Club Focus Essendon 2021 - Kelly, Hobbs, Lord, McDonagh

[Wild Bill]

Essendon did try to trade into the 2nd round but clubs didn’t want to give up their picks because they wanted to use these picks themselves given the depth of talent at this point in the draft.

‘Essendon need a small forward’ is trending suddenly. I think it’s a little overblown. They would like to recruit one and at worst should acquire a talented young small forward when they bring in the Davey twins in next years draft as father/sons. They have Tippa, Snelling and smith playing those roles presently. They recruited Alistair Lord who they believe can play as a small forward if needed. But yes, in the ideal world, another quality small forward is something they would focus on.

Essendon already have quality young key backs and forwards on its list. Zach Reid is highly regarded and recruited as a full back. They also have talented Kane Baldwin as a talented key forward. They also believe Cox could end up as a key forward once he fills out. There’s another one or two youngsters they’re developing that will either be key forwards or backs (Brand / Eyre).

Its midfield is still very young and inexperienced and will be stronger in a year or two. In that final Caldwell was rushed in but ran out of gas by half time. Langford, one of its better bigger mids was injured and it’s inexperience and youth was evident when the rain came. I’m not concerned about it’s midfield TBH. In two years it’s midfield may be slightly behind the dogs (dogs mids among best) but it’s rucks and key positions superior to the Dogs. Essendon could kick winning scores on fewer entries to beat most sides by 2023/4.

Moreover, Essendon are still a year or two away from contending for top 4. Essendon’s internalbelief is it needs to have this group play another 30-50 games together to step up yo that next level of winning finals.

Good post. Big wraps on the Davey twins.

 

[Wild Bill]

We tried to trade into the second round.

I think dodo miss read the draft saying there would be lots of movement into the 2nd round. Stiff to miss on Draper who was a big slider - think the pies got a good one there.

 

[doug85]

I think dodo miss read the draft saying there would be lots of movement into the 2nd round. Stiff to miss on Draper who was a big slider - think the pies got a good one there.

He sure did. Was quoted on day 2 as saying there’ll be lots of trades. He was way off.

 

[citizen-erased]

I think dodo miss read the draft saying there would be lots of movement into the 2nd round. Stiff to miss on Draper who was a big slider - think the pies got a good one there.

i think we'll come to rue that one. A combo of Hobbs + Draper would have been amazing (and i would have retired the handle for a Draper2Draper...but not be)
i like Lord though. And Voss looks the type of no-nonsense big body we lack. Whether he cracks the team or not remains to be seen.

Still a ways off though for mine.

 

[Ants]

I was surprised you didn’t trade into the 2nd round.
Only missing piece is a small forward? That’s a big call - another quality key defender and key forward. Dogs also mauled you in the middle in that final - Hobbs will help but more is needed.

On the second round, I think the cost was prohibitive.

When I say missing piece I mean from a list perspective, not the best 22. For each of the holes in the best 22, or areas we’d like to upgrade, we’ve got at least two kids developing. So you mentioned key back and key forward. We have Reid, Brand and Zerk-Thatcher down back, and Eyre, Baldwin and McBride for up forward.

We’ve really got no young backup for Walla, Smith and Snelling beyond *maybe* Tom Hird and playing young mids like Perkins or Hobbs.

 

[JayJ20]

I was surprised you didn’t trade into the 2nd round.
Only missing piece is a small forward? That’s a big call - another quality key defender and key forward. Dogs also mauled you in the middle in that final - Hobbs will help but more is needed.

Where we are at the moment, the "missing piece" is not necessarily for our 2022 prospects, but for our prospects from 2023/2024 and beyond.

I think our midfield is complete and balanced, maybe not for next year, but certainly for the future. Perkins, Hobbs and Voss will join a hopefully fit Caldwell, Parish, Merrett and McGrath as part of our future midfield rotation. It gives us more size, contested ball winners and defensively disciplined players running through the middle. I have no doubt Perkins and Hobbs are good enough, but I really hope Voss ends up being an AFL standard inside mid because his height, strength, tackling and ferociousness complements the blue collar style Rutten is building.

In that sense, I don't think we need any more mids because we have enough talent to develop. I'm not worried about a key defender because Reid, BZT and Brand are already developing in that area. Though unlikely, I'm hoping for a breakout year from BZT. Not holding my breath on that.

What we need is a small forward/forwards + a quality KPF. Though I'm bullish about Baldwin as a player, his injury history means I won't rely on him. We have decent key forward options, but none that are good enough to be AA or challenge for a coleman.

 

[citizen-erased]

Where we are at the moment, the "missing piece" is not necessarily for our 2022 prospects, but for our prospects from 2023/2024 and beyond.

I think our midfield is complete and balanced, maybe not for next year, but certainly for the future. Perkins, Hobbs and Voss will join a hopefully fit Caldwell, Parish, Merrett and McGrath as part of our future midfield rotation. It gives us more size, contested ball winners and defensively disciplined players running through the middle. I have no doubt Perkins and Hobbs are good enough, but I really hope Voss ends up being an AFL standard inside mid because his height, strength, tackling and ferociousness complements the blue collar style Rutten is building.

In that sense, I don't think we need any more mids because we have enough talent to develop. I'm not worried about a key defender because Reid, BZT and Brand are already developing in that area. Though unlikely, I'm hoping for a breakout year from BZT. Not holding my breath on that.

What we need is a small forward/forwards + a quality KPF. Though I'm bullish about Baldwin as a player, his injury history means I won't rely on him. We have decent key forward options, but none that are good enough to be AA or challenge for a coleman.

on the forwards, i think the view is too simplistic that we need some coleman FF & AA smalls.
We scored ok last year and that was with a handful of low scores (couple of which were tight games).

We don't get enough from the midfield.
Some i don't think have the depth in their kicking to do it (McGrath, Shiel, Merrett).
It's really Stringer from centre bounce breaks and occasionally Parish.

I don't think Hobbs or Voss address this. But i am hoping Perkins and Cox do.
Its the dimension i think we're missing to be a hard team to play against. too predictable on where our scoring is coming from.

 

[Ants]

on the forwards, i think the view is too simplistic that we need some coleman FF & AA smalls.We scored ok last year and that was with a handful of low scores (couple of which were tight games). We don't get enough from the midfield.

Some i don't think have the depth in their kicking to do it (McGrath, Shiel, Merrett).
It's really Stringer from centre bounce breaks and occasionally Parish.

I don't think Hobbs or Voss address this. But i am hoping Perkins and Cox do.
Its the dimension i think we're missing to be a hard team to play against. too predictable on where our scoring is coming from.

I completely agree that we don’t have to have an AA key forward (although I’ve got high hopes for Jones). Stringer has also been a top 20 in the league goals/game player the last three years.

Sorry, but this the bolded is just wrong. Look at the average goals from Langford, Shiel, Cox, McGrath and Parish. It compares well with most teams (eg look at Melbourne).

 

[Yoda_]

on the forwards, i think the view is too simplistic that we need some coleman FF & AA smalls.
We scored ok last year and that was with a handful of low scores (couple of which were tight games).

We don't get enough from the midfield.
Some i don't think have the depth in their kicking to do it (McGrath, Shiel, Merrett).
It's really Stringer from centre bounce breaks and occasionally Parish.

I don't think Hobbs or Voss address this. But i am hoping Perkins and Cox do.
Its the dimension i think we're missing to be a hard team to play against. too predictable on where our scoring is coming from.

Unpopular opinion but I would like to add a medium marking/ running fwd to our list


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[Ants]

Unpopular opinion but I would like to add a medium marking/ running fwd to our list


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Isn’t that Voss?

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Interesting to see Hobbs was the one we were always after. Makes Ports trade kinda pointless and wasteful.

 

[Ambrosia]

Interesting to see Hobbs was the one we were always after. Makes Ports trade kinda pointless and wasteful.

Not sure about that. Given the rumours of the trades we were offered for Hobbs. You’d think West Coast were offered similar so what if someone successfully jumps ahead of us to draft Hobbs leaving us to draft Sinn. Who I think Port’s mail was likely correct on him being our next choice.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Not sure about that. Given the rumours of the trades we were offered for Hobbs. You’d think West Coast were offered similar so what if someone successfully jumps ahead of us to draft Hobbs leaving us to draft Sinn. Who I think Port’s mail was likely correct on him being our next choice.

As for other clubs trading in, youd think they would have received better offers than that. Richmond offered us 28 and 17. That’s a better deal than Ports future second likely to be prelim level again. So it seems they only would have done a trade that would see them retain Chesser as Brisbane were rumoured to have interest and had pick 16.

 

[Ambrosia]

As for other clubs trading in, youd think they would have received better offers than that. Richmond offered us 28 and 17. That’s a better deal than Ports future second likely to be prelim level again. So it seems they only would have done a trade that would see them retain Chesser as Brisbane were rumoured to have interest and had pick 16.

I’m not sure it’s that cut and dry with Ports future second vs Richmond’s 28 considering West Coast had 31 already.