Club Focus Essendon 2020 - Caldwell, Hund, Wright, Cox, Perkins, Reid, Eyre, Brand

AFL Club Focus

What is the biggest priority at Essendon?

  • Key forwards

    Votes: 30 29.7%

  • Key defenders

    Votes: 7 6.9%

  • Big mids

    Votes: 52 51.5%

  • Ruck division

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 11 10.9%
  • Total voters
    101

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  • #2

Data from footywire. To check the draft order (updated weekly) see the thread here.
 
The 747 said:
Do you think the Stringer trade was a win for Essendon?
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For what we paid for him and where he has at in his career I would say yes. For what he has done since, well that's subjective. Has our coaching staff etc been strong enough with how accountable we hold our players etc to get the best out of them? I would argue no so therefore what chance did we give anyone coming in to the club. Everyone talks about the Bombers being wrong bringing in Smith, Saad, Stringer and Shiel but I think their list was good enough for that and the way we finished the year a few years back reflected the potential. Problem really comes down to that accountability and when you're team consistently comes to games not mentally switched on, therein lies a problem with the leadership at the club.
 
Messenger said:
Interesting Jason McCartney’s comments haven’t been raised here.
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Because he's a flog who shouldn't have a job like Dodo?

BombersDave said:
Trying to get Dunkley and not putting our future 1st on the table is just dumb.
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Would've have been stupid and negligent to trade our future first when it's likely to be Top 5 (yes even with Dunkley).

I'll say the fault was more so targeting a player from a club who didn't need first round picks this year. Dunkley was the right player, wrong club, at least Dodo finally picked out the exact mid we needed... unfortunately for him/us he was one pick away from Oliver....

Ash1337 said:
How can Essendon fans with a son of a club legend leaving their team because of the poor medical treatment he got, or their best half back flanker, or even their best small forward when fit? On top of bringing in 2 players that have barely played or haven't played the year and another small mid? Not to mention failing once again to bring in a big body mid?

I would be ropable at the club. It's their worst trade season by a mile. Even the AFL site ranked it the 2nd worst team in the trade period. The 3 top 10 pick doesn't even begin to cover the talent lost.
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Daniher and Fantasia haven't fired a shot in anger in the last 2 years, 28 games between them and a lot of them they were nowhere near 100%.

Saad hurts the most, but mainly because McKenna pissed off back to Ireland.

6+7+8 is a fantastic hand that can easily turn into 2, mid teens and a future first for next year and we can still make a play for a mid like Dunkley next year.
 
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TheKITC said:
Essendon lost Daniher and Saad (and McKenna) for less than what they were offered for Daniher alone last year, yet their supporters are celebrating like they have won, giving Dodoro ticks and pats on the back... Weird.
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A little like your supporters didn't get the wooden spoon and/or aren't bottom 4 and you're acting like you're midway through a dynasty?
 
Bulldog1954 said:
I can certainly understand Essendon not paying 2 first rounders for Dunkley. But if I was an Essendon fan I would be pretty frustrated that they will go into another year with arguably the physically softest and smallest midfield in the league.
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Missing Dunkley is exactly what we need. It forces the rebuild. These delusional pricks thought we were a few moves off being in our window. Would have guaranteed another 5 years of mid table finishes.
 
TheKITC said:
Essendon lost Daniher and Saad (and McKenna) for less than what they were offered for Daniher alone last year, yet their supporters are celebrating like they have won, giving Dodoro ticks and pats on the back... Weird.
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There’s such things called sunk costs and hindsight.

Based on this trade period in isolation, he did well.
(Although he should be hung out to dry for not getting more for McKenna)
 
cAsEy_18 said:
There’s such things called sunk costs and hindsight.

Based on this trade period in isolation, he did well.
(Although he should be hung out to dry for not getting more for McKenna)
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I can’t believe we let Tyrone walk him to the PSD.
 
Just noticed the last time Essendon had multiple Top 10 picks they could have chosen Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow (or Josh Dunkley) but instead chose Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis. Ouch!
 
stevieg1969 said:
Just noticed the last time Essendon had multiple Top 10 picks they could have chosen Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow (or Josh Dunkley) but instead chose Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis. Ouch!
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Josh Dunkley wasn't on anybody's radar for top 10. Disingenuous at best.
 
eth-dog said:
Josh Dunkley wasn't on anybody's radar for top 10. Disingenuous at best.
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I was being a bit cheeky with the Josh Dunkley reference but my point is you have Picks 6, 7 and 8 in the hands of someone who doesn’t have a good track record of identifying talent through the draft.
 
stevieg1969 said:
I was being a bit cheeky with the Josh Dunkley reference but my point is you have Picks 6, 7 and 8 in the hands of someone who doesn’t have a good track record of identifying talent through the draft.
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Really? Let's look at his recent record with first round picks post-Sheedy (who had a massive say in this before):

2016: Andrew McGrath. Pass, probably would have been top 2/3 in the BnF this year if not for his injury.
2015: Darcy Parish, Aaron Francis. Parish is still probably top 10 in his draft so a pass, and the jury is still out on Francis.
2014: Kyle Langford, Jayden Laverde. Langford is absolutely a pass at the pick we took him at, Laverde looks like a fail at this stage.
2012: Joe Daniher. Can't call either way as a father son
2011: Elliott Kavanagh. Could have been Seb Ross. Fail.
2010: Dyson Heppell. Probably top 10 of this draft class. Pass.
2009: Jake Melksham. Pass for the talent available. Talia is better, but we had Hurley, Hooker and Pears all looking good at the time as key defenders.
2008: Michael Hurley. Pass, absolutely no doubt about it.
2007: David Myers. Fail, unfortunately. Was a solid player but Dangerfield was taken a few picks later and is so much better.

So fails on Laverde, Kav and Myers. Passes on McGrath, Parish, Langford, Heppell, Melksham and Hurley. 50/50 on Francis and an asterisk on Joe's father/son. His "blowing of first round picks" are completely overstated, especially considering his two biggest fails came at picks 19 and 20.
 

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eth-dog said:
Really? Let's look at his recent record with first round picks post-Sheedy (who had a massive say in this before):

2016: Andrew McGrath. Pass, probably would have been top 2/3 in the BnF this year if not for his injury.
2015: Darcy Parish, Aaron Francis. Parish is still probably top 10 in his draft so a pass, and the jury is still out on Francis.
2014: Kyle Langford, Jayden Laverde. Langford is absolutely a pass at the pick we took him at, Laverde looks like a fail at this stage.
2012: Joe Daniher. Can't call either way as a father son
2011: Elliott Kavanagh. Could have been Seb Ross. Fail.
2010: Dyson Heppell. Probably top 10 of this draft class. Pass.
2009: Jake Melksham. Pass for the talent available. Talia is better, but we had Hurley, Hooker and Pears all looking good at the time as key defenders.
2008: Michael Hurley. Pass, absolutely no doubt about it.
2007: David Myers. Fail, unfortunately. Was a solid player but Dangerfield was taken a few picks later and is so much better.

So fails on Laverde, Kav and Myers. Passes on McGrath, Parish, Langford, Heppell, Melksham and Hurley. 50/50 on Francis and an asterisk on Joe's father/son. His "blowing of first round picks" are completely overstated, especially considering his two biggest fails came at picks 19 and 20.
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I think if you look at the top 10 picks from that list vs who was available vs what our needs were at the time then there is an issue with the selections more so. We have Myers, Melksham, Parish and Francis as clear losses in my opinion. We seem to have a mindset of taking best available player with our picks recently instead of maybe paying overs for someone who is the type of player we need. If pick 6 this year has a small outside mid as the best available I wouldn't be surprised if we took it rather than getting the type of player we need.
 
BombersDave said:
I think if you look at the top 10 picks from that list vs who was available vs what our needs were at the time then there is an issue with the selections more so. We have Myers, Melksham, Parish and Francis as clear losses in my opinion. We seem to have a mindset of taking best available player with our picks recently instead of maybe paying overs for someone who is the type of player we need. If pick 6 this year has a small outside mid as the best available I wouldn't be surprised if we took it rather than getting the type of player we need.
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If you say we should have taken Fyfe instead... He was on nobodies radar for the first round and at pick 20 was considered a reach, everyone had him late 20's or early 30's. Who should we have taken instead of Parish? We needed the inside mid. Francis is still a 50/50.
 
stevieg1969 said:
Just noticed the last time Essendon had multiple Top 10 picks they could have chosen Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow (or Josh Dunkley) but instead chose Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis. Ouch!
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You mean the Charlie Curnow who’s barely played in the last 2 years and is now looking likely to miss more of next season?

He’s quickly becoming a Daniher-esque white elephant.
 
eth-dog said:
If you say we should have taken Fyfe instead... He was on nobodies radar for the first round and at pick 20 was considered a reach, everyone had him late 20's or early 30's. Who should we have taken instead of Parish? We needed the inside mid. Francis is still a 50/50.
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I wouldn't have been going for an inside mid given his size was not what we needed. Would have gone for a KPF like McKay or Curnow. Francis 50/50 is a huge reach - I would say more 25/75 based on current sample size.
 
BombersDave said:
I wouldn't have been going for an inside mid given his size was not what we needed. Would have gone for a KPF like McKay or Curnow. Francis 50/50 is a huge reach - I would say more 25/75 based on current sample size.
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We had Daniher and Hooker at the time looking like a very strong key forward combination. We were crying out for more inside mids at the time, Goddard was 2nd for total clearances and contested possessions at the club that year. And with Hooker looking like he'd more likely play forward short term and Carlisle leaving we probably needed to bolster the defence more than forward. We absolutely needed the inside mid in Parish.
 
stevieg1969 said:
Just noticed the last time Essendon had multiple Top 10 picks they could have chosen Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow (or Josh Dunkley) but instead chose Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis. Ouch!
Click to expand...

Yeh because McKay and Curnow are really lighting it up right now, aren't they...

Look at all of the pre-draft rankings and Parish and Francis were in everyone's top 5. Francis is prodigious but it hasn't come together for him...yet. Parish has been solid and will take another step next year - now way he is a fail.

Essendon wanted Oliver but he didn't make it to their pick. When you look at the rest of the 2015 draft it is not exactly overflowing with talent that were glaring misses at our picks.
 
Development is Essendons biggest problem, we could take the best 3 players from the draft and have them recovering from major injuries for their career or turn them into soft spuds. Total rebuild is required, with players who are committed.
 
I think personally you missed a chance when you picked your 10 top-up players in 2015. If you tried to find some younger player who hadn't had an opportunity you could have found a player who you might have got some years from. There's a few guys who were delisted in 2015 and would have been available who were younger or on lists for a while afterwards - no champions Ayce Cordy, Nick Holman, Robbie Warnock all were delisted that year but you went old with retired players trying to be competitive and failed miserably. Too bad you weren't able to plunder the SANFL and WAFL there are always a few players who could make the jump but never get the opportunity.
 
longdonkey said:
I think personally you missed a chance when you picked your 10 top-up players in 2015. If you tried to find some younger player who hadn't had an opportunity you could have found a player who you might have got some years from. There's a few guys who were delisted in 2015 and would have been available who were younger or on lists for a while afterwards - no champions Ayce Cordy, Nick Holman, Robbie Warnock all were delisted that year but you went old with retired players trying to be competitive and failed miserably. Too bad you weren't able to plunder the SANFL and WAFL there are always a few players who could make the jump but never get the opportunity.
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From memory they did pick a few young blokes who hadn’t had much of a chance, none of them did much of note though in the end.

We had a team full of recent draftees, someone like James Kelly was fantastic (and is now an assistant coach for us).
 
owen87 said:
From memory they did pick a few young blokes who hadn’t had much of a chance, none of them did much of note though in the end.

We had a team full of recent draftees, someone like James Kelly was fantastic (and is now an assistant coach for us).
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Yeah that is a fair point.
 
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