, 6 clearances and 4 tackles.
Shiel in 2022 averaged 23 disposals, 6 clearances and 5 tackles.
He’s had form lapses but so do all players. But we got what was advertised in the catalogue Dodoro picked up.
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Agree with that.
It’s not Shiel’s fault that we valued him completely wrong.
It’s a pity he doesn’t like caviar. He could be on 1.2 mill a year at Carlton right now, totally farking up their cap.
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It was diabolical list management from Dudoro.
We already had Merrett. Drafted Parish with a top 10 pick.
Then drafted McGrath with Pick 1, with hopes he would be a midfielder.
Then got Devon Smith, with promise of more midfield time.
Then we threw the kitchen sink at Shiel…
Awful list strategy.
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Maybe our midfield looked at its best because we had a fit Stringer running through there in arguably career-best form?
We didn’t see any of that this year, which is a huge point of difference that gets overlooked when comparing midfield mixes IMO.
I think Stringer, Merrett & Parish was the perfect mix.
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Oh I agree, it looked good.
I guess my point is that a fit and firing midfieldery Stringer makes everyone around him look better. And Shiel hasn’t really played with that version of Jake yet.
Many reports said it was Xavier Campbell who ordered the 2 x first rounder for Shiel trade. Dodoro was only willing to trade one 1st (which was great value in a poor draft) but was overruled. Saucy you’re on this forum more than just about anybody, you should know this.
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For those who are bored in off season. You can join our patreon show for just $3 a month and listen to all our recent Patreon shows. Recent shows below. Link to join is below.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/73792144?utm_campaign=postshare_creator
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I get a bit of the “Monday night, it’s Talking Footy” vibes, on the couch with Scott.
Really good lineup of guests and interview technique is getting better and better.
The interviews with RoCo are vital listening.
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Here it is!!! EFC Director Andrew Welsh joins the show to discuss why he joined the Board, improvements he wants to help complete at Bomberland and how the list is shaping. We also cover his role in the famous line in the sand game against the Hawks
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Awesome work guys. Seriously loving all of these guests and they’re flowing really nicely.
I was a little disappointed to hear Welsh use so many excuses for the outgoing board in terms of it being the AFL’s fault that our VFL team and development suffered. All teams were in the exact same position in terms of soft cap cuts and we have dropped the ball completely when it comes to some of the spend.
Hopefully that was just a diplomatic response and he has a really good handle on what needs to change with the new administration.
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Welsh’s twitter feed during lockdowns was very cringe and I would not recommend reading through them. Hopefully he leaves his political/culture wars brain at the door of the Hanger and conducts in strictly business and how best to get Essendon to win.
An example please?
“sustainable football teams across the whole of the BUSINESS”
Could have said “CLUB” just this once…
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Throw in all the homage paid to the previous decision makers for steering the club through the pandemic and it’s just about chuck worthy.
Shame Welsh just couldn’t acknowledge there were seriously poor decisions made by EFC of its own accord which is why it ended up swimming with cellar dwellers.
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