The recruiters have stated this and a speedy midfielder is what they are looking for right now.
I stopped reading at Hooker
He looks excellent as a forward
Leads really well gets to great spots and gives a much better balance to the side
If we can draft or trade in a gun ready made KPF great put hooker back otherwise we need him there
The recruiters have stated this and a speedy midfielder is what they are looking for right now.Here's a newsflash: this is what they have been saying since getting beaten in the 2001 Grand Final.
“Getting Jet midfielders is our #1 priority”.
Yep, typical mediocrity answer. We've been fkn average for 13 years. When is enough enough?
LID OFF!
Do you ever add anything positive to a thread Reboot? Just seems you love yelling at people if they ever have an opinion?Not sure you’re still a mod on these boards but I think that needs to be reviewed.
Spot On!
Just another ‘How dare you criticise / Blind Faith Brigaders’ who seemingly know it all but dont actually attend games or show any real support other than calling out posters as ‘traitors’.
Pathetic.
Those who stayed till the end copped the rainy trudge back to car too. If Id buggered off at three quarter time I would have got home dry.
I remember some miserable weather playing the Dogs at the Western Oval but normally the scoreline cheered me up.
Lol. Yes I can recall those trudges back to the car from Whitten Oval too.
But after experiencing those toilets in the Outer … stinking, flooded & without any lights … it was always a pleasure to leave win, lose or draw.
They wouldn’t understand this sort of thing.
The recruiters have stated this and a speedy midfielder is what they are looking for right now.Here's a newsflash: this is what they have been saying since getting beaten in the 2001 Grand Final.“Getting Jet midfielders is our #1 priority”.
It was clearly mis said. They meant JetTA is our #1 priority.
I love how everytime that we play poorly or get smashed the same old excuse gets trotted out, Asada this, wada that.Asada doesn’t make you not chase or not stick a tackle.
Losing hope and spirit can play very much on ones mind, almost to the point of leaving the game you love.
We have been ■■■■ for so so long its depressing. Teams have been ■■■■ for shorter stints and bounce back in no time. We craved change when sheedy was expired we get stuck with knights. We wanted change so we get hird.. and what is worse than being an average side with hird? Being a ■■■■ side and having wada over our heads at the same time. Its farking tough man. 60k members my ■■■. How many are pets or babies or efc family members?
When/if richmond win a final this year, we’ll be the only club not to have won a final in the last 10 years. LOL.
Member numbers are just a wank number these days considering they no longer just count full season ticket holders.
The recruiters have stated this and a speedy midfielder is what they are looking for right now.Here's a newsflash: this is what they have been saying since getting beaten in the 2001 Grand Final.“Getting Jet midfielders is our #1 priority”.
Our recruiting up until the last few years has been poor let alone jet midfielders.
Stop playing Hooker forward before our topline backline gets farked too. Backmen need to play together and know each other intinctively when there is a split second to think.
Get a Goodwin equivalent that knows how a midfield should structure up and train.
We have a speedy midfield jet, his name is Colyer. He won us games off his boot at the start of the year, then he got injured.
We also have capable inside mids in Myers, Hocking and Watson. They have been injured and with Watson mentally shot. They will be back and firing next season with Myers and Budda most likely in next week.
Ryder leaving was a massive hole and neither ruckman on the list barring T-Bell(if he can capture 2013 form) is at the level of an elite AFL ruck.
With injuries, Wada coming in and not to mention just poor form and now tanking we aren’t playing really well.
There’s more, but that’s the crux of it.
Now is all about experimentation and seeing what every player on the list has to offer which is why we will see the likes of McKenna, Pears and even Long(can we still upgrade him?) if lucky get a game.
The season is shot, we’re already well into 2016 planning with a Top 5 pick in our midst.
we’re still a chance for finals this year,
if 7 other clubs bring the afl in to disrepute.
Meh. No expectations. No disappointments.
you know we are tanking right?
Rubbish.
The last month has been about seeing what some of the outsiders have to offer. Careers will be ended at the completion of this season. A couple got finished this afternoon.
Have a lie down.
As much as the list needs a turn over I think Blitz is more in need of a cull.
AFLDavid Zaharakis opens up about deflating Essendon drugs saga
August 1, 2015 8:00pm
WARWICK GREENHerald Sun
DAVID Zaharakis says it could be as simple as the act of buying bread at the milk bar, or a flat white at the local cafe, or even having a beer with some mates.
The opportunity for people to mention “the saga’’ to an Essendon player, and in doing so to inadvertently ramp up the level of angst that has had some Bombers not enjoying their football this season.
The 25-year-old, whose aversion to needles ensured he was not part of the club’s injection program in 2012, said every player at club lived with the controversy as a ubiquitous backdrop.
“I mean I’m not involved (in the ongoing WADA appeal) and I get people saying things all the time, even just when I’m walking down the street,’’ Zaharakis said.
“For the past two or three years we’ve had people constantly saying stuff to us about it. It’s this relentless theme in the back of your head.
“Even having your mates joke about it. To them it’s just a joke between mates, but to you it just adds to that three years of crap and stress. To them it might be the first time they’ve cracked a gag about it, but to you it’s the 10th time you’ve heard it that week.
“And it grinds away at you because it’s your career, it’s what you’re doing for a living. You want to be successful at football, but for the past three years you’ve had to play it knowing that something’s holding you back.
“We would probably never have gone a week without someone saying something to us, and when there’s a new development on the story you know you’re going to cop 10 or 20 reminders from people you don’t even know.
He said that even at home the players’ families lived with the supplements shadow, because relatives invariably found themselves being asked what was going on at Essendon.
Even though the club had regularly briefed parents about the situation “the families still struggle because they’re upset that it’s their son or their brother or their dad that’s going through this whole thing. That stress doesn’t just sit with the player, it sits with his whole family.’’
This year the burden has weighed particularly heavily on the Bombers, he said, because it began with the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal seeming to clear 34 past and present players of using banned substances in March. Six weeks later WADA announced it would appeal that judgment.
“After the guys got the first decision in their favour, you could see the energy, the excitement and the enthusiasm about being a normal football club again,’’ Zaharakis said.
“By that I mean that there wasn’t external issues to deal with, it was just about wins and losses and playing footy. And we were upbeat about how well we could play football together.
“But once you got pulled back off the mountain, it felt like one of those tipping points, where guys were thinking ‘you can only keep climbing that mountain so many times’.
“The moment the boys got told there was going to be an appeal, everyone was deflated. The air just went out of the group and for about 10 weeks in the middle of the season our performance just sat on a plateau.
“We didn’t really want to talk about, because we didn’t want to feel like we were using it as an excuse, but every time anyone mentioned the subject and you ignored it and pushed it down inside yourself, the pressure just kept building up.
“Whether it was subconsciously or not, it just kept building up inside and finally it bubbled to the surface on the day we played St Kilda.’’
Essendon coach James Hird addressing his players. Picture: Colleen Petch
That day was a 110-point loss a month ago in Round 14 in which, Zaharakis said, the Dons “hit rock bottom’’. The players and coaches gathered a couple of days later for a three-hour honesty session
“The players really opened up a lot,’’ he said. “The guys were a bit flat and it felt like everything was weighing the group down. A few just put their hand up and said it’s really been affecting me.
“After that everyone opened up, and there was this sense of relief that we could acknowledge that it was there and embrace it rather than hiding from it. The environment here at the club has been really good since that day.
“It released a lot of the tension and since then we’ve turned the corner a bit with our effort and performances, even though there have been a couple of games where we haven’t got over the line.’’
Zaharakis said it took that frank review for him and others to realise how much they had let the controversy seep in.
“I personally didn’t think it was affecting the playing group as much as it was, but in talking to some of the guys I now realise that it was,’’ he said. “Stress levels, anxiety, the uncertainty that came with it dragging out, of wanting to get to an end point but not knowing when that would be.
“I mean we’re talking about three years, and eventually it just takes its toll on you mentally and emotionally, because you in the back of your mind you don’t know what’s going to happen and it just affects your ability to concentrate on what you want to do, which is play football.’’
One player who was noticeable down on form was Essendon skipper Jobe Watson, who aggravated a shoulder injury in that St Kilda match, requiring season-ending surgery.
Zaharakis acknowledged that Waston shouldered a heavier load than most, and took great pleasure in seeing his skipper sipping on a beer last week during the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
“I guess Jobe has copped the whole lot, because he’s been the middle man between the players and the coaches and the admin in this whole thing,’’ he said.
“Just constantly going to meetings about it. He’s been the front man for the players and the face of it, so the pressure on him has been tenfold.
I can’t imagine how much time he’s spent over the past three years sitting in a room talking about the issue to the club or lawyers or the players’ association. He’s put that much time and effort into it and the toll that would take on you, I’m not surprised that he came out and said he wasn’t enjoying his footy.
“I don’t think you got any sense of that over the previous two years, but this year, yes, I’ve noticed it taking a big toll on him, and he hasn’t had his best year footy-wise, which is probably down to everything coming to the forefront.
“Hopefully the fact that he’s off overseas at the moment will make him miss footy a bit and come back next year in a different mind frame.’’
Zaharakis hopes that return will include the resumption of his captaincy role.
The one sanctuary for the Bombers players over the past three seasons has been to get on to the field and chase the Sherrin.
Only rarely during matches has there been anything to remind the players of the saga that swirls around them.
Opposition players have only said “the odd thing here and there on the field but it hasn’t been on a consistent basis. I can’t really recall any big sledges, well maybe one or two, but nothing too strong.
“You also get the odd player who’ll come up and tell you they feel sorry for you. And after games guys have been pretty good.’’
As dearly as the Essendon players would love to put the entire controversy behind them, though, there is unlikely to be any closure for them until WADA’s appeal is heard in the Court of Arbitration for Sport later this year.
Which just leaves the question: How does the Essendon playing group feel about the man who led them into this whole mess, sports scientist Stephen Dank?
“We haven’t even really spoken about him,’’ Zaharakis said. “Whenever we’ve spoken as a group about this topic it’s always been about ASADA or the players’ association or how the case is going. It’s never been about the individuals involved.
“Everyone got along with him OK when he was here and even now from what I’ve seen he stands pretty firm in his beliefs that everything was above board. So I mean you can only take a man at his word until he’s proven wrong.’’
All at Essendon will remain hopeful that Dank is not proven wrong.
CWe have a BOTTOM 4 LIST. Nobody wants to believe it but it is FACT.We have a bottom four list, then unlike other teams play our bad players, and we’re (only as of this night) top of the bottom four.What has been truly hopeless this season has been our weekly Team Selections.
What’s your point?
The recruiters have stated this and a speedy midfielder is what they are looking for right now.Here's a newsflash: this is what they have been saying since getting beaten in the 2001 Grand Final.“Getting Jet midfielders is our #1 priority”.
2000 and f*cking 1. Jesus Christ.
There we go, WADA!!As soon as any point is raised that suggests a match up was bad or a selection was wrong, the defence is simply “iunno, WADA?”.
If WADA is playing such a HUGE role in why we are bad, then why is our coach bringing players affected by WADA straight back into the team ahead of young, developing players who need experience? Why not play the young guys and make it so WADA ISNT an excuse??
So sick of that being used to justify EVERYTHING that goes wrong. It’s either WADA or some ■■■■■■■ conspiracy that Caroline Wilson and the AFL are out to get us.
Crameri really looked weighed down by the WADA appeal today.