Season 2026 - Essendon

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
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Essendon

Coach – Brad Scott

2025 –

Points For – 16th
Points Against – 16th

Top 5 Best and Fairest

1 – Zach Merrett
2 – Archie Roberts
3 – Sam Durham
4 – Andrew McGrath
5 – Nic Martin

2025 Rising Star Noms

Archie Roberts (Rnd 5)
Nate Caddy (Rnd 9)
Angus Clarke (Rnd 11)
Isaak Kako (Rnd 17)

Ins – Huss, Brayden Fiorini, Max Kondogiannis, Sullivan Robey, Dyson Sharp, Jacob Farrow, Cillian Bourke

Outs – ADJ, Sam Draper, Todd Goldstein, Ben Hobbs, Jayden Laverde, Luamon Lual, Jye Menzie, Dylan Shiel, Oskar Smartt

My Prediction
It was not a good year for Essendon who kept the medical tent busy and the fans quiet. The young players got a very good look at the footy last year and it looks like we may have found a few but we also lost a little bit in the off season. This year will be an interesting one with external expectations as low as I can remember.

The backline reads well on paper if they can stay fit. Reid, McKay and Ridley are a very good group to build your backline around. Then you look at the smalls and you have McGrath, Roberts and Redman. It reads well but unfortunately the talls have zero durability and for some reason, Ridley and McKay when they can get on the field together are like each others kryptonite. Reid is the great hope and 15-16 games into him this year is the dream.

The midfield was ravaged with injury as well last year and some of that carries forward with our two best players facing very different tests, Martin will sit the year out whilst we all watch Merrett to see how invested he is. My gut says he will have a great year and stay but my gut also thought the pizza in the fridge was ok to eat and I can promise you that it was very messily wrong. Throw in Durham, Parish and Caldwell, proper wings in Fiorini and Duursma, then you have depth in Tsatas and the kids we drafted this year, the long term prognosis is better than the short term outlook.

The forward line should at least be interesting this year. Caddy will be stronger and more fun to watch. Wright needs to find his aggression again and then you have Archer May who could be anything or nothing. If May doesn’t work out, then we have McMahon who will have little to no impact anywhere except the scoreboard where he will give you two goals most weeks. We have smalls in Kako and Huss, mediums in Langford and Perkins. Again it reads better on paper that whatever last years output was.

The rucks are probably a disaster, at least on paper but I think Bryan has earned his shot when his body lets him and then we have Blakiston who I think could be actually pretty special. Vigo with another year in the twos but will come on strong. The coach is a polarising figure, I don’t want this to be about him. I don’t think he will be our next premiership coach but whoever is, will have him to thank for a lot of the heavy lifting he has had to do.

There is a luxury in going into a season with no expectations of success. Another year of development into the kids and hopefully a fitness department that keep players on the field. The best 23 at Essendon is good enough to make the wild card weekend, it just feels like we haven’t seen that in a long time. We are still carrying residual injuries from last year and I think it will lead us to threatening the wild card game and then not quite making it. 10-12 for mine.

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15th again I reckon, but hopefully a less depressing 15th than last season. If the key pillars of the future can stay on the park and we can play a more exciting brand of football each week, it will be easier to stomach. Our percentage simply must improve or Scott deserves the criticism that will come his way.

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fold you sh….

Oops wrong club thread!

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Given the inevitable injuries to the likes of Ridley, Reid and co, I’d like to see the younger guys consolidate their positions to the extent that when (if) Ridley etc get fit again, they have to force their way back in via the 2s.

I’m heartily sick & tired of these guys just getting the silver service ride straight back into the team.

Make them put a run of games together in the 2s to show that they’re actually match fit and not likely to breakdown again within the first few efforts they make.

Not real fussed about wins & losses and ladder position…I just want to watch a team that gives it’s all week in and week out.

Oh…and some sort of recognisable game plan would be cute addition.

Lower echelons of the ladder is where I think we’ll be come seasons end.

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Bottom 3.

We have a young list, suspect senior players, (some of which don’t want to be there) the worst coach in the league and a poor team of assistants.

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One positive I thought came from last year is the young fellas seemed more resilient than a lot of the experienced players. When I say resilient, I mean mentally resilient.
Seasons 23 and 24 gave me the feeling that the playing group just didn’t have the outright gumption to succeed. The unexpected success followed by complete fall away seemed to indicate that the club just couldn’t win when they were expected to.
In the end resilience is the word. We need to develop a group that can string together 15 to 17 games each. A group that has some hunger to it.
If we can keep a solid core group on the park we might challenge 8th.
We just depend too much on players who barely string together a dozen games.

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Fold the club I guess

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Our forwardline stands out by far as our biggest weakness especially when 2MP spends half the time in the ruck, which will be 100% be needed (im not bullish on any of our rucks).

Having a ■■■■ slow forwardline means the opposition will still launch scores from D50 at will…a key weakness for us. Further to that, we will continue to struggle to score without another classy small and classy tall. Ben King and Zac Bailey would help just a tad, fingers crossed we can nab one of these guys next year.

No depth at all either in the forward half so any injuries and things get much worse.

Our mids and denfenders look decent which will keep us in games but yeah, we’ll be pushing ■■■■ up hill most games with no competent ruck, a young list and an average forwardline.

13th for mine.

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I just want the team to finish strong this year.
It’s been far too long where we’ve been absolute dog-■■■■ from July onwards.

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Got that 2006 and 2016 stink about it

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18th.

Inness and co have been great, but we have all said it won’t be an instant turn-around and it’ll take a couple of years.

I expect Merrett to sook it up somewhere around round 8 onwards, and that will be a significant anchor for the group.

I expect our midfield to be obliterated in clearances due to lack of a competitive ruckman, combined with poor defensive midfield attitudes.

I expect our coach to fill the airwaves with uninspiring corporate speak, while having little influence on game day. I’m sure some new excuse will be identified.

I’m sure selection integrity will be negligible, with players getting rewarded regardless of any reasonable level of commitment to the cause combined with talent.

I’m pretty sure that we will drop our heads when a game is lost and cop many significant rogerings. It isn’t like we could actually practice high performance and try to show some spirit in preparation for the next opportunity. And I suspect we will put the cue in the rack when we think a game is won, because why overextend oneself.

It’s pretty dire I reckon.

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The hardest part about this year is knowing who the players are. There are so many new faces.

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Might be the year I give up on the club.

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Bwahahaha!!!

Brilliant!

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essendon is to the league what the miz is to wwe

lives off past glory days and for all intents and purposes has the appearance and personality of a main drawcard, but at the end of the day is kept around for a sole purpose - so that other teams/wrestlers have someone to beat on their way to the finals/wrestlemania

7 wins, 91%, then. now. forever.

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Bullshit. You’re here for life and you know it.
How’s the Klan wing of your family feeling about their chances this year?

I’ll settle for wins v pies, FC, hawks and upset win v cats. And Port because I really hate them too. And norf because klakkko plays really ■■■■■■ guitar.

But only if we unearth 5 star players.

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17th or 18th for us this year. It depends on how bad Melbourne are

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I think we’ll get moments this year where we see progress, we see evidence of ball movement and we get a bit excited about our youth.

But between those moments….our list is young, our prime age players are injury prone and inconsistent and we’ll get badly exposed by good teams.

Tipping a bottom 6 finish and likely a poor last month as injuries mount again.

All I want is to get games into our younger players. Rosa’s picks need their time to build.

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Nah, I’m pretty much done. I’m embarrassed to barrack for the club, go out of my way to not talk about football with family and friends.

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How we end up at end of the season doesn’t really bother me.

It will be development of the younger guys im looking at.

Brad Scott to get the ass by round 11 if he keeps playing the same downtools pea hearts.

The usual suspects who have done it to every coach. Lead by our ex captain and his mates .

Next year could be 1993 again.if Scott is prepared to cop the same pain as 92 and really back the kids in. With the right senior players around them.

Position wise Merret or Parish have to play permanent half forward , forward pocket

Farrow takes Roberts spot, Roberts and Kako to rotate on the ball.

I would back Sharp in from day one .

Gerreyn for me is the interesting one . He showed plenty forward. Can he become the next Lucas. Yes he doesn’t have the tank, has more talent than Voss did and we know how that turned out. The fact he is playing back though means he will tear us apart in a Freo jumper next year.

Peter Wright with the rule change could easily become the number 1 ruck. If only someone would put some dynamite under him to fire him up.

Archer May - if this kid can crash packs and do the hard stuff for Caddy we have one . Its all between the ears .

Caddy - is this the break out year ? Or just more flashes.

Farrow - starts round 1 if we are serious .

As bad as Sheedy was at times, he was great at throwing the kids in the deep end. Sometimes they sunk, but on Brad Scotts plan james hird would never have got a game due to his draft number .

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