Review Do NOT be disillusioned with 2009 after that performance...

[Macca18]

The easiest thought by most now is "Oh wow! They lost by 16 goals in an Elimination Final - they are crap!" - the view of the uneducated football supporter. The Crows are in another zone at the moment and made us look very average as they would of done to most AFL sides tonight.

2009 was never about making a premiership for the Essendon Football Club. We have taken a significant step towards being a very competitive unit in the very near future. Unearthed lots of new, young talent who will greatly enhance our side in the very near future.

Pears, Hooker, Hurley, Zaharakis, Neagle will all be long and worthy servants of the club. You won't go into many finals with 4 of your first choice ruckman missing, one of your best forwards missing and some of your key players in the engine room missing.

Crows were fair winners on the night (as expected by everyone) and will probably go deep into September but don't write the Dons off purely because of this performance. We've passed an enormous stepping stone this year back into finals contention and I can see us improving rapidly into the future. We finished 2008 on a sour note, and again in 2009 but in different fashion. 10.5 wins was achieved in 2009 - 13 or 14 wins (given a relatively kind run with injury) is within reach in 2010.

Hille returns next year. Gumbleton (fingers crossed) will prove his worth and we may even get some ruck depth with Laycock returning to the side. Pears, Hurley, Hooker, Neagle will only improve with another pre-season and the midfield looks settled and strong for quite a few years to come - plenty of be optimistic about but the Crows were too good, at home, tonight.

 

[Haduken]

Agree 100%. A poor performance on the night, but our season has been littered with them and we all knew inconsistency is a hallmark of an inexperienced team like ours.

We will back next year and we will be on the up again.

 

[bacon buster]

who were we missing from the forward line? lloyd? his form in the 2nd half of the year has been average at best.

but i do agree with most of your points.

some ruthless calls need to be made. we can't just go along and expect a natural progression up the ladder. sheedy back in the 80's made tough calls on players that eventually got us to a flag.

the same thing needs to happen here.

i was disgusted with lovett's effort tonight. unless he is injured, i would put him up for trade. you can excuse poor skill execution (atkinson, quinn) but you can't excuse the total lack of chasing, tackling AND he threw in the poor skill execution for good measure.

anyway. plenty to look forward to. improvement from hurley, pears and neagle. and ryder and hille in the ruck. a full pre-season for prismall, mcveigh, welsh, winders etc.

plenty of positives.

 

[warney7]

i was disgusted with lovett's effort tonight. unless he is injured, i would put him up for trade. you can excuse poor skill execution (atkinson, quinn) but you can't excuse the total lack of chasing, tackling AND he threw in the poor skill execution for good measure.

Unfortunately I thought the same thing.
It sucks because when he is on, he is pretty much our barometer, but when things aren't working, the effort just isn't there.

Does anyone else think that Skipworth played his last AFL game tonight?

 

[Bomber32]

Terrible performance tonight but, overall, there are many positives to come out of this season.

I just can't wait for 2010. We have a lot to look forward to.

 

[raskolnikov]

who were we missing from the forward line?

Hopefully Gumbleton will come on next year and with Ryder in the ruck we will have Hille as another forward option.

 

[bacon buster]

Does anyone else think that Skipworth played his last AFL game tonight?

yes. is he on a 1 or 2 year deal though?

lonergan offers much more, and is younger to boot.

if skippy is so good with the youngsters, put him on the coaching staff, not the playing list.

 

[matty lloyd the champ]

Hopefully the boys won't be too disheartened by this thrashing and bounce back next season. I, alike many others will be looking forward to Hurley and Gumbleton playing on the same ground next year.

 

[bacon buster]

Hopefully Gumbleton will come on next year and with Ryder in the ruck we will have Hille as another forward option.

yeah i know, but based on who we were able to select tonight, we weren't really missing anyone.

we got smashed in the midfield tonight anyway, so even if we had gary ablett, tony locket and jason dunstall down there, we still would have lost.

 

[warney7]

yes. is he on a 1 or 2 year deal though?

His contract is up now. Or October or whenever they sign them til.

 

[The Donners]

Agree 100% Macca!

That game told us a hell of a lot. Andrew Lovett could give us a 2nd round, so too Mark McVeigh. I'm not sure whether Andrew Welsh would get picked up for anything above a 3rd round.

There are plenty of positives at Essendon and losing by 96 points, although disappointing, is going to make or break our young players mentally. I hope it makes them stronger and makes them realise at what level they need to play at consistently.

 

[bacon buster]

i wouldn't be trading mcveigh or welsh. they tried their hearts out and will be better next year with a full pre-season. they are essendon men.

lovett is a stinker though. i've had enough of him. they wanted to get rid of him last year. there would definitely be teams willing to take him off our hands

 

[Nuts4Bolts]

Don't want to be a kill joy, but we did make the finals with a less than 50% record. Although we beat the premiers twice, you'd expect them to come back next year (as long as they've stpped crying). Swans finished strong and will always be a challenger. Port, well who knows. Eagles looked good coming home as well.

We can't afford a slip up next year, as there are plenty of challengers for our 8th spot. We're in for a good battle

 

[bombers2011]

Lovett is a stinker though. i've had enough of him. they wanted to get rid of him last year. there would definitely be teams willing to take him off our hands

DUDE! Open your eyes! Lovett has been carrying an injury... He could barely run last week and again this week. He was 65% fit.
He was pure fire all year. Lay off him.

 

[wba1977]

Lovett has been good for most of the year. Unimpressed with people calling for a trade after one bad final.

He is worth keeping on the list for one reason alone.

He always carves it up against carlton.

 

[bacon buster]

i did say in my first post, that his performance could be excused if he was injured.

however, if he was injured (and that was the reason why he couldn't run) WHY the **** was he playing then?

i don't believe that carrying a niggle completely excuses his effort.

 

[The Donners]

i wouldn't be trading mcveigh or welsh. they tried their hearts out and will be better next year with a full pre-season. they are essendon men.

lovett is a stinker though. i've had enough of him. they wanted to get rid of him last year. there would definitely be teams willing to take him off our hands

McVeigh, Welsh and Lovett will not be part of a premiership at the Essendon Football Club. Maybe 1 of the 3 but 2 have to go. I know McVeigh and Welsh had interrupted pre-seasons but neither are going to improve and will most likely be past their best football at the time Essendon make a challenge for the premiership.

 

[wba1977]

Lovett wasn't exactly on his pat malone in having a shocker.

Is an outside player that needs to be bought into the game by others. We just never got the footy.

 

[The Donners]

DUDE! Open your eyes! Lovett has been carrying an injury... He could barely run last week and again this week. He was 65% fit.
He was pure fire all year. Lay off him.

Lovett was fantastic up until his cork against West Coast. He is amazing to watch.

Tough decisions must be made though, the Essendon Football Club will be well compensated in terms of draft pick/s.

 

[Seb78]

No one wants to see us get pumped the way we did, but its probably a good thing, these young fellas just realised the intensity and work ethic needed to play finals footy. A very good lesson for these kids IMO

 

[Knight Ryders]

There was some disappointing performances tonight but there was a lot of positives to take out of the year. I hope Knights looks at the way the Crows played tonight and gets our players up to the fitness levels of the Crows. They run incredibly hard both ways.

 

[Giants FC]

2009 has been quite a topsy-turvey ride. Amazing highs followed by unbelievable lows.
On our day we showed we can, and did, beat the best. Other times we we blown off the park by also-rans. But through the highs, the Bomber boys showed what is achievable. With experience should come consistency, and with consistency the ability to play like that every week.
Some real foundations are in place now. The Bombers are a team heading up - from no-where near the finals the last few years, into the 8 this year. And next year, I believe the Bombers can go significantly better. Exciting times ahead...

 

[essendon2008]

With all this talk of McVeigh and Welsh being past it...wow short memories guys. Welsh was amazing last year and before being injured, McVeigh was polling consistently in the Brownlow early in the year.

Im officially on the McVeigh and Welsh bandwagon for next year. As for Lovett, he has been pretty good this year. It was only a week ago some were saying he was a rough chance to make the AA squad, yet people want to trade him?

 

[hateitorlovett13]

Lovett has been good for most of the year. Unimpressed with people calling for a trade after one bad final.

He is worth keeping on the list for one reason alone.

He always carves it up against carlton.

Monfries is already on the list for that.

Lovett has been one of our best this year, have faith haters.

 

[nighthawk]

With all this talk of McVeigh and Welsh being past it...wow short memories guys. Welsh was amazing last year and before being injured, McVeigh was polling consistently in the Brownlow early in the year.

Im officially on the McVeigh and Welsh bandwagon for next year. As for Lovett, he has been pretty good this year. It was only a week ago some were saying he was a rough chance to make the AA squad, yet people want to trade him?

Where do I sign up? I actually thought these two did okay tonight, Welsh in particular. I might even say I thought he did well, but that might be too controversial.

How about the "McVeigh should replace Slattery as the small defender" bandwagon? Will anyone join me on that?