All of McKay, Hayes, Ridley playing should mean we’re covered for tall defenders … but Ridley has been injury prone. Really need three out of the above plus Reid to be playing regularly next year
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If Laverde goes, with Hep gone too, they seem to look light on for mongrel and physicality. The defence to me needs a bit of Dean Solomon type mongrel to hit with the skills and aerial capability.
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1000% Redman is probably the only one I can think of who is likely to be playing defence next year who shows anything close to ‘mongrel’. Can anyone who watches VFL comment on Hayes? I note he’s a ranga and they’re usually pretty firey (father of a ranga here btw)
watching Geelong last night, and hawthorn tonight, this Kako kid better be strong, cos he is about to do some heavy lifting on his small forward shoulders
we are dire in small forwards area, and again, the game trends show how important they are and we missed the boat! thankfully a credentialed small fwd kid might fortuitously land in our laps.
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I certainly don’t think mongrel and physicality when I think of Heppell and Laverde.
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Bro how many examples do you need of Brad favouring experience over youth.
Goldy over Bryan for 80% of the year. Goldy was like playing with 17 players whilst Bryan was tearing up the VFL.
It’s not possible for Hayes to have been any worse than laverde, but still not even a debut
Playing Heppell and Kelly over D’ambrosio in 2023. Both are now retired so that was fkn worth it 
He’s got great eye for the future does Brad.
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I think Gresh will improve once we get Kako and hopefully Guelfi stays injury free
Laverde yes, Heppell? Never.
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This year Alwyn Davey 5 goals from 10 games
Jye Menzies 3 goals from 14 games
These boys just arent up to it.
Menzies has almost 40 games under his belt.
Alwyn 20 - maybe he gets a year.
Yet we extend Jye. I dont really get it. Hes too slow, doesnt kick goals and cant be used anywhere else.
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The kid hasn’t even been drafted and already you speak in absolutes.
I remember only too well the bed wetting that used to go on here about Munkara, not to mention the Davey twins. What happened there?
Essendon couldn’t develop talent if the human race depended on it.
How about we get players on the park before we start talking about what they can and can’t do?
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If Laverde has anything it is he throws himself at contests.
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Unless the game pivots to a different dominant game style.
Don’t tell me there’s more than one of him… 
I’m just going by what the draft experts are saying
Pretty damming that a senior player on good coin needs a teenager who hasn’t played AFL yet to help him improve
We need at least 2 more after him. Our small stocks are a ■■■■■■■ disgrace
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The question will then be. Can Essendon develop him into a really good small forward? Getting them to the club is the first bit. The rest (development / conditioning) has been a failure at Essendon too.
We have heaps of them, just no good ones.
We need to bring some in, but good ones. Some not so good ones might have to make way.
I’ve heard recruiters say he’s better than Watson. This is sure to mean he’ll be ■■■■.
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I sound like a broken record but the one we should develop right next to him is Nguyen, he is fast and tough and lays tackles something our forward line severely lacks
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