As crazy as it sounds, the fact that the club, players, and coaches have finally succumbed to the persistent ‘white noise’ that is the Asada saga, might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
When we look back in retrospect, we may see that our next genuine period of success (winning/playing finals) was born during the back half of the 2015. To be able to thoroughly assess the list without the expectations of finals so far out from the end of the year, gives the club a great opportunity to make hard list decisions that they may have not made should be again been vying for a position in the bottom part of the 8.
If we were a chance of finals this year, the club would have probably tried to ensure the most ‘experienced’ players were available at the end of the year. Players that might usually be considered injured/sore (Winderlich,Fletch Chapman/ possibly even Jobe) might have been partially rested/been nursed to the finihing line to play at the end.
The club would also have continued to ‘show faith’ in their mid tier players to produce (ie Howlett/Melksham) , and therefore ensure again that there would be limited chances of truly developing and identifying certain players in the seniors, so that more informed recruiting and list decisions could be made.
But even if 2015 was not hijacked by the CAS appeal, I don’t believe we we’re a chance this year for a flag. Do you?
Forward line is far from competent/functional enough to capitalize on what the rest of the side might have been able to produce.
The club now has a freedom they have not had in a long time.
And whilst they may feel like they’re all still in the grip of the Saga, I hope they too can sense the opportunity, and the freedom to make crucial decisions without the fear that comes with an impending expectation of success.
Real growth comes from a certain amount of pain and discomfort, and my only hope, is that this holds true for the mighty Essendon Football Club.
At the start of the year I thought “anything’s possible” but by ANZAC day it became clear that our forward line wasn’t going to cut it. Building for the future in the last 10 or so rounds of the season now feels like the best thing to do. I’m excited for the kids who are going to get a chance to show their stuff.
As crazy as it sounds, the fact that the club, players, and coaches have finally succumbed to the persistent 'white noise' that is the Asada saga, might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
When we look back in retrospect, we may see that our next genuine period of success (winning/playing finals) was born during the back half of the 2015. To be able to thoroughly assess the list without the expectations of finals so far out from the end of the year, gives the club a great opportunity to make hard list decisions that they may have not made should be again been vying for a position in the bottom part of the 8.
If we were a chance of finals this year, the club would have probably tried to ensure the most ‘experienced’ players were available at the end of the year. Players that might usually be considered injured/sore (Winderlich,Fletch Chapman/ possibly even Jobe) might have been partially rested/been nursed to the finihing line to play at the end.
The club would also have continued to ‘show faith’ in their mid tier players to produce (ie Howlett/Melksham) , and therefore ensure again that there would be limited chances of truly developing and identifying certain players in the seniors, so that more informed recruiting and list decisions could be made.
But even if 2015 was not hijacked by the CAS appeal, I don’t believe we we’re a chance this year for a flag. Do you?
Forward line is far from competent/functional enough to capitalize on what the rest of the side might have been able to produce.
The club now has a freedom they have not had in a long time.
And whilst they may feel like they’re all still in the grip of the Saga, I hope they too can sense the opportunity, and the freedom to make crucial decisions without the fear that comes with an impending expectation of success.
Real growth comes from a certain amount of pain and discomfort, and my only hope, is that this holds true for the mighty Essendon Football Club.
Agree with the sentiment of the post.
We cannot make the finals.
What we must do is spend the rest of the season working out who can play and who can’t cut it at AFL level for 2016 and beyond - there should be some young, hungry players looking to prove a point you’d think who might surprise some.
As crazy as it sounds, the fact that the club, players, and coaches have finally succumbed to the persistent 'white noise' that is the Asada saga, might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
When we look back in retrospect, we may see that our next genuine period of success (winning/playing finals) was born during the back half of the 2015. To be able to thoroughly assess the list without the expectations of finals so far out from the end of the year, gives the club a great opportunity to make hard list decisions that they may have not made should be again been vying for a position in the bottom part of the 8.
If we were a chance of finals this year, the club would have probably tried to ensure the most ‘experienced’ players were available at the end of the year. Players that might usually be considered injured/sore (Winderlich,Fletch Chapman/ possibly even Jobe) might have been partially rested/been nursed to the finihing line to play at the end.
The club would also have continued to ‘show faith’ in their mid tier players to produce (ie Howlett/Melksham) , and therefore ensure again that there would be limited chances of truly developing and identifying certain players in the seniors, so that more informed recruiting and list decisions could be made.
But even if 2015 was not hijacked by the CAS appeal, I don’t believe we we’re a chance this year for a flag. Do you?
Forward line is far from competent/functional enough to capitalize on what the rest of the side might have been able to produce.
The club now has a freedom they have not had in a long time.
And whilst they may feel like they’re all still in the grip of the Saga, I hope they too can sense the opportunity, and the freedom to make crucial decisions without the fear that comes with an impending expectation of success.
Real growth comes from a certain amount of pain and discomfort, and my only hope, is that this holds true for the mighty Essendon Football Club.
Agree with the sentiment of the post.
We cannot make the finals.
What we must do is spend the rest of the season working out who can play and who can’t cut it at AFL level for 2016 and beyond - there should be some young, hungry players looking to prove a point you’d think who might surprise some.
Yep, and those ‘surprises’ will come from having the freedom to trial/experiment/give a kid a go!/ etc…
Anything but a blessing in disguise. The season is an unmitigated, unprecedented disaster. It is a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll. FASADA have done more than just short circuit our immediate hopes. They, along with the supreme turds that run the game have forever changed our culture and we will live in the shadow of this saga forever. Not just a generation. They have changed the course of our history, we will not ever be the same club again. We can still rise and become powerful again, but a part of has died because of this. l don’t want us to take opportunities as they becoe available, l want us to smash whoever stands between us and success and rip those opportunities from their hands. l want us to lead the way as we did so in the past, l want us to explore new avenues, open up new fields and take the intiative once more.
in an alternate reality we were contenders 13 14 5 if it wasn’t for this tripe. And we would have had draft picks, Ryder and free agents that would have been impressed by the bright lights and shiny fittings of Tullamarine
And I would still be watching football and have no ■■■■■■ idea who or what an asada is.
IMO we’re in a much better position for a re-build than we were in 2005-2006. During that period we relied heavily on Hird, Lloyd, Lucas and Fletcher.
Now most of our elite players are under the age 25. I’m confident Hurley, Heppell & Hooker are the right players to lead this club for the next 10 years.
IMO we're in a much better position for a re-build than we were in 2005-2006. During that period we relied heavily on Hird, Lloyd, Lucas and Fletcher.
Now most of our elite players are under the age 25. I’m confident Hurley, Heppell & Hooker are the right players to lead this club for the next 10 years.
Hurley and Hooker will most likely only be around for another 5 or 6 years.
Anything but a blessing in disguise. The season is an unmitigated, unprecedented disaster. It is a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll. FASADA have done more than just short circuit our immediate hopes. They, along with the supreme turds that run the game have forever changed our culture and we will live in the shadow of this saga forever. Not just a generation. They have changed the course of our history, we will not ever be the same club again. We can still rise and become powerful again, but a part of has died because of this. l don't want us to take opportunities as they becoe available, l want us to smash whoever stands between us and success and rip those opportunities from their hands. l want us to lead the way as we did so in the past, l want us to explore new avenues, open up new fields and take the intiative once more.
AFL: The final frontier
These are the voyages of the Essendon Football Club
Its 5 year mission
To explore strange new tactics
To seek out new players and new training methods
To boldly go where no team has gone before
IMO we're in a much better position for a re-build than we were in 2005-2006. During that period we relied heavily on Hird, Lloyd, Lucas and Fletcher.
Now most of our elite players are under the age 25. I’m confident Hurley, Heppell & Hooker are the right players to lead this club for the next 10 years.
hooker is 27, hurley is 25. i’ll be stunned if either of them are still playing in 10 years time.
i reckon we have 2 to 3 years to turn the list over and improve significantly if we want to do anything with those two still in their prime. i think that is a pretty optimistic time frame but lets say we challenge in 3 years what does that side look like?
guys like howlett and hocking will be just shy of 30, ditto bellchambers. Maybe one of stants, bj or jobe is still firing shots. Regardless we would need to see some pretty serious development from Melk, kav, nob, aylett, edwards, dalgleish, browne and steinberg for any of them to even figure in that side. That side looks pretty damn thin to me so we’ll be relying on the lottery of the draft and/or trade FA.
This leads into another discussion, what should our trade priorities be?
I thought it before i did that team but looking at it really crystallizes it. we need:
no.1 ruck
key tall option, probably a forward but we’d settle for either
a gun inside mid
a gun outside mid
with all that in mind i’d be putting a lot of work into trying to attract the following
leuenburger
dixon
prestia
bennell
Whitfield
if we could get even one of those or (god help us) two the list will look significantly better.
He’s more than a year older than Bellcho, and the last time he did any good (2013) was the same year Bellcho did.
He’s looking significantly more knackered at the moment.
I wouldn’t be against him as a really cheap get, but you couldn’t bank on him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he only has another 50 (or even less) games left in him from here, with his injury history.
He’s more than a year older than Bellcho, and the last time he did any good (2013) was the same year Bellcho did.
He’s looking significantly more knackered at the moment.
I wouldn’t be against him as a really cheap get, but you couldn’t bank on him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he only has another 50 (or even less) games left in him from here, with his injury history.
fair enough. he has shown serious chops (edit * probably overstating it a bit ) as a proper no.1 ruck though which i don’t think tbell ever has. I’d seriously underestimated Leuny’s age i must confess. hmmm, will need to come up with someone else.
I’m not against him, I’m just saying he’s a lot closer to a Gwilt/Chappy style acquisition (plug a hole for a year or two) than a solution to anything.