Retired #21: Dyson Heppell - Goodnight, sweet prince. What a legend! 🤙 - 24/8

[Lore]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2024
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 27, Highly Evolved

 

[bombreys]

He'll be aiming for 2025 as well

If this year is the standard he has to maintain to get a contract, he’s just getting started

 

[Shanghaistu]

wow, I really thought we were moving forward as a club but signing this plodder for another season is a huge step backwards. he is too slow in all ways and makes too many errors at key moments in games and people can say all they want about his average possessions etc most of it is absolute junk just like his football.. we need to make serious cuts to our list but this one just shows you we are still in the same position of a once great club going nowhere fast....!!!

that’s a glass half full statement - I’d take nowhere as a destination…. Feels more like we’re going backwards? - ie train wreck displays with no effort from the players since the bye….126 point thrashing from a fellow finals contender…. Mahoney resigning…. Hepp extended …. dodoro entrenched for life… I’m starting to miss 2022

 

[Keystone agony]

I wonder if stopping the pursuit of McKay means there’s a gap in the salary cap and we might be choosing to pay him as a player to work as a (playing-)coach?

Otherwise seems like a short-sighted decision.

Not buying the leadership angle anymore. The whole year was about developing leaders at the club and some have stepped up. At some point you gotta take the training wheels off and let them ride the damned bike.

Ditto developing the backline properly.

We could just as easily bring in a leader with some different experiences who is better equipped to play a role too, if we really think we need leadership. Keep Hepp as a coach and perhaps Bucks will pull on a jumper for 12 months

A coach isnt in player meetings

Around the group as much

On field

He was best 22 for the entire year. His next year is less games and at worse depth in an area of need

The training wheels need to come off, i agree. However, that time may not be now

He to me looked like he was one of 3 players who cared on the weekend

The last thing we need is a young group of leaders blaming eachother and causing disharmony. Heppell from what ive heard and seen is very good in this area

Were already young and inexperienced before losing a portion of Phillips, Tippa, Snelling, Stewart ect

Also can cause far more disharmony if the playing group love him, they want him to go around again, he wants to go around again but the club says no. The hard calls were made last time with no send off game..... that didnt go well. This factor also needs to be taken into account

The only players over 28 next year could be;

Heppell
Stringer
Hind
Shiel

The last 3 are that far from leadership/player development areas

 

[MiguelM]

C'mon please, he is even sitting down in the photoshoot!! He's cooked!!

 

[yodellinhank]

Keep Hepp as a coach and perhaps Bucks will pull on a jumper for 12 months

 

[Call Me Cake]

 

[P Money]

Can't help but think we'd benefit so much more from convincing a 'leader' from another club to come to us, who has had success and actually know what is required, rather than keeping Heppell around for another year. Jordan Lewis

Jordan Lewis

Age

38

Ht

186cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

23.5

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

11.5

5star

M

5.5

5star

T

2.7

4star

MG

310.5

4star

No current season stats available

D

15.0

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

8.2

5star

M

4.8

5star

T

2.8

5star

at the Dees and Luke Hodge at the Lions both seemed to have a huge effect on the culture and standards and both teams have been right up the pointy end of the ladder since.

I'm 100% sure Hepp is a fantastic guy and very well liked within the four walls, but he's done. We can all see it, and we've been seeing it for the past 4-5 years. He also has experienced zero success and by definition does not know what is required to achieve it. That's not his fault, he's been at a basket case of a club for an entire career, characterised by mediocrity and interrupted by the most shambolic period ever experienced at any club. Quite frankly this is not the experience a young team needs. We need a huge shift in our culture. And Hepp characterises - and as a long time captain has been a key driver of - our existing culture.

I've been giving Brad Scott the benefit of the doubt to this point. He's impressed me in a lot of ways while I questioned him in some others. Asking Heppell to remain captain this year confused me at the time, offering him another contract for next year is a real concern. And if he stays true to current Brad Scott form he'll be a walk-up start for 22 games next year and no guarantee not to be offered another contract as he falls further and further off the cliff. Very worried Essendon fan here.

 

[ant555]

Same supporters who complain about lack of defensive effort and structure applaud signing on Heppell.

Gets cheap kicks, uses it poorly and is a liability defensively due to leg speed and his cooked body/agility.

What other clubs would have signed him up.

Gave it everything and might have had much better career in a team with bigger bodies and better leaders but when it's time it's time.

Will eek out another 10-15 games. Who else left from drug scandal needs a make up year still?

Have not read all the posts but my general feel was 99% are not cheering.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Have not read all the posts but my general feel was 99% are not cheering.

In here 99 aren’t, on Facebook 99.9% are. It’s crazy

 

[frodos gardener]

I didn’t like seeing him smiling and joking at training yesterday. To be fair, it wasn’t all the time but parts of. Yeah it’s his personality and I’m somewhat old-school in my mentality but I just found it jarring after the huge thrashing we got.

But like, what can be said that hasn’t already been said? Same goes for a few other players. I feel like it’s going to be a long off season. Might have to try to shut footy out of the brain for 6 months (it won’t happen ).

 

[ant555]

In here 99 aren’t, on Facebook 99.9% are. It’s crazy

Well that is no surprise.

 

[Pweter]

I didn’t like seeing him smiling and joking at training yesterday. To be fair, it wasn’t all the time but parts of. Yeah it’s his personality and I’m somewhat old-school in my mentality but I just found it jarring after the huge thrashing we got.

But like, what can be said that hasn’t already been said? Same goes for a few other players. I feel like it’s going to be a long off season. Might have to try to shut footy out of the brain for 6 months (it won’t happen ).

I think this view is somewhat warped. Are the players not supposed to smile all the following week? Yes there should've been a scathing review and everyone should be focused on atoning but they've got to get up for a game this week which means trying to lift spirits.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

You can develop leaders but just like we don’t develop players in any other areas either, we don’t do it.

As much as people blame Dodoro for everything (and don’t get me wrong, he needs to go), no drafted players have had a chance at Essendon. You don’t get to develop in an environment that gets totally turned on its head every five minutes with the goalposts changing. That’s our football department. Hird, Bomber, Hird, Worsfold, Worsfold / Rutten, Rutten, (quick Clarkson hail mary), Scott in the space of a decade.

Occasionally things have looked alright and then it all gets thrown out again. Rutten shot the lights out in his first year, had a bad year and was tossed. Keep in mind that only happened because the board was overthrown by one vote - which was Sheedy switching sides because Barham lied to him and told him he was bringing Hird back. His real plan was to get Clarkson which was never happening. Then he had no plan. He got Brad Scott. Things started well and have fallen off a cliff. What happens when we start next year just as badly? Scott will get sacked. Then what? We start again… again.

In the midst of all this are the players Developing into a gun AFL player is a journey and it doesn’t happen when the rug is ripped out from under you every 10 minutes. Their development gets wrecked and the impact of it carries through another generation of players, with very few of them reaching their potential. So sack Dodoro! He drafted these hacks!

Well yes, but there’s much more to it than that.

At a normal club there’s be maturing players taking the torch from Heppell. At Essendon there’s not, and the impact of it lasts years.

 

[frodos gardener]

I think this view is somewhat warped. Are the players not supposed to smile all the following week? Yes there should've been a scathing review and everyone should be focused on atoning but they've got to get up for a game this week which means trying to lift spirits.

It’s definitely a biased view I’ll admit, formed over a period of time and various impressions; in isolation I wouldn’t think much of it (like it didn’t bother me seeing Langford do the same, because he “gets it”).

I just don’t think he takes things as seriously as he thinks he does.

Even in his presser yesterday, per 7 news sport, he made a comment to the effect of “after 30+, people are going to say things like that (referring to Sheedy’s comments earlier this year), but you just crack on”. It’s like he doesn’t realise. Similar to the “jam it” comment, I put it down to general lack of awareness.

 

[Lore]

A coach isnt in player meetings

Around the group as much

On field

He was best 22 for the entire year. His next year is less games and at worse depth in an area of need

The training wheels need to come off, i agree. However, that time may not be now

He to me looked like he was one of 3 players who cared on the weekend

The last thing we need is a young group of leaders blaming eachother and causing disharmony. Heppell from what ive heard and seen is very good in this area

Were already young and inexperienced before losing a portion of Phillips, Tippa, Snelling, Stewart ect

Also can cause far more disharmony if the playing group love him, they want him to go around again, he wants to go around again but the club says no. The hard calls were made last time with no send off game..... that didnt go well. This factor also needs to be taken into account

The only players over 28 next year could be;

Heppell
Stringer
Hind
Shiel

The last 3 are that far from leadership/player development areas

Yeah I’m still going to hope he’s doing some sort of coaching role and I’m still not buying the leadership angle.

Hepp was like 24 when he became captain. Plenty of players are older than that now and have been pushed to show leadership this year. He’s not the only bloke with more than 150 games under his belt.

 

[YEMOC NAYR]

Carlisle was right, this club is ****ed

 

[Pweter]

What's the off field leadership like, who from the playing group drives standards through preparation, training and recovery? Is Heppell one of the few that does that, meaning the leadership being inferred by the club is way more than what we see on field?

If we're lacking guys that show off field leadership as much as on field, then it's more understandable someone like Heppell staying around. It shouldn't guarantee him a game in 2024 (though it probably will) but it would give more weight to the decision.

 

[ant555]

I didn’t like seeing him smiling and joking at training yesterday. To be fair, it wasn’t all the time but parts of. Yeah it’s his personality and I’m somewhat old-school in my mentality but I just found it jarring after the huge thrashing we got.

But like, what can be said that hasn’t already been said? Same goes for a few other players. I feel like it’s going to be a long off season. Might have to try to shut footy out of the brain for 6 months (it won’t happen ).

It is a bit old school but I understand what you are saying. Now

 

[BomberManU]

I'm not buying the depth/coaching/whatever theory, I reckon he'll play every game possible next year.

 

[Howard Moon]

We won't sacrifice the future for the now, we will stay the course- Scott in every presser this year.

 

[mike14]

What's the off field leadership like, who from the playing group drives standards through preparation, training and recovery? Is Heppell one of the few that does that, meaning the leadership being inferred by the club is way more than what we see on field?

If we're lacking guys that show off field leadership as much as on field, then it's more understandable someone like Heppell staying around. It shouldn't guarantee him a game in 2024 (though it probably will) but it would give more weight to the decision.

the issues with this argument is that our standards have been amongst the lowest in the league for quite some time. So either Heppell (and others) is driving a standard that isn't up to scratch, or he's trying to drive a standard that no-one is following him with...

 

[Pweter]

the issues with this argument is that our standards have been amongst the lowest in the league for quite some time. So either Heppell (and others) is driving a standard that isn't up to scratch, or he's trying to drive a standard that no-one is following him with...

While that's a fair point, where do you start if he is one of the few who drives whatever standard is present then he leaves?

Probably more the point, it really does suck that we're discussing which shade of shit is the better colour.

 

[MiguelM]

I think this view is somewhat warped. Are the players not supposed to smile all the following week? Yes there should've been a scathing review and everyone should be focused on atoning but they've got to get up for a game this week which means trying to lift spirits.

Agree,

You are allowed to move on. Doesn't mean they are not disappointed.

Are they supposed to mope around all week and be negative?

 

[mike14]

While that's a fair point, where do you start if he is one of the few who drives whatever standard is present then he leaves?

Probably more the point, it really does suck that we're discussing which shade of s**t is the better colour.

Yeah it's a hard one, especially as we don't have the complete picture.
What it probably says though is that we are miles off, and what we have across the list doesn't work. But in that case the list needs to be turned over wholesale, which would include Heppell just based on age profile.
Unless they believe that Heppell is 'the answer' in which case it should be him and a very young list, with the mid-tier players who haven't followed Hepp's lead/standards being shown the door.

But as you say, whichever way you cut it, the sandwich is still shit

 

[Bunk Moreland]

What's the off field leadership like, who from the playing group drives standards through preparation, training and recovery? Is Heppell one of the few that does that, meaning the leadership being inferred by the club is way more than what we see on field?

If we're lacking guys that show off field leadership as much as on field, then it's more understandable someone like Heppell staying around. It shouldn't guarantee him a game in 2024 (though it probably will) but it would give more weight to the decision.

We have a massive lack of older heads. Stringer is not a leader and never has been. I think they thought they were getting an elite player, leader with elite standards in Shiel but he hasn’t worked out.