Article from the Saturday Age.
Bombing out
Martin Blake
August 26, 2006
Will Essendon's brave leader Kevin Sheeedy be able to build a contender from the wreckage of their 2006 season?
Photo: Phil Smith
ESSENDON’S WORST YEARS
YEAR WIN-LOSS-DRAW FINISH
1918 3-11 8th*
1921 3-11-2 9th*
1933 2-16 12th*
1970 6-16 11th
1971 4-17-1 11th
1997 9-13-1 14th
2005 8-14 13th
2006 3-16-1 15th**
* WOODEN SPOON
** AFTER ROUND 20
SO THERE'S another one for the "Only Sheeds" folder. Only Kevin Sheedy could manage to coach his team to arguably its worst season in history (the Bombers, 15th right now, have never finished below 14th in 107 previous seasons), and then joke about it. And then get away with it.
Sheedy is in the 3 Mobile shop at Northland shopping centre in Preston on a Tuesday morning, for reasons best explained by Essendon's sponsorship deal with that telco. He plants himself rather incongruously in the middle of the phone displays, and begins talking for the cameras.
Talking and spinning. He's the master of spin, Essendon's coach, and he's been required to be at his best all year.
It's all about growing the kids, he'll say. He talks about Hot August Night, his marketing idea for tonight's game against Richmond, and about his idea for playing songs over the public address after each goal. He talks about flooding ("a cancer in the game") and about Dean Rioli, who will walk-crawl to his 100th game ("not many 100-gamers came off the Tiwi Islands").
When he finishes, Sheedy goes out to press the flesh. He asks a shy, young boy whom he supports in the AFL, and finds it is Richmond. "We're gunna get ya this week," he tells the urchin. "Am I getting you nervous yet?"
THE funny thing about all this is that at Essendon, the faithful appear to be accepting Sheedy's smokescreen without question.
The previous time this happened at Richmond, for instance, the ferals dumped a truckload of manure outside the front door of the club's Punt Road offices.
But the closest anyone came to mocking Essendon this year was earlier in the season, when staff had to remove a few grounded paper planes from the Windy Hill arena on consecutive Monday mornings. The Essendon supporters have been pillars of moderation. "Well, they have made the finals 19 times," says Sheedy of his 26-year reign.
Peter Jackson, Essendon's long-time chief executive, says it is because modern fans are "more educated" to the vagaries of the socialist AFL system. "I think we've got to be careful that we don't rationalise it away as being one of those years, and (that it's) all due to injuries," says Jackson. "That's got a lot to do with it, but we are in a rebuilding phase."
Sheedy will coach the club in 2007, of course, but will be out of contract by the end of that season. As will Neale Daniher, a favourite son of Essendon. Realistically, Sheedy needs to find substantial improvement to hang on. Historically, everyone in football knows he generally does.
Jackson, who has been rock-solid behind Sheedy, recently said that Essendon would need to see substantial improvement in 2007, adding that if the Bombers were in the bottom four for a third consecutive year, strong questions would be asked. It was perceived as some sort of threat to Sheedy's tenure, a point he disputes now.
"The contract will be honoured, there's absolutely no issue about that," he says. "But if you do finish in the bottom four next year, that makes it three years in a row, and the club would have to take a pretty hard look at itself with regard to all things. That was the point I was making. That would ask questions about whether our list was good enough.
"I think we can accept it this year.
"I don't like saying this, but in a way, it's been good for us. It allows us to rebuild the list and it gives us a greater appreciation and some honesty about where we're really at.
"But we'd want to improve dramatically next year, I would have thought."
IN Acoffee shop a few minutes after his news conference, Kevin Sheedy sips his latte and scrawls names on this reporter's notepad. They're in lines of three, forming an imaginary team — names such as Stanton, Winderlich, Lovett, Dyson, Monfries, Dempsey, Laycock, Bradley, Ryder. They're all kids, and they're Essendon's future.
In November, Essendon will get a top-two pick in the national draft plus a priority selection, meaning it will have three picks in the first 20 selections. Chris Heffernan (No. 2 in 1996) is the club's highest selection in a draft, a reflection of the fact that even in bad years, Essendon has been able to avoid the cellar. Until now, at least. "We're in the ball park for the first time in a while," says the coach.
Sheedy is convinced Essendon is on the way back after paying the price for the club's strong thrust from 1999 to 2001. Yet he was as disappointed as anyone last Saturday night when the Bombers were towelled up in the first half by Hawthorn, unable to find any inspiration for James Hird's tribute game. "I wouldn't have wanted to be sitting in the crowd at half-time," he says.
With Jason Johnson suspended and Dustin Fletcher injured — the Bombers have a dozen players gone for the season — Sheedy will have arguably his worst team of the season on the park tonight.
Although Matthew Lloyd has missed almost the entire season, the more astute observers reckon that Essendon's lack of midfield pace is the primary problem (which might be addressed by the inclusion of Jason Akermanis in the off-season).
Hawthorn ran that group ragged last Saturday night and Age columnist Robert Walls, for one, says teams with leg speed can easily beat Essendon by running and carrying the ball.
Yet many Essendon supporters regard captain Lloyd's return next season as a panacea to all its ills. They ought to remind themselves that the only team below them on the ladder, Carlton, has the man who will win the Coleman Medal, Brendan Fevola.
ESSENDON made an $800,000 profit in 2005 and will be in the black to the tune of about $1 million this year. But Jackson knows it is not cash that the stakeholders crave.
His analysis of Essendon's decline comes down to the success of the AFL system, plus two poor years in the draft (2000-01). "It's an absolute fact that there were two clubs who didn't finish below sixth from 1999 to 2004, and … look where Brisbane are now. You can try to resist that, you can back-end payments to keep your list together, but in the end, it gets you."
Changes are already evident. Matthew Knights has been made development coach so that Adrian Dodoro can focus 100 per cent on recruiting. There's also Essendon's attitude to re-signing players, with Johnson and Dean Solomon offered only one-year contracts. It smacks of a club about to take a harder line.
Jackson believes Essendon became complacent. "When you have an era at the top and you've got financial strength and all the resources you need, everybody to some degree — I'm not talking about the players here — takes things for granted.
"That manifests itself on the field, where if you lose a game, 'We'll win next week'. We have a bit better opinion of ourselves than we should have. Sometimes, I've noticed over the last few years the players — and I'm not talking about anyone in particular — haven't taken a loss as hard as they might have.
"You see this year when they couldn't buy a win, and we had the draw against Carlton, the whole club was genuinely annoyed and frustrated at losing a game of football. I looked around and I thought: 'That's good. That's really good.' Then when they got the wins against Brisbane and Collingwood, I thought: 'This is appreciation that we've got to work harder and we'll appreciate what we get'."
Bombing out
Martin Blake
August 26, 2006
Photo: Phil Smith
ESSENDON’S WORST YEARS
YEAR WIN-LOSS-DRAW FINISH
1918 3-11 8th*
1921 3-11-2 9th*
1933 2-16 12th*
1970 6-16 11th
1971 4-17-1 11th
1997 9-13-1 14th
2005 8-14 13th
2006 3-16-1 15th**
* WOODEN SPOON
** AFTER ROUND 20
SO THERE'S another one for the "Only Sheeds" folder. Only Kevin Sheedy could manage to coach his team to arguably its worst season in history (the Bombers, 15th right now, have never finished below 14th in 107 previous seasons), and then joke about it. And then get away with it.
Sheedy is in the 3 Mobile shop at Northland shopping centre in Preston on a Tuesday morning, for reasons best explained by Essendon's sponsorship deal with that telco. He plants himself rather incongruously in the middle of the phone displays, and begins talking for the cameras.
Talking and spinning. He's the master of spin, Essendon's coach, and he's been required to be at his best all year.
It's all about growing the kids, he'll say. He talks about Hot August Night, his marketing idea for tonight's game against Richmond, and about his idea for playing songs over the public address after each goal. He talks about flooding ("a cancer in the game") and about Dean Rioli, who will walk-crawl to his 100th game ("not many 100-gamers came off the Tiwi Islands").
When he finishes, Sheedy goes out to press the flesh. He asks a shy, young boy whom he supports in the AFL, and finds it is Richmond. "We're gunna get ya this week," he tells the urchin. "Am I getting you nervous yet?"
THE funny thing about all this is that at Essendon, the faithful appear to be accepting Sheedy's smokescreen without question.
The previous time this happened at Richmond, for instance, the ferals dumped a truckload of manure outside the front door of the club's Punt Road offices.
But the closest anyone came to mocking Essendon this year was earlier in the season, when staff had to remove a few grounded paper planes from the Windy Hill arena on consecutive Monday mornings. The Essendon supporters have been pillars of moderation. "Well, they have made the finals 19 times," says Sheedy of his 26-year reign.
Peter Jackson, Essendon's long-time chief executive, says it is because modern fans are "more educated" to the vagaries of the socialist AFL system. "I think we've got to be careful that we don't rationalise it away as being one of those years, and (that it's) all due to injuries," says Jackson. "That's got a lot to do with it, but we are in a rebuilding phase."
Sheedy will coach the club in 2007, of course, but will be out of contract by the end of that season. As will Neale Daniher, a favourite son of Essendon. Realistically, Sheedy needs to find substantial improvement to hang on. Historically, everyone in football knows he generally does.
Jackson, who has been rock-solid behind Sheedy, recently said that Essendon would need to see substantial improvement in 2007, adding that if the Bombers were in the bottom four for a third consecutive year, strong questions would be asked. It was perceived as some sort of threat to Sheedy's tenure, a point he disputes now.
"The contract will be honoured, there's absolutely no issue about that," he says. "But if you do finish in the bottom four next year, that makes it three years in a row, and the club would have to take a pretty hard look at itself with regard to all things. That was the point I was making. That would ask questions about whether our list was good enough.
"I think we can accept it this year.
"I don't like saying this, but in a way, it's been good for us. It allows us to rebuild the list and it gives us a greater appreciation and some honesty about where we're really at.
"But we'd want to improve dramatically next year, I would have thought."
IN Acoffee shop a few minutes after his news conference, Kevin Sheedy sips his latte and scrawls names on this reporter's notepad. They're in lines of three, forming an imaginary team — names such as Stanton, Winderlich, Lovett, Dyson, Monfries, Dempsey, Laycock, Bradley, Ryder. They're all kids, and they're Essendon's future.
In November, Essendon will get a top-two pick in the national draft plus a priority selection, meaning it will have three picks in the first 20 selections. Chris Heffernan (No. 2 in 1996) is the club's highest selection in a draft, a reflection of the fact that even in bad years, Essendon has been able to avoid the cellar. Until now, at least. "We're in the ball park for the first time in a while," says the coach.
Sheedy is convinced Essendon is on the way back after paying the price for the club's strong thrust from 1999 to 2001. Yet he was as disappointed as anyone last Saturday night when the Bombers were towelled up in the first half by Hawthorn, unable to find any inspiration for James Hird's tribute game. "I wouldn't have wanted to be sitting in the crowd at half-time," he says.
With Jason Johnson suspended and Dustin Fletcher injured — the Bombers have a dozen players gone for the season — Sheedy will have arguably his worst team of the season on the park tonight.
Although Matthew Lloyd has missed almost the entire season, the more astute observers reckon that Essendon's lack of midfield pace is the primary problem (which might be addressed by the inclusion of Jason Akermanis in the off-season).
Hawthorn ran that group ragged last Saturday night and Age columnist Robert Walls, for one, says teams with leg speed can easily beat Essendon by running and carrying the ball.
Yet many Essendon supporters regard captain Lloyd's return next season as a panacea to all its ills. They ought to remind themselves that the only team below them on the ladder, Carlton, has the man who will win the Coleman Medal, Brendan Fevola.
ESSENDON made an $800,000 profit in 2005 and will be in the black to the tune of about $1 million this year. But Jackson knows it is not cash that the stakeholders crave.
His analysis of Essendon's decline comes down to the success of the AFL system, plus two poor years in the draft (2000-01). "It's an absolute fact that there were two clubs who didn't finish below sixth from 1999 to 2004, and … look where Brisbane are now. You can try to resist that, you can back-end payments to keep your list together, but in the end, it gets you."
Changes are already evident. Matthew Knights has been made development coach so that Adrian Dodoro can focus 100 per cent on recruiting. There's also Essendon's attitude to re-signing players, with Johnson and Dean Solomon offered only one-year contracts. It smacks of a club about to take a harder line.
Jackson believes Essendon became complacent. "When you have an era at the top and you've got financial strength and all the resources you need, everybody to some degree — I'm not talking about the players here — takes things for granted.
"That manifests itself on the field, where if you lose a game, 'We'll win next week'. We have a bit better opinion of ourselves than we should have. Sometimes, I've noticed over the last few years the players — and I'm not talking about anyone in particular — haven't taken a loss as hard as they might have.
"You see this year when they couldn't buy a win, and we had the draw against Carlton, the whole club was genuinely annoyed and frustrated at losing a game of football. I looked around and I thought: 'That's good. That's really good.' Then when they got the wins against Brisbane and Collingwood, I thought: 'This is appreciation that we've got to work harder and we'll appreciate what we get'."
