Essendon 2008 - Run Home

[magpies10]

Love the optimism, i breathe optimism.
Don't be surprised if Richmond beat us but of course i'm tipping us.
The one thing that should give us added incentive was our terrible start against them @ dreamtime @ the G, as i'm sure we are still hurting from the performance i think we'll get over the line against them.
We have been playing out of our skins for over a month now, starting with the Crows game and a young team like us CAN sometimes put in a below par performance that seems to come out of nowhere, but Richmond coming back from WA and with 5 days to prepare will help us out no end.

v Richmond - Win 7-9
v Collingwood - Win 8-9 i genuinly believe we'll win this as the Pies are in up & down form and we do seem to win the '2nd' game against them most years.
v Melbourne - Win 9-9 we've come to far to drop this game.
v West Coast - Win 10-9 another game we could lose tho but after the freo game we believe we can win there no matter who we play and WCE are well.... Crap
v Adelaide - Win/Lose 11-9 or 10-10you can't count out Adelaide with their backs to the wall but if we've won all our other games b4 this one, our confidence will be as high as Mt Everest
v Dogs - Lose - 11-10 or 10-11they have nothing but the cup in sight and will be hard to beat i think they'll beat Geelong this week as well in a classic
v St Kilda - 12-10 or 11-11 Win and ruin their finals chance's. that should leave us with either 12 or 11 wins, if you'd said thats what we would finish on 5 weeks ago i would have taken it, I can't say if it'll put us in the 8 or not but we're to blame for a dismal 8 weeks after the Carlton game rd 3.

If we make the 8 and play say Collingwood in the first week, anythings possible...... but Thats my dream and i'm sticking to it.

Won 6 out of our last 8 and were 4 goals up in both losses, probably would have beaten the dogs if Rocca and Reid did not get injured, which is hardly up and down

 

[The Donners]

1. Better structure, gee running one way only works sometimes.
2. Lloyd and Lucas are not more options than Cloke, Medhurst, Davis, Thomas, Didak, Anthony, with Reid Rocca and Rusling still out you do not have us in that department, hence the fact we are 4th in points for and you guys 8th.
3. Rucks well you have us there
4. Our youngsters are easily more developed and quite frankly better than your guys, players like Pendlebury, Thomas, Cloke, Clarke, Brown, Wellingham, Anthony, Reid, all 21 or under. The 4 highlighted have shown they are better than any of your young players to this stage.

Pendlebury is a gun but has virtually done FA this season apart from a standout performance against the Dons. Thomas does FA every week yet does the miraculous maybe once or twice during a game, hardly reliable. Cloke has probably played 3 good games this season. Clarke, meh, no football smarts just a hard working small defender.

Reimers, Lonergan, Monfries, Myers, Jetta, Houli, Ryder and Slattery. They get the job done without trying to look like a showboat i.e. Thomas.

We've won 4 in a row on the back of our youngsters performing.

Collingwood's forward options: Cloke, Medhurst, Didak, Davis, Thomas, Anthony, Reid and Rocca.

Essendon's forward options: Lloyd, Lucas, Monfries, Mcphee, Stanton, Neagle, McVeigh, Hille, Lovett and Jetta. If you're going to count 3 blokes that won't do anything this season (Anthony, Reid and Rocca) then I'll add Davey, Lonergan and Reimers as other likely goalkickers.

 

[daffo]

Pendlebury is a gun but has virtually done FA this season apart from a standout performance against the Dons. Thomas does FA every week yet does the miraculous maybe once or twice during a game, hardly reliable. Cloke has probably played 3 good games this season. Clarke, meh, no football smarts just a hard working small defender.

Hate to admit it but those four would be better then our young kids this year.

Pendlebury has stepped up this year, as has Marty Clarke. He looks to be a gem.
Cloke hasn't progressed as much as i would of thought but he is a young KPP. If you compare him to someone like Gumby or Neagle then you can notice a difference (i know he is a couple of years older)
Thomas does to the miraculous but why are you pointing that as a negative?? He would be averaging 15 touches a game plus a goal so no one would be complaining.

Our best kids are Lonergan (who would be around the same age as Pendelbury/Thomas) Houli etc. The pies boys have played plenty more games and have had a bigger influence. I know Lonergan has been good but he hasn't ever been in the best.

 

[The Donners]

I know Lonergan has been good but he hasn't ever been in the best.

vs Adelaide.

Apologies, I wasn't trying to suggest our young players were as good as those 4 players... although Pendlebury would be the only young player we couldn't match in terms of skill and promise... enter Gumbleton (when he finally plays). I was suggesting by weight of numbers our youngsters are better. We have, again by weight of numbers, the best youngsters in the competition... hence the sudden improvement to the team's performances over the past 6 weeks starting in Adelaide (vs Hawthorn we were only 7 points down at half time).

With regards to Thomas I was suggesting that I would prefer the reliable and consistent to the flashy and "goes missing" types.

 

[The Donners]

Won 6 out of our last 8 and were 4 goals up in both losses, probably would have beaten the dogs if Rocca and Reid did not get injured, which is hardly up and down

I rate Collingwood as a team but I would say their form has been up and down, win/loss ratio doesn't necessarily suggest their form isn't up and down. You lost to Carlton and looked absolutely ratshit and then the next week you guys looked like a top 4 team, I'd say that's fairly indicative of your season. Collingwood are the sleeping giants though imo and I would have thought Essendon would drop a game soon... I would hope it was against Collingwood as it is probably a game I wouldn't have expected us to win, Collingwood as I said are a great team. Good luck!

If we beat the Tigers then I'd take a loss against Collingwood. If all goes to plan we will then beat the Dees and the Eagles, lose to the Dogs and then beat the Crows and the Saints... 8th spot here we come!!!