Moved Thread Supplements saga takes the Bombers closer to a flag

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JayJ20 said:
It's definitely fast-tracked the development of our youth for sure. We've made the most of our dire situation. As far as a flag goes, it's put us behind. We were tracking for a top 4 finish in 2013. Could've likely had players requesting trades to us, which would give us a shot at a premiership.

Now we'd have to contend with a super team in GWS in order to win a flag.

We are however in a good position thanks to our recruiting team's superb drafting in the years after the saga.

People focus a lot on a teenager that we picked up at number 1, but it's the likes of Merrett, Fantasia, Daniher, Parish, Walla, Francis, Laverde and Langford that'll hopefully bring us success, all except for Daniher picked up after the saga.

I guess the saga did give us a wake up call
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It doesnt really bother me either way but would you been tracking for that top 4 spot in 2013 if they hadnt taken the drugs?
 

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I think what has happened is that the club decided to move on - the only way it could.

It started with the moves off the field. Get the sponsors on side, keep the membership high and give the supporter base hope for the future. The fans loved seeing Parish, Francis, McDonald-Tipungwuti and co last year. Getting games into them has been a launch pad for the next 5 years.

Getting pick 1 and McGrath? That could have turned out to be a flop - thankfully, McGrath has made a brilliant start to his career.

Perhaps key to it all is the recruitment and retention of James Kelly and Brendon Goddard. Their experience has been invaluable to the whole thing - settling for the youngsters on the ground and everyone else off it.
 
TW Sherrin said:
we might find out more from the civil cases.
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oh yeah for sure, let's hope so. Everyone wants that, it would be the best outcome.

Only problem is, there are no civil cases. The main push at the moment is NLM and his manager is doing everything he can to get an out of court settlement. Unfortunately that's because they know they have buckley's of winning at court so it won't happen.

In any case, there's never been the slightest suggestion of anabolic steroids so your article sheds no light. Just thought you should know
 
pazza said:
I think what has happened is that the club decided to move on - the only way it could.

It started with the moves off the field. Get the sponsors on side, keep the membership high and give the supporter base hope for the future. The fans loved seeing Parish, Francis, McDonald-Tipungwuti and co last year. Getting games into them has been a launch pad for the next 5 years.

Getting pick 1 and McGrath? That could have turned out to be a flop - thankfully, McGrath has made a brilliant start to his career.

Perhaps key to it all is the recruitment and retention of James Kelly and Brendon Goddard. Their experience has been invaluable to the whole thing - settling for the youngsters on the ground and everyone else off it.
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i think the club took stock and saw that whatever creak in the window had opened around 2013/14 was going to be closed come 2017 onwards.

We let players who wanted to go (and we owed it to them) but still drove hard on the draft picks front.
26 for Crameri, 17 & 37 for Ryder(hindsight we foolishly wasted this on Cooney), 5 for Carlisle, 20-something for Melksham, 26 for Hibberd.

Merrett, Langford, Francis, Redman & Ridley covered the lack of kids coming through from failed drafting earlier (likes of el Kav, NOB, Jerrett, Steinberg, Browne, etc. who havent made it)
And while one is on our 22 now, i think 4/5 are certain 22 players once AFL fit.

We've effectively rebuilt the list and the coaching panel without the focus from the outside football world, who were pre-occupied with the investigation of the supplements program.

The list is in very good shape right now.
Laverde, Langford, Parish, Francis and Ridley are the obvious talents to come in and cover the likes of Watson, Goddard, Kelly, Myers and Baguley in years to come.
We can focus on addressing depth and a couple of tall options to play FF and ruck in 2-4 years.
 
Essendon were a good side before the supplements saga and they're recruited well since, hence they're a very dangerous side now. I think that's all there is to it really, this article is overstating things a little. Parish is an excellent player but it's not like he's tearing the competition apart in an unprecedented (lol I'm seriously not trying to make a Clayton Oliver reference but it is the word that best serves my purpose here) way that reflects him having quite a senior role last year. Zak Merrett is an outstanding talent who probably developed a lot earlier than he would have but I think it was always going to happen for him, and players like Tippa are also just naturally talented.

At the end of the day they only lost 8 players last year. Not their whole 2016 list. 8 senior players yes which meant they struggled last year and a lot of players stepped up but as a result of putting together a very good list over the preceding years they still had a pretty competent team on the park most weeks. Certainly more so than us in 2013, and it's only our list turnover and recruiting since then that's put us back where we are. There's a question of whether or not they turned over their list more than they would have normally because of the sage, with all the players they lost/cut since 2013, but they also did very well out of their trades of players like Carlisle.

Good on the Bombers. I hope they continue to improve because it's much more exciting as a Melbourne supporter to be doing well when Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, and Richmond are also doing well, and I think their resilience is admirable, but I think this is a bit OTT. They had a lot of good players in 2013 and 2014 who are still around now and they have a good recruiting team.

If they go on to do things that are unprecedented maybe I'll change my mind about what triggered it all ;) But as of now I don't think they've been fast tracked to a flag with all the 'positives' of last year.
 
Lance Uppercut said:
oh yeah for sure, let's hope so. Everyone wants that, it would be the best outcome.

Only problem is, there are no civil cases. The main push at the moment is NLM and his manager is doing everything he can to get an out of court settlement. Unfortunately that's because they know they have buckley's of winning at court so it won't happen.

In any case, there's never been the slightest suggestion of anabolic steroids so your article sheds no light. Just thought you should know
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Then its lucky for the club everyone is happy to settle.
 

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Regardless of what happened off the field, the club kept their eyes on the performance of the team and kept it separate from the off-field saga.

We made the most of a bad year last year and have come back well. I still think we'll see more improvement next year, it's still a young list that has really only been playing together for half a season, so still room for improvement.
 
ApplecrossWC said:
Well you would hope it was the biggest penalty in AFL/VFL history seeing as it was the biggest disgrace in AFL/VFL history :$

Still wasn't a big enough penalty.
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Eh, you'd be saying this no matter what the penalty was.
 
nanganator said:
Disgraceful that they even had the #1 pick last year. Rewarded for cheating, what a joke.
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Fair enough.
I have a problem for rewarding mediocrity through equalisation which your club benefits from. Take a look at the crowd last night- disgraceful!
 
foj1 said:
Fair enough.
I have a problem for rewarding mediocrity through equalisation which your club benefits from. Take a look at the crowd last night- disgraceful!
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Pardon boss? Rewarding mediocrity? How was St. Kilda rewarded through mediocrity exactly? Based on performance last year Essendon should be playing 22 Sunday twilight games..besides the fact that it was a North Melbourne home game LOL
 
"it's clear that the hardship shouldered by many at that club has also bought some unintended benefits that leaves them comfortably in the top eight and perhaps much closer to a premiership than they would be if they had never employed Stephen Dank."

The benefits were by no means 'unintended'.

The AFL told us this is what they wanted, and have done it.

We were told over and over again by Demetriou and then McLachlan that they were going to do everything within their power to get Essendon back up as a powerhouse as soon as possible.



So why the shock?
 
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