So disappointed in the EFC...

[gringo]

Struth, what has gotten into you? I reckon we're looking good this year. Got blokes like Atkinson coming through, bona fide midfield stars like Welsh and McVeigh, a gun full forward in Neagle, wonderful rovers in Davey, Monfries and Jetta. Genuine hardmen in Stanton and Dyson. We are building a list that rivals Brisbane's from early this century.

[swoodley]

Whoever you are...stop using Filthy's account

Mods....please check to see if someone has hacked into Filthy's account.

This is the most positive I've been about the team for 7-8 years.

We have drafted players to build a spine around which we can win our next flag, have drafted better in the last 2-3 years than at any time in the history of the draft and yet somehow Filth, you've decided that all is doom and gloom.

Whatever you might like to think, Essendon does not have some sort of divine right to win premierships and so like all other clubs, we have to put in the hard yards to achieve success.

Knights has talked repeatedly about bringing a group of young players through together and that is what he is doing with further tinkering to come over the next year or two.

The time for your post was 3-4 years ago when we could clearly see that we were going nowhere fast, not now as progress is being made.

[grassy1]

Just wondering about a DISTURBING PATTERN that's been the way since he left in 2007.

KEVIN SHEEDY was FANSTASTIC for ESSENDON,with 4 DAY FLAGS,6 NIGHT FLAGS,1 CENTENARY NIGHT FLAG.For starters,I Hang My Hat on that when Debating Opposition Supporters over here and give 'em a RIGHT REV on AFL FLAGS since 1990,even allowing for that DISASTER.

Credit him with a lot of other stuff.The PROMOTION of ESSENDON as a MAJOR POWER and DRAWCARD that surpassed CARLTON and COLLINGWOOD and Made them GREEN with ENVY about it.Through MICHAEL LONG,promote the WORTH of INDIGENOUS People ON AND OFF the Footy Field.Increase and Promote the Worth of Women in FOOTBALL,including of course ESSENDON.KEPT JAMES HIRD when the Committeee to determine his Future in 1991 DECIDED OTHERWISE!We can THANK SHEEDY for ETERNITY for those things and much more.

Are we SO UNGRATEFULL,we have MOVED ON ENTIRELY from that,or am I seeing things?

He had Faults for sure.But is EVERYTHING that's Not Right NOW His FAULT?Seems to be the ATTITUDE since,even from RESPECTED Posters here.From that perspective,I'm SO DISAPPOINTED about that.

NOT HAPPY!

[Windy_Hill]

this topic and most of the responses ill informed.

Sorry guys, on what are you basing the doom and gloom - a loss to WCE in the Pointless Cup???

[dom_105]

You copped a hit on the head Filthy? You said yourself (essentially) that taking a bunch of kids over to play West Coast's best 22 in a Perth summer was only going to produce one outcome.

Let's be honest here, PJ's job was essentially signing cheques and trying to keep the money flowing in. The board has to stand up and make decisions on the direction that the business should take. The fish rots at the head, and we are finally starting to see a shift in that regard. The new development at Windy Hill, bringing in professionals who know their shit like Robson, Hamilton, Cormack, Alan Richardson (and GO'D and Campo). You surround yourself with the right people and you are inherently going to make the right decisions.

The final piece of the puzzle is the players, and you have to leave that in the hands of the AFL and their cyclical, all teams must be equal bullshit.

[andrewb]

Gumby had back surgery. I'm pleased that they're taking a cautious approach with him.

Other than that I think you're spot on. I think Sheeds had blind faith in Quinn and I remember him saying that they used to look at the team list and see Lloyd, Lucas, Hird, Fletcher etc and wonder why they weren't winning more games. The reason was fitness, pure and simple. Brisbane were fitter than us in 2001 and we only got worse from there. Our injury count was perenially high and we couldn't run out games.

It's no surprise to me that Cormack has us up and running with virtually no injuries coming into round 1 - he did the same at WCE. I'm tipping we'll be a lot fitter this year and even better next year.

[swoodley]

[quote="Filthy"]And we treat Hurley like some Carlsum dopey drunk [quote]
No we don't...we treat him like a silly young man who had a skinful and then allegedly assaulted a taxi driver after failing to pay his fare. He has been charged by the police and has to go to court about it so it is not an insignificant matter.

Seriously, what do you suggest they should have done with him?

[Windy_Hill]

I am not a big fan of Quinns methods, but the last time we had players who played in mens bodies, Quinn was in charge of the physio department - circa 2000

Kudos must also be given for his work with James Hird

[Crazyman]

I see what you are saying Filthy, but I am not so sure we are as far off the mark as you saying.

I reckon we are still a couple of years away from seriously challenging for our next premiership, however, Gumby is a unit and given his injury history, I am totally unsurprised that he is being 'rested'.

We drafted well in getting Prismall last year and Williams this year. These two alone are much stronger and harder than our crop of kids.

Our kids have an extra year under their belts. They will get stronger and hopefully a little faster, but you have to remember, these things can take time. During a season, players maintain their fitness and it is over the off seasons that they really start to bulk up. Just look at the difference year on year in players like Dempsey & Atkinson. If you look back in time, you will see that players the calibre of Hirdy & M Long were sticks until at least their mid twenties (mind you, I am not even going close to equating any of kids to that status just yet...)

So Filthy, I agree, we are a bit behind, however, I don't think we are as far behind as your pessimism shows...

Also, Gringo, where did you go??? Normally, these posts are the other way around...you two didn't do a swap to see what it would be like to have the shoe on the other foot or something did you???

[little_ripper]

i think we have a good young list. with the only slight concern being how our forward group will gel and whether or not the depth is there in the midfield. still some of the best young KPP talent in the AFL is on the essendon list.

Our recent drafting has been pretty solid(the only exception really being a bit of a worry with gumby, still lets see what happens in 2010).

[grassy1]

I'm not saying SHEEDS didn't make mistakes Filth.But did everything he do from 2001 become his Fault,when things went wrong here?

[Sismis]

For 20 years this club was a force to be reckoned with year in and year out. During this period we made the finals 90% of the time and in almost half of those years we had a decent crack at winning the flag. In this golden period we won 4 flags and cemented our spot as one of the elite in terms of both on and off feild success.

After 2000 we had a gradual slide, we followed same strategies we had for 2 decades in order to have continued success while other teams were content to bottom out and abuse the priority system. This has been shown to be a poor strategy and we have paid the price. By the time we bottomed out the priority system had changed (the very f****** year) and we were not able to cash in like pretty much every other team had. Have a look at the teams that finished top 4 last year with the exception of the Cats who were phenomanly lucky with the father-son they are all loaded with priority picked stars.

due to the prolonged success of the 80s and 90s we have been spoiled to the point where we are now bemoaning the fact that we are a few years away from the top echelon of teams. JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TEAM HAS HAD TO GO THROUGH.

Our list is good and on the verge of being excellent. We have some genuine stars and some awesome prospects. We showed last year how good our best was and this year we will continue to narrow the gap between that best and worst. I am excited, while we are not among the top teams yet, we are well placed to have a tilt at the finals.

[Gimps]

Crikey Filth, have you joined the Dark Side of the force?

All this time, listening to your one-eyed statements about how good we are. You've finally shown you can see both sides of the coin. Well done Filthy, I'm so proud.

[Gimps]

I am sorry if it upsets some punters on here but I bumped this to add that one of PJ's and Horsburgh last sabotages of the EFC was to burden us with Knights instead of giving us a 2 time Premiership Player that belleds red n black...Dimma...who is a tough son of a bitch who must have been better than what we got now.

And then reading Jimmy this morning.....oh dear .....I am so ashamed of what we have become.....a self inflicted wound is what makes so much worse.

Are you talking about Hardwick Filthy? If so, where does the name Dimma come from?

[rockhole]

Damien. Was my first choice also.

Hard as f***'n nails.

[Madden]

I am sorry if it upsets some punters on here but I bumped this to add that one of PJ's and Horsburgh last sabotages of the EFC was to burden us with Knights instead of giving us a 2 time Premiership Player that belleds red n black...Dimma...who is a tough son of a bitch who must have been better than what we got now.

I'm confused Filth. You have been one of Knights' biggest backers on this board throughout the last few years (please correct me if I'm wrong, but thats the way I remember it).

Have you changed your mind on him? (Not a criticism, just wondering)

[swoodley]

I am sorry if it upsets some punters on here but I bumped this to add that one of PJ's and Horsburgh last sabotages of the EFC was to burden us with Knights instead of giving us a 2 time Premiership Player that bleeds red n black...Dimma...who is a tough son of a bitch who must have been better than what we got now.

And then reading Jimmy this morning.....oh dear .....I am so ashamed of what we have become.....a self inflicted wound is what makes so much worse.

Brilliant 20/20 hindsight Filth

You can't have it both ways though...it's too late to start blaming PJ & Horsburgh for signing Knights and not Hardwick....you've supported Knights and although I understand your current anguish, I really don't think that you can jump ships at this late stage.

Also, realistically, what makes you think Hardwick would have done any better?

[doogle]

Also, realistically, what makes you think Hardwick would have done any better?

You are kidding, right?

Couldn't have done any worse.

It is a joke that he wasn't appointed.

Involved in 3 premierships at different clubs this decade.

Bled red and black.

Never took a backward step, had great skills.

Paid his dues.

Now he's at Richmond.

Shame, shame, shame.

[Sismis]

I honestly cannot see how we can be blaming the coaching staff or the gameplan. How would we know if the gameplan is working? The players sure as shit aren't playing to it. Knights gave them a license to take the game on. They are not doing it.

As Hirdy said it is a matter of confidence. ATM we have none. Our senior players must take a lot of the blame for this because with the exception of Jobe and Fletch they are simply not leading the way.

As Saladin so eloquantly pointed out last week. With the experience of our list, we should be around the Richmond, Melbourne, North level. We are, but that is no excuse not to do what Melbourne did and have a crack.

Knights makes the hard decisions. He could easily have let us be propped up by lloyd for another year or 2. But that is games not going into our developing forward line. He also decided for all of his skill Lovett was too much of a liability, I was furious at the time but this has been shown to be one of the right choice. These choices are going to cost us games this year, but sobeit it is for the long term, for the goal of us winning more flags.

it's a tough gig atm but there is no way we are as bad as we are currently playing. We just need to regain the belief and we will be back on the path.

I watched Gumby last week, I watched him work his arse off for very little reward. He has that opportunity week after week because Knighter made the tough call.

[swoodley]

Also, realistically, what makes you think Hardwick would have done any better?

You are kidding, right?

Couldn't have done any worse.

It is a joke that he wasn't appointed.

Involved in 3 premierships at different clubs this decade.

Bled red and black.

Never took a backward step, had great skills.

Paid his dues.

Now he's at Richmond.

Shame, shame, shame.

What does any of that have to do with how good (or bad) a coach he will be?