2017 - 2023
So are we. Iām not even being a negative Nelly here, I am just pointing out that generally a full rebuild is an 8-10 year committment.
And we were chasing Flanders last year!
Stupid Sexy Flanders.
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To be fair on 2017-2019, I feel we did have the youth talent to elevate up. But our fitness management was terrible, Shiel was the wrong move, and the coaching sucked.
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Should of gone the cheaper Setterfield and spent the money on Steven May
Setterfield was reputedly on 600k at C***on.
Cheaper in picks but the fit much worse.
Our midfield at that point was built on Hepp, Merrett, Myers with bits from Goddard, Stringer - ie already pretty big and slow).
The right answer was not to spend on anyone.
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I think I had this argument with you at the time 
Ha, probably.
The moment Little was involved was the moment Shiel stopped being a footy decision.
Is St Kilda still under Awfl-appointed management?
Rebuild is the right path right now but trading is critical to shaping a premiership team. Collingwood have done it really well over the years and look at even Brisbane with Cameron and Neale.
The key is to be patient, and knowing the correct time to do it.
Otherwise you end up like us or St. Kilda who go too early, and destroy the list giving away the farm for 5-6 bang average players who donāt compliment the talented crop of young blokes.
Weāre not anywhere near a position to be giving away first round picks for players from other clubs. Thatās just a fact.
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At this stage our biggest need is some hardened senior players who are resilient, donāt panic, have footy smarts and understand their role of teaching and looking after our youngsters.
I donāt even think we have 1 of these on our list.
We desperately need 4 or 5.
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And sometimes be lucky. I do wonder how McKay would have gone at Hawks, who also wanted him.
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We only need 4-5 if we get rid of Merrett, Parish, Ridley, McKay, and Redman.
We donāt need more senior players. We just need better senior players.
We simply cannot afford to take games away from kids. It would move us backwards in our rebuild.
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Theyāre a far better team and Ben would have a much more organised defensive structure in front of him. He would undoubtedly be doing a lot better. Their defensive unit isnāt under constant pressure like ours is.
We should say goodbye to Parish, Langford, Gresham, Cox, Perkins, Jones and Guelfi for starters. Thatās seven places.
Give McKay one year to find out whether McVeigh can salvage him - and anyway we donāt yet have a big replacement KPB in mind. Yeah nah - sack him.
Ridley might be a ninth, if we donāt reckon we can keep him fit enough to play out a whole season. Setterfield likewise - heās finished the season well - give him a one-year contract, at his usual average rates.
Itās up to Merrett to decide whether he wants to go now or honour his contract.
Iād like to keep both Edwards and McMahon - but if we only have room for one it should be Edwards, as replacement for Langford.
So thatās somewhere between 7 and 13 to goā¦
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I havenāt been following this thread.
I do wonder how everyone feels about Essendonās current situation?
18-24 months ago, I think we had the strongest consensus on Blitz for Essendon needing to bottom out and do a full rebuild, than I have seen on here. Which I was certainly one of.
But since we have become ā ā ā ā , as was argued we needed to, I do feel a lot of people canāt stomach this and are jumping off?
Perhaps, all of those that were complaining never wanted to do bottom out to begin with? But it feels to me, like there are a lot less people positive about our current position than there were originally saying we needed to do exactly this.
For me, this is the most positive I have been about our list in a long time. I feel like we have had 3 consecutive excellent drafts, and are 3 years in to a rebuild, with it being quite likely we have a really strong hand for the next 2 drafts as well.
We have some young players that could genuinely become generational talents to build a list around.
We have a recruiting team that I have faith in.
We have a high performance team that I have faith in.
Coaching side of things is obviously a big wait and see.
Next year there will be more pain. But for the first time, I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnell. If we can slide in to season 2028 off the back of 5 consecutive strong drafts, and then I am going to start getting excited.
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Iām definitely up for the rebuild. Iām just cursing we put it off until:
- weāre butting right up against Tassieās entry
- Weāve wound down the value of the senior players we have.
I would be willing to do a big cut/trade of senior players like @percebushby suggests above, but I donāt think the club will.
I do agree many Blitzers hate the idea of multiple years bottoming out.
I also consider this year 1 of the rebuild.
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Weāre hardly starting from scratch with all the young talent on the list, why do you think think we are at year 1?