Opinion Crossroads

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Essendon started its long decline after they stupidly gave up the MCG as their home ground.

It was unforgivable, and such a blind stupid error of judgement that has led to massive problems ever since.

We gave away 000s of new supporters and thier huge $$$$$ who would have added to our fan base because the MCG is the home of footy.

We gave up a home ground advantage in finals, and played on a windless, perfect dry pitch under a roof,
when we play on the MCG or the SCG and other grounds in the wind and rain we just cant play, because the players have limited all weather skills.

Now Collingwood has the MCG as their home ground and now they have a home ground advantage in the finals
against most other clubs. and on ANZAC day against us. (how dumb was that) the win loss comparison shows it.

Look at the teams who use this same ground as Essendon, all but the Bulldogs are down the bottom,the Bullies won one flag
the rest of the time they languish near the bottom too.

The Pies are smart, tough, and are going wo win more flags in coming years.

Essendon should go with Carlton and the Bulldogs to Princess Park and learn to play outside in all weather again.

The other rant is how come after 10 years or so we have no power forwards able to mark a ball in the forward line.

There are 8 or so regular players who need to move on, we also need some aggro at the ball and a strong desire to win.

We have a good reserve team, start playing them in preperation for next season, this ones over.

Go Bombers
 
ant555 said:
We could get around some of the issues but we really need.

1. Quality inside midfielder.
2. Someone who can take some contested marks in the forward line.
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100% agree on inside midfielder.

Re contested marks inside 50, it’s the delivery inside 50 that’s the major issue for me. Kicking the ball to your teammate’s advantage would be a good start. There’d also be less contested marks against if we filled the hole in our back 50. Every other club fills the hole, we don’t. Our defensive 50 setup is terrible and without Mitch Brown creating space we’re too congested. We’re a 5 goal better side with Brown.
 

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andon said:
Essendon started its long decline after they stupidly gave up the MCG as their home ground.

It was unforgivable, and such a blind stupid error of judgement that has led to massive problems ever since.

We gave away 000s of new supporters and thier huge $$$$$ who would have added to our fan base because the MCG is the home of footy.

We gave up a home ground advantage in finals, and played on a windless, perfect dry pitch under a roof,
when we play on the MCG or the SCG and other grounds in the wind and rain we just cant play, because the players have limited all weather skills.

Now Collingwood has the MCG as their home ground and now they have a home ground advantage in the finals
against most other clubs. and on ANZAC day against us. (how dumb was that) the win loss comparison shows it.

Look at the teams who use this same ground as Essendon, all but the Bulldogs are down the bottom,the Bullies won one flag
the rest of the time they languish near the bottom too.

The Pies are smart, tough, and are going wo win more flags in coming years.

Essendon should go with Carlton and the Bulldogs to Princess Park and learn to play outside in all weather again.

The other rant is how come after 10 years or so we have no power forwards able to mark a ball in the forward line.

There are 8 or so regular players who need to move on, we also need some aggro at the ball and a strong desire to win.

We have a good reserve team, start playing them in preperation for next season, this ones over.

Go Bombers
Click to expand...

I've been going on about getting back to the G for years.
 
There is still a grand delusion at EFC. If you look at what we've done including the JLT we've lost to any decent side and crumpled under any pressure.

We've beaten a winless North who are a shemozzle. Melbourne who are out of sorts, injured and just can't run out a game. Brisbane are very young and currently in a good spot based on fixture and things falling into place for them.

It's not crossroads, it's a crisis.
 
North had won a game (Adelaide) when we beat them, Kelvin. It doesn't significantly lessen your point that beating them was no great achievement, but still, no need to invent a fact that patently isn't true.
 
The question I ask myself and can’t answer is would Langford Francis Laverde Parish et al have been better if they were drafted by the Pies cats hawks. Would Selwood have been the same player if we took him instead of Gumby.
 
dave10 said:
Too many younger players brought into the club are not advancing. Some of it high end talent. Langford should be better than he is and playing senior football now. Why not? Francis for all his noted challenges to me isn’t going about his footy with the focus and repeated determination required. Parish hadn’t improved. If they walk out at years end that would be an indictment on the club. Player Development is the biggest issue needing to be addressed.

My other main concern is mindset and culture. We may not even know what impact the saga has had in creating the culture of the club. To me it feels like Essendon has lost its ruthlessness. It’s a nice club with great blokes and a nurturing environment of inclusiveness and acceptance. That’s the look and feel of Essendon that I see. It produces good outcomes in a learning environment. It’s inconsistent in effort. It’s the Melbourne Foitball Club in this sense to me.

I feel like it’s become a soft and accepting club. It needs to bring back some mongrel. It can’t accept that rubbish from Heppell and Myers post game. On the flip side, it did show Essendon is a nice club with good blokes!

And I don’t know whether we have a good coach btw.
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Totally agree with all points in this post.
 
fanuch said:
The question I ask myself and can’t answer is would Langford Francis Laverde Parish et al have been better if they were drafted by the Pies cats hawks. Would Selwood have been the same player if we took him instead of Gumby.
Click to expand...

Conversely, would Essendon be the same club had we taken Selwood? Seems exactly the kind of leader we’d love right now. Uncompromising.

Hurley is one i thought would make a good captain. Think he lifts when he knows he needs to be at his best e.g playing on Buddy. He’s a competitive beast that needs the expectation to thrive, imagine the 2018 v Sydney Hurley every week. Now pair that with a guy who absolutely despises losing. He hates it passionately, whether it’s a single contest or a match.

Selwood has it, Hodge had it, Reiwoldt had it. All three are regarded as some of the best captains of the last decade.
 
owen87 said:
Conversely, would Essendon be the same club had we taken Selwood? Seems exactly the kind of leader we’d love right now. Uncompromising.

Hurley is one i thought would make a good captain. Think he lifts when he knows he needs to be at his best e.g playing on Buddy. He’s a competitive beast that needs the expectation to thrive, imagine the 2018 v Sydney Hurley every week. Now pair that with a guy who absolutely despises losing. He hates it passionately, whether it’s a single contest or a match.

Selwood has it, Hodge had it, Reiwoldt had it. All three are regarded as some of the best captains of the last decade.
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I’m not sure how important for the players it is to be in the leadership group. How was it Hurley and Hooker weren’t or aren’t in the leadership group?
 
The Donners said:
I’m not sure how important for the players it is to be in the leadership group. How was it Hurley and Hooker weren’t or aren’t in the leadership group?
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Depends on the club, some are player led (I’m guessing that’s us) while others seem more directed from the coach.

I’d assume ours is a popularity contest since Heppell and Myers seem like great blokes to have a joke with after a game, while Hurley seems like he’d slap some pretzels off a table after a loss.
 
kelvin_sheedy said:
There is still a grand delusion at EFC. If you look at what we've done including the JLT we've lost to any decent side and crumpled under any pressure.

We've beaten a winless North who are a shemozzle. Melbourne who are out of sorts, injured and just can't run out a game. Brisbane are very young and currently in a good spot based on fixture and things falling into place for them.

It's not crossroads, it's a crisis.
Click to expand...
We didn't crumple under the Collingwood pressure I believe. Way down early in the game we were the better side for a fair chunk of it and arguably should have won it.

Keep in mind that if we snuck a win against St Kilda, Sydney, or Collingwood we would be in the 8 now or just outside. Not sure whether the sky is falling regarding the team but the 3 and 5 is a concern. We still rate and measure teams like we've always done. That's just what we do.

But in reality there is very little between most of the teams these days as evidenced by Carlton's showing today. The good sides are just a bit more consistent and perhaps a little more settled.
 
M
fanuch said:
The question I ask myself and can’t answer is would Langford Francis Laverde Parish et al have been better if they were drafted by the Pies cats hawks. Would Selwood have been the same player if we took him instead of Gumby.
Click to expand...
Maybe of the names mentioned Parish better off with the Cats and Pies but Frank I think we looked after him ok and Laverde maybe at Hawks given their injury management.
 

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We are no better than last season if we can't ice teams like Saints, WBD and Sydney. Someone showed a trend yesterday of how we loose to 18th placed teams, it's bad! We have skillful team that is mentally not up to it and coaches that cant fix it and administrators that have no balls. From the outside it appears to be a boys club and we are all getting taken for a ride. What exciting times it is to play for essendon and cash a check every week for doing fa and have no accountability!
 
One thing overlooked is the fact that we arsed our way through playing interstate last year. We are traditionally piss poor when travelling and lost just once last season, to Freo I think, which is very UnEssendon like. We beat West Coast in Perth for Gods sake !!! Hilarious.
We have now, this season reverted to type.
 
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