Yes, but he left us with “You Want It Darker” x
That was about the clash jumper.
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Well if this merrett thing is anything to go by, two possibilities might happen:
- Merrett will go to hawthorn, win a premiership and feel vindicated by his decision.
- We become a stronger team without his presence inflicting us and ultimately win a premiership before he does.
Merrett leaving should really be the penny dropping moment for a lot of the senior guys in our group to say enough is enough. Ultimately, this will show what our character will be like after merrett.
Would even love to see pur younger players go, fark you merrett you’re wrong and we can develop a lot faster than you anticipate.
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If true, it’s a strange case of a rat swimming to a sinking ship.
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Should be the moment to clear out the Augean stables of all the “senior” players. Cauterize the wounds and reset the club culture that has been perverted by the “professional near enough is good enough, I’m only here for the money” attitude that has infested this club over the last 20 years.
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I want an exodus, and you better believe I want it mass.
It’s certainly on the medical team.
Our run with injuries was such that it has become mismanagement.
Mismanagement is Essendons middle name.
Which isn’t really fully correct.
He had a contract and we would have kept him but he wanted to be paid more than the basic contract he agreed to and get a longer period. We said no, 1 year at a time. So he went looking elsewhere (which we were fine with). Only 1 club showed any sort of interest in him and had to be talked into it at the last second.
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Scenario 1 is likely to happen but there is no chance we win a flag
before Hawthorn. Either Merret wins a flag with them or he ends up a two club players and Essendon pariah. I would just love for us to knock them off in a final and deny Merret a flag, that would be the most poetic of justices.
I really hope Merret’s decision to leave the club angers the playing group and lights a fire in them to prove the AFL that we aren’t as insipid as everyone believes.
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I’m the same - but its pathetic that in a professional sport that we think (hope) something like this changes the performance and attitude of those that remain
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No he is not.
In a team sport, without an effective culture and values it’s almost impossible to be successful.
I think all kinds of different sports show that to be generally true.
It also seems to be true that even when teams and organisations get it right. some teams can only get it right for a short period of time (Melbourne), others for much longer (eg geelong) and some become absolute basket case seemingly indefinitely.
I do get the sense that Essendon has developed so many different and deeply entrenched problems over so many years, that despite the best of intentions, multiple regimes have simply ended up taking a scatter gun approach to problem-solving which with the benefit of hindsight, has proven to be largely ineffective.
The good news is, even now, it’s not impossible to fix.
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Well the move to Docklands was pushed very hard by Sheedy. He envisaged it being like Adelaide or WA, entirely full of Bomber fans. And I don’t know that Jackson had much of a say in the selection of Peter Knights – it was a board decision, and the board 100% got it wrong.
I think this is possibly it. Rock bottom.
I’m kinda happy we have finally hit it.
Only took 25 years but now, finally now. Something can be built that’s worthwhile.
Next year will be a shocker where injuries can’t be used as an excuse but it will be with lots of young talent that will be the kids to grow a club around.
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Do you remember when it was called the cauldron because we hardly ever lost a game there, those were the days.
I thought we hit rock bottom in 2013, then 2016, then 2021, then last year, then against GC in round 24 but maybe this week is the real thing.
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When our kids lose by 90+ to this GC team then yes, there is something seriously wrong with the club.
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Especially when those same kids had played well against them only 6 weeks earlier.
That’s such an unconvincing piece of evidence.
I always knew it was the wrong move. Football is an outdoor game. And the surface is crap.