What Now for 2008
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:21 pm
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
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