Wonder what sheeds will do with this...

[M29]

From Patrick Smith:

Football has identified the premiership hangover as a reality. No other research is required than a quick look down the premiership winners. Back-to-back flags are hardly common.

Brisbane has collected last year’s flag, has equalled Essendon’s stretch of 20 victories in a row and is closing in on the winning streak held either by Bob Davis or Geelong. Going on last week’s publicity, it must belong to Davis.

It is only round five and we’ll know more about Brisbane’s passion to win two premierships in a row in the middle of winter, when injury and travel make it that little bit harder to be keen and sharp. But we still like the Lions’ chances.

However, is there a pressure that comes from just being in the elite group of teams for a long time? An intense anxiety that is not linked directly to a premiership but just a constant expectation of success?

We provide no definitive answers, but we certainly tender evidence. Your honor, we would like to call our first witness, Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.

After the Bombers went down to the Lions in round three, a group of Essendon players went the following morning to a local club that the Bombers have adopted. Lloyd was asked about his long-term future and he said that it was difficult to see himself playing long term. The reason? The intense pressure that is inherent with being part of a top club where success is measured in nothing but premierships.

Essendon lost a preliminary final in 1999 to Carlton, a team that it was meant to beat easily enough. It won the flag the next year and then, after being premiership favorites all season, lost to Brisbane last year. The Bombers now fight accusations of under-achievement.

The question we need to consider is whether the Essendon players have been wearied by this experience of being the team most likely for three years. All the scrutiny, anticipation, hype. The answer may well be yes.

Two games support this. Brisbane wore down Essendon in the first quarter with physical and mental bombardment that only the strongest can resist. Essendon fell over.

Against Collingwood on Thursday, Essendon had a great percentage of the play for most of the first half and by half-time trailed on the scoreboard. Collingwood withstood Essendon with a desperate defence.

By half-time the rhythm and tempo of the game had changed. The game had become too hard for Essendon, their game plan wasn’t working, they became disheartened and their work rate dropped off.

If it was any other team, they would have been called insipid and soft. Commentators are reluctant to use these terms because Essendon has been the dominant team of the past three years and it has earned that right by its attack on the ball and the player.

But there is no doubt that Essendon lost interest in doing what was required to wrest back the initiative from Collingwood. The ball was slippery, footing hard to hold, Collingwood wouldn’t go away. Why bother?

If we made those observations about any other team, we would call them marshmallows. So we should call Essendon soft, too. If it doesn’t come easy to Essendon this year, then it appears it might not come at all.

There are other worrying signs. The coaching panel mused about whether Collingwood was better prepared for wet-weather football than their team. The Magpies had gone around against Carlton in the wet and would have learnt a thing or two about playing in slippery conditions then.

That is surely a joke. This year the Essendon players share a salary cap of $5.56 million, their coach Kevin Sheedy is on a squillion and he has a support staff so big that they could complete the Olympic torch relay on their own.

And we are led to believe that in this era of professional football not only did the players not know how to play in the wet but the coaching staff was unable to convince them how to go about it? Now that is muddying the waters.

No, the problem facing Essendon is this: the club has been at or near the top for so long that it is fiddling with the players’ nerves. Right now, Essendon is soft. Squishy soft.

Patrick Smith writes daily in The Australian

 

[Smokin]

Originally posted by M29
From Patrick Smith:
After the Bombers went down to the Lions in round three, a group of Essendon players went the following morning to a local club that the Bombers have adopted. Lloyd was asked about his long-term future and he said that it was difficult to see himself playing long term. The reason? The intense pressure that is inherent with being part of a top club where success is measured in nothing but premierships.

WTF????


On the rest of it - the guy is an idiot.

If we are "soft" what the hell are Geelong, Richmond and Adelaide?

Although I think some Essendon fans are seeing more gloom so far this year than is actually there.

2 loses - One of them is/will be the hardest assignment in football this year, the other was a huge event on the calander which often sees a much harder contest than ladder positions or player calibre would indicate.

Fact is - if told at the start of the year we would lose 3 games - the 3 most likely would be:
Brisbane at the Gabba.
Collingwood on Anzac day.
Carlton.

You watch - Carlton are crippled but they will give us a run for our money in two weeks.

You can throw player reputation, form and whatever else out the window with Ess-Car/Coll games. We always say this, but still every uneducated fan is suprised at the competitivness of Collingwood on Anzac days when as a club have been more than struggling. People just dont understand.

Brisbane arnt looking rock solid on the road either. They hardly looked "hard" against WCE thats for sure.

Long way to go Patrick.

 

[windyhill]

windyhill says you can not be at the top forever.
windyhill had his boys at 5th or 6th this season.
We are being stretched this year with the devastaing loss of Hardwick and Solly,take any more out of the Essendon equation, ie Sean Wellman,Gary Moorcroft,Scott Lucas (not forgetting retirements Longy,Barnes @ Wally) and you just can`t cover those losses,thus, a slip down the ladder is inevitable.

patrick smith is a stirring p rick,has been for years,yes he "supports" Essendon,but us and collingwood are/have been his two favourite targets,he has given collingwood some frightful stick over the years,funny,but got boring in the end.
With us,he is just getting in early.

 

[Dan26]

A slip down the ladder doesn't HAVE to be inevitable. Sure, if you finish top every year, there is only one way to go - down. But, a drop to 5th or 6th in a 16 team competition is hardly a devastating drop. The teams that are well prepared and professional can continue to be competitive each year, every year. That doesn't mean winning the premiership, but being up in the finals contending. 5th or 6th is still up in the finals contending.

I don't buy this crap about gettig low draft choices, and consequently not getting the best youngsters. In 1999, we finished on top, and ended up with Ramanauskas who was beind only Hasleby as the best first year player. Plenty of good players are available down the order in the drat. Look at Travis Johnstone? Is he really good enough to warrant the number one youngster in the country 5 years ago? No. Plenty of better players were picked up later.

John is right when he says we might slip. How can we not slip when we are finishing on top every year? There is only one place to go, and that's down. But I don't believe we have to slip down the ladder becuase of some stupid "cycle". That's bullsh*t.

Under Sheedy, we have had a negative win-loss record in only 2 of his 22 years. He is proof that you can be competitive each and every year, if you are professional and make the right decisions.

 

[Slax]

Patrick Smith is an idiot and has been for years so that means nothing. I don't even think Sheeds would worry about using it everyone knows that Smith doesn't write football stories, he only writes drivel that isn't worthy of using to clean up the cat shlt on the kitchen floor.

What is more worrying than that is the poor disposal in wet conditions, that is something for Sheedy & his assistants to look at. In the wet go back to the ultimate basics, kick long and quickly up the centre to the forward line will give you the best chance of winning.