VelvetSledge
Moderator
- May 24, 2007
- 17,464
- 35,200
- AFL Club
- Essendon
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- Liverpool FC, Melbourne Storm
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- #1
RICHMOND TIGERS
Pushed all the way by the Hawkes who were left privately seething after we somehow beat them the week prior.
Dusty is getting back to top form, and Shai Bolton is looking like a future Brownlow winner.
When Prestia's hamstrings are attached and functional, he's a jet.
Tom Lynch is leading the Coleman, and he's doing it easily.
In some worse news for the Tigers, Noah Balta has pinged a string and will miss some time.
Knowing the Tigers, however, they'll pull a 19 year old kid out of the VFL and he'll restrict 2MP to 2 kicks, and a handball.
It's a cruel game.
HAWTHORNE HAWKES 14.10 94
def. by
RICHMOND TIGERS 17.15 117
GOALS: Lynch 4, Martin, Riewoldt 3, Bolton, Soldo 2, Graham, Nankervis, Castagna
BEST: Prestia, Lynch, Martin, Nankervis, Bolton
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ESSENDON BOMBERS
**** this club.
SYDNEY SWANS 14.21 105
def.
A BUNCH OF BLOKES WHO CALL THEMSELVES ESSENDON BUT DON'T REALLY DESERVE THAT TITLE 6.11 47
GOALS: Wright 2, Francis, Hobbs, Perkins, Martin
BEST: No-one.
RICHMOND EMERGENCIES: Sam Banks, Judson Clarke, Jake Aarts, Jack Ross
ESSENDON EMERGENCIES: Tom Cutler, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Tex Wanganeen, Harrison Jones
---
RICHMOND OUTS: Bigoa Nyuon (Omitted), Marlion Pickett (Suspended), Noah Balta (Injured)
RICHMOND INS: Josh Gibcus, Robbie Tarrant
ESSENDON OUTS: Jye Caldwell (Injured), Tom Cutler (Omitted)
ESSENDON INS: Devon Smith
---
Subs are announced one hour prior to bounce.
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LATE CHANGES:
ESSENDON: Jordan Ridley (COVID Protocols) out for Tom Cutler
RICHMOND: Jack Graham (COVID Protocols) out for Jack Ross
It truly is an indictment on this side that we can serve up that triple last week and have only the one unforced change. Let's hope Dev has taken his angry pills, and let's also hope he's shared them around the changerooms.
Ah, who cares, let's rant.
As I sat on the couch last Saturday night, I found myself in a stark position of realization.
The kids were both fast asleep in bed, the dishwasher was running, and the house was clean. A perfect time to sit down with a beer and some snacks, and just enjoy watching the footy. Only, as we all know, it's hard to enjoy a showing like that. Never, in my 30 years of following the club, have I been so disappointed.
During the saga, I was disappointed, but not at the club; with certain individuals. With Stephen Dank, the sweaty toad who always promised that players would be exonerated, even though they still haven't. With David Evans, who threw his friend and coach James Hird well and truly under the bus to save his own corpulent, self-preserving arse. The examples were plentiful, and, at times, I was truly embarrassed.
This, however, is different.
This is a club that has recovered from circumstances outside of its control and has put the previous indiscretions behind it.
A club that is now turning over record profits every year, even without sustained on-field success.
A club that, by all standpoints outside of Tullamarine, is a nice club. A wholesome, friendly club.
This is fine, for a time. But when you've let bygones be bygones, and you've put it on the public record that you want to be a successful football side again, winning games and finals, you have to put your money where your mouth is.
This club hasn't done that.
For all of his posturing in the pre-season, with his 20-minute long "real talk" style videos, Paul Brasher has disappeared off the face of the earth. He spoke about transparency, and about how the club wants to proceed forward on-field and become a superpower again. Train our crop of players to be the physical beasts seen in the past few premiership sides. Talked up our fitness staff, and our coaches. Spoke at length about how it's great that we're balancing the books and being fiscally successful, but we really need to focus on what a football club does - win flags.
This club, after all the grandstanding, hasn't done that.
Instead, we witness the most disgusting, limp-wristed, weak-as-piss dogfart crock of s**t performance that some of us have seen in years, and that says something. This was disgusting. I won't single out individual players, as this is a team sport, but there are plenty of blokes in our starting side that would have been dropped from the Croydon Under 10s side for soft**** performances. I have a teething 9-month-old son who has done shits harder than most players in our side last week.
Of the sixteen occasions that a team has laid less than 40 tackles, we are FOUR of them. A tackle is not a stat that one gets in a chain of handballs to increase your ******* supercoach score. A tackle is a non-negotiable part of this game. The most basic defensive skill. You learn how to tackle at Auskick, along with being told not to pick your nose in the middle of handball drills. You just stick your arms out and make sure you stop the bloke with the ball; and if you can't do that, at least slow him down. Last week, these PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES, most getting paid well over $200k a year to PLAY A GAME, couldn't do that. It became apparent to all of us pretty quickly that something is rotten at EFC. It goes beyond players or coaches. We have some of the highest-rated assistant coaches, and we have a talented young list. It's down to effort, and if the effort isn't there at the highest level of the sport, then there's something amiss, and something very very wrong.
The trickle down leads you to those who make the decisions at the club. The afore-mentioned president in Paul Brasher, who's disappeared from the Earth.
The EFC board, that seems immune from the consequences of its actions.
The CEO, Xavier Campbell; who, despite no success whatsoever in his tenure, has somehow managed to receive a two-year contract extension. This point may well be the thing that tipped me over the edge this week.
I can stomach the team going through a rough patch. We're missing four of our top 5 goalscorers from last year, and injuries have taken their toll. I get it, and I won't dispute it.
I can even stomach a little lack of effort after players have been unwell with a particularly nasty variant of the flu. I don't like it, but I get it.
What I can't stomach is the club extending the contract of a CEO who clearly prioritizes the business side of the club to the point that the football side of things suffers. And it suffers immensely.
A CEO who has let this club continuously float from 8th-12th on the ladder year after year with no new ideas on how to improve.
A CEO who has let our VFL program go from consecutive preliminary finals to being an easy 4 points for any team they come across.
A CEO who keeps getting key personnel wrong, time and time again. Neil Craig, Rob Kerr, Dan Richardson. All complete busts.
We need more than a refresh.
We need an external review. We need a full investigation into the goings-on at the club. The processes, the performance measures, and how they affect who is placed in what role. We can't continue to underperform from a football standpoint, because that is what people come to see. They don't pay memberships and cheer on weekends for positive balance sheets and healthy bank accounts. They come to see their team win games of football, and if we can't do that, those bank accounts will start looking mighty sick.
People pay with their feet, and if the feet don't shuffle into the stadiums, it starts to hurt the club. They would be wise to heed the warnings of fans who are crying out for change.
Get Ron Gauci on the phone, and ask him to come in and review everything at Essendon. This time, ****ing ACT ON IT.
This ****ing club.
Round 12, 2021
Optus Stadium
5/6/2021
ESSENDON BOMBERS 12.12 84
def. by
RICHMOND TIGERS 19.9 123
---------
ESSENDON GOALS: Hooker, Ham 3, Waterman 2, Phillips, Stringer, Langford, Cox
RICHMOND GOALS: Martin, Castagna, Bolton 3, Riewoldt, Graham, Coleman-Jones 2, Caddy, McIntosh, Rioli, Balta
ESSENDON BEST: Parish, Merrett, Langford, Phillips, Redman
RICHMOND BEST: Martin, Bolton, Graham, Castagna
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CHANGES SINCE LAST TIME:
ESSENDON OUTS: Langford, Cox, Hooker, Stringer, Ham, Stewart, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Zaharakis, Phillips, Ambrose, Jones
ESSENDON INS: Wright, Smith, Durham, Martin, Reid, Kelly, Draper, Shiel, Hobbs, Bryan
RICHMOND OUTS: J. Graham, Chol, Houli, Aarts, Pickett, Balta, Caddy, Coleman-Jones, Collier-Dawkins
RICHMOND INS: Gibcus, Tarrant, Lambert, Lynch, Nankervis, Soldo, N. Graham, M. Rioli
If the club has listened to the fans, those that pay the bills and should have the overwhelming voice, we will bring a much, much harder edge, with pride on the line.
However, this club, much like the AFL with the Grand Final start time, never listens. And that won't change now.
Richmond by 116.
I will be very happy to be proven wildly wrong.
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A special mention to Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who announced his retirement this week. Walla designed the jumper we're wearing tonight, and has been a shining light in a very tough period for this football club. He's one of the most talented and highly skilful players I've ever had the pleasure to watch, and his retirement leaves a huge hole in our club.
All the best Walla. An Essendon legend.
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