Something seriously wrong with the club (Part 1, May 2019)

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
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What’s missing is the hunger for success. When you walk into Tulla one of the first things you are shown is the premiership cups in the cabinet and it is impressive. The last one won was nearly twenty years ago. We are still living off that glory to some degree.

The players not all of them but many of them do not know what it is like to ache for success, to be the best the very best you can be. Its missing. We need to recapture that feeling and live for it. Work harder than ever before to achieve greatness. I have often said we need a very good sports psychology coach or someone like Tony Robbins to work with the players so that they can learn how to tap into this unseen aspect of themselves and utilise it.

I know this stuff works I’ve done it and it saved my life. It works on all levels of being.

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Brisbane has just about gone past us already, considering the state that they used to be in. It really sucks

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Its-the-vibe-your-honour-The-castle

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I think you are right @Darli. Its as though the fans are an afterthought, if a thought at all. The club is so tied up in its sponsors, its coteries, its chairmans lunches, etc etc the supporters are a very distant second.
And its so so safe. I am finding it very difficult not to just resign my membership right now. I dont want to regret it later, but …
A few months ago I cancelled my subscription to the Australian. I had had it for about 20 years because it used to be a good paper. Once I cancelled it felt like a toxic weigh had left me.
I am wondering if resigning my membership will give me the same cathartic feeling.

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Yep I know how you feel, I’ve been having the same conversation for the last twelve months.

I fought hard to get my club back after the saga and now feel it’s further away than ever.

I have to say I believe we (the fans) deserve some of the criticism. We’re far too ready to buy what they’re selling, far too quick to bring back past players simply because they’re past players.

We have a lot of growing up to do as a footy club and a lot more as footy fans.

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You won’t get a refund but it might make you feel better feeling like you’ve done something.

As Darli said and I agree footy has become secondary to our club. They are too involved in too many other ventures. The club has become a mini AFL and networking hub just like another boys club. I think many of the members, supporters and fans and maybe the players get that on some level. The love for the game itself seems to have diminished. If you don’t have that love, you can’t have the hunger and the drive to attain it. We are in nowhere land currently. There must be a way out of this crazy maize?

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Worringly the days of convincing quality players like Smith / Sheil etc will be gone by seasons end. What would drive anyone to play for us?

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Oh there is of course. But it’s never going to be as simplistic as ‘Sack yet another Coach’. We need some real footy smarts. We need the footy department to footy, the executive to executive. Director of football should be the bridge between the two NOT the CEO.

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I am actually surprised we got Stringer and Shiel.

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I agree completely with this. You need the right people in charge of the football department and higher up. The correct mindset starts from the top and works its way down.

I would give almost anything to get Neil Balme at our club to help out

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I dont think its just footy thats secondary. I think the fans are surplus to need as well.

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Club can’t even manage its own coterie groups properly. Not surprised it has translated to our footy department and lack of direction.

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I get what you are saying I understand it. We don’t have that.

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I did suggest a couple of years ago that they need to put those premiership cups into storage and in their place install a massive digital display counting up and showing the time elapsed since our last premiership (currently about 6825 days).

A symbol that at Essendon the past (while celebrated) is behind us and our focus is intently on the future. Although given the last 18 years it would probably just reinforce the culture of failure that has been established since our last flag…

I don’t believe anyone at the club thinks success will happen ‘because we are Essendon’ nor do I think they have ‘de-prioritised’ the on-field stuff.

I do believe Xavier and his team know what they’re doing off field because they are getting results there. Record sponsorhip $$$, great facilities, getting into womens football, alternate Esports! type revenue streams… they are firing on all cylinders there.

Where that group have a hell of a lot less influence is the actual football side of things, they simply aren’t experts there and so they have to seek out what they believe to be the best people available and trust in them to deliver.

IMO Dan Richardson got a gig because Richmond won a flag and he just happened to be employed there. Looking into the detail it seems that the real success actually came when he was effectively demoted due to Neil Balme’s arrival. Balme has a long and decorated history of success so by comparison Richardson is not in the same ball park and history isn’t really on his side.

Woosha gets talked up but he won a single GF by a point with one of the most imposing midfields of all time. He was also seemingly oblivious to the existence of one of the biggest illicit drug cultures within a team in the history of football in his time, so clearly doesn’t have the greatest powers of observation nor does he really seem to be a detail oriented sort of bloke. He basically quit his post over in the west because he wasn’t really interested in coaching a football team and nothing he’s done since then seems to indicate anything has really changed.

Even if we punted both of them into the sun though, then what? Rely on the same administrators and board members to oversee new appointments? With the benefit of hindsight we can now definitively say the people in those roles haven’t got it right in almost 20 years, why will it be different this time?

And what of the other ‘powerbrokers’? the coterie members and other uber rich and influential supporters who seem to have a say in matters. Nothing they’ve done over the last 2 decades has seen us any better placed than ■■■■■■■ carlton as far as prospects for success are concerned.

Without real football intelligence which the club is so obviously devoid of, we will get more of the same over the next however many years.

Much like both Collingwood and Richmond over the last few years, the club needs to commission (another) comprehensive review by an independent third party and act on the findings. Open the chequebook, blow the football department salary cap and bring in genuine in demand footy operations talent and go from there.

They wont, but it’s a nice dream.

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Please do not use Ziggy.

Who has real footy expertise???

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I don’t doubt this is the case. I’ve heard from my Richmond supporting mates that he’s great at managing the salary cap but that’s it. Richmond’s internal review showed that he wasn’t good at the job we poached him for.

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This years PR campaign and motto must be “smile even though your heart is aching”

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Oh he defo likes girls, I remember cutting shapes with him and colyer on the d floor at yahs many moons ago…I left with one, he left with two!

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As we approach the 20th anniversary of our last premiership I feel the need to express where I think Essendon currently sits (and its not good). Today I saw more application from Carlton, Bulldogs and Gold Coast. We have issues and its not just on the field. It starts with the people responsible for our club and I question whether they actually understand AFL football - Tanner, Xavier, Worsfold and Jackets. Tanner - part of that Labour Party circus during the Rudd/Gillard era, an expert in spin. What is his footy background? Xavier - young, up and coming, not up to navigating our club through the supplements period let alone developing our club into a serious premiership challenger. He is the AFL puppet at Essendon. Worsfold - great player, super tough. ■■■■ coach. His era at WC is a disgrace. If as he claim he did not know his senior players were addicted to hard drugs then he has no idea. The drugs they were doing (like 10 players +) made them feel invincible. Ben Cousin won a Brownlow on ICE. The AFL sweeping this under the carpet is an absolute disgrace (not surprising under the Demetrio rule!!) Jacket - recruiting is all “wow” until they play … Imagine how bad we would be without SSSS. Were are the kids we are developing? Our forward line has sucked for at least the past decade. We lack toughness and grit. Our leadership is very poor. Yes Heppell he try’s hard and is a good bloke. Thats not good enough. I want someone who take no ■■■■, flattens an opposition star, hates losing, demands a level of performance form his teammates. Take Friday night, I don’t want him consoling Myers I want him giving him an earful, ripping the paint off the walls “your effort as a leader in this club is unacceptable etc etc”. I also have major issues with Jackets recruitment of players who are clearly stupid - yes poor decision makers. Why do we have so many half back flankers - Saad, McKeneer, Zak, Hurley - fast off the HFB usefully means loose defenders = goal against. Daniher has great potential but is an idiot and makes stupid decisions. Why have we relied on Bellchambers for long. He is injury prone and not that good. I could go on … Look at Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong and WC. Run by footy minds, take no ■■■■ and demand success. For what we have been though the Bombers supporters deserve better. No doubt we will be challenging for 8th this year. No hope and no draft picks ( oh hang on we traded our 1st …)

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