The club is rotten to the core but hard changes never seem to be made. What needs to be done to get this club back on track?
A lot. This will be a long thread.
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Just about everything tbh
Everything.
End thread.
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Levelled & start over
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Another thread on the same thing?
The supplements saga will haunt us for decades .
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We all went a lot changed.
But change needs to be planned, methodical and precise.
No knee jerk reactions
No decisions to appease the masses.
Do it right this time from top to bottom.
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IN: Ridley
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I 100% agree, too often we’e tried to cheat our way with quick decisions hoping for immediate results. Happened with knighta, hird, thompson, woosha.
Be methodical and systematic about it.
plan from the top down and executed with precision.
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Calling Brendan Goddard out of retirement - we need some on-field leadership and passion desperately! Currently, no confidence, atrocious decision making and fundamental skill errors. THESE BLOKES ARE MEANT TO BE PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS! They seem totally ill prepared for the new season. Who do we string up by the nut sack for this?
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Tackling
Is embarassing, from senior players too
Nonexistant and the stats are showing it.
Our conservatism.
We need to radically transform our Club.
I hate the Dawks with a passion. On a par with Carlscum and the Pies for me (and Port and…). They were seriously FUBAR as a Club. On their knees. The ‘Melbourne Hawks’. Remember? Operation Payback or whatever they called it. They bring in a young, innovative coach and back him to the hilt. He wins them four flags in a decade. Fck me! And the coaches who leave his system go on to prem glory - Beveridge, Hardwick, Simpson. So, that is 7 flags with connection to a gun coach. We had one of them in Sheeds. Ahead of his time. Don’t tell me that coaches don’t matter. They do. We need to drop this conservative BS and appoint a gun coach.
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Now I understand why Goddard was so angry all the time
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Bellchambers and Zaharakis are first to go on the list.
Have spent 10 years cruising around with no improvement. 2 very talented players that should have been All Australians… but totally lack the drive and discipline to stay consistent for a full season.
Trade
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I think fans who boo their own players and throw rubbish at players leaving the field needs changing.
I remember when Paul Salmon was booed on the MCG and shortly later quitting the club for hawthorn. It made me embarrassed to be an Essendon supporter.
The toxic culture isn’t just on the field it’s off. There’s already abusive violent ■■■■ being said on this forum.
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Stop talking like we are a mighty and successful club. We’re not. We’re a joke. Stop talking about our history, stop teaching the players about it. Just stop. Our history is one premiership in the last TWENTY FIVE YEARS. That is it. We’re nothing. As I’ve said a hundred times before, take all the premiership cups out of the fkn lobby and sink them to the bottom of the ocean because they are completely worthless and utterly irrelevant in 2019. Talking about past success only breeds present complacency and I find it amazing that the club cannot see this.
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Take all older, broken, Essingtoned players for who we can get a trade, any trade, and ship them off. Zak, Hurley, Heppell, Hooker, Bellcho, Myers if anyone will have him, hell even Daniher, Merrett, etc. Trade them all for picks. Pick only U18 players with those picks.
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Recast our leadership with players who aren’t broken - aka players from other clubs. Shiel, Smith, Stringer, Saad for instance. Players who actually look like they give a fark and haven’t been full Essingtoned yet. Put a few good young kids in that leadership group too like Francis.
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New coaching panel. Brand new. Zero Essendon influence. First time senior coach with a successful playing record (not a good player, a player from a successful team). Surround him with recently retired successful players as assistants. All newbies. Sign the coach on a 6 year contract with massive payout clauses. Make it impossible for a future board to sack him no matter how dire the rebuild gets or how long it takes.
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Anyone on the board or senior leadership teams who was involved at all with the club during the Saga goes. No baggage. Get rid of all of it.
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New logo. It sounds dumb but these things can be important with total restructures like this. The old logo is a symbol of failure and of the Saga. No more. Gone.
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New recruiters, conditioning staff, everybody. No more old thinking. No more chips on shoulders. Only new thinking and new people.
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Accept that the rebuild will be long, like really long, and that things will get much much much worse before they get better. Expect 4-5 wins first year. Probably only 2/3 wins second and third years. 6-8 wins fourth year, 10ish wins fifth year, spot in 8 sixth year, contending for flag seventh and eighth years.
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Win some games
Small example;
Mark Baguley - Bled EFC his whole career, great bloke.
But is now a list clogger in every sense…and worse, getting games.
Looking at Geelong right now, first/second year players being given a chance and shock horror…they are up to it!
Why must you do a 3 year VFL apprenticeship at EFC??
The modern game has changed, a young player who is willing to run 2 ways hard, tackle hard, chase hard and bring youthful exuberance will outweigh them not having a hardened body.
Essendon way behind the times.
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Why are the oldest players routinely the worst every week?
Are we still dealing with saga baggage? It doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me.
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