Hot Topic The Rebuild, est. 2023 and/or 2025

[Old Campaigner]

Part of the challenge of this is it's not a team rebuild with a settled and functional organisation, it's a whole of organisation rebuild. This isn't Hawthorn retooling with a couple of free agents and trades while the rest of the club is completely settled and they are clear on what they are doing.

The analogy I would use is the classic 3 legged stool where the legs are the coaching, list management and strength and conditioning. If one of those legs is unstable, the stool falls over.

Brad we all acknowledge is no visionary, but is a stable presence, and Rosa is young in the role but has started well, the strength and conditioning is dogshit, so the stool falls over despite the continued best efforts of the other two.

I've noted this before too.

Clubs like the Hawks know what is needed to be a successful club. They can keep up with developments or trends in footy because they represent only incremental changes on top of what they're already doing.

By comparison we've lost all that institutional knowledge of what it took to be successful and have to re-learn basically the whole thing.

 

[faible]

By comparison we've lost all that institutional knowledge of what it took to be successful and have to re-learn basically the whole thing.

On this, I don't think we ever had it in the modern fully professional era.

Sheedy and the early-00s was still the semi-professional era.

You look at the clubs like Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn that managed to make the transition early; improvements in drafting and list management, better S&C programmes, more resourced coaching panels.

We totally missed the boat on it all - so did Carlton. Collingwood owes a lot to Eddie McGuire IMO because as a traditional big club they very easily could have fallen into the same trap as EFC and Carlton.

We relied on a messiah head coach who oversaw all of the things all of the time, then when we replaced him we drastically under-resourced the new guy (Knights), turfed him for Hird (who was well resourced) that blew up the joint, appointed Worsfold then Rutten who were both yet again under-resourced.

Finally Scott comes along and has the ability to tell the club that they're basically amateur hour across the board, along with Vozzo who sees the same things.

Nothing about EFC the organisation has ever been successful in the modern era of football.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

On this, I don't think we ever had it in the modern fully professional era.

Sheedy and the early-00s was still the semi-professional era.

You look at the clubs like Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn that managed to make the transition early; improvements in drafting and list management, better S&C programmes, more resourced coaching panels.

We totally missed the boat on it all - so did Carlton. Collingwood owes a lot to Eddie McGuire IMO because as a traditional big club they very easily could have fallen into the same trap as EFC and Carlton.

We relied on a messiah head coach who oversaw all of the things all of the time, then when we replaced him we drastically under-resourced the new guy (Knights), turfed him for Hird (who was well resourced) that blew up the joint, appointed Worsfold then Rutten who were both yet again under-resourced.

Finally Scott comes along and has the ability to tell the club that they're basically amateur hour across the board, along with Vozzo who sees the same things.

Nothing about EFC the organisation has ever been successful in the modern era of fofootball

Its alot like rugby australia, the national team was at the top just before the professional era exploded. At the time their standards were higher than most teams for training/analytics etc but then other nations caught up and leaped over them and they've been playing catch up for 20+ years, hindered by in-fighting amongst the Board and States (the stand in for Coteries in this analogy).

 

[Squeaky]

Nothing about EFC the organisation has ever been successful in the modern era of football.

Never a truer sentence spoken!
Someone also made the analogy of us being Kodak! Bingo!

We were successful when being a big club mattered more than being competent.
Now that you have to be competent across the board in your football club we have been shown up and left for dust.
I have little confidence in the place as a whole...

 

[Zach Package]

I've noted this before too.

Clubs like the Hawks know what is needed to be a successful club. They can keep up with developments or trends in footy because they represent only incremental changes on top of what they're already doing.

By comparison we've lost all that institutional knowledge of what it took to be successful and have to re-learn basically the whole thing.

Much, much more difficult, exponentially so.

It's likely why it has come along so slowly, they don't know what good looks like and they don't know what professional behaviours they should be modelling. And too cowardly to go out and pay Neal Balme a shit load of money to tell them.

I will continue to die on this hill, it's far from a perfectly balanced playing list and it's not like it should be up there winning flags (which would be a real heartbreaker), but the talent on the list is far, far from the problem here.

 

[Nifft]

Much, much more difficult, exponentially so.

It's likely why it has come along so slowly, they don't know what good looks like and they don't know what professional behaviours they should be modelling. And too cowardly to go out and pay Neal Balme a shit load of money to tell them.

I will continue to die on this hill, it's far from a perfectly balanced playing list and it's not like it should be up there winning flags (which would be a real heartbreaker), but the talent on the list is far, far from the problem here.

And people are general averse to change, even when the system is broken, because it brings uncertainty and no one wants to lose their job. So in that environment it's a constant struggle to make changes to improve.

 

[Old Campaigner]

the solution is to get rid of every Essendon Person in any kind of position of authority and replace them with people from actual professional clubs

 

[eth-dog]

the solution is to get rid of every Essendon Person in any kind of position of authority and replace them with people from actual professional clubs

But then those people will become Essendon people. It's a never ending paradox

 

[Nifft]

the solution is to get rid of every Essendon Person in any kind of position of authority and replace them with people from actual professional clubs

Agree. Also think it wouldn't hurt to change some of the assistant coaches to get some fresh ideas. Our forwardline and transition into the forwardline has been broken for ages. Get some new people to look at this among other things.

 

[Nifft]

But then those people will become Essendon people. It's a never ending paradox

Are you suggesting that the Essington virus is contagious?

 

[Foxx]

We need 12 very good under 23 players, if we are going to be a top 4 contender within 5 years.

At the moment we have maybe 6.

So we need to find 6 more within 2 years before Tassie come in.
Including one influential champion.

Tough ask.

 

[Call Me Cake]

We need 12 very good under 23 players, if we are going to be a premiership team withing 5 years.

At the moment we have maybe 6.

We need 6 more within 2 years.

Reality is this isn't a reality. Most teams don't have 12 elite players especially not all of the same age bracket. That's simply not even possible to generate in such a short span of time. Reality is most sides have a handful of players that go on to be very good and a base of good role-players and a mixture of youth that have all gelled into a system which they've learned over time.

When projecting the ages/experience of the list into the next 2 or so years as I've done I see us moving into that trajectory (notwithstanding the injury stuff we need to fix).

We still do need to attract/recruit a couple of elite players by then though.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Daily reminder that we were already one of the least experienced/youngest weekly selected sides in the comp before the spate of injuries/debutants.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Much, much more difficult, exponentially so.

It's likely why it has come along so slowly, they don't know what good looks like and they don't know what professional behaviours they should be modelling. And too cowardly to go out and pay Neal Balme a shit load of money to tell them.

I will continue to die on this hill, it's far from a perfectly balanced playing list and it's not like it should be up there winning flags (which would be a real heartbreaker), but the talent on the list is far, far from the problem here.

I think we have enough ok talent on the list to finish in the 8 or just outside the 8, but I think there has been certain areas that are key to the modern game that have been ignored till recently and also we do need some more elite talent.

I think we've addressed some issues already but im still very concerned with our lack of speed both in forward line and backline and we could still do with a couple more decent ball users.

Also whilst our midfield depth has definitely grown over the years and it has a bit more defensive starch (when we have the full cohort available) I still think we need a mid or two with elite traits (whether it be ability to explode out of congestion, goal kicking, aerobic capacity, decision making)

 

[Jobe Watson]

Need to have a big list cleanout and hit the next two drafts hard before Tassie come in. We've already unearthed some future best 22 players this year, we need to find another 6-8 or so over the next few seasons to replace the spuds currently in our lineup.

No more recruiting Greshams and other club's crabs. Please no Liam Ryan

1

Liam Ryan

Age

29

Ht

181cm

Wt

76kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.3

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

2.7

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.3

5star

D

9.9

3star

K

8.0

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.3

3star

T

1.6

3star

G

1.3

5star

D

11.4

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

2.4

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

1.8

4star

G

1.6

5star

or Jack Silvagni

1

Jack Silvagni

Age

27

Ht

194cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.0

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.9

4star

MG

176.9

3star

D

5.3

1star

K

4.0

1star

HB

1.3

1star

M

1.7

2star

T

0.7

1star

MG

91.0

2star

D

9.2

3star

K

6.2

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

3.4

4star

T

2.8

5star

MG

131.4

3star

. Keep prioritising youth.

Speed and skills a must.

 

[Squeaky]

the solution is to get rid of every Essendon Person in any kind of position of authority and replace them with people from actual professional clubs

Not opposed to this...

 

[ant555]

Well in reality it does not matter if the build started in 2020 or 2022 or 2023. The fact is there is plenty of heavy lifting needing to be done and the only way we do maybe win a final in 2027 is if they have two of the better trade / draft / FA periods in the history of the game and get most of their decisions right in the next two years.

 

[Zach Package]

I think we have enough ok talent on the list to finish in the 8 or just outside the 8, but I think there has been certain areas that are key to the modern game that have been ignored till recently and also we do need some more elite talent.

I think we've addressed some issues already but im still very concerned with our lack of speed both in forward line and backline and we could still do with a couple more decent ball users.

Also whilst our midfield depth has definitely grown over the years and it has a bit more defensive starch (when we have the full cohort available) I still think we need a mid or two with elite traits (whether it be ability to explode out of congestion, goal kicking, aerobic capacity, decision making)

And while I agree with that, we also can't get them up and about to make a true assessment on what kind of players we need to take it further. Next year is almost a wash as well because it most likely won't be reaching into the guts of the list to find people, it will be trying to bring some level of cohesion to it, it will likely take 3 months to settle on a structure and a best 22, and then another 3 months to give them an opportunity to fail fast.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

And while I agree with that, we also can't get them up and about to make a true assessment on what kind of players we need to take it further. Next year is almost a wash as well because it most likely won't be reaching into the guts of the list to find people, it will be trying to bring some level of cohesion to it, it will likely take 3 months to settle on a structure and a best 22, and then another 3 months to give them an opportunity to fail fast.

yeah no argument there, like when i was listing out the key attributes we need in my head, often the player I thought filled that need is someone who is injury prone (eg. Ridley and Reid for elite kicking in backline) or very raw (May as a contested marking key forward). Rosa has a big job ahead of him to unravel the compounding mess previous regimes have created.

 

[Foxx]

Looks like we all agree it's the next 2 years pre Tassie, or bust for another future rebuild.

 

[Squeaky]

Well in reality it does not matter if the build started in 2020 or 2022 or 2023. The fact is there is plenty of heavy lifting needing to be done and the only way we do maybe win a final in 2027 is if they have two of the better trade / draft / FA periods in the history of the game and get most of their decisions right in the next two years.

So, you're saying we're ****ed?

 

[ydc55]

SWell in reality it does not matter if the build started in 2020 or 2022 or 2023. The fact is there is plenty of heavy lifting needing to be done and the only way we do maybe win a final in 2027 is if they have two of the better trade / draft / FA periods in the history of the game and get most of their decisions right in the next two years.

Very insightful post.
This is a concise summation of where we are at.
We cannot afford to get this draft wrong.
We cannot overlook a Bailey humphries.
We are in the somewhat fortunate position of having to unload a lot of players and we are not a destination club.
If we lose Draper and get pick 6 we would take that as a break even in this draft as we would get pick 11 after bids possibly.
Please draft fast, endurance athletes.
Please draft competitors and please we are due some luck.

 

[MattyB3150]

Potentially our last 2 drafts have been probably the best we have had in over a decade (not hard to beat). Caddy Roberts Kako Clarke have all shown great signs. I am pretty confident with Zac Johnson aswell not that he has played much (Is only a few months older then some of the kids in this years draft). Really like Nguyen aswell a lock down defender aswell.

Now we have two firsts and two seconds. Hopefully the acedemy kids can help fill the rest of the small forward roles as it’s been one of our many weaknesses for years.Guelfi Davey and Gresham are obviously not good enough.

We desperately need bigger bodies in the midfield. We really dropped off once we lost settlefield from the midfield. We also need some more speed coming out of the backline. We are to stagnated from kick ins.

 

[84859300]

We cannot afford to get this draft wrong.
We cannot overlook a Bailey humphries.
We are in the somewhat fortunate position of having to unload a lot of players and we are not a destination club.

I have a real fear with our selections coming through from the NGA over the next few years. We have Kako as a small forward, now with experience and on a good trajectory as a player.

Coming up are 2x more small forwards in Sweid and El Achkar... then Bewick a year later.

Old Essendon would take them all and have a glut of players all pushing for the same spot. Same old story would be to try and turn a kid into a back flanker or a wing to get them a game - when their gold has come from playing forward.

I would like to think that new Essendon might be smarter and pick only the best, or potentially selecting either 1x or 0x Sweid or El Achkar if they aren't the best fit. Only time will tell.

 

[Yoda_]

Essendon fielded 15 debutants, how many will still be around in 18-24 months?

Isaac Kako - yes
Tom Edwards - No
Saad El~Hawli - No
Archer Day~Wicks - ??
Lewis Hayes - Yes
Angus Clarke - Yes
Zak Johnson - Yes
Luamon Lual - No
Lacki Blackiston - No
Archer May - ??
Vigo Visentini - Yes
Oskar Smartt - No
Liam McMahon - No
Jayden Nguyễn - Yes

A 40% hit rate, is this enough to get us off the canvas?