"Where is the love" by Red n' Black Eyed Pea Hearts (warning looong OP)

Our form since the opening rounds has made a lot of us restless and the result is - it’s been open season on Blitz. Guys starting up all sorts of bogus negative threads, keyboard warrior coaches are out in force, heck even Blitzer’s have turned on their own. You know times are bad when Mr Lid Off himself has deserted the lid off stratosphere and starts up a thread all about mediocrity!

I thought I’d start up a thread searching for the love and in this search, bringing the love back to Blitz.

Let’s start by NOT discussing the physical deficiencies of our list but more the mental and emotional. Like an itch that needs to be scratched I know we all want to contribute with;

  • “Dysfunctional forward line”
  • “Carlisle back, Hurley Forward”
  • “Vanilla panic merchants out, excitement machines in!”
  • “Midfield full of one-paced plodders”
  • “Aging bunch of list cloggers taking games off the youth”
  • “1 quarter pea hearted efforts”

Last year Bomber talked about “searching for the key” to get in and change the mindset and attitude of our players as we struggled to put in four consistent quarters of football. Brilliant for one quarter, deplorable the next two. This year, Hirdy seems to be faced with the same dilemma. I believe Hirdy, Bomber and most at E.F.C have diagnosed the problem hampering our boys however, like cancer I’m not too sure there’s a remedy in the near future.
Season 12’ and early 13’ proved good signs our list is heading in the right direction and the brand of football we want to execute. Late 13’ and 14’ really stunted that momentum with events both on and off field and season 2015 is unfortunately, evidently the by-product.
Our team the employees if you will, have been tremendously let down by the lack of governance and poor management by our club,the employer as we are all aware. Now most of us have been let down by our employer’s at one stage in our lives (if not by all our past employers) but how did it result? More often than not it’s discussed, negotiated and resolved, ‘forgive and forget’ and move on. But what happens when this process becomes a lengthy, political, exhaustingly corrupt and biased conflict that’s played out in the public domain? What happens when during this process, it turns out the enemy is not your employer but the industry itself in which you work! What happens when the industry you’ve grown up loving and dedicating most of your life thus far proves to be a self-serving, greedy and corrupt entity whom you now have lost all your faith in? You’ve given blood, sweat and tears, sacrificed your weekends and social life as a young man for this game only for it to spit right back into your face.
I believe here lies the biggest concern with our current team. They have simply fallen out of love with football due to the damned saga and the results on field is the writing on the wall. It’s claimed it’s fair share of scalps; Finals in 2013, Hirdy in 2014, Bomber (as assistant) in 2015, Crameri and Ryder to name a few. It’s the result of the poor form from some of our proven performers in Watson, Pig, Carlisle etc whom are literally mentally and emotionally spent.
I’m not sure if the traumatic events of the last 3 years will ever allow for our boys to fall back in love with football again but as shareholders of this great club, perhaps another #BackOurBoys and #StandByHirdy campaign may be a good place to start!

We should remind the footy world why exactly the EFC is far ahead of all the others and remind our boys why they’re playing for the sash!
I’m sure our recently acquired board member who is an expert in communications would have some great ideas too!

Lots of love,
DannyD

When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I'll stop following football.

I would follow and support Essendon if they sunk down to 3 members and a team in the ammo’s, but there are people who have pulled on the jumper and bleed for this club that feel the same way I do, and let down by the last few regimes, and im not talking about those who fit that description that are in the media. These guys dig in because the know we have been a great club, and will be a great club again but it takes people accepting where we are and putting in to move things forward.


why?

I’m a fourth generation supporter and member, 2 family members have donned the sash at lower levels (reserves and 19s) it’s my families club.

oh so you jut support out of chance and habit.

I was personally and individually inspired to follow the club due to it’s greatness.

I guess that’s why I don’t see the club as just the same as any club but great if we win a lot.

With all due respect, how exactly ARE we a great club? We where a great club I would have thought a more accurate assessment is we are trying to find our way back to being a great club

Benfti, we are a great club.

The only measure of greatness is past deeds, so don’t tell me I’m living there- we all are. A great club is not whoever is currently in the top 4. By that measure GWS was a great club earlier this year. Another reason GWS is not a great club is because it is largely an AFL construct. A great club is built over time by members and supporters, in our case since 1871.

16 flags. Car#ton is also a great club- did you think we would waste our hatred on a lightweight club? But we are the greatest. When we get ambushed by the AFL, Government and media, do we go to water? Do we start sacking players, or shedding members like at Princes Park?

Membership goes up, members vote in supportive board members and make clear the coach is not to be sacked. Servants of the club like Bomba take the hospital handpass and coach right when we need them. Legends like Bruce Reid and James Hird have the guts to say no to the AFL quislings who can’t do anything unless a closed door is involved. The players are right behind Hird. Even the sponsors hang around. So DannyD, there is the love.

Winning every week does not make you a great club, but it is fun for the opera-goers. I don’t like losing but I did not sign up on the condition we kept winning. Maybe the season is shot, but the club is not. The club has become greater.

With all due respect, how exactly ARE we a great club? We where a great club I would have thought a more accurate assessment is we are trying to find our way back to being a great club

We are a great club with over 100 years of excellence. It’s the whole picture you look at over many years. In the 1970’s we had some very ordinary times…in the last decade we have been very ordinary in many of our decisions. Overall we have achieved more than most clubs dream of but in recent circumstances dropped our guard. That’s where we have been but I believe strongly now building behind the scenes. It’s been a huge wake up call to say the least but I believe the start of something significant again

Benfti, we are a great club.

The only measure of greatness is past deeds, so don’t tell me I’m living there- we all are. A great club is not whoever is currently in the top 4. By that measure GWS was a great club earlier this year. Another reason GWS is not a great club is because it is largely an AFL construct. A great club is built over time by members and supporters, in our case since 1871.

16 flags. Car#ton is also a great club- did you think we would waste our hatred on a lightweight club? But we are the greatest. When we get ambushed by the AFL, Government and media, do we go to water? Do we start sacking players, or shedding members like at Princes Park?

Membership goes up, members vote in supportive board members and make clear the coach is not to be sacked. Servants of the club like Bomba take the hospital handpass and coach right when we need them. Legends like Bruce Reid and James Hird have the guts to say no to the AFL quislings who can’t do anything unless a closed door is involved. The players are right behind Hird. Even the sponsors hang around. So DannyD, there is the love.

Winning every week does not make you a great club, but it is fun for the opera-goers. I don’t like losing but I did not sign up on the condition we kept winning. Maybe the season is shot, but the club is not. The club has become greater.

One word sums this up, brilliant.

Essendon is a great club… it’s just in obviously a very dark place right now.

All of us are in a dark place along with it, and I think that probably contributes to a lot of the angst. Tethers are frayed, tempers are short, supporters are impatient. We’ve also seen a couple of false dawns, first with the initial acquittal and then the early form where we were basically a bad quarter from knocking off the two grand finalists to start our year… those things served to temporarily get everyone up and about before getting knocked down yet again. You can only put up with so many things.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I fantasized about this fairy tale where the team would immediately throw down and compete for a flag as a proverbial up yours tour to the whole world. I knew it was probably a delusion, but I wanted to believe it anyway. The first Hawks game made that feeling white hot. Obviously that hasn’t even come close to happening… and now as the losses mount and the reality of another lost season sets in, the malaise in the players body language I think is becoming entrenched in the supporters and the members, frustrated that they don’t have a whole lot on field to cheer about in the one place where everyone can escape the nonsense for a little while. For the last two years, the only thing that’s kept me going was the matches. They were the only thing left. Now those are starting to feel empty too.

Hird… sure, I’ve questioned his coaching a little bit, perhaps short-sightedly… selection… but those things are always a matter of debate. I think it is clear that he is a man of great character; that’s never been more apparent. I feel a great deal of despair for the man… I don’t know if he will ever have the respect of the general football public again, regardless of any accomplishment made from now until the end of time.

I’m fortunate to have actually witnessed most of this from a very safe distance… but it has still affected me profoundly.

Essendon has given me a whole lot in a much shorter time than the rest of you. It kept me sane in a world unfamiliar to me… as a stranger in a strange land who didn’t know anybody, didn’t quite know where he fit in with a different culture. I had found this beautiful thing that made me feel like I wasn’t a foreigner anymore, but part of this big awesome giant club, and I met some wonderful people. I haven’t seen a lot of you guys for 6-7 years now and I definitely miss everybody. It’s probably not an easy thing to be a grog squadder these days. I thought it was tough back in 2006-07 when we were a laughing stock.

Sporting franchises in this country (US) are so corporate, so impersonal. The players are basically in a bubble, completely separate from the people. And it gets worse every year.

In hindsight, I think a lot of us underestimated the lasting effect of this stupid thing… it’s easy to say “well it’s 2015 now, they should be able to put it behind them”. It’s not happening. My worry now is that some of these players are probably ruined for the rest of their careers from a psychological standpoint.

I’ve seen a rumor elsewhere that Jobe is thinking about walking away from the game due to a lack of enjoyment… granted, this is not a particularly reliable source of information. But would anyone blame him?

In the end, it’s just a game that a bunch of kids half my age play for fun… if there’s no joy in it, then would anyone question them if they no longer felt compelled to do it?

My mother always says to me… “this too, shall pass”… indeed.

Greece had a great economy, no one says they do now, we were the best club, we are now a good club who is looking to be great again, not on field or off have we been a great club for 10 years. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves, and at the club they are hanging their hats on the handstands of great people

If we weren’t a great club historically, we wouldn’t have survived the last 3 years.

What we aren’t is a good team, at the moment. That’s what we need to be again.

Greece had a great economy, no one says they do now, we were the best club, we are now a good club who is looking to be great again, not on field or off have we been a great club for 10 years. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves, and at the club they are hanging their hats on the handstands of great people

I think you mean ‘successful’, not ‘great’ Ben. Greatness is built over time. Just like respect.
It is the media who push for quick turn-arounds. Don’t get sucked in.

When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I’ll stop following football.

When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I'll stop following football.
When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I'll stop following football.

Me too.

Great thread. Thanks to all posters. Disagree with benfti but understand how he feels. We need to continue to hang tough. If you think we have it bad then put yourself in the shoes of those supporters who’ve followed teams for 50 years and never seen a flag. That’s 50 years, not 15.

If we weren't a great club historically, we wouldn't have survived the last 3 years.

What we aren’t is a good team, at the moment. That’s what we need to be again.

Im sorry Zimm, but great clubs don’t get into those positions in the first place, great clubs dont botch moving along club legends and then replace them with blokes the hall, only to sack them less than 12 months after extending their contracts. Great clubs dont lose required players for the sake of a handful of $$$

We have not been a great club for a while, we have great people within our club. There is a difference.

I understand the pain and I’m one of the disillusioned supporters but I never for one moment think Essendon isn’t a great club

When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I'll stop following football.

I would follow and support Essendon if they sunk down to 3 members and a team in the ammo’s, but there are people who have pulled on the jumper and bleed for this club that feel the same way I do, and let down by the last few regimes, and im not talking about those who fit that description that are in the media. These guys dig in because the know we have been a great club, and will be a great club again but it takes people accepting where we are and putting in to move things forward.

Don’t think anyone at the club suggests for a minute Benfti that we haven’t made some monumental mistakes in our recent past and in our not so recent past too. That’s human and its humans who run these clubs. Some are good at what they do others not so much. I guess the vibe of this thread goes to the heart of what makes a supporter keep coming back for more, despite the pain and shitfulness that we get served up more often than we’d prefer. I was going to suggest it was faith, or something along those lines, but not sure that’s quite what I mean. Anyway, I’m in for long haul like most on here. And I haven’t got a clue what’ll turn this around, but have faith that one day in the not too distant future I’ll be racing down to BWS and getting the biggest bottle of champagne they have.

We are Essington

@benfti

Some good answers above to answer your question and I’ll chip in a few relevant ones while we’re at it…

  • greater support for the club now than before the saga
  • Pioneers of various initiatives such as;
    – indigenous & multi-cultural initiatives
    – purple bombers
    – terminating betting agency sponsorship
    – active membership area initiative
    – partnership with Aus. Paralympics to build the TVSC

While I understand why you feel the way you do, what I don’t understand is how, out of the whole OP you challenged the term “great club” out of all things?

Anyway, the point of the thread was to discuss the morale of our team & to rally Blitzers to contribute with how we can possibly step up & try and remind the boys why they love the game.

When I stop thinking Essendon is a great club I'll stop following football.

I would follow and support Essendon if they sunk down to 3 members and a team in the ammo’s, but there are people who have pulled on the jumper and bleed for this club that feel the same way I do, and let down by the last few regimes, and im not talking about those who fit that description that are in the media. These guys dig in because the know we have been a great club, and will be a great club again but it takes people accepting where we are and putting in to move things forward.


why?