99.9% because Parker is (a lot) better than Mitch Hallahan.
You know when two really good clubs meet and they have a red hot go at each other. When we are one of those clubs, you'll know it.
At the moment we aren't, and so whether we get close to the best sides, or even beat them, is only a step along a very long path.
It is when the top sides consider us a serious contender, this is when we will finally see how far we have to go.
I watched that Grand Final, and all I could think of was how many of our players I don't believe can play at that intensity level and be effective.
I watched that Grand Final, and all I could think of was how many of our players I don't believe can play at that intensity level and be effective.
I reckon all of our players could play up to the standard of Sydney's effort !!!
It was a pathetic game on their behalf.
I have no right to answer this question based on your criteria, but I do know that the better team on paper, the team generally with better form, and supposedly better players, doesn't always win.
It's why even teams like Melbourne think they have a chance at least before the siren goes to start the game.
It's why even teams like Melbourne think they have a chance at least before the siren goes to start the game.
Particularly if they are playing us!!
Hawthorn during the year were one team, Hawthorn on Saturday were another. Clarkson's attitude of you lose one soldier you replace them with another was obvious and is something to which EFC could/should aspire. There was no single outstanding player in Hawthorn's side on Saturday, likewise there did not appear to be any passengers. They were all very hard at the ball and all played their role.
They were a very well drilled team that knew exactly where their team mates where at any given time. I thought their kicking, apart from for goal, was close to elite. One of the most complete performances from a team I think I have ever seen. I would have to go back to EFC in 2000 to find a game as good. And I am sure they would have had another five players in the wings that could have taken the place of any of the players in the side and the result would have been the same.
That comes of constant pressure on the players in the best 22 from below. And as someone has mentioned above EFC hasn't had that pressure. Either the players in the 2's aren't good enough or they are not being promoted on the basis of a good performance. And maybe they should be. Maybe the club needs to get more ruthless and play the BEST 22 every week regardless of the name the experience etc.
As mentioned above Hawthorn have people that have played in the 2nds for four years but they still know they are a chance to get a game. They just have to be better.
After Saturdays game I think it a miracle that we got so close when we did, we certainly wouldn't have been that close later in the year IMHO.
You know when two really good clubs meet and they have a red hot go at each other. When we are one of those clubs, you'll know it.
At the moment we aren't, and so whether we get close to the best sides, or even beat them, is only a step along a very long path.
It is when the top sides consider us a serious contender, this is when we will finally see how far we have to go.
I watched that Grand Final, and all I could think of was how many of our players I don't believe can play at that intensity level and be effective.
Why is that exactly? Would you put it down to:
* Fitness
* Strength conditioning
* Innate ability
* Desire
* Teamwork
* Coaching
* Youth / development
Genuinely interested
You know when two really good clubs meet and they have a red hot go at each other. When we are one of those clubs, you'll know it.
At the moment we aren't, and so whether we get close to the best sides, or even beat them, is only a step along a very long path.
It is when the top sides consider us a serious contender, this is when we will finally see how far we have to go.
I watched that Grand Final, and all I could think of was how many of our players I don't believe can play at that intensity level and be effective.
Why is that exactly? Would you put it down to:
* Fitness
* Strength conditioning
* Innate ability
* Desire
* Teamwork
* Coaching* Youth / development
Genuinely interested
mental toughness
Innate ability + coaching & teamwork.
I don't know how you measure desire. I don't think our guys want to win any less than anyone else. The coaching & teamwork teaches them how to get there. When the confidence goes, you're knackered. They have the coaching & the experience and their experience gives them the confidence that even if things go against you, we can do X & Y and we'll be right.
We still panic & fluster occasionally.
Certainly the guts of their list is better than the guts of ours. IMHO our 3 best players stack up OK - they don't really have an absolute superstar. They have 5 or so really really good players at the level of our best 2-3 (Watson/Goddard/Hepp to their Hodge/Mitchell/Lewis/Roughead/Burgoyne).
And another 10-12 pretty good players (where we have maybe 5-8). And so on down the list.
It's not a huge massive gap in any one area, but over any selected 22 there's probably 4-6 positions we could never hope to win.
IMO our ladder position perfectly reflected a few things
1. Talent pool
2 Circumstances (asada)
3. Coaching
4. Game plan
5. The effectiveness of other teams.
The fact that during the year we came close to beating top teams and then we also lost to bottom sides just means that the league is very well balanced and that winning in September is a marathon rather than a sprint.
In any marathon - you feel both good and bad. Sometime everything hurts - sometime you are walking on air..
Same for the competition (other teams). We are only responsible for half the equation in any given game
Therefore (and in conclusion) 20 odd rounds is long enough a sample to determine the real value of a team in any given year.
The top 2 teams deserved to be in the granny and we deserved 7th. The granny in itself though is a random one game affair. An old fashioned two horse race. Hawthorn won but Sydney probably deserved to be the champions.
In soccer leagues around the world the champions are the ones who top the league.
Next year - we have the potential to be top 4.
It can't be discounted altogether, but IMO wins against the top teams are overrated except when they really matter. Take as an example North's trumpeting of their win over the Swans earlier in the year as they were heading into the final. It's irrelevant, and so it proved. North beat the Swans start of the season when Swans were struggling (having lost to GWS a few weeks before). To compare that to win in a final is ridiculous.
What that Hawthorn game did prove is that at our best we can be a formidable team. We smashed them for a quarter playing an attacking, play-on brand of football we saw rarely throughout the season. We can take some confidence from that, and is something to build on, but is not enough.
In the end we lost that game, which is the proof in the pudding. It's nice to play pretty football, but the idea is to win. Good teams do it week after week. Some genius suggest we can't manage that because we're mentally weak, but the truth is the best teams play a consistent brand of football because they have it drilled into them until it becomes second nature, and they have the depth to cover injuries. They're universally well coached, play with confidence, and have an expectation of victory. That's what happens when you get to the top of the mountain. Climbing to it there will be setbacks, but have to stick to the path and it will come together.
To a degree that's where Essendon is at, though I think there are structural issues that need to be addressed. They've been discussed elsewhere - more outside run, some kpp depth, a decent small forward, etc. Until we address those satisfactorily we'll be a dangerous team, but not a premiership team.
Like, people who really understand the game at this level, which I confess for all my enjoyment watching it I don't really understand what really affects team performance ...
What does it say that we came within two goals of the reigning premiers this year?
From recollection we faced a somewhat understaffed Hawthorn didn't we - I think Hodge was out?
Do you take any serious positives away from having been "in touch" with that side and very nearly having beaten them?
But then how do you square that with some of the utterly turgid performances - I am not just talking about the loss to St Kilda, and hell, the one to Richmond for that matter, but some of those grinding games like GWS.
Honestly, I just don't understand how to square all these things together.
TLDR: Are we "in touch" just needing some 'mental' work, or ... are there bigger issues?
On the other hand, we are the only team to lose to both St.Kilda and Melbourne.
We need a better culture at the club to beat out Essington in favour of Essendon
The efforts against any one team, in any particular game, do not tell you were our team is at. GWS beat Sydney this year. The sum of the total season tells me we are no where near it, simply we were at the top of the middle road teams, no different to west coast, adelaide, gold coast, collingwood, and bulldogs.
The efforts against any one team, in any particular game, do not tell you were our team is at. GWS beat Sydney this year. The sum of the total season tells me we are no where near it, simply we were at the top of the middle road teams, no different to west coast, adelaide, gold coast, collingwood, and bulldogs.
Yes, I understand. It's more about the paradox that it raises, that interests me. How can we be so close to the premiers one week, and yet look years off the pace another week, against a p*ss poor team. Baffling. But some good points being made - I have learnt a bit from the discussion.
Jesus in any sport you don't get to be champion without a massive amount of persistence, knocks and set backs.
Want to the know what the issue with some is?
The culture of some types near within the supporter base of the club to seek a
A mindset of entitlement, arrogance and quick fixes.
We are a lot mentally tougher than we have been previously and its a credit to a lot of good people that we have been able to do what we did in 2013 in a mood which as we are seeing right now was a bees ■■■■ away from being overwhelmed by this whole debacle and collapsing in a heap.
Buckle down, work hard, get each of your processes in around the club down pat and continually work at them. Improve through honest, hard work.
You may fail but how you go about things counts for a lot in life.
I have never seen us as an arrogant club. At our best we were like Hawthorn is right now. Confident and proud but not arrogant, a club people respected. Bold and willing to take risks. Respectful of history. Respectful of all types of people within the club.
The hard work that has been done over recent years is a credit to all and should be highly respected.
We need to be much more thankful than the 2 minutes we've paid to Simon Goodwin and some of the other people who have worked their arses off under great duress and achieved some great results and have made the last 2 years a lot of fun on the field.
Respect all at the club for their hard work and value it and use it as a foundation for improving even further that'd be my advice.
You know when two really good clubs meet and they have a red hot go at each other. When we are one of those clubs, you'll know it.
At the moment we aren't, and so whether we get close to the best sides, or even beat them, is only a step along a very long path.
It is when the top sides consider us a serious contender, this is when we will finally see how far we have to go.
I watched that Grand Final, and all I could think of was how many of our players I don't believe can play at that intensity level and be effective.
Why is that exactly? Would you put it down to:
* Fitness
* Strength conditioning
* Innate ability
* Desire
* Teamwork
* Coaching* Youth / development
Genuinely interested
Most of that.
Fitness/S&C - capacity to maintain physical intensity for the full game
Innate ability - maintaining skills and decision making while fatigued can be practiced
Desire/teamwork - goes hand in hand. Got to want to work for each other.
Youth/development - see my earlier post. Pressure from the bottom of the list will push the top of the list higher.
Coaching sets all of this in motion.
I remember when I returned to playing footy. I was in a group of 8 "new" players, and the coach told us if we want a game, we need to be better than those already in the reserves (he named names). So we banded together and set about becoming better. We did extra fitness stuff outside training, and also spent time before/after working on foot skills. A couple of the players we were gunning for noticed, and started doing extra work as well in order to keep their spot. Some didn't, and guess where they were in Round 1. After a heavy loss in Round 4, the coach gave five of us a go in favour of players who put in an ordinary effort. We debuted together in the 2s Round 5, and won by about 20 goals. By the end of the season, two of the group were playing seniors. And everyone around us played with more intensity because they knew their spot wasn't safe any more. Both the 1s and 2s went from third bottom to playing finals.
That's an amateur side. If a professional side isn't doing the same fkn thing then either they have no clue, or I don't.
Jesus in any sport you don't get to be champion without a massive amount of persistence, knocks and set backs.
Want to the know what the issue with some is?
The culture of some types near within the supporter base of the club to seek a
A mindset of entitlement, arrogance and quick fixes.
We are a lot mentally tougher than we have been previously and its a credit to a lot of good people that we have been able to do what we did in 2013 in a mood which as we are seeing right now was a bees ■■■■ away from being overwhelmed by this whole debacle and collapsing in a heap.
Buckle down, work hard, get each of your processes in around the club down pat and continually work at them. Improve through honest, hard work.
You may fail but how you go about things counts for a lot in life.
I have never seen us as an arrogant club. At our best we were like Hawthorn is right now. Confident and proud but not arrogant, a club people respected. Bold and willing to take risks. Respectful of history. Respectful of all types of people within the club.
The hard work that has been done over recent years is a credit to all and should be highly respected.
We need to be much more thankful than the 2 minutes we've paid to Simon Goodwin and some of the other people who have worked their arses off under great duress and achieved some great results and have made the last 2 years a lot of fun on the field.
Respect all at the club for their hard work and value it and use it as a foundation for improving even further that'd be my advice.
I don't mind that sentiment dodga but it's a little bit Protestant work ethic for my liking. Collectively we need respite from the heaviness. We need to have clear minds and light hearts. Everyone involved with the last two seasons needs to understand that it doesn't define us and we shouldnt beat ourselves up. If we do we are farked. Bring some fun back, take it one day at a time and anything is possible.
Yeah agree Ben. Of course that's all part of it. You have to keep it light and fun and we have. Need to keep that up.
But underpinning our culture, we shouldn't look for quick fixes. A great example given the other day when I was listening on radio is that Langford was ranked maybe 35th in line on the Hawks list and through hard work got himself to a point of playing such a great role in the GF.
A guy like Kommer I see as being like Puopolo or Langford, he'll die chasing down players for us, he'll improve his goal kicking more and more and just get better through hard work.
We have to really value and recognise hard work and I love it when our leaders in the media are out saying that sort of thing. Paddy Ambrose is another.
I love having these sorts of guys in the team.
Now what about our long history of aboriginal talent and pride. We need to address this. I'd rather recruit a few boys fully support them and have them not quite turn out than not try at all. Go for it. Its important from a spiritual Essendon sense .
The Essendon crowd itself cheering on a young aboriginal kid sprinting from a pack at half forward through to 40 metres and nailing the goal. That's something that we can give a young player and make him something he would never be at other clubs.
You need to know your history and culture and embrace it and special things come out of it.
need more strut. more arrogance.
Yeah agree Ben. Of course that's all part of it. You have to keep it light and fun and we have. Need to keep that up.
But underpinning our culture, we shouldn't look for quick fixes. A great example given the other day when I was listening on radio is that Langford was ranked maybe 35th in line on the Hawks list and through hard work got himself to a point of playing such a great role in the GF.
A guy like Kommer I see as being like Puopolo or Langford, he'll die chasing down players for us, he'll improve his goal kicking more and more and just get better through hard work.
We have to really value and recognise hard work and I love it when our leaders in the media are out saying that sort of thing. Paddy Ambrose is another.
I love having these sorts of guys in the team.
Now what about our long history of aboriginal talent and pride. We need to address this. I'd rather recruit a few boys fully support them and have them not quite turn out from a spiritual Essendon sense.
You need to know your history and culture and embrace it and special things come out of it.
Agree. But it would be wrong to say to everyone after all we have been through is that we all just need to work harder. IMO this is a recipe for burnout and not truly represent why success happens. Hard work is important but not everything. Footy and sport is 90 pct mental.
I have never fallen for that "success came because he worked hard". Prefer work smart, work appropriately hard on important things but more importantly understand the system and take advantage of it.