I prefer mine cooked, and on a plate.How can we harness adversity and rebound as a stronger and more powerful club? How can we use the last 3 years as a steak in the ground and emerge a better club? How can we ensure the clubs stakeholders unite and strengthen their resolve? Sheedys bold vision (refer to video at about 13:00 onwards) to me is the sort of vision and aggressive targets that I think is what’s been missing from Essendon for 15 years.
sshhh. i want to hear more of this butter club.
Quoted PostNot saying the club hasn't done this brilliantly. Check out the TVS, but whats next and who is best to sell it. I think we have made good decisions with Sheeds and the coaching team we have out there.No doubt that’s the other thing that’s improved. Still remember when the biggest advancement to our traning facilities was the club selling raffle tickets to raise money for plunge pools at Windy Hill. Thankfully the newer board had balls to spend and borrow money (which is almost paid off) for the TVS. Could never have happened while you know who was there. At least he can scrooge all he likes now at melbourne and drive them into the ground.
I’m only in the raffle for the chance to win a (and I quote) “colour” TV.
The reality is that most clubs have periods of on field success followed by much longer periods of comparative lack of success. Recognizing this, a football club must draw from its "future fund" over the bad years. Its only because Essendon is one of the great (4) clubs of the AFL that we are as strong as we are today after 12 years of premiership failure and then 3 years of Saga. What that means is that we have to concentrate on both on field success and developing the club through vision, programmes, good marketing and what I hesitatingly term "brand" development.So yes Doza and Deckham. The actual game is totally, vitally important, but we have to have long term vision and planning.
Not saying the club hasn’t done this brilliantly. Check out the TVS, but whats next and who is best to sell it. I think we have made good decisions with Sheeds and the coaching team we have out there.
Not that it matters that much Chris, but my post was an oblique reference to ‘Game of Thrones’ 
Quoted PostThe reality is that most clubs have periods of on field success followed by much longer periods of comparative lack of success. Recognizing this, a football club must draw from its "future fund" over the bad years. Its only because Essendon is one of the great (4) clubs of the AFL that we are as strong as we are today after 12 years of premiership failure and then 3 years of Saga. What that means is that we have to concentrate on both on field success and developing the club through vision, programmes, good marketing and what I hesitatingly term "brand" development.So yes Doza and Deckham. The actual game is totally, vitally important, but we have to have long term vision and planning.
Not saying the club hasn’t done this brilliantly. Check out the TVS, but whats next and who is best to sell it. I think we have made good decisions with Sheeds and the coaching team we have out there.Not that it matters that much Chris, but my post was an oblique reference to ‘Game of Thrones’
Way over my head . Is that an iphone app, an xbox game , a movie or a television program ?. I am a out of touch with many things, and game of thrones is one of those things.
Quoted PostQuoted PostThe reality is that most clubs have periods of on field success followed by much longer periods of comparative lack of success. Recognizing this, a football club must draw from its "future fund" over the bad years. Its only because Essendon is one of the great (4) clubs of the AFL that we are as strong as we are today after 12 years of premiership failure and then 3 years of Saga. What that means is that we have to concentrate on both on field success and developing the club through vision, programmes, good marketing and what I hesitatingly term "brand" development.So yes Doza and Deckham. The actual game is totally, vitally important, but we have to have long term vision and planning.
Not saying the club hasn’t done this brilliantly. Check out the TVS, but whats next and who is best to sell it. I think we have made good decisions with Sheeds and the coaching team we have out there.Not that it matters that much Chris, but my post was an oblique reference to ‘Game of Thrones’
Way over my head . Is that an iphone app, an xbox game , a movie or a television program ?. I am a out of touch with many things, and game of thrones is one of those things.
Geek ■■■■, … for the, “World of warcraft” types.
Quoted PostQuoted PostNot saying the club hasn't done this brilliantly. Check out the TVS, but whats next and who is best to sell it. I think we have made good decisions with Sheeds and the coaching team we have out there.No doubt that’s the other thing that’s improved. Still remember when the biggest advancement to our traning facilities was the club selling raffle tickets to raise money for plunge pools at Windy Hill. Thankfully the newer board had balls to spend and borrow money (which is almost paid off) for the TVS. Could never have happened while you know who was there. At least he can scrooge all he likes now at melbourne and drive them into the ground.
I’m only in the raffle for the chance to win a (and I quote) “colour” TV.
What colour is the TV?
For the next 10 years the AFL will be doing their damnest to make sure we never get near one.
This.
You think umpires bent us over before, just wait.
Quoted PostI posed this topic on the Essendon BF forum so would be keen for the fans thoughts here as well.The video on Bomber Tv of the Tim Watson interview of Sheeds was re freaking to me and Sheeds thinking reminded me of what’s been missing the last 10 or so years with Essendons thinking. It was refreshing to hear Sheeds talk about Essendon in a way that we used to. As market leaders, courageous, innovative, aiming to be the benchmark in membership again, rather than just breaking our own records, big matches at the G, stealing the MCG back from Collingwood… It was great!!! Where’s this Essendon thinking been?
Sheeds goes into some detail on what his vision for this club is. In short, he will be working hard to return the club to the bold, aggressive, ambitious and courageous club it once was and wants the fans to be repaid for the last 3 years of ‘hell’.
This brings us to post ASADA. Irrespective of the outcome, Sheeds implores the fans to stick by the club in it’s darkest hour.
How can we harness adversity and rebound as a stronger and more powerful club? How can we use the last 3 years as a steak in the ground and emerge a better club? How can we ensure the clubs stakeholders unite and strengthen their resolve? Sheedys bold vision (refer to video at about 13:00 onwards) to me is the sort of vision and aggressive targets that I think is what’s been missing from Essendon for 15 years.
A vision to be number 1 in the AFL again. Sheeds is aspiring to set the bar high once again at Essendon. Thank god he’s back!
How can the Essendon family respond, irrespective of the ASADA outcome? To me the Hawthorn post merger response provides an example. How will Essendon emerge?
You might have just as well put this in the Sheedy thread, sheedy sheedy sheedy.
OH and the bolded bit, tis funny cos people neglect this aspect that Sheedy himself was a very big contributor to the downfall in said areas. Peter Jackson cops alot of flack around here for the decline cos of his “penny pinching”, but so many seem to forget not to many were innovating onfield or off around the club. Granted he wasn’t the only one and it pretty much took the recruitment of Thompson to get any ball rolling.
How Essendon re emerges after Asada. Become a club to be feared onfield which will hopefully lead to obviously success on it.
Very few sides fear us. I pointed out last year that we have a very bad loss ratio against the top sides ( Geelong it’s like 1 out of the last 11 odd games, Sydney it may be like one or two wins in a similar period. Hawthorn 3 wins since the line in the sand game in 04, Collingwood altho not a top team it’s now i think 5 out of the last 18 games against them)
The club as a whole IMO simply isn’t ruthless enough across the board. You’ve got to change a mentality and culture tha’ts crept in recently of one of arrogance without substance. But as i’ve also said not sure how you do that cos similar if not the same mistakes have been made now across 4 different coaching groups (I include Thompson as a 4th)
At the end of the day, the only way you re emerge with with an resemblence of what Essendon was, is to start winning premierships again.
Otherwise we just become a parody of so many around here, who love to bag other clubs for their non relevance while we too sit there being the same.
Case in point CArlton re emerged after their salary cap stuff, they’ve done more than we have been able to achieve in recent history, yet so many around here still love to mock how little they’ve actually really done, esp since buying Judd.
I’m impressed that Thompson gets both credit and blame, credit for coaching Geelong to a point we can’t often beat them and then blamed for not beating them.
It is instructive to compare the Australian Government with Essendon. Both have faced a crisis recently . In the case of the Government, collapse of the Mining boom has left it with a structural deficit due to expenditure largesse. in trying to redress this, they announced a series of cuts in the 2014 budget. Not only that they have failed to articulate a long term strategy that would allow them to convince Australia that now some belt tightening was necessary, they failed to consult and suffered serious setback in public confidence. They are not helped at all by the wooden slogan uttering face of the government.In the case of Essendon Football club, during the crisis the club has not been able to communicate its response to the saga. At least in its public profile. We, as members and followers of the club know that within the club there is resilience and strength and a determination to concentrate on football, and ensuring the club is financially strong.
But at Essendon there has been an apparent absence of “leadership” in the visionary sense, its not the role of the coaches to have an overall vision for the club, its the board who are supposed to develop a vision, and the Chairman who is supposed to articulate it.
We need vision to take us forward and distract people from the saga. We have some excellent programs that the club has been developing, like the Indian initiative, the inclusive GLBT program, community outreach etc.but I have to say that if the board has a vision, they are not particularly good at communicating it.
Sheeds is not only a visionary, but he is a populist, a charismatic figure who knows when to be serious, knows when to be funny and knows when to be enigmatic. I am not saying he is perfect, but believe that whatever vision the club develops, he is the one best equipped to sell it to the Members , followers and the AFL. Paul Little, excellent back room deals man, but Sheeds is so far ahead of him in this area, slightly eccentric, and loved for it, but people are receptive to him, he doesnt read speeches, he appears to speak from the heart.
■■■■■■ well said, Sir.
I’ve been incredibly frustrated by the club’s inability/refusal to fight back - to put our case strongly in front of the public. I assume this has been because of the AFL gagging us? If that is not the case, the club has failed both players and members badly in that regard.
Some chunk of the responsibility comes down to the players.
Go watch the tapes of the 2000 team, learn that game plan and you’d win alot of games even in 2015.
Easier said than done, but the 2000 team didn’t play dumb football, hardly any fumbling, confident, swift disposals, every player in the best 22 had a lot of confidence in their role on the ground, no hesitating, just got on with the job and did it very well. Good at high overhead marking, great tackling pressure, fast foot speed, confident in front of goal…played like men and played like real leaders.
Some chunk of the responsibility comes down to the players.Go watch the tapes of the 2000 team, learn that game plan and you’d win alot of games even in 2015.
Easier said than done, but the 2000 team didn’t play dumb football, hardly any fumbling, confident, swift disposals, every player in the best 22 had a lot of confidence in their role on the ground, no hesitating, just got on with the job and did it very well. Good at high overhead marking, great tackling pressure, fast foot speed, confident in front of goal…played like men and played like real leaders.
Best side to ever to play on a football field
Port supporter just said this to me,
“Say what you like about Essendon fans, at least they have stuck by their club through arguably the darkest time. A lot more than you can say of our fans”
meh. ■■■■ port
Game Of FootyA rather poor attempt at fitting the theme... Lannisters = Hawthorn. Too pretty, too powerful by half. Starks = Essendon. Screwed 6 ways from Sunday but we'll come through. Renly Barratheon = Roosey. Popular but a fraud. Stannis Baratheon = Fark Carlton. Grumpy Mick. Greyjoys = Fairfax. Say no more. Daenerys Targaryen = Emma Quayle. <3 <3 <3
Quoted PostSome chunk of the responsibility comes down to the players.Go watch the tapes of the 2000 team, learn that game plan and you’d win alot of games even in 2015.
Easier said than done, but the 2000 team didn’t play dumb football, hardly any fumbling, confident, swift disposals, every player in the best 22 had a lot of confidence in their role on the ground, no hesitating, just got on with the job and did it very well. Good at high overhead marking, great tackling pressure, fast foot speed, confident in front of goal…played like men and played like real leaders.
Best side to ever to play on a football field
Undoubtedly one of the great sides. You’d have to imagine though that on paper there have been better sides through history in terms of cumulative talent, ability and reputation. I just think the 2000 side were a great side that executed a dynamite game plan like no other side before or since. Perhaps that’s just another way of saying they were the best side to take a football field.
Port supporter just said this to me,“Say what you like about Essendon fans, at least they have stuck by their club through arguably the darkest time. A lot more than you can say of our fans”
Picking up some materials at a Mitre 10 that I visit infrequently the other day, started speaking on the saga, and although all 3 guys there had different & varied views & levels of ignorance to facts ratio, that sentiment on our fans was common to all of them.
Quoted PostPort supporter just said this to me,“Say what you like about Essendon fans, at least they have stuck by their club through arguably the darkest time. A lot more than you can say of our fans”
Picking up some materials at a Mitre 10 that I visit infrequently the other day, started speaking on the saga, and although all 3 guys there had different & varied views & levels of ignorance to facts ratio, that sentiment on our fans was common to all of them.
Ahem…we have been magnificent!
There is no doubt that this saga will leave its mark on the footy club. Despite the media frenzy, I think that mark, long term, will be more positive than one would expect. No we can’t erase over two years of being shafted by AFL/Fairfax and the Government. We also can’t get back two years worth of chances to advance this football club on field. However I believe it has ensured we have some of the best off field management structures in the league. It has galvanized the playing group and the supporters into a battle hardened club again. It has put a burning pit of desire in every senior EFC player. Long term it will show the strength of this club and absolutely be our ‘merger’ moment.
I have zero doubt that had the AFL allowed this investigation to be ‘open’ to all clubs then we would have seen at least one (Gold Coast) and possibly more (Melbourne, Dogs, St Kilda) actually go bankrupt. So while I will never forgive them for shafted my beloved club, I understand why they needed (from a competition management POV) to keep the spotlight on us. For want of a better phrase - we could handle it.
Our ‘re-emergence’ actually started years ago when we recruited Hird and Thompson to the club. It signalled that we would no longer be content to drift in the middle rungs of the ladder. From that time we have benefited from the difficult, but necessary, leadership to change our home to Tulla. For the club to take on debt, to leave its spiritual home and convince its membership to embrace this significant change was no small feat. In addition they raised funds and convinced a skeptical, and resentful, membership to part with money to fund this move. In doing so we went from having some of the worst facilities in the league to having the best bar NONE. Unfortunately the enormity of that success was lost as it was opened during the saga. However the flow on effects from this move will continue for the next 20 years so plenty of time to celebrate! This especially holds true in this era of free agency. I have heard personally from two current players and three players from other clubs that our facilities are a ‘factor’ in contract talks. Put simple, its impressive most impressive.
The biggest aspect that will see us emerge this year once again as a powerhouse is the revamp and rejuvenation of our playing list. There is no doubt in my mind, or the mind of many other ‘experts’ that our list is a good one. Of course time will tell whether it is capable of the ultimate success but on paper it is the strongest squad we have assembled since the glory years of 99-01. Some of the excitement around our list has been tempered by the saga, but that will change this year irrespective of the result of the saga. The AFL has acknowledged, ASADA have acknowledged and it is clear that even if found guilty the players would be facing bans of less than a month. This means that no matter what happens (and I believe they will be cleared) this season will see our top side on the park without any distractions. The likes of Zaka, Heppell, Hooker, Bags, Hibberd have only just hit their prime and will join young guns like Gleeson, Ashby, Zerrett and Daniher to make a formidable team alongside the true cream of Goddard, Chappy, Winderlich, Fletcher and now Cooney. There is zero chance this group doesn’t have significant on field success. How do we know this? For the last two years they have faced the biggest cluster ■■■■ of all time and they have STILL managed to qualify for finals twice. They have played exciting, hard and clever football. Over that period we have ‘lost’ only two best 22 players in Crameri and Ryder but have ‘gained’ players such as Cooney, Chappy, Z Merrett, Gleeson and seen development of players like Heppell, Hooker and Daniher in the best 22.
Lastly our supporter base has stayed strong, unbelievably strong really. We will pass 65K members this year and we aren’t talking Hawks style dog memberships or Tassie packs, we are talking real people with real membership. We have the highest number of reserved seat memberships in Victoria. We make more profit on membership that most clubs and continue to grow our social media presence. Our community engagement is still a market leader and we have one of the most recognisable sporting brands in Australia. There is a strong financial reason why we have lost ZERO sponsors during this team, principally because this club is still synonymous with success and stability.
For me the signs have been that for the last three years that this club was ‘on the rise’, yes that has been obscured largely by the saga but our time is coming. The club is financially strong, has a large membership, passionate supporters, world leading facilities, great playing list and a clear vision. The storm lasted longer than we all though but it is time to get busy living!
Lid off!!!