If the club is taking the rebuild route seriously, then they have to swallow their pride and put their hand out.
Plenty of other clubs have asked for help in much less dire circumstances and got it. Why not I say.
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100% agree. For once this club needs to put ego aside and ask for assistance after 20 years of failure and your point that footy fans could probably begrudgingly accept this club has been bludgeoned for long enough to accept a PP being given is a very valid point, its an easier sell for the AFL and we know how big they are on image.
Which other club has had anywhere near the 20 years we have had.
Worst case, we get some meek assistance but absolutely go hard again next season. It would be bordering on pure incompetence if the club did not ask for a start of 1st round PP this year.
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Oh, I think the club has already shown that its decisions are incompetent
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The system has never been level, right back to the early 2000s when Hawthorn and Collingwood received generational players through PPās. Have a look at the academy picks, father sons etc compromising drafts year after year, its only gotten worse.
Its time Essendon received a slice, our performances have earnt it, and the massive revenue hits from plummeting crowds will speak volumes. The AFL will be paying attention to that, we are a serious problem for the competition.
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It would be a disgrace if the club did not ask for a PP if we go the likely 1-9 start I suspect at best we will have and the potential <3 win season Iād bet we have.
Are you saying that Gold Coast, North Melbourne and every other hack job football club that has received a priority pick did so because, well, they were terribly unlucky?!!!
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They wonāt be below us for long, I guarantee you that. And besides, those ā ā ā ā ā ā have just come off three premierships in the last nine years. They can dine out on that for a few years more.
I think itās a reasonable position to ask for a priority pick given the top end of the next 3-4 drafts (including the ā26 one) will be completely compromised.
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This is another reason why Essendon deserve a start of 1st round PP.
Every other club (bar GC who are now entering their premiership window) has either gone close to winning a flag or won one since our humiliating 22 years of no finals win began. Clubs like West Coast that had years at the bottom recently have dined out on 2 flags since our misery started.
If the AFL is wanting to see every team have a chance to compete for a flag over a rolling period we have well and truly been the only club in the land that didnt get our lick of the ice cream and at this rate have no chance until well into the next decade.
Iād prefer we didnāt go cap in hand, on knees to the AFL asking for PPs.
Iād far prefer Swags just went to the Board, told 'em weāre clearing house downstairs and sacked Scott, his cronies and made it known those chronic underperforming seniors will be moved on come end of season. Simples.
Letting Scott go right now, putting a caretaker in till end of season and clearly advertising the search for high quality new operational coaching and development people is underway is the avenue.
Just rather we bit the whole bullet this time and got serious, rather than poncey asks to the League for help. The fans too would respect a proper programme of this, rsther than fly the white flag and kiss a ring.
No chance this year in my opinion.
Can see it next year or the following, only for us to draft another Andy McGrathh
Itās now or never.
They either do it now or we are cooked for 10 years as Tassie will gut the talent pool.
Longest loosing streak.
Longest final drought.
Our last rebuild happened in the GWS/GC years and failed.
Our last draft haul happened during covid years.
Our last could have drafts have been heavily academy affected.
Do it now before tassie. Pick 2, end of first to be traded and end of first next year.
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To the OP, of course we should push for a priority pick this year. Essendon has to be borderline ready to fold otherwise. I would go as far as saying that the AFL seriously needs to intervene and second someone like Greg Swan to overseeing the internal operations for the next three years.
Essendon is not just going to suffer a few poor years and come storming out of its malaise. We have no senior players with any quality, just a bunch of untried and unknown kids. At a pinch, the only talent worth persisting with are those drafted over the last 3 years with perhaps Durham and Caldwell. At a stretch you could throw in Reid.
This is a tragedy unfolding in front of our very eyes and letās not sugar coat things. This is not a West Coast type hiccup, hell they won a flag a mere 8 years go and already look to have gone past us. No, our problem is decades old. With nothing, zilch, nada to show for 25 seasons of effort. Just failure after horrible failure. Abject mediocrity has now finally evolved into sheer awfulness.
Remember, in 2000, Essendon was the most supported sporting organisation in the land with arguably the greatest team of all time. Imperious and dominant. The collapse since then has very few historical precedents in sporting club parlance and if the club was to fall further, a very real likelihood with Tasmania coming, it would be a disaster for the AFL. Other supporters who love seeing the Bombers struggles would be stunned to see a huge club like Essendon disappear. It would be cataclysmic for the competition to lose a 16 premiership founding club.
I stopped buying a silver membership 2 years ago. My son, who was born in 1998, doesnāt even follow the game anymore and resents the fact that he was groomed to follow the Bombers. I wonder in how many Other households this same story is playing out. We may have 80,000 members today but our rivals have 100,000. In ten years, if we make it that far, it could be 50,000 to 130,000.
THe football club has to ābreak glass in an emergencyā and it must act now. A full re-set is not only required but fundamentally necessary to save the club from becoming the next Fitzroy.
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The club needs to set their ego aside and ask for help, its more admirable that they admit how much of a shambles theyāve been than try and single handedly move us out of the ā ā ā ā heap theyāve had us in with no end in sight.
Theres more than enough of the season to bring in a permanent coach.
Ask now for PPs or we are absolutely cooked from years of heavily compromised drafts incoming plus the very real prospect of the top 2 kids this year not being available to us.
never going to happen weāre not even the worst performing team of the last 5 years.
When you have Eddie McGuire spruiking supporting the bombers in Footy Classified. You know itās a watershed moment and the time has come.
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Scratches head.
Looks at the 16 game losing streak and the losses this year to two bottom of the ladder sidesā¦
Scratches head againā¦
Bugger off asking for one start of round priority pick.
Ask for two.
scratches head.
finished 11th 2 years ago
finished 11th 3 years ago
scratches head again.
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The problem with that thinking and asking for PPs is Scott. Him stiÄŗl in charge is like asking for very rare and valuable inputs to the list. Heād hate it as its an admission of his utter failure .. and likely use it to justify heās still the right bloke to steer us off the rocks.
He isnāt. And never was. He has to go ASAP..
Rip the 2026 plan up right now, reset with a caretaker and plan for 2027 and beyond with a new team and staff. That way we might just hang onto Nate, Kako, Robbo and co to form the core of our next generation.