Bottom 4...

[The Donners]

Those two wont be back until halfway through the season, I wouldnt rely on them having a major input.

Both will be back before the half-way mark of the season. Prismall is already training 50/50 modified/main group. Welsh is 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule also. Had Davey's goal been allowed in the last quarter, we would have been less than 3 kicks behind the much fancied Port Adelaide, add McVeigh into the middle and anything could've happened, but that's little consolition with regards to premiership points, it does give some positives to players and supporters alike.

If you're an optimist, it will take them 4-5 weeks to get fit under match conditions. I'll use Shaun Higgins as an example in '08.

If those 2 are match fit by round 15 with 7 games left in the season then perhaps we won't be as far down the ladder as many predict - granted, big IFs.

 

[fishguts]

That post is pretty good evidence of why you will be bottom 4, not why not.

Lloyd and Lucas can't get a kick between themselves these days, if they are your only hopes to kick a winning score I'd be worried.

McVeigh is injured (again).

He will be back for this week.
Watson gets 30 touches and the end result is 30 turnovers, seriously this blokes footskills are pathetic.

How about you watch a ****ing game, yesterday he was 5th for effective kicks and the most for Essendon.
Lonergan just fills the numbers

Again, how about you watch ****ing Essendon, the kids is a gem.
Welsh is injured and not due back anytime soon

Fair enough.
Prismall is injured and hasn't even played a game for the club, nor will he anytime soon

He'll be back around round 11, if not earlier.
And Reimers is ugly.

Nice well presented argument.

Gonna be a long year.

Get a ****ing clue.

 

[The Donners]

Neagle, Pears and Daniher are so far from guns it's not funny. I like Essendons young players but seriously, guns? They haven't even proven they can play at the top level.

I agree.

 

[Jono B]

We have a lot of work to do but we are no where near a hopeless cause. We had the opportunity to really put the pressure on Port but we were unable to convert good play into scoreboard pressure in the third term.

We have a lot of players adjusting to playing competitive football after time off:
-Alwyn Davey had not played since round 5 and had looked lost in the preseason and only showed some of his touch in the second half this week.

-Winderlich has not played since round 10 and his skills has not returned to their normal level.

-Lucas was hopeless in the preseason but at least he started finding it. Was just missing his usual clean hands on Sunday.

- Stanton, Houli, Pears and Hocking are also finding their feet.

It was unreasonable to expect instant results from an underdone group who has hardly played any football as a unit. By about round 4 we should be up and running, we will look far from a bottom 4 team by then.

 

[Mighty_bombers]

LOl

to the people baggin essendon to be a bottom 4 team i say this

To Collingwood - Id be more worrying about your own team instead of blaming the umpires every time you lose , and your forwards line only has cloke and Anthony and even then there up and down , your Mids have nothing u only have like Pends and Swan as your mids and even then there no Ablett

To the Carlton people -
Your teams is full of Round 1 picks where you tanked for 4 years and other teams stars to make you look good you have no forward line all your mids kick your goals (which is a plus) you only have Fev thats all....

 

[Smyth94]

Both Essendon and Port looked pretty ordinary..essendon are terrible, they rely on their 2 oldest players to kick goals ..when that doesn't happen they struggle big time. bottom 4 is a huge possibility for them...Dees, Freo and west coast are lock ins for bottom 4.

That's one more player we can rely on than Carlton

Seriously though - How many times in the season would you expect Lucas and Lloyd to have such a minimal impact? I wouldn't bet on it happening too many times.

We may have lost by 41 points but that scoreline flattered Port a tad - We gave them too many soft goals and failed to capitalise our 3rd quarter dominance. We were right in the match with 10 min remaining without our forwards registering a blip on the radar, and missing a few key players.

We get McVeigh back this week (huge inc.), hopefully Reimers in the coming weeks, and as I said before - I wouldn't be banking on Lloyd and Lucas having such little impact if I were an opposition coach.

 

[BLUES82]

LOl

to the people baggin essendon to be a bottom 4 team i say this

To Collingwood - Id be more worrying about your own team instead of blaming the umpires every time you lose , and your forwards line only has cloke and Anthony and even then there up and down , your Mids have nothing u only have like Pends and Swan as your mids and even then there no Ablett

To the Carlton people -
Your teams is full of Round 1 picks where you tanked for 4 years and other teams stars to make you look good you have no forward line all your mids kick your goals (which is a plus) you only have Fev thats all....

Thank god for that too, if we didn't have Fev, we would only have won by 71 points the other night

 

[captain peanut]

Get a ****ing clue.

from a long term perspective essendon have the worst list in the competition bar none. they'll clearly be bottom 4 this year with worse to come over the next few years once lloyd lucas and fletcher finish up

 

[WN123]

Essendon need to have a better run with injuries this year to have any chance of moving forward and already after one round we have the longest injury list in the comp.
Also a few we were pinning big hopes on (Myers, Houli, Neagle) are not showing the improvement we would have expected this year yet.

BUT - For those who have written off Lloyd - Didn't you all do the same last year. And from about Round 10 on he was fantastic.

 

[The Donners]

Thank god for that too, if we didn't have Fev, we would only have won by 71 points the other night

Doesn't work like that. Richmond's best backman when then go to Carlton's next best forward and then etc. etc.

 

[fishguts]

Essendon need to have a better run with injuries this year to have any chance of moving forward and already after one round we have the longest injury list in the comp.
Also a few we were pinning big hopes on (Myers, Houli, Neagle) are not showing the improvement we would have expected this year yet.

BUT - For those who have written off Lloyd - Didn't you all do the same last year. And from about Round 10 on he was fantastic.

It's been 1 round and Myers didn't even play

 

[clogwearer]

I think it's fair for people to be including Essendon in the group of teams in danger of finishing bottom four.

However...after one round of the season, I think there's a couple of things to remember.

Port Adelaide have had our measure for the last few seasons, and to lose to them is no surprise - and 41 points is not an unexpected margin.

But to lose away to them in the first round of the season doesn't necessarily mean disaster. And to have been within 3-4 goals for most of the game after conceding a 3 goal lead early indicates that we managed to remain competitive for a large portion of the game. Sure, we let it slip late (and early) but given the start they got, we held our own for a long part of the game.

We might finish bottom four - but if there's any improvement to be had...we might just lift ourselves above that level and leave the 'cellar dweller' tag behind. Let's see how it goes. I don't think we'll be the only team to lose by a similar margin to Port in Adelaide this year.

 

[strategy]

Dees, Eagles , Freo , Blues

 

[Crows Feet]

It wont be far off with maybe only Richmond coming out and replaced by either;

Sydney, North or West Coast IMO.

100% spot on!

 

[Not a Wellman]

I wasn't sure what Collingwood supporters would say of Essendon in this thread. I wasn't sure if their hatred towards us would alter their veiw on Essendon.

Or if they would remember what happened to them when we were up and going with minimal injuries last year.

It will take a while for us to get going this year, but it's not beyond us to win this week then beat Carlton the week after.

 

[daics_35]

Yer Melbourne should finish last with Fremantle 15th, Essendon 14th and North Melbourne 13th.

 

[saintsownthedome]

I am willing to bet that Essendon won't be there by years end.

I reckon Essendon are bottom two certainties this year. Not trolling, but I think there are 14 other teams that are better than they are.

 

[daics_35]

There is not much between melbourne freo and essendon

 

[Juddy88]

It's funny how Freo never seem to improve. Ever.

 

[Archimedes]

It's funny how Freo never seem to improve. Ever.

Its funny how most of your posts are about Freo. I think your more interested in Freo then your supposed team West Coast.

I don't know which 3 sides will join Melbourne in the bottom 4, considering its only round 1. I wasn't able to watch the Dees play, but looking at the result they appear to have improved. At this stage only fools make predictions, because most will have egg on their face at year end.

 

[sdrawkcab]

Its funny how most of your posts are about Freo. I think your more interested in Freo then your supposed team West Coast.

I don't know which 3 sides will join Melbourne in the bottom 4, considering its only round 1. I wasn't able to watch the Dees play, but looking at the result they appear to have improved. At this stage only fools make predictions, because most will have egg on their face at year end.

D'oh

 

[Juddy88]

Its funny how most of your posts are about Freo. I think your more interested in Freo then your supposed team West Coast.

Thanks for that. I'll take this on board in future.

I don't know which 3 sides will join Melbourne in the bottom 4, considering its only round 1. I wasn't able to watch the Dees play, but looking at the result they appear to have improved. At this stage only fools make predictions, because most will have egg on their face at year end.

Am I sensing a little contradiction here? Have a read through it, and get back to me.