Traded Dylan Shiel [traded with future 2nd to Essendon for #9 and future 1st round pick]

[Nuggs Bunny]

Don't disagree with you, just pointing out that he's not really proven to be a contested beast thus far. Looking at him play, I think he could be if that's what you ask him to do. GWS just didn't need it. If he does, and still manages to get some of the outside stats he's been capable of, then he'll be an even better player than he was in his AA year.

Who is saying that he is a contested beast? And why is having a contested beast so important when none of the top four this year seemed to have a contested beast?

 

[SherbertLemon]

so when you stick to your guns you're hard to deal with, when you pay what people think is a fair price you're going to water.

Classic BigFooty

It always amuses me how people perceive a negotiation. You try and get your best result on a sliding scale of outcomes. This is called negotiation; it's not all about "winning or losing" and it's not relative to any ambit claims made lol

Spot on.

Posters want to have it both ways.

So what is it?

“Why doesn’t he offer 2 first picks, so amateur and hard to deal with derp”

“Omg he flinched what a dik head he offered 2 firsts”

It’s funny how everyone wanted the bloke, and then all of a sudden he becomes a spud after trade week.

Just another day on Bigfooty

 

[Ambrosia]

You're getting a bit desperate to pump him up if you have to both avoid talking about his most recent season AND compare him to full backs and full forwards and a bunch of other positions that almost never get a clearance which is what your 3% is doing.

If you look at 2018, and compare him to only midfielders who played this year instead of full backs etc, he was outside the top 30% for contested possession. Was around top 13% in 2017, which is pretty decent, but contested possessions has never really been his thing in terms of what makes him a very good mid. I think he can do it in a team that needs him to though, so I wouldn't be too worried, but he hasn't really had a season where he's been an elite contested possession player yet (above average, but not elite). Hopefully for you guys, this year will be where he adds that string to his bow given its the first time he'll have been at a team that really needs him to play that role.

You do realise he played on the wing this year? His contested stats compare well to other outside mids like Smith and Gaff.

 

[Ambrosia]

forgive me if this has been mentioned, but also forgive me for not checking 300+ pages to see if it has been mentioned already

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-10-20/shiel-deal-how-2018s-biggest-trade-got-done

does anyone believe this?

does anyone here think there was any real threat this deal wouldn't go through?


doing their own version of razor ray - 'look at me'

that trade gets done day 1 and no one is talking about you anymore

Seems at odds with what Dodoro said but who really knows. GWS were always holding all the cards in this trade with Shiel contracted and seemingly willing to stay/go to other clubs. Essendon also owed GWS a favour for the Smith trade last year where they gave him away for massive unders .

 

[hk89]

Who is saying that he is a contested beast? And why is having a contested beast so important when none of the top four this year seemed to have a contested beast?

You don't think Essendon are screaming out for more contested grunt in the midfield?

Hawthorn was top 4 home and away, and has a contested beast. Part of the reason we lost our second final and finished 5th for the season after finals was because our contested beast ruptured his AC joint in the first quarter of that game, and our second highest average contested ball winner missed the game entirely with an injury sustained in the previous final. Our third highest average contested ball winner (who doesn't play as a fulltime mid, so is a long way behind the first two) played both finals with broken ribs, reducing his contested ability. Hawthorn also leave too much of the contested work to our top contested mid. O'Meara started to help out more, and will hopefully continue to improve in that area next year.

If you want to ignore H&A finishing order, and discount Hawthorn you are still wrong. Pretty sure Clayton Oliver plays for a team that finished top 4 after finals. In fact Melbourne had 2 in the top 10 contested ball winners this year, although Viney only played 10 games. The fact that we had our top 3 contested ball winners missing or injured against Melbourne made it a pretty tough match to win. Richmond and Pies didn't have anyone in the top 10, but had several in the top 30. WC managed to win a flag without a lot of contested ball winning power from their mids, so you have a point with one of the top 4 teams. Every team that finished in the top 8 had at least one player in the top 30 for contested possessions, most of them had multiple. Essendon had none. Only 3 teams in the top 8 were not also in the top 8 for average contested possessions this year.

Essendon will be hoping Shiel can help with their contested game I would have thought. Either that or your recruiters have completely ignored a giant hole for two trade periods in a row. Don't think your recruiting team is that dumb, so I'm guessing you are expecting some contested game from Shiel. Perhaps they are that dumb though. 14 years without a finals win and same bloke running your recruiting. There is faith, then there is blind faith. Perhaps you should have looked at Wingard instead. More contested possessions (slightly) than Shiel this year, and only 1 and half less per game this year for Wingard compared to Shiel's 2017 AA year, but with a shit load more scoring power.

Despite the shit talk, I think Shiel can step up his contested game, but don't try to pretend his contested game is irrelevant. If it is and you're really planning for him not to improve your contested ball winning, then I seriously question what your recruiters have been thinking for the last two seasons. You're in a window now, why mess about with fixing perhaps your biggest weakness?

 

[hk89]

You do realise he played on the wing this year? His contested stats compare well to other outside mids like Smith and Gaff.

Yes, he played more of that role, but my point is he's never been highly ranked for contested ball. His career highest average contested possession count was in 2017 and he was still only ranked 28th contested ball winner that year. Basically, he's just not a player that has had an elite contested ball winning year (and no I don't call 28th elite). If you watch him play, I don't think there is any reason why he can't play more of that role, the team just hasn't asked him to. I suspect Essendon will be asking him to, so it will be interesting to see what he can do this year. He's a little smaller than some other contested mids perhaps, but probably about the same size as someone like Tom Mitchell, and bigger than Sam Mitchell, so I don't think he's too small. He's also massively faster than both those, so can be a bit more damaging when he does win it.

 

[Ambrosia]

Yes, he played more of that role, but my point is he's never been highly ranked for contested ball. His career highest average contested possession count was in 2017 and he was still only ranked 28th contested ball winner that year. Basically, he's just not a player that has had an elite contested ball winning year (and no I don't call 28th elite). If you watch him play, I don't think there is any reason why he can't play more of that role, the team just hasn't asked him to. I suspect Essendon will be asking him to, so it will be interesting to see what he can do this year. He's a little smaller than some other contested mids perhaps, but probably about the same size as someone like Tom Mitchell, and bigger than Sam Mitchell, so I don't think he's too small. He's also massively faster than both those, so can be a bit more damaging when he does win it.

Is contested possessions really a great stat? If Shiel replicates his 2017 form and is top 10 in clearances and top 3 in centre clearances we will have a very damaging inside player. He's also one of a small group of midfielders who have the ability to burst out of a stoppage and break a line .

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

You don't think Essendon are screaming out for more contested grunt in the midfield?

Hawthorn was top 4 home and away, and has a contested beast. Part of the reason we lost our second final and finished 5th for the season after finals was because our contested beast ruptured his AC joint in the first quarter of that game, and our second highest average contested ball winner missed the game entirely with an injury sustained in the previous final. Our third highest average contested ball winner (who doesn't play as a fulltime mid, so is a long way behind the first two) played both finals with broken ribs, reducing his contested ability. Hawthorn also leave too much of the contested work to our top contested mid. O'Meara started to help out more, and will hopefully continue to improve in that area next year.

If you want to ignore H&A finishing order, and discount Hawthorn you are still wrong. Pretty sure Clayton Oliver plays for a team that finished top 4 after finals. In fact Melbourne had 2 in the top 10 contested ball winners this year, although Viney only played 10 games. The fact that we had our top 3 contested ball winners missing or injured against Melbourne made it a pretty tough match to win. Richmond and Pies didn't have anyone in the top 10, but had several in the top 30. WC managed to win a flag without a lot of contested ball winning power from their mids, so you have a point with one of the top 4 teams. Every team that finished in the top 8 had at least one player in the top 30 for contested possessions, most of them had multiple. Essendon had none. Only 3 teams in the top 8 were not also in the top 8 for average contested possessions this year.

Essendon will be hoping Shiel can help with their contested game I would have thought. Either that or your recruiters have completely ignored a giant hole for two trade periods in a row. Don't think your recruiting team is that dumb, so I'm guessing you are expecting some contested game from Shiel. Perhaps they are that dumb though. 14 years without a finals win and same bloke running your recruiting. There is faith, then there is blind faith.

If the definition of "contested beast" is as simple as getting a lot of contested possessions, the term is meaningless. A player who can win physical contests and extract the ball is far more important than a player who can rove a lot of hit-outs to pad the stat-sheet. I really don't see Mitchell being in the same conversation as Oliver, Cripps and Cunnington, but whatever. I'm sure you can find some statistics to prove anything.

But anyway, last I checked, AFL is a game played with 18 players on the field so it's a bit odd that you place so much value on a single player being able to win high percentage of your teams contested possessions. As a team, Essendon averaged more contested possessions this year than Hawthorn. The second highest averaging team was Adelaide, who didn't make finals. Richmond were pretty much the best team all year and averaged only 5 more per game than we did. 5 contested possessions over a game is a difference of roughly 2.5%. Or including all possessions, about 1.2%. Does this 1.2% truly lead to a percentage difference of 30%? How do you determine the impact.

Between Tom Mitchell and Jaegar O'Meara on the contested possession rankings, Essendon had three players. If you add up the contested average of Hawthorn's top 3 against our top 3, the gap is a mere two touches per game. If you include the entire team, the gap blows out to 5 in favour of Essendon! Why doesn't this matter? Why is it so important to have your eggs in one basket? Why is "top 30 in contested possesions" the crucial must-have player lest your team be shit?

But how "contested" really are these possessions? Are they all being accumulated via hardball gets? Are they just loose ball gets? Are they from hit outs? Are they from contested marks in the forward line? Are they just free kicks? Which ones matter? Which ones don't? Are you starting to see the ludicrousness of judging a player by a single row of a stat sheet? By your argument, West Coast had no right to win the premiership this year, but they did.

At the end of the day, contested possessions is just another meaningless statistic when viewed in isolation. Clearances are much more telling, and that's the area we brought on Shiel to address.

Perhaps you should have looked at Wingard instead. More contested possessions (slightly) than Shiel this year, and only 1 and half less per game this year for Wingard compared to Shiel's 2017 AA year, but with a shit load more scoring power.

If the way you look at statistics draws you to the conclusion that Wingard is a better ball-winner than Shiel, surely that must scream out that your analysis is not quite right.

Despite the shit talk, I think Shiel can step up his contested game, but don't try to pretend his contested game is irrelevant.

You're really drawing a long bow with what I said.

Should I keep replying to you? I'm 90% sure you've said you were going to leave this thread on multiple occasions now, happy to help out in any way I can.

 

[hk89]

If the definition of "contested beast" is as simple as getting a lot of contested possessions, the term is meaningless. A player who can win physical contests and extract the ball is far more important than a player who can rove a lot of hit-outs to pad the stat-sheet. I really don't see Mitchell being in the same conversation as Oliver, Cripps and Cunnington, but whatever.

The point is Essendon have none of the above types, and unless Shiel steps up into that role (because he's not shown to be that type yet either) you are still going to be lacking. Personally I think Shiel can be a lot more contested than he has been, because you see glimpses of it in games, but he's not done that for a full season yet.

But anyway, last I checked, AFL is a game played with 18 players on the field so it's a bit odd that you place so much value on a single player being able to win high percentage of your teams contested possessions. As a team, Essendon averaged more contested possessions this year than Hawthorn. The second highest averaging team was Adelaide, who didn't make finals. Richmond were pretty much the best team all year and averaged only 5 more per game than we did. 5 contested possessions over a game is a difference of roughly 2.5%. Or including all possessions, about 1.2%. Does this 1.2% truly lead to a percentage difference of 30%? How do you determine the impact.

Yes, you can structure up to work around the weakness, not all game plans are as reliant on contested possession, but the reality is the majority of the top 8 were also top 8 in contested possession. Pies and Melbourne were top 4 for contested possession. Essendon actually did a decent job of offsetting their lack of contested ball by avoiding contested situations with fast ball movement by their quick runners once they got hold of the ball. So while they were in the bottom half for contested possession, they were fairly high up for contested possession differential. Hawthorn also avoid contests with their foot skills which is why they are able to win games without as much contested ball as others. The difference is Hawthorn have contested players when they need it, and Essendon can be vulnerable to being exploited because they don't.

Between Tom Mitchell and Jaegar O'Meara on the contested possession rankings, Essendon had three players. If you add up the contested average of Hawthorn's top 3 against our top 3, the gap is a mere two touches per game. If you include the entire team, the gap blows out to 5 in favour of Essendon! Why doesn't this matter? Why is it so important to have your eggs in one basket? Why is "top 30 in contested possesions" the crucial must-have player lest your team be shit?

Yup, but comparing Essendon to Hawthorn doesn't say much. Everyone knows we favour an uncontested game plan. We also lack class in our midfield depth, so a lot teams in the second half of the year say on our main contested ball winner (contrary to popular belief that he never gets tagged), and that restricted his output a little - although more his outside than contested game. The fact that you had nobody in the top 30 of contested possessions means you don't have someone that can reliably win contests when needed. The reality is Hawthorn can make an uncontested game plan work, and have done so for many years. Essendon haven't proven they can do that yet.

But how "contested" really are these possessions? Are they all being accumulated via hardball gets? Are they just loose ball gets? Are they from hit outs? Are they from contested marks in the forward line? Are they just free kicks? Which ones matter? Which ones don't? Are you starting to see the ludicrousness of judging a player by a single row of a stat sheet? By your argument, West Coast had no right to win the premiership this year, but they did.

Like I say, some teams can make it work. Many can't. So far Essendon has been in the can't side of the ledger.

At the end of the day, contested possessions is just another meaningless statistic when viewed in isolation. Clearances are much more telling, and that's the area we brought on Shiel to address.

Yup, and that's why I was hoping we'd get him too. While he's never been elite in contested ball, he has been in clearances, and despite us have Mitchell, and Mitchell being very good with clearances as well as contested ball, as a team we are still not great at stoppages. O'Meara playing the first half like he played the second should help a bit next year, but having a playing like Shiel receiving from Tom's inside work, would have been a big push for our clearance numbers. Hawthorn knows it isn't a big clearance winning team and tends to setup to capitalise on turn overs because of it.

If the way you look at statistics draws you to the conclusion that Wingard is a better ball-winner than Shiel, surely that must scream out that your analysis is not quite right.

It is more about what it says of Shiel's contested ball winning ability that Wingard is even close.

Should I keep replying to you? I'm 90% sure you've said you were going to leave this thread on multiple occasions now, happy to help out in any way I can.

I had unsubscribed. Blame the ****wit that tagged me back in, after which I didn't leave again because it had become too much fun.

 

[hk89]

Is contested possessions really a great stat? If Shiel replicates his 2017 form and is top 10 in clearances and top 3 in centre clearances we will have a very damaging inside player. He's also one of a small group of midfielders who have the ability to burst out of a stoppage and break a line .

Yup, that is the main reason to get excited about him. He was a clearance beast in 2017. However GWS also had a bunch of players who could play the inside grunt role when needed and Essendon don't, so I still expect you'll be asking him to win more of his own ball than he did at GWS. GWS were still top 5 this year for contested possession despite not having a massive standout because they were able to spread the load across several players (including Shiel at times). Just to clarify, I don't think Shiel is a bad choice, and I don't even think he can't win contested ball, I just don't think he's done as much of it in the past as you need him to. I'll not be surprised if he steps it up a bit next year.

 

[doug85]

Yup, that is the main reason to get excited about him. He was a clearance beast in 2017. However GWS also had a bunch of players who could play the inside grunt role when needed and Essendon don't, so I still expect you'll be asking him to win more of his own ball than he did at GWS. GWS were still top 5 this year for contested possession despite not having a massive standout because they were able to spread the load across several players (including Shiel at times). Just to clarify, I don't think Shiel is a bad choice, and I don't even think he can't win contested ball, I just don't think he's done as much of it in the past as you need him to. I'll not be surprised if he steps it up a bit next year.

You know that no one reads your essays bro. Stop wasting your time. Especially on a trade that didn’t pan out for your team.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

The point is Essendon have none of the above types, and unless Shiel steps up into that role (because he's not shown to be that type yet either) you are still going to be lacking. Personally I think Shiel can be a lot more contested than he has been, because you see glimpses of it in games, but he's not done that for a full season yet.




Yes, you can structure up to work around the weakness, not all game plans are as reliant on contested possession, but the reality is the majority of the top 8 were also top 8 in contested possession. Pies and Melbourne were top 4 for contested possession. Essendon actually did a decent job of offsetting their lack of contested ball by avoiding contested situations with fast ball movement by their quick runners once they got hold of the ball. So while they were in the bottom half for contested possession, they were fairly high up for contested possession differential. Hawthorn also avoid contests with their foot skills which is why they are able to win games without as much contested ball as others. The difference is Hawthorn have contested players when they need it, and Essendon can be vulnerable to being exploited because they don't.



Yup, but comparing Essendon to Hawthorn doesn't say much. Everyone knows we favour an uncontested game plan. We also lack class in our midfield depth, so a lot teams in the second half of the year say on our main contested ball winner (contrary to popular belief that he never gets tagged), and that restricted his output a little - although more his outside than contested game. The fact that you had nobody in the top 30 of contested possessions means you don't have someone that can reliably win contests when needed. The reality is Hawthorn can make an uncontested game plan work, and have done so for many years. Essendon haven't proven they can do that yet.



Like I say, some teams can make it work. Many can't. So far Essendon has been in the can't side of the ledger.



Yup, and that's why I was hoping we'd get him too. While he's never been elite in contested ball, he has been in clearances, and despite us have Mitchell, and Mitchell being very good with clearances as well as contested ball, as a team we are still not great at stoppages. O'Meara playing the first half like he played the second should help a bit next year, but having a playing like Shiel receiving from Tom's inside work, would have been a big push for our clearance numbers. Hawthorn knows it isn't a big clearance winning team and tends to setup to capitalise on turn overs because of it.



It is more about what it says of Shiel's contested ball winning ability that Wingard is even close.



I had unsubscribed. Blame the ******* that tagged me back in, after which I didn't leave again because it had become too much fun.

This is just silly. Essendon doesn't favour a contested game style any more than Hawthorn does and seeing as we averaged both more contested possessions AND more clearances this year, I really doubt that we don't have anybody in the team to "reliably win contests when needed", our midfield as a unit wins the same amount of contests as Hawthorn. The simple fact is that our group, despite all your bullshit, Essendon statistically performed better than Hawthorn this year around the contest using the contested possession metric and said statistical superiority proved to be worthless seeing as we lost to you both times. You seem to be acknowledging that different game styles don't always need huge contested possession numbers to work, which makes your insistence on only looking at Essendon's ledger of contested possessions so infuriating.

And your mate Wingard averages more contested possessions than your entire team except two. Yes, the half forward flank playing the most bruise-free role on the ground is technically more of a "contested beast" than guys like Shiels. He's 5% away from matching O'Meara's output. If that doesn't prove that this statistic is a terribly unreliable indicator of performance I don't know what else you need. You may as well study the shits of players before they take the field like the ancient greeks.

Can we please move on from this stat sheet masturbation? There are so, so many inconsistencies in the narrow field of data you're drawing attention to. Debating the game while being constrained to look at one, narrow aspect of it is aneurysm-inducing shit, especially when that aspect is heavily influenced by stuff that's not even being considered in this argument. Seriously, if you want to keep going with this close examination of Essendon's contested possession statistic, just save your time and don't bother replying to this post.

 

[Prochard123]

Lol I lowkey was half taking the piss when i criticised Shiel...

I don't think he's a good fit for Essendon because he's not the one making plays in the middle, but more so the receiver, not that he's a terrible player.

But glad it has generated so much discussion

 

[hk89]

This is just silly. Essendon doesn't favour a contested game style any more than Hawthorn does and seeing as we averaged both more contested possessions AND more clearances this year, I really doubt that we don't have anybody in the team to "reliably win contests when needed", our midfield as a unit wins the same amount of contests as Hawthorn. The simple fact is that our group, despite all your bullshit, Essendon statistically performed better than Hawthorn this year around the contest using the contested possession metric and said statistical superiority proved to be worthless seeing as we lost to you both times. You seem to be acknowledging that different game styles don't always need huge contested possession numbers to work, which makes your insistence on only looking at Essendon's ledger of contested possessions so infuriating.

Essendon playing their current game style didn't make finals this year, and got smashed in the elimination last year. If you think you can continue to play the same game style and go deep into finals, good luck to you.

Yes, the half forward flank playing the most bruise-free role on the ground is technically more of a "contested beast" than guys like Shiels.

You think Wingard got all his possessions playing bruise free on half forward flank? The last two years were his peak clearance years. He's clearly being asked to play genuine midfield for portions of his games, and while doing it getting more contested possessions than Shiel. I don't think its the best use of Wingard, but if he played full time midfield for a year, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be seen as a fairly damaging player in that role. Look at his inside 50 numbers in his high possession (i.e. midfield) games this year.

He's 5% away from matching O'Meara's output. If that doesn't prove that this statistic is a terribly unreliable indicator of performance I don't know what else you need. You may as well study the shits of players before they take the field like the ancient greeks.

O'Meara started this season coming off 3 seasons in a row without playing more than 6 games, and is in competition with the #2 contested player in the competition this year. Being 5% away from O'Meara is hardly a claim to fame.

Can we please move on from this stat sheet masturbation? There are so, so many inconsistencies in the narrow field of data you're drawing attention to. Debating the game while being constrained to look at one, narrow aspect of it is aneurysm-inducing shit, especially when that aspect is heavily influenced by stuff that's not even being considered in this argument.

You strike me as someone who is happy to quote the stat sheet when it suits their argument, and ignore it when it doesn't.

Seriously, if you want to keep going with this close examination of Essendon's contested possession statistic, just save your time and don't bother replying to this post.

You're welcome not to reply to my posts if you don't like reading my responses to your replies.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Essendon playing their current game style didn't make finals this year, and got smashed in the elimination last year. If you think you can continue to play the same game style and go deep into finals, good luck to you.




You think Wingard got all his possessions playing bruise free on half forward flank? The last two years were his peak clearance years. He's clearly being asked to play genuine midfield for portions of his games, and while doing it getting more contested possessions than Shiel. I don't think its the best use of Wingard, but if he played full time midfield for a year, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be seen as a fairly damaging player in that role. Look at his inside 50 numbers in his high possession (i.e. midfield) games this year.



O'Meara started this season coming off 3 seasons in a row without playing more than 6 games, and is in competition with the #2 contested player in the competition this year. Being 5% away from O'Meara is hardly a claim to fame.



You strike me as someone who is happy to quote the stat sheet when it suits their argument, and ignore it when it doesn't.



You're welcome not to reply to my posts if you don't like reading my responses to your replies.

have a good night bro

 

[hk89]

You know that no one reads your essays bro. Stop wasting your time.

You should perhaps address that to the guy replying to them. Bro.

Especially on a trade that didn’t pan out for your team.

Panned out pretty well for us actually. The material we would have spent on Shiel went to Wingard. Both would have been good fits for our list. Wingard possibly a better fit for us than you. Shiel possibly a better fit for you than us, although having thought more about it over the last few posts, probably a better fit for us as well, given he'd be a nice complement to Mitchell, so well done on keeping him out of our hands.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Essendon playing their current game style didn't make finals this year, and got smashed in the elimination last year. If you think you can continue to play the same game style and go deep into finals, good luck to you.

We didn’t start playing this style until after Neeld left. What happened the year prior is utterly irrelevant.

 

[CWaffles]

Shiel is a huge get for the dons, will make them a much stronger side next year and no doubt a top 4 contender.

A few finals teams got stronger this year so i think it will be even tighter in the top 8.

 

[citizen-erased]

It's relative to list position and needs.

A lot of people would not take a 26 year old Shiel ahead of one of the 18 year old King twins, Rankine or Smith, but I can see why a club with your list would do it.

they wouldn't have lasted until our pick. And im not sure St Kilda are giving up their 1st pick to slide back in this draft. Otherwise Adelaide would have made an offer by now.

Happy with Shiel. Will give us what we sorely need, not what people think we sorely need.
Elite centre clearance player who stands up in tackles, delivers the ball nicely to forwards.
Should work a treat with the new rules.

 

[The Kipster]

Shiel is a huge get for the dons, will make them a much stronger side next year and no doubt a top 4 contender.

A few finals teams got stronger this year so i think it will be even tighter in the top 8.

Just like this year bwhahahahhahahha

 

[Beerfish]

Lol I lowkey was half taking the piss when i criticised Shiel...

I don't think he's a good fit for Essendon because he's not the one making plays in the middle, but more so the receiver, not that he's a terrible player.

But glad it has generated so much discussion

It's hk89. You could just say 'Hi' and get a 5000 word wall of text that most people just scroll past in response.

 

[blitzer]

Shiel is a huge get for the dons, will make them a much stronger side next year and no doubt a top 4 contender.

A few finals teams got stronger this year so i think it will be even tighter in the top 8.

I expect the fixture will make a pretty big difference on who finishes where next year with a few teams boasting lists on paper that look significantly stronger than what we've seen the last few years.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Shiel is a huge get for the dons, will make them a much stronger side next year and no doubt a top 4 contender.

A few finals teams got stronger this year so i think it will be even tighter in the top 8.

Still cant belive we have him.

He's going to add what we are missing that mid that can win the ball on the inside and link up on the outside with his pace.

 

[HirdyLannister]

Still pinching myself we have Shiel, complements Merrett and Heppell beautifully.
Amazing how he chose Essendon over the other three clubs who had higher money offers on the table.
Such integrity!

 

[Hawk Dork]

or delusion