Johnson and Peverill appear finished

[Burzum]

TWO Essendon warriors, Jason Johnson and Damien Peverill, appear finished at senior level.

Coach Matthew Knights last night said he had told the two premiership players they faced "limited opportunities", but he had not ruled a line through their names.

Chairman Ray Horsburgh, however, was more blunt.
"My understanding is they have been told," Horsburgh said yesterday.

"It's a very hard decision. They are wonderful club boys, Jason is a twice best-and-fairest and premiership player, both are warriors, but you've got to win the flag and they're not going to win us one.

"What Knightsy has told them is they're going to play some games this year, they're not going to be never heard of again, but we're going to play the kids."

At 2-5 and with the worst injury list in the competition, Knights hasn't been able to find a spot for Johnson since Round 2.

The popular midfielder, 30, has played the past five matches in the VFL, while Peverill, 28, has played two senior and two VFL games this year before suffering a cracked jawbone.

"I catch up with both men regularly and have told them opportunities at times won't be there and the reason is we'll be looking to give young players opportunity," Knights said.

"I've been honest with them, but by no means does it mean they won't be selected down the track.

"They were both disappointed, but both were reasonably comfortable when I sat down and explained to them the reasons why."

In a wide-ranging interview yesterday, Horsburgh revealed:

KNIGHTS had the total support of the board on his much-talked about offensive game plan;

THE Bombers would be aggressive in trading at the end of the season;

HE expected the club to challenge for the finals in 2010;

THE club yesterday passed 40,000 members for the first time in the club's history.

The chairman said the club would adopt Hawthorn's philosophy to recruiting, which would include aggressive trading of under-performing and middle-aged players for draft picks.

"They had all their picks and no one had heard of "Buddy" Franklin or (Jarryd) Roughead," Horsburgh said.

"We've just got to be patient and expect the same.

"Knightsy is not playing Jason Johnson and Damien Peverill and we cleared Mark Johnson, Bradley, retired Camporeale and Chris Heffernan. He might've have won a couple more games with those players, but we'd never win a flag," Horsburgh said.

Asked if ruthless trading can be expected at year's end, Horsburgh said: "Yes. That's Matthew's recommendation to the board.

"It's too early to say who, but we've got to sit down and look at it all, and say, 'We've got to get us the players that can win us a flag'. We've got to build the bodies up of the players we've got."

He said the board supported Knights' style of attacking football, but added the coach was aware defensive aspects would have to be implemented.

"He knows that, but he's saying he'll do that when they are ready for it, but at the moment they've still got a lot of learning with the offensive game plan," Horsburgh said.

"We're are getting overrun, but he's not going to flood, he's going to continue to run and attack. And if we get beaten by 50 or 60 points, it's part of the learning process.

"I accept it because I know where he's coming from, but it's hard for the fans.

"When we appointed Matthew, we said recruit accordingly and develop a game plan and play players who can win us a flag."

Horsburgh was pleased to announce the 40,000 membership target, considering the team's form in the past month.

"We are rapt, particularly with all of the events last year and everyone was saying they were going to tear up their memberships and they had the extraordinary general meeting to throw Peter Jackson and I out of the club," Horsburgh said.

"We've gone from 37,000 to 40,000 in the past month and we haven't won a game, so it's good faith."

The Dons expect Mark McVeigh and Dustin Fletcher to return this week and Kyle Reimers, Sam Lonergan and Jason Winderlich to be available.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23688608-19742,00.html

 

[Schmick]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23688608-19742,00.html

Music to my ear hairs

Unfortunate about JJ though, has had a great career, but just didn't retire at the right time, what a waste of a two year deal.

 

[red+black]

Without denigrating either player, this is fabulous news for the future of our club. If supporters want to be honest with themselves, Essendon has a very long way to go before they are a genuine premiership threat, and too much time has transpired without the club making enough hard decisions.

Matthew Knights has my full support, I just hope in time he sees C Johns for what he really is.

Many thanks to JJ and Pev for their years of service.

Shame that JJ with 182 games won't join the 200 club. Pev's on 136 games.

 

[daffo]

JJ is good enough to be playing in the seniors. I'm sure he'd make mistakes, but he'd make less then some other players in the side. We should be playing the BEST 22, not the youngest.

 

[Johnnyprinias]

JJ is good enough to be playing in the seniors. I'm sure he'd make mistakes, but he'd make less then some other players in the side. We should be playing the BEST 22, not the youngest.

Our best 22 cant win us a flag anyway. Its the kids that will develop and give us a chance in a few years time. Its a good decision, hopefully the underperforming players are Monfires, Stanton etc that he is talking about aggressively trading.

 

[Daytripper]

Seriously, how is this 'news' ?

Very slow week in newspaper land this week.

 

[boms]

Id say Peverill, Johns, Lee and JJ will all be gone in seasons end... Monfries and Laycock if they contiune going like they are atm will also be gone (Traded).

This is great news too me tho.

 

[Longy413]

Two things disturbed me about that article and neither was the premise of what was said.

1) Horsburgh's continually referring to Knight’s as Knightsy. Just doesn't sit right.

2) Horsbugh commenting on football issues, stay out of it.

Don't talk about our game plan and don't compare us to Hawthorn. We're Essendon.

 

[OrangeCutter]

Without denigrating either player, this is fabulous news for the future of our club. If supporters want to be honest with themselves, Essendon has a very long way to go before they are a genuine premiership threat, and too much time has transpired without the club making enough hard decisions.

Matthew Knights has my full support, I just hope in time he sees C Johns for what he really is.

Many thanks to JJ and Pev for their years of service.

Shame that JJ with 182 games won't join the 200 club. Pev's on 136 games.

Totally agree, I love the sound of agressive trading of underpreforming mid age players thats exactlywhat we need to do!

to all those bombers fans that said we choose Knights over Hardwick because he promised finals looks like pure fabrication. Knights is in for the long haul and the redevelopment.

Good to see.

Monfries i love you but you need to stand up

 

[Johnnyprinias]

Two things disturbed me about that article and neither was the premise of what was said.

1) Horsburgh's continually referring to Knight’s as Knightsy. Just doesn't sit right.

2) Horsbugh commenting on football issues, stay out of it.

Don't talk about our game plan and don't compare us to Hawthorn. We're Essendon.

Dont worry too much about that. At the end of the day his the president of the club and he has the right to say anything he wants. I like the fact that they mentioned the defensive side of this gameplan. He mentioned that there not ready to learn it yet. Hopefully the overall package in a year or two will be worth the wait.

 

[Daytripper]

Don't talk about our game plan and don't compare us to Hawthorn. We're Essendon.

Agree totally with that.

Horsborough should not be commenting on football issues unless it concerns appointments of players/coaches/contracts etc.

This 'not playing finals football until 2010' statement does not sit comfortably with me either.

 

[Longy413]

I am worried about it, because I don't think he understands football and I cringe everytime he opens his mouth.

I think he generally makes the right decision, but I don't think he has a great public profile and I'd much rather he was neither seen, nor heard.

McMahon, like Brayshaw and McGuire, was a very good public speaker. This bloke his not, he should refrain.

 

[Johnnyprinias]

Like all of us he is learning. Im not defending the man but at least he keeps his mouth closed most of the time.

 

[Longy413]

Learning?

He's a 55+ y/o CEO of a major corporation.

He's not learning, if he can't speak publicly already, it's not going to happen.

I don't know if you were at the B&F last year, but it was a poor performance and I don't think he held the attention of anyone in the room. That's something he has had the opportunity to learn in his years in business.

 

[Johnnyprinias]

I meant learning the fundamentals of football. Nah i wasnt there but i take your word for it. The way he handled Sheedy last year wasnt that good either.

 

[bomba4eva]

THE Bombers would be aggressive in trading at the end of the season;


That part of the article was what most excited me. We already know that Johnson and Peverill were basically out the door in terms of selection into the senior team.

We need to trade heavily. Trade week will be very exciting this year for Essendon and hopefully we can snare some crucial top picks. If we were to achieve the success of the 06 draft I would be over the moon. Ive resigned myself to being in the bottom 8 for a while longer, but when we do finally come out of the darkness, it will be all the more sweeter knowing I was there during the dark times.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Two things disturbed me about that article and neither was the premise of what was said.

1) Horsburgh's continually referring to Knight’s as Knightsy. Just doesn't sit right.

2) Horsbugh commenting on football issues, stay out of it.

Don't talk about our game plan and don't compare us to Hawthorn. We're Essendon.

yeh I kind of agree. This is the line that got me the most:

"They had all their picks and no one had heard of "Buddy" Franklin or (Jarryd) Roughead," Horsburgh said.

"We've just got to be patient and expect the same.

Expect?! It doesn't just happen, Ray...

 

[Daytripper]

THE Bombers would be aggressive in trading at the end of the season;
We need to trade heavily. Trade week will be very exciting this year for Essendon and hopefully we can snare some crucial top picks.

We will not be able to trade into the top 10 without giving up a 2nd or 3rd year player. Which isn't going to happen.

I don't know why people expect other clubs to stupidly hand over picks.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

I am worried about it, because I don't think he understands football and I cringe everytime he opens his mouth.

I think he generally makes the right decision, but I don't think he has a great public profile and I'd much rather he was neither seen, nor heard.

McMahon, like Brayshaw and McGuire, was a very good public speaker. This bloke his not, he should refrain.

Same here.

I can't stand the we'll be good in 2009 or 2010 or we are rebuilding talk. You keep these things in house. It portrays a culture of it's ok to lose because we'll eventually be good because of all our losses.

A dangerous precedent to set.

I was peeved last year in this thread and I think he should just keep his mouth shut.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324404&highlight=Horsburgh

 

[Longy413]

We don't have any tradable commodities to trade aggressively.

We could potentially strengthen our position in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the draft, but that's about it.

Unless we go down the path of trading out Lucas/Lloyd.

 

[Daytripper]

And thats another point.

By opening his mouth and saying we will be trading aggressively he raises expectations amongst the more naive Essendon supporters that we will be able to trade for high picks at the end of this year when the reality is we won't. Considering all the upcoming draft restrictions with Gold Coast and West Sydney, every club will be deperate to hold onto their first two picks unless something extroadinary was offered for trade. And we don't have anyone (except perhaps Gumbleton) that has that sort of value in the marketplace.

 

[High Ryder]

We don't have any tradable commodities to trade aggressively.

We could potentially strengthen our position in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the draft, but that's about it.

Unless we go down the path of trading out Lucas/Lloyd.

Would someone like Lovett be a possibility? Would he fetch a first rd pick?

I agree, the likes of Laycock, Monfries, NLM aren't going to get us anything decent. 2nd rd picks at best.

 

[Daytripper]

Would someone like Lovett be a possibility? Would he fetch a first rd pick?

No

I agree, the likes of Laycock, Monfries, NLM aren't going to get us anything decent. 2nd rd picks at best.

Laycock maybe a 2nd rounder - but it would be a mid to late 20s pick I'd imagine.
Monfries 3rd rounder at best. Ditto NLM.

 

[Longy413]

Lovett wouldn't fetch a 1st round pick.

We got a 1st round pick for Richards because Sydney don't rate the draft and they wanted a tall.

Lovett would have to have a big finish to the season to demand a first round pick and if he did that, we wouldn't trade him anyway.

The only way Lovett would be on the table is if his performances tailed off and by default that drops his price.

 

[Kong]

We got a 1st round pick for Richards because Sydney don't rate the draft and they wanted a tall.

perhaps they would trade a first-rounder for laycock then? he's at the age where he should be ready to dominate, and with everitt surely retiring at year's end, they could be looking for a second ruckman.