What is our team missing?

[bombre-boy]

Anyone answering "An A-Grade Midfielder" etc. is not entirely accurate. It's not personnel that we're missing, it's attitude.

We're missing:

-Toughness, mongrel, competitive spirit.
-Elite skill level & decision making.

Improve in those areas, mix that in with a good run with injuries which would allow the team to better gel together, and we have all we need...

Spot on....
Team do not fear playing us like they have in the past.
It may be a simplistic outlook but all opposition teams have to do now is out pressure on and await the turnover (which they know is coming)
Also a defensve game would be handy..

 

[LeeARM]

although our back line looks like it will be good in the future, it looks pretty inexperienced (except for fletch who wont be around for too long and lovett-murray and mcphee who aren't great back men) it seems like it might put a lot of pressure on the ryder, hurley and pears.
hopefully we can pick up a star midfielder next year but apart from that it looks fine.
that's what might keep us from being good this year but i feel like these problems will be fixed with time

as for mentality, we're missing a lot of determination which ends up with us getting thrashed when we should really only lose by a few goals.

laycock really needs to improve in the ruck this year or we'll be in real trouble for a back-up ruck while waiting for bellchambers to become good.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

Even clean disposal would be nice. More than a couple of our 'stars' can't kick.

 

[monfries_monster]

1. Elite midfield
2. Classy (or elite) small forward
3. Elite small defender
4. Reliable back-up ruckman

I agree with this.

I have read alot of season previews in the past few weeks which pretty much say Essendon are going to struggle as they can not see where the improvement is going to come from after last year - despite all the injuries, to young and/or key players. Yet they say we have talent and potential in our younger players - this logic makes no sense.

Do you think we can find the four things that you have mentioned in amongst our current young players?

Also can you see Angus as the classy small foward - Medhurst like in theory?

 

[Darealrath]

Selwood would be nice...

 

[Sir James]

We are missing Respect.

Right on the money Jonesy.
Teams dont fear us anymore......I miss that

 

[ghostdog]

I'm not sold on the concerns about our midfield yet. Stanton keeps improving and is still only 22. Watson keeps improving and is only 24. Prismall will be 22/23 when he plays his first match for us. Lonergan is 21 (!) and Houli and Reimers are 20 (!). Worry about finding one particular 'elite' midfielder I think is unproductive. We have the makings of a great midfield combo. We just have to work hard, develop some chemistry and polish our skills. Zak's on his way too.

IMO we need a second ruck whose skills match Hille. Bellchambers is only 19, and under Hille as a mentor. He's also shown glimpses of what he's capable of. Then there's Bock on his way who obviously has the lineage.

More game time for Pears and Myers is needed before we start panicking about hard defense. Hurley is doing good things already and can spot up players 50m away.

Neagle and Gumbleton need to get right. I'd like to see both of them bigger, and Gumby to keep his feet more, but I can see the potential of them developing into a lethal combo like Brown and Bradshaw. What's stopping them?

We need to work on our skills. The top sides don't kick wayward, they deliver with consistency. The handballs stick everytime. Players like Houli, Jetta, Monfries, Slattery, sometimes Stanton... I'm sure there are others... Nash (!), are inconsistent with this and sometimes it's really frustrating. If we are to play as quickly as Knights want us to, then our skills must match the expectation. (For this reason, btw, I reckon Zaharakis will be in the side regularly sooner rather than later) If they do I have no doubt we can be top 4.

 

[dons_fan185]

Our team is missing the fans

• Open up at least one skills session a week.
• Better handling of memberships and ticketing
• More 'special offers' to members...membership needs to be more appealing than 'this is a season not to be missed'. Give more the money being handed over
• More interaction with the community. More Essendon players getting out there. We need household names again. Get Jobe Watson and David Hille known as good community patrons and good footballers (i.e. James Hird)

Fans need to do their bit too. No more negativity! Don't call our guys morons from the sidelines....don't give up after a NAB cup loss...go our young guys play for Bendigo. Have a little faith

 

[TheDon35]

• Obviously a top line mid
• Depth of mid's - our running 12 or 13 are a long way behind the top sides running 12 or 13
• To learn to kick the ball to a target - disgusting atm
• A will to win
• A bit of mongrel
• a couple of years of consistent footy and development of Gumby, Neagle, Pears and maybe Hurley
• A bloke that can stop Fev or Franklin etc kicking a million goals whenever they play us
• Missing the absence of Mcphee, Dyson, Slattery, NLM, Laycock, Skipworth, all of which are not going to help us win a flag.
• Coaches consistently playing us in the right positions.
• making some hard decisions and playing our youngsters over players like Winderlich, Welsh, Mcphee, Short term pain for long term gain.

 

[TheDon35]

That's pretty much it IMO...We just need to get game time into our talented young'uns

And this requires some hard decisions from the coaches. I don't know that they'll have the balls to make them though.

 

[Skeeta Olly]

Right on the money Jonesy.
Teams dont fear us anymore......I miss that

Agreed..

Is it me, or are we always the less dominate in the crowd (at least in the larger matchs). I felt sick every time I saw Yellow and Black in the crowd at the Dream Time game.

 

[bomber69]

James Hird.

 

[BringBackCransberg]

Our team is missing the fans
....
Don't call our guys morons from the sidelines....

Too bloody right.

I love supporting Essendon for so many reasons, but I always feel sick when fellow 'fans' do this sort of thing. I went to two NAB Cup games and both times I heard seemingly respectable EFC supporters shouting out to our players that they were "stupid", "brainless", "pathetic".... Made me shudder. Sure, get pissed off if a Bomber doesn't respect the jumper by failing to put their body on the line or whatever, but don't disrespect the jumper yourself by calling the guy who's wearing it a moron. Sure, he may have screwed up, but no one is more pissed off about it than him. Adding your selfish negativity to it does nothing but hurt the club culture, which includes all the fans sitting around you at the game.

Sorry to go on about it but it really pisses me off. And if anyone says I'm guilty of hurting the club culture by attacking these supporters, well, I don't really consider them supporters. The closest they can get to being actual fans is being fairweather fans. And at losses, they're cancer.

 

[topdon]

Don't have much confidence in Hurley and/or Pears kelvin?

They're totally unproven at AFL level. Its not about having confidence as they may become very good footballers. So your arguement has no basis.

 

[MasterOfPuppets]

Hard running rebound defender. Dempsey might fill this role but his disposal needs work.
Our key position players are going to be extremely plentiful in the coming years and our midfield is coming of age.

 

[DaSawx]

Our disposal will look a hell of a lot better already if we get an extended period without injuries for once, then players will settle in their roles, know where to work for each other and we won't have to make 4-5 changes every week, whether we can make it happen obvioulsy needs to be seen to be believed.

 

[Slattery_20]

size, committment, fitness, aggression
a gun midfielder wouldn't hurt, but what we need right now is 22 blokes who will hurt their man

 

[Slattery_20]

Too bloody right.

I love supporting Essendon for so many reasons, but I always feel sick when fellow 'fans' do this sort of thing. I went to two NAB Cup games and both times I heard seemingly respectable EFC supporters shouting out to our players that they were "stupid", "brainless", "pathetic".... Made me shudder. Sure, get pissed off if a Bomber doesn't respect the jumper by failing to put their body on the line or whatever, but don't disrespect the jumper yourself by calling the guy who's wearing it a moron. Sure, he may have screwed up, but no one is more pissed off about it than him. Adding your selfish negativity to it does nothing but hurt the club culture, which includes all the fans sitting around you at the game.

Sorry to go on about it but it really pisses me off. And if anyone says I'm guilty of hurting the club culture by attacking these supporters, well, I don't really consider them supporters. The closest they can get to being actual fans is being fairweather fans. And at losses, they're cancer.

well played
why are people so pissed off this pre-season?

 

[loopy_cam]

Because they're sick of being sub standard. We are Essendon. We should be playing finals EVERY year.

 

[GoDons]

size, committment, fitness, aggression
a gun midfielder wouldn't hurt, but what we need right now is 22 blokes who will hurt their man

Sums it up for me.

Structurally, I think we're pretty good.

I had a watch of the 2000 Grand Final on a quiet Friday night, and the thing that really stood out to me about that team was the commitment to the contest that almost every player had.

To single one bloke out, Jason Johnson went a million miles at everything that was there be won. He got kicked in the head a few times, but he was back up again and at the bottom of the next pack.

That team were warriors. Great footballers, but also guys that looked like they enjoyed every bump and every tackle and every little spat.

We don't need every bloke playing like Jason Johnson, afterall, we're built around run and carry. However, we need as many blokles as possible playing with Jason Johnson's mindset.

 

[dons_fan185]

Agreed..

Is it me, or are we always the less dominate in the crowd (at least in the larger matchs). I felt sick every time I saw Yellow and Black in the crowd at the Dream Time game.

its not just you. i was sitting in GP seating last year Anzac day and I was surrounded by bogans and morons whose lingo consisted only of "hot pies" or "we love you daisy".

 

[Red Black and Blue]

its not just you. i was sitting in GP seating last year Anzac day and I was surrounded by bogans and morons whose lingo consisted only of "hot pies" or "we love you daisy".

Anzac Day, I was sitting in the pies members, copping it all game from everywhere, but it was so good the second time we played. Its a lot more fulfilling when you can give shit to 3,000 pies fans alone.

 

[Skeeta Olly]

its not just you. i was sitting in GP seating last year Anzac day and I was surrounded by bogans and morons whose lingo consisted only of "hot pies" or "we love you daisy".

When I was at the Dream Time match when we kicked a goal a decent roar from the crowd, when Richmond did.... a see of Yellow and Black Erupted....it was an Essendon home game as well.