I remember that exact same rubbish being posted about Peter Jackson. He has put together a list that has never once in his tenure had a midfield that could be considered strong or deep. He has drafted only 1 AA mid in 20 years & that was a FS pick. Our only player on the list who looks remotely likley to become an AA mid is Zerrett who was only drafted because he luckily fell to us. Dodoro planned to again draft a tall (Lobb) who is a good player but not what we need. Our list is NOT now nor has it even been incredibly strong & its always had massive deficiencies in ball winners, line runners & rebounders. He has a decent record of drafting talls although ruckman havenât been a strength over the journey with the small exception of Ryder having a standout year before leaving. Drapper, a rookie, is the only promising sign in the ruck dept weâve seen since TBell was drafted. His trading record is poor & even though hope still remains for the 2017 trades he only traded in 1 single solitary player in 20 years who played 100 games for the club (McPhee).
You can cling the the excuses of the saga but the reality is the guy has been in some form of his role since 1998 & in that time we have had numerous completely failed drafts & have not ever traded to fill the shortcomings his drafting have left. He is the poster child for the clubs willingness to accept failure.
Zerrett already is an AA mid. So is Heppell.
Doesnât change your point of course.
I thought Hepp was named on the HBF (where I believe he plays his best) but it was the wing like Zerrett.
I agree on your point of not drafting midfielders or at least the right ones, but I donât think its our biggest issue.
We have been blaming the coaches and administration for as long as I can remember when for mine the players are ultimately responsible for their performance on the weekend.
I like most Australians group up playing sport and I got to a very high level in a couple and I didnât do it off the back of talent or support, I did it because every time I turned up I wanted to beat my opponent.
The amount of times that we just show up and not compete happens to regularly and has been going on for a long time.
We always joke about how we recruit for leadership ability but it couldnât be further from the truth.
The 2000 side was extremely talented but first and foremost it was built of blokes that hated getting beaten. I could only name about 5 guys in this current team that looks filthy every time they lose a single contest, let alone a match.
So very much this!!!
Character is great. But unless it results in getting the best out of yourself and your teammates every time you take the field, then it means little to a football club.
Stephen Wells has been list manager at geelong since 94, started working there in 84.
Itâs interesting to understand what the issues are. Whether the game, for some, is so different from what they do as kids growing up compared to the highly structured game played today at AFL. Whether we at Essendon donât suss out properly the kids who have the necessary mental plasticity to adapt or who have the necessary work ethic to physically and mentally push themselves to that world of pain to deliver the defensive pressure required.
UmmmâŚif we are calling on Myers to boost our midfield then I would argue he hasnât built that good of a list.
There you go
Why to destroy their careers at Essendon. We have a very talented list. That is being absolutely demolished by a bunch of incompetents who have no idea how to coach and develop. List management can bring in superstars and will only become mediocre. Again we will have problems to attract good players.
Smith signs contract. The future whispers in his ear: âYouâll be their best player by round 3â
âAwesome!
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âŚwait, what?â
Although I agree with your point on Myers list management isnât that simple.
Even more so with the turmoil we have had and the number of coaches/directions we have had.
From all reports we did chase Tom Mitchell so itâs not like we havenât had a crack. Smith does offer us grunt also but clearly we need more grunt but more importantly good ball users and players that stick to structures.
The biggest part of building a successful team in my opinion is the players consistently adhering to the gameplan and being able to keep that form throughout 4 qtrs across a whole season.
You can mask deficiencies in other parts of the game with hard work and we consistently have been exposed for hard workers for the last 15 years.
The midfield was pretty strong around 2013 odd. It was the forward line that was a mess.
Iâd say blokes like Hocking, Howlett, Peverill, Lonergan, Dyson etc were all hard working but ultimately they didnât have the skills & class. Iâd describe our midfield as extremely workman like for the last 15 years.
Iâm not trying to downplay the importance of good coaching, the players buying into the coaches plans & overall development BUT I think ultimately talent is the biggest factor in ultimate success. No factor on its own is enough but I canât think of a single team ever thats won a flag without a hell of a lot of top end talented players. The Swans 05 I believe was possibly the best example of coaching & structure beating out talent but still that side had some stars & the only had to outcoach Woosha 
I think there is a big difference between being âworkman likeâ and working hard.
It only takes just 2 or three players to be down on the day and your structures get exposed very quickly.
When you have 5 or 6 down on a day like we regularly do then that can make the whole 18 on the field look inept even though a lot are actually doing as instructed.
As somebody said in another thread, itâs no surprise that the sides that keep coaching panels and teams together for around that 5 year mark tend to have more cohesion and are more consistent.
We just need players that will do the job.
yea nah.
You can see his problem from a mile away, and he (like woosha) refuses to accept change or adapt.
it âlooksâ like a strong list - if you are watching through 90âs glasses. He still has this seeming belief that the spine is of #1 importance and you get that right first blah blah.
The game, for years, has turned into a pure midfielders and âtotal fieldâ game. By that, I mean attacking and defensive actions incporate all 22 players on a given day. Your defensive players are just as important offensively as defensively.
The problem is, we have and play too many talls and quasi-talls/3rd types. Not enough genuine mids - total ground midfielders who run both ways all day, 22 rounds plus finals a year.
Very hard to incorporate a modern day style/tactically game plan when so many of our players just arent built for it. We have one player standing out as being a modern day type, who can get ball and pressure all day and that is Smith. A damning result for a âstrongâ list.
I think we have the players but they arenât being used.
I agree with team selection. We are too tall.
Loves a 190cm utility
In what reality has Disco built an âincredibly strong listâ? We had been finals irrelevant for about 15 years, and from what weâve seen so far this year, itâs going to be more of the same.
yeah true