Are we in for a long year?
Are we in for a long year?
It seems as though the teams below us have got some injection in their teams, but we have been unable to do any deals at the trade table. We still only have pick 6 in a weak draft and our list is not that good.
I dont know, but I dont think there is much hope for us next year in terms of mild success. At this early stage, I cant see us getting out of the bottom 4.
I dont know, but I dont think there is much hope for us next year in terms of mild success. At this early stage, I cant see us getting out of the bottom 4.
- bomberdonnie
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We'll be junk next year.
We still rely on Lloyd, Lucas, Hird and Fletcher to win us games. With Hird gone, we will have to rely on the remaining three.
Our midfield is nothing short of disgraceful. Dyson, Stanton, Winderlich, Watson should all be entering their prime, yet are average players at best. Stanton's possessions are meaningless and he has a heart the size of a tic-tac. Watson is superior to Stanton in his desire to win, but lacks any sort of pace. Dyson is pathetic. Winderlich has shown something of late and can break the lines with his running. His disposal still lets him down however and he is soft. None would be in the top 50 midfielders in the comp, and in the cases of Dyson and Winder, even close.
Our young crop look more promising. However, they are going to take another year or two to develop.
Our rucks in Hille and Laycock are average to good, but will need to improve significantly if they are going to be a threat.
Our defenders are prone to making monumental stuff ups. Lovett-Murray and McPhee are both excellent overhead, but make poor decisions.
Positives for us are McVeigh, Gumby, Ryder, Davies and Nash, who all look the business.
We still rely on Lloyd, Lucas, Hird and Fletcher to win us games. With Hird gone, we will have to rely on the remaining three.
Our midfield is nothing short of disgraceful. Dyson, Stanton, Winderlich, Watson should all be entering their prime, yet are average players at best. Stanton's possessions are meaningless and he has a heart the size of a tic-tac. Watson is superior to Stanton in his desire to win, but lacks any sort of pace. Dyson is pathetic. Winderlich has shown something of late and can break the lines with his running. His disposal still lets him down however and he is soft. None would be in the top 50 midfielders in the comp, and in the cases of Dyson and Winder, even close.
Our young crop look more promising. However, they are going to take another year or two to develop.
Our rucks in Hille and Laycock are average to good, but will need to improve significantly if they are going to be a threat.
Our defenders are prone to making monumental stuff ups. Lovett-Murray and McPhee are both excellent overhead, but make poor decisions.
Positives for us are McVeigh, Gumby, Ryder, Davies and Nash, who all look the business.
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We'll be OK. Regardless of what people think of our list and Matthew Knights, our guys will be playing with a lot more enthusiasm, commitment and skill than they have displayed in the last 3 years.
As for trade week, I couldn't give a f*** about most of the trades. Judd is the only gold nugget, but he comes with other issues such as $$$$ and pressure of the cap. We have delisted / retired who we HAD to so far and still have our selections in a weak draft.
I believe our selections over the past couple of years may see us improve marginally on the field next year.
As for trade week, I couldn't give a f*** about most of the trades. Judd is the only gold nugget, but he comes with other issues such as $$$$ and pressure of the cap. We have delisted / retired who we HAD to so far and still have our selections in a weak draft.
I believe our selections over the past couple of years may see us improve marginally on the field next year.
Essendunny
- Doctor Fish
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Glad you could find some positives there Gringo and E4E...gringo wrote:We'll be junk next year.
We still rely on Lloyd, Lucas, Hird and Fletcher to win us games. With Hird gone, we will have to rely on the remaining three.
Our midfield is nothing short of disgraceful. Dyson, Stanton, Winderlich, Watson should all be entering their prime, yet are average players at best. Stanton's possessions are meaningless and he has a heart the size of a tic-tac. Watson is superior to Stanton in his desire to win, but lacks any sort of pace. Dyson is pathetic. Winderlich has shown something of late and can break the lines with his running. His disposal still lets him down however and he is soft. None would be in the top 50 midfielders in the comp, and in the cases of Dyson and Winder, even close.
Our young crop look more promising. However, they are going to take another year or two to develop.
Our rucks in Hille and Laycock are average to good, but will need to improve significantly if they are going to be a threat.
Our defenders are prone to making monumental stuff ups. Lovett-Murray and McPhee are both excellent overhead, but make poor decisions.
Positives for us are McVeigh, Gumby, Ryder, Davies and Nash, who all look the business.
Robbie's right. Injuries will decide our fate. Depth is a problem. If our youngsters like Jetta, Nash, Reimers, Hocking and Houli can have any sort of impact, we'll be better for it. I'd be happy with 10th. If we make the eight I'll do cart-wheels...
I am looking forward to next season just to see how all the changes we have made are going to pan out. Win, lose or draw, it's going to be exciting. And yes, we need to talk about "potential" because we have depth of old and depth of new, but not much in the middle so we need to build the skills and experience of the young guys showing "potential". Every move he makes, knights impresses me more and more and I am so looking forward to watching Essendon evolve over the next few seasons. And don't stress too much about a list 'on paper', Carlton have some excellent talent and aren't going anywhere, but Kangas didn't look so good on paper and even though they fizzled, they had an impact on this season. So, be positive and just strap yourselves in for the knighta express, could be bumpy, but enjoy the ride!
Who should we have traded for adn what should we have used to trade for it?
Judd was a bastard and f***** the Eagles over by only nominating one club and refusing to even contemplating going to Richmond, we had no chance to get him.
Who else should we have gone after....no one that has actually been traded yet.
I too would have loved some more higher draft picks but how were we going to get them...we don't have any bait.
Freo and Port are interested in MJ...but Freo knows they could pick him up for free in the draft.
Port were never going to do what some suggested we should be looking at doing with MJ and trading him and pick 23 for 16, would simply be an idiotic trade on Port's behalf. The best I could see us realistically getting for MJ is a 3rd rounder, may still happen.
Dyson...has not been able to crack it for a regular spot in the worst midfield in the competition, why the f*** would Freo give up a 2nd rounder like him like we were demanding?
Kepler Bradley....I would be disappointed if we traded him for anything less that a late first round draft pick. But who is going to offer us that. Even like the clubs like Adelaide and Western Bulldogs who are desparate for a Key Position Forward would be crazy to offer that. I mean there is a big difference between kicking 40 odd goals from CHF in the VFL and being able to do it in the AFL.
Knights was right to say our draft picks were off limits...we can't afford to be moving pick 6 or 23 on unless it is in a bid to upgraded them. No-one ahead of us in the draft would allow us to upgrade 6 to their pick and no we simply do have anything that is going allow us to upgrade on pick 23.
Hopefully, we can pick someone decent up in the PSD...but apart from that any improvement next year is going to be from cunning recruiting, and a fantastic pre-season based on skill acquistion and player development.
You really are not going to catch much if you don't have any tasty worms on the hook...and we certainly did not have any tasty worms on the hook.
Remember at the start of the week Knighta foreshadowed that we were unlikely to be heavily involved in the fun and games of trade week.
Judd was a bastard and f***** the Eagles over by only nominating one club and refusing to even contemplating going to Richmond, we had no chance to get him.
Who else should we have gone after....no one that has actually been traded yet.
I too would have loved some more higher draft picks but how were we going to get them...we don't have any bait.
Freo and Port are interested in MJ...but Freo knows they could pick him up for free in the draft.
Port were never going to do what some suggested we should be looking at doing with MJ and trading him and pick 23 for 16, would simply be an idiotic trade on Port's behalf. The best I could see us realistically getting for MJ is a 3rd rounder, may still happen.
Dyson...has not been able to crack it for a regular spot in the worst midfield in the competition, why the f*** would Freo give up a 2nd rounder like him like we were demanding?
Kepler Bradley....I would be disappointed if we traded him for anything less that a late first round draft pick. But who is going to offer us that. Even like the clubs like Adelaide and Western Bulldogs who are desparate for a Key Position Forward would be crazy to offer that. I mean there is a big difference between kicking 40 odd goals from CHF in the VFL and being able to do it in the AFL.
Knights was right to say our draft picks were off limits...we can't afford to be moving pick 6 or 23 on unless it is in a bid to upgraded them. No-one ahead of us in the draft would allow us to upgrade 6 to their pick and no we simply do have anything that is going allow us to upgrade on pick 23.
Hopefully, we can pick someone decent up in the PSD...but apart from that any improvement next year is going to be from cunning recruiting, and a fantastic pre-season based on skill acquistion and player development.
You really are not going to catch much if you don't have any tasty worms on the hook...and we certainly did not have any tasty worms on the hook.
Remember at the start of the week Knighta foreshadowed that we were unlikely to be heavily involved in the fun and games of trade week.
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We are going to be so great. Top 4 baby. Look out for Essendon this season. We will be bakc. Matter of fact, I'm buying my Grand Final ticket now!Doctor Fish wrote:Glad you could find some positives there Gringo and E4E...gringo wrote:We'll be junk next year.
We still rely on Lloyd, Lucas, Hird and Fletcher to win us games. With Hird gone, we will have to rely on the remaining three.
Our midfield is nothing short of disgraceful. Dyson, Stanton, Winderlich, Watson should all be entering their prime, yet are average players at best. Stanton's possessions are meaningless and he has a heart the size of a tic-tac. Watson is superior to Stanton in his desire to win, but lacks any sort of pace. Dyson is pathetic. Winderlich has shown something of late and can break the lines with his running. His disposal still lets him down however and he is soft. None would be in the top 50 midfielders in the comp, and in the cases of Dyson and Winder, even close.
Our young crop look more promising. However, they are going to take another year or two to develop.
Our rucks in Hille and Laycock are average to good, but will need to improve significantly if they are going to be a threat.
Our defenders are prone to making monumental stuff ups. Lovett-Murray and McPhee are both excellent overhead, but make poor decisions.
Positives for us are McVeigh, Gumby, Ryder, Davies and Nash, who all look the business.
Robbie's right. Injuries will decide our fate. Depth is a problem. If our youngsters like Jetta, Nash, Reimers, Hocking and Houli can have any sort of impact, we'll be better for it. I'd be happy with 10th. If we make the eight I'll do cart-wheels...
I think their may be wrestling on PPV that Saturday, so you may want to check first.Essendon4eva wrote:We are going to be so great. Top 4 baby. Look out for Essendon this season. We will be bakc. Matter of fact, I'm buying my Grand Final ticket now!Doctor Fish wrote:Glad you could find some positives there Gringo and E4E...gringo wrote:We'll be junk next year.
We still rely on Lloyd, Lucas, Hird and Fletcher to win us games. With Hird gone, we will have to rely on the remaining three.
Our midfield is nothing short of disgraceful. Dyson, Stanton, Winderlich, Watson should all be entering their prime, yet are average players at best. Stanton's possessions are meaningless and he has a heart the size of a tic-tac. Watson is superior to Stanton in his desire to win, but lacks any sort of pace. Dyson is pathetic. Winderlich has shown something of late and can break the lines with his running. His disposal still lets him down however and he is soft. None would be in the top 50 midfielders in the comp, and in the cases of Dyson and Winder, even close.
Our young crop look more promising. However, they are going to take another year or two to develop.
Our rucks in Hille and Laycock are average to good, but will need to improve significantly if they are going to be a threat.
Our defenders are prone to making monumental stuff ups. Lovett-Murray and McPhee are both excellent overhead, but make poor decisions.
Positives for us are McVeigh, Gumby, Ryder, Davies and Nash, who all look the business.
Robbie's right. Injuries will decide our fate. Depth is a problem. If our youngsters like Jetta, Nash, Reimers, Hocking and Houli can have any sort of impact, we'll be better for it. I'd be happy with 10th. If we make the eight I'll do cart-wheels...
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our list is in very good shape for the next 3 years.
don't believe the crap that the board put forward about our list being weak.
all the critcism leveled at our club comes in the form of reliant on ageing stars, this is crap. yes our older players are excellent, probably the best bunch of oldies of any club(lloyd/lucas/fletcher/michael). But this is selling out the excellent talent coming through.
i'm glad we have some of the best KPP in the game. so they are old, but we have got IMO the best new KPP talent going around to replace them.(Ryder/Gumby/Johns).
Our problem wasn't relying on our KPP players for too long, our problems stem from IMO holding on to mercs/misiti too long at the expense of new midfield talent.
I think we are building our team perfectly.... and I expect Essendon to have a flag(assuming knights can handle the pressure come finals time) in the next 5 years.
don't believe the crap that the board put forward about our list being weak.
all the critcism leveled at our club comes in the form of reliant on ageing stars, this is crap. yes our older players are excellent, probably the best bunch of oldies of any club(lloyd/lucas/fletcher/michael). But this is selling out the excellent talent coming through.
i'm glad we have some of the best KPP in the game. so they are old, but we have got IMO the best new KPP talent going around to replace them.(Ryder/Gumby/Johns).
Our problem wasn't relying on our KPP players for too long, our problems stem from IMO holding on to mercs/misiti too long at the expense of new midfield talent.
I think we are building our team perfectly.... and I expect Essendon to have a flag(assuming knights can handle the pressure come finals time) in the next 5 years.
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