What Now for 2008

[Windy_Hill]

I have to be honest with myself and admit that the season for us is gone after six rounds. Gone in the sense of making the finals. No, we wont make the finals this year simply because we are still not good enough. With a fully fit team, I still believe that we would have struggled to win 12 games. The current Essendon Team is definitely a Work In Progress. I am sure the club knows it and I guess the fans are starting to realise it. Many supporters will be now moving into "pissed of slagging the players/coach mode". Fair enough, the season promised a lot and the losses carry a sharper sting as a result. All of us must learn to adjust our expectations and look for milestones and achievement other than winning for the remainder of the season.

This is what I am hoping to see for the balance of 2008

Wins - I would still like the club to win another 6 games at least. The young players need this to keep their confidence up.

Game Time - we need to get at least 12-15 games out of Gumbleton, Neagle, Myers, Pears, Houli, Daniher, Johns, Jetta, Hislop, Reimers, Lonergan before the end of the year. These guys are our future and have to be developed faster than we have developed our players under Sheedy.

Skills - Stanton, Winderlich, Watson, McPhee, Lovett, NLM must all be drilled on disposal efficiency and option taking. I am appaled at how often these guys turn the ball over through poor disposal and bad decision making. Given the amount of ball they get, they are our biggest current weakness.

Guts and Determination - maybe we wont look so attacking but I would love to see our tackle count increase dramatically. The team currently has no 'standover' men. Need Hille and Laycock to grow up and toughen up. The side looked like 6 yr old ballet dancers against Collingwood.

Leadership - Lloyd does a good job from full-forward but we need leaders all over the ground. Yesterday I saw Wakelin running from player to player in Collingwood's back line, talking to them, keeping them focused, reminding them on what they had to do - and they were 50 points up!!!. Hilee, McPhee, Michael all need to play this role.

Rising Star - Houli has already been nominated, I would like to see at least 2 more Bomber kids nominated for 2008. Anything less and we can start to worry about our emerging talent (or lack thereof)

Injuries and Injury Management - time to review the whole problem with injuries and injury management. Before the end of the year I would like to see the club use some of its many millions of dollars in overhauling the current performance management approach. Use international best practices and consultants to overcome what is clearly an endemic problem at the moment. Members of the club should be demanding this initiative if the club does not voluntarily do this before the end of the year.

Recruiting - We need to employ high level talent scouts in all major football states to ensure we get the right players at draft time. We seem to be picking too many players who are either injury prone or take too much time to develop. Furthermore, we need to recruit the right type of players for the club's needs. I doubt we will finish higher than 13th on the ladder this year so we have another opportunity to draft a quality player to go with the likes of Myers, Ryder and Gumbleton.

So the season has gone from a win/loss finals perspective but I am enthusiastic about seeing the above points dealt with. I still think we have the core group to go forward with despite the likely retirements of Lloyd, Lucas, Fletcher and Michael in the next 2-3 years. However, its all about succession planning and we must have guys like Gumbleton, Myers and Ryder with 50 plus games under their belts before the Retirement Day comes.

Hang in their guys, this is a tough competition to be consistently strong in. Winning a flag will take time and is not likely to be something that occurs every 5 years as perahps once was the case. Clubs will get three year windows to achieve the ultimate success before falling back to the field under the restrictions of Drafting and Salary Cap. So what we must aim for is a team that will be able to achieve the ultimate success when our turn comes. It is also likey that when the window comes, 3 or 4 other teams will also be in the mix. Today the window is open for Geelong and probably Hawthorn with one or two others possible a threat. In three years time we need to be in this group

[hop]

Windy - almost everything you say here makes sense.

On todays performance (to half time), I wouldn't give a nob of goat-shit for Neagle though. Overweight, too slow, unaccountable, goes to ground too easy and just doesn't seem to get it. With the season we've had and the situation we're in, with lack of forwards I would have hoped he stepped up and made a statement today.

Still half a game to go - but for mine Anthony's boy deserves his chance long before Merv's.

[The Don]

I have to be honest with myself and admit that the season for us is gone after six rounds. Gone in the sense of making the finals. No, we wont make the finals this year simply because we are still not good enough. With a fully fit team, I still believe that we would have struggled to win 12 games. The current Essendon Team is definitely a Work In Progress. I am sure the club knows it and I guess the fans are starting to realise it. Many supporters will be now moving into "pissed of slagging the players/coach mode". Fair enough, the season promised a lot and the losses carry a sharper sting as a result. All of us must learn to adjust our expectations and look for milestones and achievement other than winning for the remainder of the season.

This is what I am hoping to see for the balance of 2008

Wins - I would still like the club to win another 6 games at least. The young players need this to keep their confidence up.

Game Time - we need to get at least 12-15 games out of Gumbleton, Neagle, Myers, Pears, Houli, Daniher, Johns, Jetta, Hislop, Reimers, Lonergan before the end of the year. These guys are our future and have to be developed faster than we have developed our players under Sheedy.

Skills - Stanton, Winderlich, Watson, McPhee, Lovett, NLM must all be drilled on disposal efficiency and option taking. I am appaled at how often these guys turn the ball over through poor disposal and bad decision making. Given the amount of ball they get, they are our biggest current weakness.

Guts and Determination - maybe we wont look so attacking but I would love to see our tackle count increase dramatically. The team currently has no 'standover' men. Need Hille and Laycock to grow up and toughen up. The side looked like 6 yr old ballet dancers against Collingwood.

Leadership - Lloyd does a good job from full-forward but we need leaders all over the ground. Yesterday I saw Wakelin running from player to player in Collingwood's back line, talking to them, keeping them focused, reminding them on what they had to do - and they were 50 points up!!!. Hilee, McPhee, Michael all need to play this role.

Rising Star - Houli has already been nominated, I would like to see at least 2 more Bomber kids nominated for 2008. Anything less and we can start to worry about our emerging talent (or lack thereof)

Injuries and Injury Management - time to review the whole problem with injuries and injury management. Before the end of the year I would like to see the club use some of its many millions of dollars in overhauling the current performance management approach. Use international best practices and consultants to overcome what is clearly an endemic problem at the moment. Members of the club should be demanding this initiative if the club does not voluntarily do this before the end of the year.

Recruiting - We need to employ high level talent scouts in all major football states to ensure we get the right players at draft time. We seem to be picking too many players who are either injury prone or take too much time to develop. Furthermore, we need to recruit the right type of players for the club's needs. I doubt we will finish higher than 13th on the ladder this year so we have another opportunity to draft a quality player to go with the likes of Myers, Ryder and Gumbleton.

So the season has gone from a win/loss finals perspective but I am enthusiastic about seeing the above points dealt with. I still think we have the core group to go forward with despite the likely retirements of Lloyd, Lucas, Fletcher and Michael in the next 2-3 years. However, its all about succession planning and we must have guys like Gumbleton, Myers and Ryder with 50 plus games under their belts before the Retirement Day comes.

Hang in their guys, this is a tough competition to be consistently strong in. Winning a flag will take time and is not likely to be something that occurs every 5 years as perahps once was the case. Clubs will get three year windows to achieve the ultimate success before falling back to the field under the restrictions of Drafting and Salary Cap. So what we must aim for is a team that will be able to achieve the ultimate success when our turn comes. It is also likey that when the window comes, 3 or 4 other teams will also be in the mix. Today the window is open for Geelong and probably Hawthorn with one or two others possible a threat. In three years time we need to be in this group

Excellent post Windy, Good thoughts and very inciteful. I agree with everything you have said. I would add however that Knighter and the coaches need to put a microscope over the team for the rest of the year. Passengers like Laycock must be forced to perform or dropped or delisted The era of project players at Essendon is over. In a competitive environment like today's football, there simply isnt the time to hope that a player will improve. If they do not show immediate or imminent promise then dont draft them. Dont forget in 3-4 years there will be two more teams to compete with.

On a seperate note I watched Any Given Sunday again for the first time in ages last night. After yesterday maybe someone should maybe play the team this awesome speech from Al Pacino before next Sunday against Port for inspiration. If you havent seen it it is definitely worth a watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFx6OFooCs

[dom_105]

Can't argue with that.

[danstar84]

Great post, agree with everything you say.

As for the title: :"What Now for 2008" - Development. We won't make finals. Time to see who can play, and who will form the nucleus of this team over the coming years.

[Rossoneri]

Absolutely spot on once again Windy.

Your point about Leadership is as accurate as you can be. We need leaders all over the ground, no matter who the captain is. Imagine McVeigh is captain, we still need leaders in defence and also up front, it wont just stop with McVeigh, and nor should it stop with Lloyd currently.

[billyduckworth]

Great post, Windy.

Just one more thing I would like to add:

TACKLING - we need improvement in this area. Too often, our tackles don't stick (so we don't get the holding the ball decisions that we should) or we fall on top of the player (so give away a free for in the back). Whilst some of this may be written off as umpiring bias, we need to do something to even up the free kick count (this has been going on for quite a few years now).

[hop]

Abso-bloody-lutely!!!

Our tackling would have to be the worst in the competition. We need to get some Thugby rock-ape into the coaching department and teach our players how to hit, hurt and hold! Until this happens we will continue to be chasing arse (well for those who can be bothered chasing)!

[robbie67]

Excellent post Windy. I agree with almost everything you have said. The only monor differance I have with you, is that I would be quite happy to only win 4 games for the year. Like I have said elsewhere, we are going to need to stockpile talented kids before the 2 new teams come in to the draft. Once that happens, none will be available for a while.