Roast What does this club stand for?

fanuch

Team Captain
Aug 6, 2008
450
633
melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
This year I’ve been thinking about where we stand and how successful we’ve really been in my life. I haven’t come up with answers but I do question what we stand for.

83-85. A visionary coach who was ahead of the curve in relation to professional footballers.

90. A team that wanted to fight not play.

93. Right place right time but not the best team. 08 Hawks 16 Dogs

00. Genuine best team I’ve seen.

Since then it seems weve just rested on our laurels because Essendon.

The other years just feel like a bog ordinary disinterested football club. And I can’t believe that’s what we stand for.
 
Last edited:
I will throw this in here as it is a bit of a stand for issue.
The Swans pretty much tag Shiel out of the game on Friday night. Did anyone put any physical on his opponent at any stage ?
A Luke Hodge type captain would have put him on his arse at some stage.
 
Apr 26, 2007
14,518
2,259
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Aston Villa
I will throw this in here as it is a bit of a stand for issue.
The Swans pretty much tag Shiel out of the game on Friday night. Did anyone put any physical on his opponent at any stage ?
A Luke Hodge type captain would have put him on his arse at some stage.
I totally agree. Let’s say Heppell isn’t the right captain to take us forward, who in your view would or could replace him?
 
I will throw this in here as it is a bit of a stand for issue.
The Swans pretty much tag Shiel out of the game on Friday night. Did anyone put any physical on his opponent at any stage ?
A Luke Hodge type captain would have put him on his arse at some stage.
Smith was harassing the taggers a few times. I think the tag switched from Shiel to Merrett at half time and Merrett started playing on the other side of the stoppage to try and shake it.
 
Apr 26, 2007
14,518
2,259
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Aston Villa
I just read an excerpt from Worsfold’s presser on the Essendon website, it more or less blamed the forwards with the amount of opportunities they had. I haven’t bothered to watch the full presser but based on the excerpt, no blame was given to the delivery to the forwards - the editor of the article added it.

Yes, the forwards are a bit of a mess but surely the kicking inside 50 needs way more focus? It was nothing short of disgraceful.
 

madrigal

All Australian
May 24, 2018
726
839
AFL Club
Essendon
I totally agree. Let’s say Heppell isn’t the right captain to take us forward, who in your view would or could replace him?
Give it to Ambrose, he has the work rate, courage and not afraid to put the hurt on an opponent.
 
I just read an excerpt from Worsfold’s presser on the Essendon website, it more or less blamed the forwards with the amount of opportunities they had. I haven’t bothered to watch the full presser but based on the excerpt, no blame was given to the delivery to the forwards - the editor of the article added it.

Yes, the forwards are a bit of a mess but surely the kicking inside 50 needs way more focus? It was nothing short of disgraceful.
He can only answer the questions that he’s asked, and I would always recommend listening to the source and making up your own mind, rather than getting it second hand from someone who has an “angle”.

Having said that, an essendon article written by Conor Walsh or one of the other in-house journos is usually pretty safe. Between his press conference, the messaging from the journalists (who are almost certainly told what the message is going to be), the post match interview with Heppell and the “from the coach” video, the idea within the club seems very clearly to be about a disconnect between the midfield and the forward line.

Running patterns and strategy in the forward line has to make space for us to lead into and help us not to get outnumbered at the fall of the ball.

We need talls that can read the flight of the ball and either take the mark or bring the ball to ground for the smalls to capitalise on. To some extent this is also knowing the guy who is kicking the ball and what his disposal and decision making is like.

And we need mids who can make good decisions about how to enter the forward fifty depending on the placement of our forwards and the defenders so that it falls to our advantage.


I feel like bombing it long to a contest and playing the percentages is our back up plan. That certainly seems to be our strategy for a kick in. But we’re falling back on that far too often. Need to be smarter.

I’d particularly recommend watching Heppell’s post match interview. I’m pretty sure the players do those interviews right after the team debrief, they’re pretty much quoting verbatim the messaging from the coaches. That’s even more obvious when we have a couple of post match interviews from different players saying the same thing. With Heppell you’re also getting his perspective as a senior player and captain, which adds more colour to his interview.
 
I totally agree. Let’s say Heppell isn’t the right captain to take us forward, who in your view would or could replace him?
That is the problem. Heppell is the best option. He does a very good job but he is missing that one part.The next few in line are the same.
 
Hurley for me. Absolute competitive animal that despises losing and goes to another level when he’s the focus of some pressure.

Not saying he doesn't do what you say but so does Heppell. Hurley rarely goes out of his was to put physical pressure on in a Luke Hodge style despite being super competitive and hard at the contest. Devon Smith is the only one who has continual niggle.
 
Apr 23, 2016
30,510
42,668
AFL Club
Essendon
Not saying he doesn't do what you say but so does Heppell. Hurley rarely goes out of his was to put physical pressure on in a Luke Hodge style despite being super competitive and hard at the contest. Devon Smith is the only one who has continual niggle.

Hurley at his best is a very physical player, though not the niggly type in a Devon Smith way.

Hooker also doesn’t mind throwing his weight around.

We don’t have anyone on the list that screams Hodge / Selwood / Reiwoldt type Captain material to me at the moment.
 
Hurley at his best is a very physical player, though not the niggly type in a Devon Smith way.

Hooker also doesn’t mind throwing his weight around.

We don’t have anyone on the list that screams Hodge / Selwood / Reiwoldt type Captain material to me at the moment.

And that is the issue although not having Hurley and Hooker in the leadership group is a mistake.
 

Albertross

Club Legend
Feb 26, 2015
1,623
3,495
North of the border
AFL Club
Essendon
I would rather Hooker as our current captain. Has a bit of mongrel in him at times and will inspire his teammates more than Hep ever could.

The only issue I have with Dev is that he is extremely undisciplined at times. Gives away frees with overstepping his aggressiveness.
 
Two misses with Joe and David in the leadership group IMO. If the leadership group isn't about on-field leadership then it's a total gimmick. Daniher shouldn't have been straight in the group while still on the comeback trail from injury and Myers, while I'm sure is a great bloke, hardly typifies any of the work rate and defensive play that we should be expecting from our team much less our midfielders.

Raz is the only one of our forwards that actually demonstrates how to lead and create space on a regular basis, hopefully he'll be able to imprint that on the rest of them.
 
Apr 6, 2008
18,324
14,518
coburg
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Australian cricket team
Apart from the National Anthem, we stand for a football club that seeks success. After a long and illustrious history, we've been crap for 2 decades. I assure you there are other things in your life that are more important.

The club had to rebuild through the years of new teams being introduced, and our highest draft pick had a horror run of injuries that could not have been predicted based upon his junior years. Since then we have had a massive controversy engulf the club and we're currently getting back up from the floor from that.

Richmond was a powerhouse, then a complete disgrace for 30 years. Apart from winning a rebuild peak that only led to prelims, Carlton has been complete and utter Trash for 20 years too. Apart from a period when they were gifted a golden zone, Hawthorn has only been a powerhouse in the last 10 years. Geelong was a complete joke from 1963 until 12 years ago. Melbourne was the most powerful club in the land up until the 60s. I need only mention the names of St Kilda, Footscray and Fremantle.

I could go on and on, but essentially all clubs have periods of s**t. At least we've had periods of power in-between. The other thing to take into consideration is that there are 6 more teams than there was. When there are more data points, outliers are more likely. This means that if you have a solid rebuild you should expect some solid success following that. However, the outlier result of seemingly doing most things right, but a conspiracy of events prevent said success become more likely to actually happen. This is true in the opposite direction with Sydney, Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn being over-represented in the top echelons, despite the need to rebuild at different points. Also, I would suggest that they have not always nailed their rebuild.

Despite Chris Scott, Geelong has a very good football department. Same with Collingwood. Sydney has been gifted Salary cap bonus and academies and Hawthorn have the best coach of the modern era.

The wheel will turn, with more certainty than St Kilda or Footscray, because of the money and power we have.
 

adsla69k

Club Legend
Aug 26, 2007
2,250
1,598
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Apart from the National Anthem, we stand for a football club that seeks success. After a long and illustrious history, we've been crap for 2 decades. I assure you there are other things in your life that are more important.

The club had to rebuild through the years of new teams being introduced, and our highest draft pick had a horror run of injuries that could not have been predicted based upon his junior years. Since then we have had a massive controversy engulf the club and we're currently getting back up from the floor from that.

Richmond was a powerhouse, then a complete disgrace for 30 years. Apart from winning a rebuild peak that only led to prelims, Carlton has been complete and utter Trash for 20 years too. Apart from a period when they were gifted a golden zone, Hawthorn has only been a powerhouse in the last 10 years. Geelong was a complete joke from 1963 until 12 years ago. Melbourne was the most powerful club in the land up until the 60s. I need only mention the names of St Kilda, Footscray and Fremantle.

I could go on and on, but essentially all clubs have periods of ****. At least we've had periods of power in-between. The other thing to take into consideration is that there are 6 more teams than there was. When there are more data points, outliers are more likely. This means that if you have a solid rebuild you should expect some solid success following that. However, the outlier result of seemingly doing most things right, but a conspiracy of events prevent said success become more likely to actually happen. This is true in the opposite direction with Sydney, Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn being over-represented in the top echelons, despite the need to rebuild at different points. Also, I would suggest that they have not always nailed their rebuild.

Despite Chris Scott, Geelong has a very good football department. Same with Collingwood. Sydney has been gifted Salary cap bonus and academies and Hawthorn have the best coach of the modern era.

The wheel will turn, with more certainty than St Kilda or Footscray, because of the money and power we have.
I think there are more people that justify periods of low level performance at other clubs like Melbourne and Saints than what we have in our supporter base. We the fans help drive success through our own money, showing up, social media, talking to friends, family and work colleagues etc. We don't accept it, we don't lay down, Hird knew it and embraced it "What Ever It Takes!" Take me to the line but don't go over it. This is who we are and that is what we want our club to do. Push boundaries, be better, try harder etc.
Unfortunately Hirds time ended up like it did but we all understand and believed him. We need a coach that is driven and not a grandpa, we need a general to lead the brigade.
 

CBombers17

Premium Platinum
Jul 7, 2014
4,611
5,303
AFL Club
Essendon
In all seriousness, does anyone know what any club stands for?
Given it's subjective the answer would have to be yes. If we as individuals think a club can stand for something then we will know what it stands for - for the individual.

As contrarian as that may sound I think it's actually part of the problem with our club, or more specifically, part of the reason this question is coming up on here. What things like football clubs "stand for" is often driven by either club message (onfield performances and marketing agenda) or supporter concensus. We seem to lack both right now and thus the question.

I read years ago that Essendon were seen as "the professionals" at one stage by the other clubs. The article wasn't about Essendon and I can't remember who the club was featured but I recall thinking at the time that it fitted my perception of the club as well (it was late 90's from memory). Reason being was that we were leaders in many areas on and off the field and the title was befitting. As clearly as that wouldn't have described Richmond, St Kilda or Footscray at that time it also doesn't describe anything much we've presented to the competition for many years either.

I'd say this Club currently stands for:

- silver spoon fed mediocrity
- boys club/soft leadership on and off-field
- arrogamce strong armed into apology
- pretenders, list cloggers and excuse makers
 
Back