Brad needs to have at least 5 stars for him to win a final. Players that can the change the momentum of a game.
Plus have everyone else on the same page doing team things - defensive running positioning etc.
We have 1 Merrett. He needs to keep playing at a high standard. who will be the other 4?
Most likely
** Martin tends to play well when others go missing.
** Durham improved heaps last year, hopefully can build on that
** Caddy - could be our first marquee forward since Daniher.
**Parish can he get back to 2021 levels?
** Can Ridley get back to Crichton medalist form 2020.
Can someone else surprise
Langford / Wright kick 50+ again
Draper become a dominant ruck in top handful of comp.
Perkins put it all together up forward and turn into livewire forward like DeGoey.
Kako being electric best handful in comp small forward unlikely in first year.
Caldwell - does well in Shutdown roles and can kick handy goals late in games
I don’t think people are realising just how many massive issues we have with our list under Dudoro. It’s taken the board 18 months to realise their assessment of list is ok we need better coaching was completely wrong.
Its a shame we didnt get better draft picks. The list was decidely average
2021 overperformed based off performances from Parish and Stringer. Made finals and belted.
2022 should have been bottom 3 below GWS. would have given us a look at Wardlaw instead of Tsatas.
2023 overperformed, based on % should have finished bottom 14-15th.
would have guaranteed Caddy and or able to trade back a bit and keep second rounder.
2024 should have finished like Dees and got a pick in before Kako bid.
Harvey Langford or Josh Smilie would have been handy.
I don’t entirely disagree but this may sound a bit strange, Brad is the ideal coach for the times at Essendon. A coach who can stare down the ‘noise’ internally and externally, a coach who will ruthlessly drive high standards and rebuild a football club, ground up.
Reality is, a young coach wouldn’t survive the Essendon rebuild 2022>. They’d be swallowed up quickly. A complete rebuild of Essendon (culture, standards, professionalism etc) is something only a select handful of personalities are equipped to handle and execute.
Scott may not be Essendon’s next premiership coach but he is best equipped to do the dirty and necessary ground work that is critical to opening a pathway to eventual success… whatever success that ultimately leads to.
If Brad and Chris have the same DNA and therefore, the same IQ how come Brad plays all the tallest players he can get in the wet, something which his brother or any other decent coach would never do.
In the wet you strong tough players built close to the ground, granted we do not have many of players like this, but SHEIL, TSATAS & HOBBS should have been played
Do you think this is because Scott wants to play a different game style to Worsfold or Rutten? Or do you think the game style is relatively similar the players we had recruited for it were just not up to it.
I find it amazing that Scott’s taken 2 years to realise where the holes in the list were. This doesn’t bode well for good match day adjustments.
Yeah sorry bout that. Going tall in that game was a sin mate, it was rediculous. Playing a side full of baby gireaffes taking their first steps on ice was never going to result in a win, regardless of any best laid plan.
scott was likely coaching to board expectations which were expressly and publicly - ‘an experienced coach will get more out of the list’.
it was a board mandate / imperative to shoot for finals the last two years. Scott reflected this by consistently picking the most mature /experienced sides available to him.
the board has belatedly accepted (likely on advise from Vozzo and Rosa) that we need to reset the list, at least to some degree over the next 3 years and announced we’re hitting the draft over that period. We took more 18/19 year olds at this draft than we have since circa 2005/2006
hopefully this translates to a different approach to matchday selection this year…
if scott persists in prioritizing age and experience despite middling performances he should be placed under red hot pressure.
Its really only Goldy and Shiel watch. both not Essendon servants like Heppell was. To a lesser extent Laverde (he wasn’t best 22 round 1 last year).
I hope both have been told they are not guaranteed game time next year.
Handy backup though if required and experience may come in handy if we have a finals push.
As I said last year, I want to see standards at training increase. Watching the boys in a marking contest, the ball would go to ground and then they would just dump kick the ball back to the assistant coaches rather than being forced to pinpoint the pass back.
This may seem like a little thing, but you should train like you want to play. Unfortunately, we play like we train.
I’m a big believer in you train the way you want to play, it’s been evident that we haven’t been doing that well for years. Would love to compare our training sessions to a gws, geelong or collingwood, it wouldn’t surprise if their training sessions and standards were much higher than ours.
We’ve been consistently poor with our skills, tackling and overall field positioning. With our current personnel that’s not gonna change anytime soon, anyone hoping for otherwise are gonna be pretty disappointed with next year. On another note, it’s worrying too when your SSP picks, new draftees or mid season picks are outperforming guys who have been on our list for years.
