Bombertalk

Most of us have the Bombers finishing well above the Bottom 4 in 2008 (one fool even suggested we would finish as high as 6th!!!)

SO if we dont feature in the Bottom 4 which is certainly contrary to the Bookmakers, which teams will be sitting down below at the end of the year?

I believe this will be the bottom 5, in no particular order.

Melbourne
Adelaide
Bulldogs
Richmond
Essendon

12th and 13th seperated by percentage

I'm tipping it'll be us, Melbourne, Carlton and one of Richmond, Adelaide or Sydney.

It's hard to judge a game hasnt even been played yet. Everyone said the Roos would be bottom last year and look what they did, made a prelim final. Everyone is saying we will be bottom, I disgree until i see us play a couple of games first. I dont mind people picking us bottom, it means we have nothing to lose and hopefully we do what the kangaroos did. We still have a good squad, its just the new coach and no Hird that's why people arent rating us. Bring it on

Essendon are dangerous when they're underestimated.

Let them call us bottom 4.

Rossoneri wrote:
Melbourne
Adelaide
Bulldogs
Richmond
Essendon

I'll go with the same 5 clubs as the bottom 5.

I'm just hoping that if we do finish down the bottom it is because we are playing alot of young players to give them experience.

My problems are:

1. Onfield leadership - we are really scraping the barrel in this regard.

2. Midfield - worst in AFL my a country mile.

3. Skills - competing with Richmond for worst skills in the comp.

4. Mature players - 25-30 year age group is worst in AFL.

Before people start barking off junk about "don't underestimate Essendon" and "it's dangerous to do so", can you please offer reasons as to why it might be dangerous to do so?

1. If you didn't see the leadership Lucas displayed in the last quarter of the last game of the year, you were looking the other way. Lloyd may just well come in to his own this year without the shadow of Hird hanging over him.

2. Midfield - Will benefit from the inclusion of Alwyn, and we had some flashes from some of the younger guys last year.

3. Have you missed the thirteen thousand articles quoting the fact that skills have been our main focus during the off season?

4. Which is why I expect to see a lot of youth this year, and for some of the 20-24 year olds step up and show us who the next leaders of the club will be.

I'd assume that the reason others would say it would be dangerous to underestimate us is the same reason some of us cringe when we face Carlton no matter where they are on the ladder.

Also, there is nothing so dangerous as a man with his back against the wall.

gringo wrote:My problems are:

1. Onfield leadership - we are really scraping the barrel in this regard.

2. Midfield - worst in AFL my a country mile.

3. Skills - competing with Richmond for worst skills in the comp.

4. Mature players - 25-30 year age group is worst in AFL.

Before people start barking off junk about "don't underestimate Essendon" and "it's dangerous to do so", can you please offer reasons as to why it might be dangerous to do so?

Going by the previous three years, it is difficult to argue your points. However, the current coaching department have been working very hard to address the issues you outline. The only one that they cannot really rectify is the 25-30 year old player experience on our list. Can the coaching department improve the other deficiencies? Perhaps......the programs and training methods employed thus far seems to be addressing the issues. You forgot to mention "game plans" as part of our weakness in the past few years. Will they implement a better one? We won't know until it is revealed.

I'm still confident our playing group is far better prepared than it has ever been recently.

Yes BD.

I agree that our players will be more fit and have a clearer idea of what's expected out on the field than in previous years. Whether this translates into success or not remains to be seen.

As far as overcoming skill deficiencies - I"m not sure it's something that can be fixed up over a pre-season. It certainly can be addressed, but these players have been playing football their whole lives. In my opinion, by the time you reach an AFL, you either have good skills or you don't. You could improve them marginally, but blokes like Pev aren't suddenly going to start hitting targets like a Rob Harvey.

gringo wrote:Yes BD.

I agree that our players will be more fit and have a clearer idea of what's expected out on the field than in previous years. Whether this translates into success or not remains to be seen.

As far as overcoming skill deficiencies - I"m not sure it's something that can be fixed up over a pre-season. It certainly can be addressed, but these players have been playing football their whole lives. In my opinion, by the time you reach an AFL, you either have good skills or you don't. You could improve them marginally, but blokes like Pev aren't suddenly going to start hitting targets like a Rob Harvey.

No argument from me. I'm expecting marginal improvement - not extravagant one's. And yes, we all have to wait and see how all this preparation unravels and translates into a winning formula. Even with our noticeable deficiencies last year, we did manage to win some great games....and were in some position to threaten the top 8. So there is a little hope there amongst the group.

i'm being optimistic about our year, but yes, i would agree it is very hard to pick 4 teams for the bottom and not have our name in there.

we have lost our best player a match winner right to the very end. its going to take half a season at least for the team to adjust and win well without him.

(plus the growing pains of a new coach and a new gameplan)

Richmond
western bulldogs
Melbourne
Adelaide