Bombertalk

...Slattery got dropped to Bendigo 3 weeks ago, hasn't been cited since and isn't even on the emergencies this week in spite of us having a number of injuries. Could probably consider himself unlucky in the sense that he's no worse than NLM, Welsh, Monfries, McVeigh etc., but he's clearly not up to AFL standard, has played 90 games, and he's been dropped to Bendigo and will hopefully stay there unless he substantially improves.

Hirdy & Co: More of this please. You've said this year is about improvement, well i'll give you the hot tip, none of the guys in my signature are up to AFL standard, and none of them are going to improve.

why would they worry about Slatts when they have Woosha to do the job just as well

Yep, poor old Slatts...another one whose gone no-where in the last 4 or 5 years. Far too many like that on our list. As you say Jimmy, it's one small sign that Hirdy has at least recognised one of our problems. I've been concerned our abject failure (on the surface at least) to recognise the problems that so clearly exist within the playing ranks. I'ts hard to do anything about a problem if you don't or wont even acknowledge that you have one. Lets hope we see more such positive signs.

Sounds a bit brutal I know but this is no time for conservatism (historically a deeply rooted problem at Essendon and one that has,all too often, held this great club back over the years IMHO)

Gotta feel for Slats though, he has busted his gut for us over his career but just doesnt have the skills required.

We definately need to see if we can recruit a decent tagger/small defender. What we would give to have an Adam Selwood type or Liam Picken or even a Graham Johncock/Heath Shaw type in our back line.

actually i see Hibberd as a Heath Shaw type player

Slattery is by no means our worse player - therein lies the problem.