Are we at the point???

[s'dreams]

Of saying - stuff the season ... put games into the kids?

From the five games so far - Winders, McVeigh and Welsh will not be part of the next flag tilt.

Amazingly - Fletch may well be.

Cheers - STI

[Mrs Mercuri]

Its certainly heading that way..,, not a good year to bottom out though. The scary thing is that its our senior players not performing... at least the young guys are having a dip.

Would like to see Tyson Slattery debut next week... has been named as Bendigos best every week.

[robbie67]

Its certainly heading that way..,, not a good year to bottom out though. The scary thing is that its our senior players not performing... at least the young guys are having a dip.

Would like to see Tyson Slattery debut next week... has been named as Bendigos best every week.

Lets give Tyson a go, surely we couldt have two shit footballers on the list with the same surname.

[swoodley]

Regardless of where we are, selection policy should be one of rewarding effort.

There is no sense playing kids if they are just going to get smashed week in and week out.

Eg: Melksham has had a taste of the big time and now needs to go back to Bendigo to improve his game.

Players who play well with Bendigo then deserve the chance to play in the seniors.

Don't start giving kids games just because they are kids.

[Mrs Mercuri]

Regardless of where we are, selection policy should be one of rewarding effort.

There is no sense playing kids if they are just going to get smashed week in and week out.

Eg: Melksham has had a taste of the big time and now needs to go back to Bendigo to improve his game.

Players who play well with Bendigo then deserve the chance to play in the seniors.
Don't start giving kids games just because they are kids.

Especially if Bendigo keep on winning... there will be no excuse not to drop players that arent performing.

[tonysoprano]

Of saying - stuff the season ... put games into the kids?

From the five games so far - Winders, McVeigh and Welsh will not be part of the next flag tilt.

Amazingly - Fletch may well be.

Cheers - STI

There is not a player on the list who will be a part of our next premiership. Unless of course some rookie plays 400 games over the next 20 years - because thats about how far away we are.

[hop]

Why would we consider promoting that rabble to Bendigo?

[s'dreams]

Its certainly heading that way..,, not a good year to bottom out though.

Not a good year for picking up the best U18 talent - but as Barlow, Silvagni and Podsadali have shown, there are more mature gems playing VFL and suburban footy (I hven't given up on getting the other Sewell to the EFC).

Also - Brisbane and Sydney have shown the value of picking up the correct discards from other clubs.... The return we have had from discards over the past 8 years is shite!!!

Intersting times.

Cheers - STI

[robbie67]

The return we have had from discards over the past 8 years is shite!!!


Cheers - STI

The return we have had from everything for the last 10 years has been shite. Draft, Rookie Draft, Trades, we are like Tiger Woods, everything we touch, we f***.

[ealesy]

Matthew Knights was the beneficary of several years of maliase by Sheeds. He was the beneficary of the fact that Sheeds lost the ability to judge his list, judge players and make responsible list management decisions.

We were finally just so happy that we had a coach that had come in and cut way the dead wood that he was very favourably rated after a couple of seasons for very little return.

He came into the club with talk about being bullish about the list and that we did not require a full rebuild and we should be contenders within 3 years. 3 years in and we fell into finals football far from being contenders.

Inexpicably the Board then extends his contract for 2 years and we quickly go backwards.

For years he has talked about bringing a defensive side to the gameplan, he either hasn't, it is completely shit, or the players simply can't implement it.

When he first came to the club he said that his focus would be improving the skills level of the players. Toay the skill level of our players is amongst the worst, if not the worst in the competition.

Our senior players are for the vast majority are slowish, servicable to good at best, plodders. We've got some highly skilled yooung players but we can't rely on them to win us the game.

It came down to a choice between Knights who was bullish about the list, and Hardwick who was more pessimistic about the list an thought a wholesale rebuild was required. It obviously sounded good to the Board that the list wasn't as bad as most thought and that they wouldn't be saddled with a coach who might make some damn hard and unpopular decisions such as trading Lucas or Lloyd for draft picks.

But right at the moment we don't seem any further advanced than we were at the end of 2007 when Knights took over. Except now if we did want to rebuild we would be f***** due to the draft concessions granted to GWS and GC.

My question is why are blokes like Reimers and Houli dropped back to the magoos to work on defensive aspects of their games, while blokes like Stanton, Welsh, McVeigh, Dempsey, Slattery, NLM, even Watson to a slighter degree are allowed to get away with only running hard the one way.

I assure you that if the Board an CEO did not make the massive irresponsible act of extending his contract for 2 years at the end of last year (after a losing season, that finished on a massively embarrassing note) he would have come extremely close to losing his job this coming week. Won't happen though because that would be the Board and the CEO (to a far lesser extent, because he was relying on the info provide to him by the outgoing CEO) amitting they were complete and utter incomptent f*** muppets when they extended his contract last year.

[tonysoprano]

Won't happen though because that would be the Board and the CEO (to a far lesser extent, because he was relying on the info provide to him by the outgoing CEO) amitting they were complete and utter incomptent f*** muppets when they extended his contract last year.

I reckon I'd trust the board more if they sacked Knights this week, than if they didn't.

Getting rid of him might admit making a huge mistake in extending his contract - but at least tells us they can learn from their mistakes.

Keeping him on another minute longer than he deserves will only confirm what an amatuer sporting entity we have become.

[Rossoneri]

Play the kids??? What kids? They are playing at the moment, it is the more experienced players who are letting us down.
Winderlich - Done nothing all year, is he a one-year wonder?
Watson - No support
Prismall - Soft
Welsh - Utter utter shit, in the same class as Slattery
Slattery - dear god!
McVeigh - Under-done and too undisciplined
Ryder - Shadow of his 2009 form
Dyson - See Ryder
Dempsey - Tries hard, but gets caught up in the game-plan too often.

[Mrs Mercuri]

Play the kids??? What kids? They are playing at the moment, it is the more experienced players who are letting us down.Winderlich - Done nothing all year, is he a one-year wonder?
Watson - No support
Prismall - Soft
Welsh - Utter utter shit, in the same class as Slattery
Slattery - dear god!
McVeigh - Under-done and too undisciplined
Ryder - Shadow of his 2009 form
Dyson - See Ryder
Dempsey - Tries hard, but gets caught up in the game-plan too often.

Yep thats a good point.... our core of experienced players just arent good enough. Have a look at Melb... their experienced players are firing and this is allowing their younger guys to grow in confidence as well.

[little_ripper]

to rub salt into the wounds, i reckon if we continue having this horrible year on the field, it is only going to make it tougher to keep the talent we do have from going north to the Gold Coast club.

we desperately need a ray of sunshine. please from somewhere can we find a good essendon performance against hawthorn?

[robrulz5]

We may as well bring more youngsters into the side to give them a shot, they couldn't do any worse than others in the side currently.

We also need to give games to guys like Neagle and Laycock to see if they will be anything at all for us, we should give them 10 games each and if they don't perform they get delisted.

[Windy_Hill]

to rub salt into the wounds, i reckon if we continue having this horrible year on the field, it is only going to make it tougher to keep the talent we do have from going north to the Gold Coast club.

we desperately need a ray of sunshine. please from somewhere can we find a good essendon performance against hawthorn?

If these so called talented kids bail out after a few lean years at Essendon then frankly they're hardly made of the stuff that matters. So adios amigos. Furthermore, if they honestly think that Gold Coast will amount to anything then good luck to them. Yeah we were crap yesterday but we still pulled 90,000 to the G. Enjoy playing at Cararra in front of 7000 adoring sunbathers

[Boyler_Room]

We're at the point where we need to address the game plan. Tanking is out of the question, and even more so in the next few years.

If we're supposed to be playing a 'run-and-carry' style of football, then how about we actually play it? Haven't seen anyone actually run and carry ... I've seen plenty play a 'take-a-step-and-handball-to-the-nearest-teammate' style... unfortunately, the nearest teammate is usually under the pump and after a chain of handballs (be it 2 or 10) we inevitably turn the ball over in a dangerous position on the ground and concede a goal. The players are now in the midnset where they are looking for the easy handball option, which is not usually the best option. Until they get out of that bad habit, we're going to look like a laughingstock.

[Doctor Fish]

Most definitely. Forget the eight. Games into Hurley, Slattery, Colyer, Melksham, Howlett etc is a must. Especially with bugger all draft picks available the next couple of years... We used to be able to unload our "used by" players to Freo. Doubt this will happen anymore...

Jetta and Davey need to get it going as well. The (perceived) defensive pressure they bring is all important. Good signs from Leroy in the magoos on the weekend. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come...

[-o<

[Mrs Mercuri]

Most definitely. Forget the eight. Games into Hurley, Slattery, Colyer, Melksham, Howlett etc is a must. Especially with bugger all draft picks available the next couple of years... We used to be able to unload our "used by" players to Freo. Doubt this will happen anymore...

Jetta and Davey need to get it going as well. The (perceived) defensive pressure they bring is all important. Good signs from Leroy in the magoos on the weekend. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come...

[-o<

Dont the GC have to compensate clubs if they pinch players...

For example... can they offer their first 3 picks in this years draft to the Cats for Ablett?? Or doesnt it work that way...

[Jazz_84]

For example... can they offer their first 3 picks in this years draft to the Cats for Ablett?? Or doesnt it work that way...

apparently pick 26 is the earliest they can offer for Ablett, maybe 1st rounders must be taken by the GC