Essendon 2008

[jdwood]

In terms of pick ups I think we will take:
Draft: 4 picks
Rookie elevations: Rama, and Hocking
And I suppose they will want to leave one pick free for the PSD meaning we need 7 places avaiable on the list.
I think these should come from:
Hird, Campo, Heff, MJ, JJ, Bolton, Cole

No need to delist any of our young kids who still have a chance of becoming something.

I rate that. Although I don't think Dyson deserves to be there next year and a trade deal involving Johns (for whatever we could get) would be nice.

 

[SOT4]

Agree with your summary except Mark Johnson...
I think we should keep him and play him in the forward line next year. We all saw what he did against Adelaide... pretty much won us the game. I think with a new coach and a role as a permanent forward pocket, he could prove to be very good for us next year.

MJ is a tough one. He could be good in the forward line but I really dont think he would play many games like that cameo against adelaide. he would also be competing for a spot with Jetta and Davey as a small forward, and even Kepler who has the endurance to play forward without leaving us too tall.

I rate that. Although I don't think Dyson deserves to be there next year and a trade deal involving Johns (for whatever we could get) would be nice.

Dyson is a tough one. He clearly hasn't done enough to demand a place on the list next year, but there is still a possibility he could become a good player for us. I think we gain more from dropping someone like JJ or MJ who we all know what he can give the team, but realistically wont play beyond 2008. Also, I think Dyson has shown enough to be rated wya above a 5th round pick in the draft which is what we would be taking if we got rid of him.

I'm all for trading Johns if we can get a reasonable deal. He could become a good player but he is the one who will be most hampered by a forward line of Lucas and Lloyd, as he doesn't have a different element in his game as Neagle (a smaller forward) and Bradley (a much more mobile forward) do. A third round pick and I say we cut and run with him. But then again, if we cant get a trade going, give him a year and see if he can develop as a future FB ala Merrit.

 

[GoDons]

What could we get for that? Generally I think my preference would be draft picks but I would also look at one of Hargrave, Harris and Morris.

I can't see any of Hargrave, Harris or Morris ending up at bomberland in 2008.

Hargrave would come in and play a role in defense similar to that of McPhee and Lovett-Murray, given it's unlikley that McPhee and Lovett-Murray are going anywhere soon, we don't need to address that area.

The Bulldogs wouldn't give up Harris for anyone I wouldn't think. Tom Williams is rated their second best tall defender so they'd just be creating more problmes for themsleves by trading Harris.

Dale Morris is the ultimate clubman down at the Whitten Oval. Just like we would never trade Mark McVeigh, the Bulldogs wouldn't trade Morris I wouldn't think.

 

[jetta2davey]

Why Hille? He's a major part of the leadership group and IMO is, behind lucas, lloyd and fletcher, one of our best big men. Laycock is developing and showing a lot of promise but we can't drop a player like Hille and leave all the rucking up to Laycock. Ryder shouldn't even be considered a ruckman, at the moment hes looking like a superstar CHB. Next year Hille will become a superstar of the competition, in the top 3 ruckmen.

you're an essendon supporter aren't you.

 

[aintplayin03]

sure am

 

[Stants_24_Legend]

What could we get for that? Generally I think my preference would be draft picks but I would also look at one of Hargrave, Harris and Morris.

No No No No!!!!!

Dont get hargrave harris or morris. Get Gia and McMahon who are quick and are midfielders and thats what we need
we give them what they need they give us what we need

 

[Jono B]

No No No No!!!!!

Dont get hargrave harris or morris. Get Gia and McMahon who are quick and are midfielders and thats what we need
we give them what they need they give us what we need

Winderlich, Lovett, Dempsey, Jetta and Riemers just to name a few.
Key back prospects: Lee and Ryder (ruck??).

What do we need???

 

[Merv]

No No No No!!!!!

Dont get hargrave harris or morris. Get Gia and McMahon who are quick and are midfielders and thats what we need
we give them what they need they give us what we need

What you need to realize is we have plenty of quick, pacy types but what we NEED is players that can win their own ball.

Either in contested posessions but more importantly at the stoppages.

This is where we get killed and in reality the only young player on our list that has proven he can do it so far is Jobe.

Those 2 you mentioned are receivers that we have plenty of.

 

[boms]

Like it - but further to the de-listings I'd like to attract some trading options, even if only for late picks....

With two rookie promo's, 1 in the PSD and prob 6 or 7 in the draft, I tihnk we may need to (sadly) turn over another 1 or 2

Bradley?
Johns?

Yes true. Lets trade Bradley too Freo for one of there midfielders.

Leave Johns we have worked too hard on him just too let him go after 1 bad season, I think he will improve a pre-season will do him well

 

[Merv]

Yes true. Lets trade Bradley too Freo for one of there midfielders.

Leave Johns we have worked too hard on him just too let him go after 1 bad season, I think he will improve a pre-season will do him well

He's never had a good season or anything that even closely resembles one.

He would be lucky to have played 3 good games

 

[Evvo]

He's never had a good season or anything that even closely resembles one.

He would be lucky to have played 3 good games

I have actually just thought about this quite extensively.
I feel both Rama and Hocking will be elavated off the rookie list and we will take 4 (possibly 5) in the draft and 1 in the PSD.
Meaning we will have 7 inclusions to next years list.
So we need to get rid of 7
Retire: Hird, Campo, Heff
Delist: Cole, Bolton, JJ
Trade for a low 4th rounder or beta: One of C.J (Most Preffered option), Dyson or Kep.

If no suitable trade is worked out than C.J is delisted.
Thoughts?

 

[Minglis]

He's never had a good season or anything that even closely resembles one.

He would be lucky to have played 3 good games

The kid has spent most of his seasons at the club recovering from an injury that left him lucky to walk, leave alone play footy. The club took a chance on him because pre-injury he was a garunteed top couple pick.

It would be a terrible waste of all that time invested to cut him at this stage. We have effectively only had him playing-fit for two seasons.

 

[Merv]

The kid has spent most of his seasons at the club recovering from an injury that left him lucky to walk, leave alone play footy. The club took a chance on him because pre-injury he was a garunteed top couple pick.

It would be a terrible waste of all that time invested to cut him at this stage. We have effectively only had him playing-fit for two seasons.

No one would doubt how much hard work he has put in just to make it back onto the field.

The problem with him is he has waaaay too many flaws in comparison to his positives.

He is essentially a one trick player and is not a natural footballer.

I have rarely been as convinced of a player being a dud as i am with this bloke.

 

[red+black]

Ok, We had a bad year ...

Need I read on when your first statement is blatantly wrong.

How was 2007 a bad year for Essendon?

Much improved from the past couple years, and we finally got rid of Sheedy.

I'd say we had a fantastic season.

 

[Ants]

Why Hille? He's a major part of the leadership group and IMO is, behind lucas, lloyd and fletcher, one of our best big men. Laycock is developing and showing a lot of promise but we can't drop a player like Hille and leave all the rucking up to Laycock. Ryder shouldn't even be considered a ruckman, at the moment hes looking like a superstar CHB. Next year Hille will become a superstar of the competition, in the top 3 ruckmen.

Very rose coloured glasses.

Hille is a decent #1 ruck. He goes hard, does a decent amount around the ground, can drift forward, and is ok in the ruck. One of his biggest strengths, and biggest weaknesses, is that he usually reacts to the opponent. His biggest games are against top line rucks. Against poor ruck divisions, he's usually rubbish.

The big problem for Essendon is that Hille doesn't project particularly well as a #2 ruck. He's never handled not getting 80% of the game time particularly well. As a true forward (rather than drifting forward) he's quite poor. So he can't really play a role other than ruck.

Which raises the question, if Laycock can become a better #1 ruck, and Hille will be a terrible #2 ruck, would trading Hille be of more long term benefit to the club?

Personally, I say yes. Trade him to the Saints/Doggies/Collingwood for a first round pick (we'd have to sweeten it for the Doggies) and use our 2nd round pick on a Moran/Meesen/Wood. We'd have a 2nd ruck who's not a total youngster to support Laycock, and with the additional pick, between it and our #6 hopefully we'd be able to get a top midfielder and a top KP back out of the draft.
.
.
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BTW, everyone's saying we'll take 5-6 picks + 1 in the PSD. I wouldn't be surprised if we used only 4 picks between the two (ignoring trades). Then we'd promote Hocking & Rama.

So we'd delist/retire: Hird, Campo, Heff, Bolton, Cole & Dyson. Probably trade MJ. And have 4 picks in the draft, one in the PSD and Rama & Hocking promoted.

Then Lonnergan, JJ, Pev, Lee, Bradley & Johns would be the guys in the sights for 2008 (which is meant to be a strong draft).

Cut too deep this year, and with the number of promising youngsters we have we might have issues next year having guys to cut.

 

[The_Young_Gun]

Essendon don't need to trade, all we need to do is scrap all our crap players like Mark bolton and even Campo if he doesn't retire. then focus on developing our young players like jetta, hislop and reimers and in a couple of years we'll be a real contender for a finals race.

My team for 08 at the moment:

B: M.Johnson M.Michael P.Ryder
CHP: A.Mcphee D.Fletcher NLM
C: J.Nash M.Mcveigh B.Stanton
CHF: S.Gumbleton S.Lucas A.Lovett
F: A.Davey M.Lloyd J.Neagle
R: D.Hille J.Winderlich J.Watson

I/C: T.Hislop C.Dempsey J.Laycock D.Pevrill A.Monfries L.Jetta K.Bradely

 

[Ants]

In a couple of years Lloyd, Lucas, Fletcher & Michael will all be past it, or approaching the end of their careers.

You also ignore that trades may help balance the side, or just plain bring more talent into areas we're lacking a bit.

 

[The_Young_Gun]

In a couple of years Lloyd, Lucas, Fletcher & Michael will all be past it, or approaching the end of their careers.

You also ignore that trades may help balance the side, or just plain bring more talent into areas we're lacking a bit.

Firstly I accidently left out slattery and Welsh out of my '08 team. and also every trade we have over the last 7 years have been terrible eg. We traded blake caracella for Damien Cupido, Cupido turned out Sh*t and caracella was still an alright player, also when we picked up ty zantuk he turned out a dud and a half.

 

[SOT4]

Firstly I accidently left out slattery and Welsh out of my '08 team. and also every trade we have over the last 7 years have been terrible eg. We traded blake caracella for Damien Cupido, Cupido turned out Sh*t and caracella was still an alright player, also when we picked up ty zantuk he turned out a dud and a half.

Carracella was traded for Cupido and pick 15, which gave us room in the salary cap. We didn't trade for Zantuck we got him for nothing in the PSD.

 

[GoDons]

Firstly I accidently left out slattery and Welsh out of my '08 team. and also every trade we have over the last 7 years have been terrible eg. We traded blake caracella for Damien Cupido, Cupido turned out Sh*t and caracella was still an alright player, also when we picked up ty zantuk he turned out a dud and a half.

I think picking up McPhee turned out alright...

 

[Ants]

Firstly I accidently left out slattery and Welsh out of my '08 team. and also every trade we have over the last 7 years have been terrible eg. We traded blake caracella for Damien Cupido, Cupido turned out Sh*t and caracella was still an alright player, also when we picked up ty zantuk he turned out a dud and a half.

Thats a load of rubbish.

- We got McPhee, Cupido AND a first round pick for Caracella. That pick (upgraded with Heffernen's trade) became Winderlich.
- We got #19 for Richards (Dempsey)
- The trade for Cole was a terrible result, I agree.
- We've picked up Zantuck, Heff and Campo via the PSD, no cost (although questionable decisions)
- Pick #6 + Alvey wasn't bad for Jacobs either.
- And the pick we got for Hardwick resulted in Welsh.
- I'd argue we got as much value from the McGrath, Murphy, and Alan trades as Carlton did.
- For Solomon we got #42 and upgraded our pick #52 pick to #48 (Houli & Reimers)


Our problem hasn't been our trading strength, its been our approach. Too often we've chosen to get old players, who have given sufficient value for their costs, but probably have delayed our development overall.

 

[SouthPHXBombers]

My idea of what I'd like to happen... Doubt it will.

Clearly, I was very bored today. ​

Coaching Staff​

Senior Coach: Damien Hardwick
Assistant Coach: Gary O'Donnell
Assistant Coach: Gary Ayres
Assistant Coach: Dean Wallace

Leaders​

Captain: Matthew Lloyd
Vice Captain: Mark Veigh

Delistings
​

James Hird (Retire)
Mark Bolton
Richard Cole
Damien Pevrill
Scott Camporeale
Chris Heffernan
​

Trade​

Mark Johnson (& 2nd Rounder) to Geelong for Brent Prismall
Courtney Johns to Western Bulldogs/Sydney for 4th Rounder
Kepler Bradley to Fremantle for 3rd Rounder
Jason Johnson: Hopefully someone will take him and his one year left for a 5th rounder​

Draft​

Round 1:
- Chris Masten - Onballer - 179cm 80kgs - East Fremantle
Round 3:
- Darcy Daniher - KP Forward/Backman - 192cm 89kgs - Calder Cannons
- Patrick Dangerfield - Onballer/BP - 188cm 80kgs - Geelong Falcons
Round 4:
- Cruize Gartlett - FP/HFF - 170cm 72kgs - Perth
- Andrew Renton - Ruckman - 202cm, 94kgs - Eastern Rangers
Round 5:
- Ashley Hockey – Onballer/Small defender – 181cm 78kg – Murray Bushrangers
- Callum Wilson - KP Backman/Forward - 191cm 94kgs - South Fremantle

PSD/Rookie
- Michael Todd, Onballer, Gippsland Power
- Kyle Cheney, HBF, North Ballarat Rebels​

Best 22 ​

B: Ryder Michael Welsh
HB: NLM Fletcher Nash
C: Prismall Watson Winderlich
HF: McPhee Lucas Monfries
F: Lovett Lloyd Davey
FOLL: Hille Stanton McVeigh
INT: Laycock Jetta Gumbleton Masten

Emg: Slattery Dempsey Ramanauskas

List​

Senior
25 Above plus:

Tom Hislop, Onballer
Darcy Daniher, KP Forward
Bachar Houli, Midfeild/Wing
Kyle Reimers, HFF/FP
Patrick Dangerfield, Onballer/BP
Ricky Dyson, HBF/Wing
Jay Neagle, KP Forward
Heath Hocking, Onballer/HFF
Lachlan McKinnon, Ruck
Sam Lonergan, Onballer/Wing
Andrew Lee, KP Defender
Dean Dick, KP Defender
Ashley Hockey, Onballer/HFF
Cruize Gartlett, FP/HFF
Andrew Renton, Ruck

Rookie

Danny Chatres, KP Defender
Callum Wilson, KP Defender
Kyle Cheney, HBF/Wing
Michael Todd, Midfield/BP​

​

 

[Duckworth]

I think you need to delist some more players. Don't you have to use all picks that you trade for?

On Hille is it possible that he could be developed into a KPP back? In the same way that Johns was tried in that spot? Obviously he wouldn't be running off but it could be worth a shot. I've seen him do some nice filling in the hole work and he may need to reinvent himself if he can't be a good 2nd Ruck.

Also if this years draft isn't as strong as the next one I think that 1 year contracts will be the flavour of the month. Some won't accept and this could lead to a few more delistings.

 

[Duckworth]

sorry SouthPHX there are enough.

 

[Ants]

Craig Bird is a NSW rookie for Sydney.