As some one else touched on we could have had Brodie and 19… we had to go again in the draft to add to the 3 early picks we had the year before…
I don’t think Kelly was a need there are more pressing issues with this team…
We over achieved last year with 11 wins yes 11 wins got us into the 8 only beating 1 top side which in turn has shown us up with the harder draw this year.
We needed to tank last year and this year to get 6 or 7 quality kids around the same age to go forward …
i don’t see stringer, Kelly, guelfi, laverde, cox, wright, redman being best 22 in 5 years time. either cooked, or ultimately replaced. there’s a lot of unknowns in that list of players too. Redman maybe still okay, but he’s so hot and cold its unlikely
we continue to over rate the list. club and supporters alike. it is genuinely a long way off imo
And if people can’t do it then we need to reassess whether they should be on the list.
We probably need to get the 2s getting it right too.
Everyone needs to be playing the role expected for the years ahead, rather than worrying about competitiveness now. And we need to accept that that will lead to some bad days. But I really expect to see some good days too.
The list is stuffed and Dodo needs to be told this will be his last season. He’s had 5.5 coaches for crying out loud. It’s time to move on.
We’re bottom 4 list wise and a bottom 4 coached side.
Leadership, we literally have none. Look at the impact Pendles had yesterday, Grundy on one leg, Adams, Howe. Collingwood are not a good side but on a big stage their leaders gave their fans and young players big moments.
We have a dud culture, dud captain, a dud coach, and dud recruitment. We have to stop buying in to the hype every pre season, it continues to kill us.
Yes the recruiting hasn’t been great, the player development is shocking at Essendon as touched on by nearly everyone in here, it’s hard to judge Rutten at this stage in my opinion becuase we are unsure of what is actually being asked of players is it the players not following direction is it the message not getting across or is it the one I see most likely that the fitness staff aren’t up to scratch and therefore the players aren’t getting to the correct areas but this could also be player motivation not pushing themselves hard enough
Maybe not slash and burn, but they all had a core midfield group built of very high picks.
Melb - Petracca (2) Oliver (4) and Brayshaw (3)
WB - Bont (4) Macrea (6) Stringer (5) and then reloaded with Smith and Naughton.
Richmond - Cotch (1) Martin (3) and picked up Riewoldt, Rance and a Edwards around the same time.
You need a few years of high picks together to get an elite core. We sort of did it in 15/16 with parish and McGrath but we didn’t pick well and we didn’t hit the draft hard enough either side so it’s just to thin to make a difference.
the most disappointing thing for me is the manner in which we have gone backwards
we we’re quite clearly a better team than collingwood last year. Fremantle too. Even hawthorn are playing better than us. but let’s choose Collingwood
in a off season, they have managed to go past us. mcrae must be commended for this as their game style is so, so different. they are attacking and manic pressure. they have played well all year
in one fucken pre season, they develop a style that has now seen them pass us AGAIN. and their list is flawed - they have about one good key position player in moore. Aging, slow midfield. not a great defence at all. But they have bought in
I am not a fan of our recruiting… but I think it is a development issue predominately. We have talented guys… this list was highly rated on paper and it is a good list… we are chronically mismanaged and underperforming.
Pies got on top in the last because Draper ran out of steam… its not like we could have predicated that… oh wait… yes we friggen did!! Draper can not solo ruck yet… it is what it is. We KNOW that taking 2MP out of the forward line hurts our scoring AND hurts him… he never plays as well when trying to do both. At some points we had Baldwin in the ruck ffs!!
So whether he is ready or not… you needed to play Bryan to keep the structure. End of story. That is a coaching issue. That is a selection issue.
Agree with Ivans plan. We need to actually scrape out the entire list… gut it like a fish and start again. Start with firing Heppell out of the cannon along with Smith and Shiel (like I said in Round 1) and focus on the next man up.
Bring in Hird, Tex, Reid and Eyre and see what we have.
Need a few years of a ‘batch’ of high picks.
Interestingly Saints had the pick just before Bont & Petracca. Imagine what the football landscape would have looked like with both in the same team.
The guys you’ve listed as falling off a cliff after looking great are a mixed bag of couldn’t give a ■■■■ about the club, made of crepe paper and look great when they’re allowed to play in accountable footy.
This and this and this. Again we see a team fly past us. and wait… is that because they actually went out and got a new coach that had cutting edge ideas?! Shocking.
I think they will run out of steam… and I think they will have some howlers… I still think their list is kaka… but at least they are trying… same with FC.
A lot of it comes down to the stench of a failed coach vs the fresh air of a new coach. Honeymoon for coaches is a pretty observable phenomenon and so is the last years of even great coaches like Clarko turning to poop.
For us it was 20 vs 21
St Kilda had 19 vs 20
Hawks, Coll and Carlton might look way better right now but assess them properly next year when the new message has worn off. It’s the big risk of appointing caretaker coaches like Teague or Shaw who look like geniuses in the caretaker period but it’s just a short term bump and they get found out later on.
See your point… but I think what all of us supporters need to understand is that we are the worst performing team for 20 years.
20 years. We have sucked and then sucked some more. Other clubs go up and down… up and up… but not us… we just stay anchored to the bottom. Not a single finals win in 20+ years. That is not just a coaching bounce… that is a systemic issue of failure and unaccountability in the decision making.
Blind freddy could see we were in big big trouble this year… our defensive structures are bad… like diabolically bad. I’m not saying Pies, Hawks and FC are now powerhouses because they got new coaches… but their STYLE is at least on trend. They are at least exhibiting they have a plan that can actually work long term.