Bombertalk

And I've been following them for more than 60 years.

I saw some pretty ordinary sides running around in the red and black in the seventies but really they were only part time footballers in those days, all or almost all of them had jobs outside football, really they were not much more than amateurs. But this rabble is something else again. Full time professional footballers (so called) most of them, certainly the senior players would have become millionaires from the game or close to. Nothing else to do everyday but get themselves fit and practice their skills.... But what do we get...no skills, no guts and worst of all no heart...an absolute f******n disgrace to this once great and proud club.

That pathetic effort last night against a side who my son, a wayard but happy Hawks fan, has had great pleasure in reminding me, was LITTLE MORE THAN A HAWTHORN RESERVES SIDE was one of the most insipid efforts I've ever had the misfortune to witness.

Mate, that is an excellent and valid point re: 70's v today.

What a sad state we're in. f****** abysmal.

Yeah, I remember how bad we were when I was growing up, and these guys are worse. No question.

No arguments from me - they're shite alright

In the 70's at least sides hated playing us at Windy Hill.

mmmm quite depressing, id love for Hird to come on here and read the past few days, i know the club reads Bomberblitz but they don't seem to be hurting as much over there as it is in here

Jazz_84 wrote:mmmm quite depressing, id love for Hird to come on here and read the past few days, i know the club reads Bomberblitz but they don't seem to be hurting as much over there as it is in here

That's because they're too busy taking adolescent pot shots at each other.

Back on topic: Yes I saw a fair bit of The Bombers back in the 70's - at least back then we did have a distinct home ground advantage - and we had a few 'A' graders.

The problem I see with the current bunch is passion and desperation. Back then Tuddy would have killed 'em if they didn't commit - then Bill Stephens had a group of very talented youngsters. The Barry Davis era is like our recent Knights era - a few wasted, but developing, years. The big test will be whether Sir James and his band of men are able to do a Sheedy. Given the calibre of personnel - I have faith - although it is tested when we see the dross that was dished up on Friday.

What is worrying, is the start of the season compared to the finish we look like having. No real reasons coming forward from the coaches or the club. I know we've had injuries - but so has everyone else. It doesn't explain the distinct drop-off in effort, run, game-plan, scoring etc. etc.

We marketed ourselves as a team on the up and we have brought in Essendon greats to steer the ship - we got to 50,000 members. How many will hang on for the ride next year if we finish the way we're going ATM?

Jazz_84 wrote:mmmm quite depressing, id love for Hird to come on here and read the past few days, i know the club reads Bomberblitz but they don't seem to be hurting as much over there as it is in here

Coz they're all wannabe Jon Ralphs over at BB.

Are you all forgetting about five years ago we won three games all year and finished second-bottom?

Ossie wrote:Are you all forgetting about five years ago we won three games all year and finished second-bottom?

Spot on, we have been very competitive this year in most games. Sure the last 5 weeks have been very ordinary but early on in the season we really had a dip... just ran out of steam. Lets face it, most guys on our list are very ordinary footballers. I wish we had of recruited better but we didn't. I think the coaches of done an ok job considering the cattle they have got. At this stage we should just concentrate on getting games into young players and finding out if regular seasoned players still have the ticker to compete at AFL level. I think we need to persist with McVeigh (despite only having something like 8 touches on friday night), Fletcher, Hille and Ryder. They still have some sort of an upside at least for next season. Lovett-Murray, Monfries, Prismal, Myers, Davey and Riemers should be watching there backs and would want to play some really good footy for the remainder of the year. I wouldn't even bother playing Dyson, Slattery and Welsh again this year. All three should be delisted. Getting some senior games into young players and thinking about next year should be the number one priority now.

I'm really talking about eras here not just specific seasons. Sure we might have only won 3 games in whatever year it was a few years back (I tend to be glad to forget these very forgettable years we've been enduring now for far too many seasons) My point is that we are just as far away from winning our next flag now as we've ever been and I'm sorry but at this stage I just can't see any light at the end of what appears to be a very long tunnel.

Would absolutely love to be proven totally wrong mind you, would love to have that egg splattered all over my face but alas at nigh on 70 I'm resigning myself to the very real probability that I've already seen my last Essendon premiership.

Ossie wrote:Are you all forgetting about five years ago we won three games all year and finished second-bottom?

No, I'm including that glorious year to go along with this one and every year in between.

Ossie wrote:Are you all forgetting about five years ago we won three games all year and finished second-bottom?

And all of the survivors of that team are 4 years more experienced and we still stink?? Those dark years were meant to deliver gun draft selections and the team of the future, well the future is here folks and it aint pretty

Windy_Hill wrote:

Ossie wrote:Are you all forgetting about five years ago we won three games all year and finished second-bottom?

And all of the survivors of that team are 4 years more experienced and we still stink?? Those dark years were meant to deliver gun draft selections and the team of the future, well the future is here folks and it aint pretty

Agree that the 'survivors' of that season are still junk - ie Monfries, Slattery, Welsh, McVeigh, NatRat et al.
The guys we have drafted since then - especially in the last two or three seasons - (Melksham, Hurley, Heppell, Zaharakis etc) are going to be good footballers but it will take some time to put a whole team of decent footballers together.
Don't forget that in 2006 we had some worse muppets than we have now - Joel Reynolds, Kepler Bradley, Courtney Johns, Jason Laycock, Mark Bolton, Jay Nash, Scott Camporeale, Andrew Lee, Ben Jolley, Richard Cole, Tristan Cartledge all got games that season.

i said this to a mate once, on a train.... (circa 2005) and said we had the worst team then.....

This other essendon supporter started going on and bringing in eras as if i would know like 1992 or something... anyway i dropped him.... then me and my mate fought the train. one by one until we got the driver, he just said - "no no i am like a baby j*esus with no arms, i am harmless".... so we let him off....

but anyway i learned not to question peoples opinions on worst teams, so yeah whoever started this thread... your probably right.

i just think it hurts more when we are piss weak up against a hawthorn reserves side. I hate hawthorn, and this makes it even worse.

Essendon were awful, but I thought we were also shot at the selection table. The three ruckmen was ridiculous....f*** me hirdy what were you thinking???

The selection of Woosha(underdone or over it)..questionable. the lack of pace and finish in the midfield.

I chuckled to myself when I read Hirdy's commments on how we were outrun in the midfield...well far be it from me to question the great man.... But WELL HELLO!!.... F***K ME DEAD with a wooden spoon!!...Now who would have thought that that might happen...with speedsters like Lonergan, Watto, Prismall, Hocking, Monfries, Howlett, Myers et al not to mention the 3 lightning quick ruckmen we had being rushed back in the side. So help me I reckon we've gone backwards since last year...and that's saying a mouthful. For all his limitations, at least Knights was producing a side that had pace, pace to burn...not a lot else mind you but at least they could run which is always somehting you can work with. But this mob... have you ever seen a slower midfield, I mean EVER!?...I haven't.

I know we're missing Dempsey and Winders but what has Reimers got to do to get a gig these days. One bad game he played and he's Out, Goorn, On ya bike sport, it's almost as though he's had his papers marked already. Dyson surely is another one worth at least a chance. He couldn't do any worse than Monfries because at least he can run and has good disposal, not overly brave mind you but then I can't see Monfies winning any VC's any time soon either.