Opting for the long bomb to the top of the square shows a lack of discipline. A couple of years back I watched a very well-drilled team (I think it was Sydney …) take on Melbourne and absolutely refuse to kick it long to May/Lever to the point where they would pass sideways, backwards, anything except the long bomb until something opened up and they could hit a leading target. We just don’t seem to have that level of control.
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None of the bookies rate us this season i prefer it this way will just make wins more enjoyable proving the doubters wrong
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Yep, we are too mentally weak to handle any expectation.
Been like that for 20 years.
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For those keeping track , has Scott been more absent than usual this pre season?
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he popped in for the team photo
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How good was it when coach called it early - play players in the right position. Simple.
Now… the opposite.
If one was reading between the lines, the difference between the dates is that coach now knows he’s playing to develop (not win) with a healthy dose of tanking. Whereas “playing players in their best position” is when you think you’re contending.
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Today yes it is to be expected. But they have been a quiet group every session I’ve got down. Other teams I’ve seen train use a lot more voice instructing each other and calling for the ball.
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It’s been like that for a long time. I can’t remember the last time anyone had us in the top 8.
Langford was clearly spot on about our forwards keeping the opposition guessing to the point where our own players have no idea either.
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Worth the wait, cheers Doe!
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My two bobs worth re the scrappy sessions.
We lack the skills to hit targets and keep the ball on the move.
I remember back in the dim dark past when I played, we had Tim Cahill come to training (he was a student teacher mate of one of our players at the time). We all tried so hard to do all the skill things well in the drills…and we just weren’t up to it. I remember thinking, no matter how hard we tried and wanted to do it well, the ball just kept hitting the ground due to missed targets.
Our team matches other teams for effort and contested footy. We just can’t use it as well as the good teams. It’s a lack of skill. Full stop.
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It’s as simple as that, we don’t have enough players that are highly skilled and at the end of the day it separates us from the better teams.
Brads high possession game plan doesn’t do us any favors either, teams just know we’re going to cough it up with just a little pressure.
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I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
We are missing good users though. It’s obvious this was a priority during the draft as all the kids we got seem to have some pretty neat skills (but can also football).
I think 2024 this will prove to be a very successful off season for us as I feel a lot of the blokes recruited will have a major role in the team for the next decade.
You only need a few elite users in the right positions and I feel were not too far away from that. Having Reid in defence will really sure us up.
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Kako aside, which ones will play a major role in the next decade ?
I think ‘unmodified’ might be next big thing in footy training vernacular.
Maybe biggest addition since I invented [spec].
Assume Bin was one of the players in the modified group that you didn’t name in today’s report?
Nate Caddy, Sam Draper tipped to step up to fill Essendon’s Jake Stringer void in 2025
Jake Stringer was the leading goalkicker in an inconsistent Bombers forward line last year. CHRIS CAVANAGH examines how the Dons’ attack will look without him.
3 min read
February 4, 2025 - 12:00PM
News Sport Network
He is not Essendon’s poster boy just yet, but Nate Caddy might be by the end of the season.
The Bombers have a Jake Stringer-sized hole to fill in their forward line — and sales of Caddy’s No. 30 jumper will skyrocket if he can go some way to plugging it this year.
Coach Brad Scott last month labelled Stringer’s trade to Greater Western Sydney as a “really good result for both parties”.
But Scott was clearly viewing the move through long-term lens rather than a short-term one.
The reality is that Stringer kicked 42 goals last season – more than 15 per cent of the Bombers’ total – to finish as the club’s second-highest goalkicker behind Kyle Langford.
That sort of return won’t be easy to replace in 2025.
“Stringer’s obviously a superstar so we’ve got to all chip in and work hard,” fellow forward Jade Gresham said.
“But I feel like it is going to be really exciting. We’ve got a young list down there, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do.”
It is not all on Caddy’s shoulders entering his second season, but as a marking target in attack he looms as a long-term replacement for Stringer.
Caddy spoke recently about being “more adapted to the way AFL is played” after getting himself “fitter and … stronger” over the off-season.
He said he hoped to become a “dual threat in the forward line”, given his ability to play deep inside-50 or push up the ground.
There were no questions over Caddy’s workrate, endurance, hunger for the contest or aerial abilities last year.
The key area where he has “adapted” and improved has been his leading patterns as a forward.
“He’s got himself really fit and he’s put on weight,” Langford said of Caddy.
“He’s one of those players that has enormous game day endurance. But for him, it’s just learning how to not run 16km’s of trash and running some really quality K’s. I think that’s the only thing that’s separating him from kicking more goals and performing week in, week out – just learning to be an AFL forward. But he’s made massive inroads this pre-season and I’ve been really impressed by him.”
Langford and Caddy look set to be supported by a resting ruckman this season, with Sam Draper having spent significant time training with the forwards over summer.
Scott has long liked the idea of playing two ruckmen, with Draper and Nick Bryan having featured alongside each other in the final four rounds of last season.
Draper kicked six goals across that final month of home-and-away matches and booted three majors during intra-club match simulation last Saturday.
“He’s been good down forward, kicking goals and taking some nice marks down there,” Bryan said of Draper.
“He’s been working hard on his forward craft.”
A former Parade College schoolmate of Caddy’s – Isaac Kako – has also impressed in attack across his first pre-season.
“He’s worked hard ever since he’s walked in the door and he’s really exciting,” Gresham said of the fellow small forward.
“He wants to learn so I can’t wait to see what he can do this year.”
Langford said Kako was putting his hand up for an early-season debut, as the Bombers prepare to open their campaign against the Gold Coast Suns on March 8.
“He’s got a ready-built body and he’s quite a fit young man,” Langford said.
“There’s no doubting his talent and I’d love to see him next to me.
“Even throughout the off-season, I had just a minor knee surgery and he was in here doing rehab. I was just amazed that he was in here every single day doing his rehab, which not a lot of other 17-year-old boys would be doing. I said to our physio staff before we even took him (in the draft), ‘He’s more professional than a lot of our players’. So I was really excited when I knew we were changing a few things around to try and get him.”
AFL analyst Mick McGuane recently ranked Essendon as having the fifth-worst forward line in the competition.
The assessment is hard to argue against, given what was produced last season and the loss of Stringer.
But it is clear that is not all about this year for Scott and the Bombers – and there won’t be many tears shed over Stringer if Caddy and Kako can find their groove at AFL level to show that the long-term future looks bright.
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Draper being trusted to actually kick goals fills me with fear.
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If between Caddy and Draper we can simply cover the goals Stringer kicked last year (42 between them), I’m ok with that in 2025.
25 for Caddy and 17 for Draper would be a decent return I reckon. Both will be inconsistent as forwards, and Draper will do a chunk of rucking too.
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