Read up a bit
Well Jezza, I actually thought your post was fair and reasoned.
Benfti allegedly has insider knowledge which he will only share in a PM, which is his right I guess.
I am often irrational about some things like politics, and benfti may be the same about this.
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He hasn’t shared it in a PM.
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Does anyone really think with the shambles that was our fitness department during those years that Rioli wouldn’t be a crock if he’d played for us? Same as Myers, Winders, Dempsey. Our fitness management was terrible.
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I appreciate that Bacchusfox.
I’m just frustrated that after the saga period where we were constantly copping it from all angles we will now inevitably have to deal with the fallout of this “policy” issue.
If it was in fact policy, I can’t believe Dean Wallis putting bets on was exposed quicker.
Benfti, are you indicating at all that this might still be active today?
I ask because my original post was mainly conjured about defending the recent rookie pick and how we already have a bunch of Narrier style players.
I am interested in who our outside runners are. Quality AFL wings?
McKenna, Saad, Colyer, Zaharakis? Long? Fantasia?
Most of those have other spots in the best 22. And our depth is such that, as you said, Jackson Merrett is still on the list.
You could probably add McGrath to that list.
I don’t think it will take him long to adjust to that role.
McGrath is going to be centre square every day of the week.
Not so sure about that. He may do stints there but I highly doubt they would put him straight into the heat of the battle in his second year.
Not only that we have Heppell, Zerrett, Parish, Myers, Zaka, Smith and Langford that will be given first crack.
Not to mention Stringer and Goddard will get chances as well.
McGrath looks perfect for wing at this stage of his career.
I’d be happy with just every day we play footy… happy to rotate someone else through on other days. 
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Happy for him to play there, not convinced it’s his best role though. Suspect he’ll be shutting down small forwards when not rotating through the centre.
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Yeah, I think he will be dropping back a lot also.
Ultimately he will play right in the heart of the midfield but I personally don’t think they will put that physical toll on him so early.
I also believe one of our most significant issues last year was actually turnovers and I think having McGrath up around the wing will help reduce that. Colyer was a liability at times last year, and although I think he will improve next season McGrath has more penetration and is more reliable.
We have numerous outside runners that can rotate through the wings;
MCGRATH
PARISH
SMITH
GLEESON
GODDARD
ZAHARAKIS
FANTASIA
J. MERRETT
LANGFORD
COLYER
LONG
SAAD
MCKENNA
Would you agree with that list? Considering the ideal midfield at it’s fittest be Z. MERRETT, HEPPELL, STRINGER and BELLCHAMBERS.
My point was if we were going to select Narrier, we would have to do away with one of the others above and still keep room for the Mynott style developing inside midfielder.
I hate this crap about “hindsight”.
This was NOT hindsight. Myers over Rioli was the wrong decision then and was said so by some of us at the time.
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Well, you’ll have Green/Fantasia/Walla rotating up outside of the forwardline. As far as mids go, you have Zerrett and Zaha (top class both), Colyer has the pace and hopefully will rediscover his touch, Smith will definitely rotate through and Parish was spending time. Stringer might.
You then have pace from the backline, and at seconds level have Mutch, Long, Jerrett, maybe Begley and maybe Houlihan.
And your worried we don’t have enough?
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Not entirely.
Parish, not at all, I have seen nothing that suggests he can play that role.
Smith I will wait and see
Gleeson’s strength is reading the okay off half back. Not convinced he quick enough for the role.
Goddard is a good user, but no way I’d be a wingman playing the running role.
And Langford is so far from being that player I’m wondering if you meant someone else? I could make an argument that Laverde could become that sort of player, but that clearly not what Langford is being groomed for.
That leaves McGrath, who in think will be better used elsewhere, Zaharakis, Fantasia, who will be spending a lot of time forward, Merrett who is depth at best, Colyer, Long, who the jury is out on, and Saad and McKenna who will be running off half back (although I’m hoping McKenna is a centre square mid).
I see that as lacking depth of high quality wing types, who are express quick, and deliver over distance well.
I disagree with your interpretation. I don’t think many of those are actually fast or players of the style that I’d be looking for in that role. Plenty of guys that will play midfield minutes, but that’s different from being a genuine weapon on the wing.
Seriously? This thread is 600 posts long and Ben has probably answered this question about 10 times and gone into more depth as to what he has been insinuating less than 50 posts before yours.
You want to argue with Ben and have a go at him but refuse to actually read his posts?
Smith plays a fair bit of wing- he’s quality in that role.
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Mainly from being a lurker on Blitz with a keen interest in Aboriginal players, this is my take on our descent to the bottom in terms of AFL sides willing to take a punt on drafting Aboriginal players. (Thanks Ben for all your research past and present).
I believe in Disco as a recruiter, there is always an upside to players he selects, but several things have happened since the end of the Sheedy era.
- Peter Jackson continued to cut back our football department to the point of damaging our football performance on a number of levels. One of these apparently was an unwillingness to invest in the staff which would help Aboriginal players who had a social and cultural adjustment to make to thrive in the AFL. It was down to John Quinn to provide the support for Andrew Lovett when he was at Essendon, and when Quinn was moved on in 2008, Lovett was gone by the end of 2009.
- The relative paucity of our recruitment staff has meant we are only able to get to know a lot about Aboriginal players who are able to thrive as AFL players if they are under our noses and are determined to play for us, or are doing well in a relatively mainstream environment where we have sufficient presence to monitor them.
- When we were the frontrunners in selecting Aboriginal players, we had less competition for selecting these players. This meant we could sit on our hands longer before having to bite the bullet and make the selection. Sides who aren’t as conservative in taking on players from non mainstream backgrounds are willing to take the best Aboriginal players sooner (eg. Port, and pretty much every other side), and we seem to be left favouring players with more mainstream backgrounds. We could take the cream more easily back in the day.
I do like the fact that other than with the saga we tend to be less scandal prone than most clubs; with our players generally generating less negative publicity than most other clubs. We seem to generally select players of good character.
However since Sheedy has gone, so has the passionate belief in giving young Aboriginal players a go. I think it was revealing recently at Sheedy’s 50 years in football launch, that James Hird (and I love James as a fan of the footballer and the person) seemed bemused at what Gavin Wanganeen could get away with, going home from footy trips and taking time off to be with family in his home environment. Gavin remembered with bemusement that he was “Sheedy’s pet” and smiled that he could get days off to go home spear fishing, while others were training.
It took someone like Sheedy to understand what it took for Aboriginal players outside of the mainstream to remain happy and stable; and when they weren’t, he knew what would help get them back on track.
Another major factor is the absolute dedication to fitness that is required to be an AFL footballer currently. It is quite instructive to look at the cases of Ambrose vs Walla. While Ambrose is in possession of only a fraction of the talent of Walla, he was elevated from our VFL list and made it onto the Essendon AFL list relatively quickly because it was obvious that he had all the athletic, attitudinal and social attributes valued by our recruiters and our club culture. Walla had to create, in partnership with the McDonald’s, his own new family base to get the social attributes. This included his education. Walla had to make himself fit enough for the AFL while working 3 part time jobs, to overcome a perception that he wasn’t dedicated enough to his fitness (whereas earlier on, he was busy getting himself educated so he could understand the instructions he was given by coaches and overcome his learning difficulties).
The other comparison is Aaron Francis, who is someone who obviously has the talent and the club is willing to put the time into getting him fit and support him getting emotionally right (after the death of his brother).
Looking at the Ambrose and the Francis scenarios, it is apparent that EFC saw Walla as a bigger risk, despite his talent and despite his ability to overcome adversity. I am a fan of both Ambrose and Francis, and I commend the club for the work they have been /are putting in to get the best out of these players. However, by comparison, I think what was asked of Walla, before they would consider using a rookie pick on him, tells us all we need to know about how EFC is selling short Aboriginal talent. Neither Ambrose or Francis were anywhere near as capable of making an impact on debut as Walla, yet one with less ability to get fit was selected at number 6 in the draft and one with a fraction of his talent was selected after a year in the Essendon VFL compared to Walla’s 3 years of VFL (or was it 4?).
I like that the NGA is coming along and may make a difference to our Aboriginal drafting, but it won’t get us back to the point where the majority of young Aboriginal players dream of playing for us (as they once did), and we will still be missing out on most of the best Aboriginal players unless we can open our eyes to the whole country, rather than just our zone.
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