Opinion David King rates Essendon's season F thus far - what do you think?

[Kakkle]

12 rounds into the season and our best 3 performed players are players who were not at the club last year, and yet we've gone backwards. None of our players have actually improved on last year. That's a F in my books.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

I'm waiting for that season where it all clicks where we are firmly placed in the top 8 and possibly finishing top 4

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I'm waiting for that season where it all clicks and we are firmly placed in the top 8 and possibly finishing top 4

Oh B4L, you really are pessimistic if the best you can hope for is a possibility of top 4 when it all clicks.

 

[Blind Turn]

What does 3 A grade games, one B grade game, and 7 F grade games even out to? That’s where we are at.

 

[LB#16]

Appropriate grade considering the club has done F all this season.

 

[CBombers17]

I'm waiting for that season where it all clicks where we are firmly placed in the top 8 and possibly finishing top 4

Serious question. If it "all clicked" for our current best 28 or so where would you see us finishing this year?

I'd say if 80% of them were in good to very good form, playing to the game plan and we had a good run with injury - top 5.

We dont have the midfield yet to definitely be top 4 even with a good run at it imo.

 

[AcuteWhistle]

12 rounds into the season and our best 3 performed players are players who were not at the club last year, and yet we've gone backwards. None of our players have actually improved on last year. That's a F in my books.

I may be off the mark but propose it's the players that were new to Worsfold's message that haven't really had a problem with it while the rest have been running around like the proverbial chooks in many games, apparently not understanding their roles. Add to that a curious approach to selection which hasn't helped gell the group I would have thought.

F is harsh but fair & rests squarely with the coaches imo as the gameplan, messaging & selection have combined for particularly nasty brand of dogs breakfast in many games.

 

[Runk]

Thanks to David King I no longer have to suffer thinking about how my team has performed this year! Thanks David you giant campaigner.

 

[Duckworth]

While I won’t argue with the F, he must have given out at least 5 of them... Carlton, St Kilda, Brisbane and GC all deserving. That is a pretty high fail rate for the AFL.

Maybe we should get King to put in a submission for us to get a priority pick...


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[Mr Mojo Risin]

An F would only be valid if we were out of contention. We're still a chance of making the finals, would hardly call the season a write off yet.

It was a mid season report though, so I take that as a grade for the season up to this point, not writing off the season.

FWIW I think F is completely appropriate for this far but in the end couldn’t give a s**t what King thinks because it doesn’t affect whether we will win anymore games.

 

[Doss]

Letter grading is hopeless for something like football.

Having said that, our season has been well below par so far and thus, it couldn't really be considered anything other than a fail.

 

[lamaros]

David King has opinions, but they're all even shitter than our season to date.

Why did I wander in to this thread though? More fool me.

 

[JDavey]

I think it's fair. Most of us expected finals and we're probably not going to get there.

A lot of our promising players that led our improvement last year have gone sideways or backwards so far (e.g. Daniher, Merrett, Fantasia, McGrath) and while we've uncovered some talent in Guelfi, Redman and Ridley it hasnt been enough to offset the lack of development elsewhere. Having injuries to Ambrose, Zaka, Daniher, Fantasia and Gleeson hasn't helped either.

However the single biggest reason we deserve an F is watching our onfield efforts. We've maybe had 1 four quarter effort this year, the first two months of the season contained some of the most unwatchable games we've ever played, we looked like a bottom 4 side.

The interesting thing was in the lead up to the Melbourne game both teams had been equally disappointing, that win launched them on their way to the top 8... And we went on to lose to the Blues...

There's no reason we can't finish out the season strong, go on a Richmond esque run and get pumped by 8 goals in an elimination final. You'd probably grade us a C+ if this were to happen and be hopeful for next year. Our players are really going to need to lift to achieve this.

Players outperforming expectations: Baguley, Stringer, Smith, Guelfi, McKernan

 

[citizen-erased]

12 rounds into the season and our best 3 performed players are players who were not at the club last year, and yet we've gone backwards. None of our players have actually improved on last year. That's a F in my books.

This is correct

We earned that F.
Losses against Dogs, Freo, Carlton & Hawks not acceptable if we were to improve on 2017
Will throw the Pies in too.
Poor selection decisions through out.

David King - right for once.

 

[DapperJong]

David King has opinions, but they're all even shitter than our season to date.

Why did I wander in to this thread though? More fool me.

What's wrong with it?

 

[SherbertLemon]

We actually have a list that could have been competitive.

Yet we choked, and embraced mediocrity again by losing to the collective powerhouses of WB, Carlton & Hawthorne.

GAGF Essendon.

 

[Zach Package]

It's only an F if you're a dickhead like King who picked us for the flag.

We're right where we should be

 

[blitzer]

I'd say D so far but Its hardly an outrage to be rated F. Our last month of footy winning 3/4 gives me a bit of hope and optimism for the rest of the year. F to me would be bottom 4 clubs but if you expected us to win a premiership this year than fair enough.

I'm not sure I'd entirely agree with the people saying that none of our players have improved. A lot of our young untried players are stepping up eg Ridley, Redman, Clarke, Mutch, Long and Francis. All these guys are either breaking into the best 22 or putting pressure on to do so. Not to mention some brand new players have impressed including our recruits in Smith, Saad and Stringer as well as Guelfi and Zerk-Thatcher (I guess you can't say they've improved per se but they look to be good additions).

A lot of our players are playing at around the same levels. The area where we've had a regression is our forward line and our 3 aa's.
Specifically Daniher, Fantasia, Walla, Stewart, Merrett and Hurley. Merrett out of everyone I think is fighting back to better form whilst being tagged and yes he won't be matching his AA this year but I still think he's at least improving his ability to work through a tag.
There's some potential excuses for some more than others but ultimately we need a lot more from this group than we got in the first half of the year.

If we finish in the top 8 and win at least 1 final - B (or higher if we get further etc)
If we finish in the top 8 and lose elimination final - I'd say C-
If we finish 9-12 I'd rate us - D (which is about where i'm projecting us to finish)
Below 12th - F

 

[Mad Bomber Sean]

At this stage F is correct.

We have had a few positives:

- the three S’s,
- discovering that Guelfi, Redman & Ridley can all play AFL.
- Francis almost getting it together on the cusp of selection is also good.
- Langford being a becoming an AFL player.


Beyond that I see a lot of negatives:

- Daniher’s OP
- Lack of defensive pressure across team, especially in the middle
( exceptions for Smith / Heppel)
- Stagnation of Parish
- Stagnation of Stewart
- Slow progression of Laverde
- injuries to Gleeson & Colyer
- Lack of fitness compared with best teams / shocking 2nd halves
- Lack of inside contested bulls to match the Wines / Kennedy / Dangerfield/ Fyfe / Cripps De Goey
- unbalanced list heavily weighted towards half backs & outside players
- Lack of decent Ruck

The biggest issue is the lack of defensive pressure which will take a while to imbed.

We must recruit a Wines or De Goey. Wallis from Dogs would be a good addition also.

Anyway just my passing thoughts. Overall though it’s an F for the first half of the season.

 

[Kong]

We have the list to win at least one final this year.

More, if you consider the teams that won the last two premierships.

Instead we've been pretty terrible, because the players still somehow refuse to defend consistently.

It's been a failure of a year.

 

[pepsi]

The first half has been a failure. There have been 4 or 5 games this year in which we were very bad. But then again our expectations were not realistic. We were bad from late in the season last year, through to pre season and then this year. Though i think the wheel is turning.

 

[Pevers-Legend]

It's only an F if you're a dickhead like King who picked us for the flag.

We're right where we should be

So SSS were picked up so we could go backwards? Odd trading strategy.



And F is appropriate for one reason - we lost to Carlton - go look at the current game to see why an F is fair.

 

[Bombermania]

Watching this Carlton v Fremantle match leaves me thinking losing to Carlton on its own warrants an F.

I would grade this season has a disappointment although I am seeing improvement in the past few weeks.

 

[JayJ20]

Wins: Adelaide, Geelong, GWS, Port and Brisbane
Losses: Bulldogs, Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne, Fremantle, Hawthorn and Richmond

That's why our season is a fail. The only loss that I thought we still did relatively well in was Fremantle. The other 6 losses were really bad. Our wins (except Brisbane) were excellent, but it makes you question why we didn't play like that in winnable games.

 

[Kakkle]

I may be off the mark but propose it's the players that were new to Worsfold's message that haven't really had a problem with it while the rest have been running around like the proverbial chooks in many games, apparently not understanding their roles. Add to that a curious approach to selection which hasn't helped gell the group I would have thought.

F is harsh but fair & rests squarely with the coaches imo as the gameplan, messaging & selection have combined for particularly nasty brand of dogs breakfast in many games.

The onus is on the players. If the players don't understand their role, than they should seek clarity on what their role actually is.