Where are we really at?

[andrewb]

Perhaps it's time, as the season draws to a close, to have a think about where we're really at. Go back to your early season predictions - based on what you were expecting and considering the season as a whole (including the great wins we had against Adelaide, West Coast and Sydney as well as the shocking losses against Carlton and Richmond):

1. How did our performance compare to your expectations?

I for one had us there or thereabouts for the eight with somewhere between 10 and 13 wins. I got a bit excited about half way through when we were top 4 but then injury hit us. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the season but I hope we can pull one last win out of the bag for Hird and Sheeds and completely mess up West Coast's finals campaign.

2. What are you most happy about?

Personally. I think we've unearthed a couple of stars in Ryder and Davey this year and Laycock is an uninterrupted pre-season away from being a top 5 ruckman. Stanton, Nash, Watson and Slattery continued their improvement and McVeigh and Pev had career seasons. Lloyd has started to look like getting back to his best in the last few weeks, Fletch and Lucas were awesome up until about round 15 and Hird had some great moments and won two or three games off his own G&D.

3. What are you most disappointed about?

Main concerns are: Bradley and Johns still can't cement a place in the side. Monfries didn't continue his pre-season form - looks like another year away from stardom. Dempsey couldn't stay on the park long enough to see whether he's going to make it. Gumby, Hislop and Jetta were all hit by injuries which kept them from playing much football. MJ, JJ and Heffernan all showed at various times that they were past AFL level football.

4. What do you think the future holds?

I think next year will be a holding pattern for us - 8 to 12 wins again. I think we pulled a couple out of the bag this year and had a pretty good run with injury. However, we'll have a bunch of quality second years coming through as well as a couple of third and fourth years who should really start to come on. The age of Lucas, Lloyd, Fletch and Mal is a worry - I can't see these blokes improving over the next two or three years - and I hope that we seriously test the market for KPPs in the off-season. Hopefully a return to the finals in 2008 followed by a serious tilt at the 2009 flag!

[Essendon4eva]

Incosistant. The word that best describes us.

[Windy_Hill]

For all the good work, our bad was appaling.

Loss to Carlton - killed our season before it had started. Simply Inexplicable

Loss to Hawthorn - their form sort of vindicates our performance but the first game was woeful from a defensive point of view

Loss and Near Losses to Richmond and Melbourne - so we beat Sydney and West Coast yet fall over against the cellar dwellers? Thats a coaching problem and a lack of respect for your opponent

False Belief that Simply wearing and Essendon Jumper makes you a good player.

[Gyoza]

1. How did our performance compare to your expectations?

Probably not too far off what I`d have predicted. The manner of reaching our final position is the disappointing factor - rollercoaster year with a massive plummet to the bottom to finish.


2. What are you most happy about?

Davey, Ryder, Lloydy`s final few games


3. What are you most disappointed about?

Reliance on Hirdy. Next year could be painful.
McPhee getting worse and worse.
Patches of play near the end of the year reminding me of last year (when you could barely remember last time the ball had been in our players hands)


4. What do you think the future holds?

I have no idea. Next year will be very very interesting. At least we can hold on to that for now. I just pray it turns out to be the positive type of interesting. Next year there can be no more procrastinating, resposibility needs to be given to younger players.