Could Essendon be big improvers

[BK Eaglesfan]

It hurts me to say this, as I dislike Essendon as much as anyone else going around, but could they be the big improvers next year?

Various people are looking at the high draft picks being accumulated by Carlton, the previous high picks of Hawthorn, assuming the Bulldogs will continue upward, assuming Fremantle will play next year like they finished this year's regular season, some Eagles supporters claims of a dynasty have been well documented and criticsed, Port feel they are on the up after a bright showing from some rookies, Geelong feel their bad early season form was an aberation etc etc.

But Essendon.....

They will have Lloyd back...a 3 time Coleman Medalist and I think 9 time Essendon leading goalkciker. It goes beyond the stats too, it's what losing your new captain and the club's full forward does to the structure of the entire side.

The flow on effect of this is that Johns will no longer attract the best defender and this should help him no end. Against the Eagles for example, no Lloyd means Johns gets Glass, but with Lloyd back he gets perhaps Jaymie Graham. Still a good player, but not the AA FB.

Lloyd being back also frees some responsibility off Lucas and may even see him able to go back to CHB to help their backline which looked under sized at times this year.

Did we underplay the loss of Lloyd when discussing Essendon's woes this year? Imagine Carlton without Fevola for the year, they may finish bottom two as well (oops, sorry)...or Sydney without Hall for a year, Melbourne without Neitz etc etc.

Lovett and Lovett Murray both missed chunks of games for various reasons.

Gumbleton is one of the draftees from this year who may go straight into an AFL side with an almost AFL ready body. He's already been playing seniors in W.A as we know. Could again help the structure.

Slot Mal Michael into FB and Fletcher can be a lot more attacking and therefore dangerous. This is a 3 time premiership FB, the type who can outmuscle (or at leats break even with) a Hall, or Neitz, or Fevola, or Lynch.

Last year Essendon looked small and their basic structure all wrong, the addition of Michael, Lloyd, perhaps Gumbleton and some others returning from injury, I think they could turn the corner. Surely McPhee won't be as bad again as he was in 06' either.

Lack of pace in the midfield may be the biggest issue, but given we have seen a habit of one side jumping from outside the 8 into the top 4 or so, I think Essendon may be a surprise packet.

Just the opinion of a bandwagon Eagles supporter anyway......

 

[Santoz]

Yes

 

[Swans_Premiers]

May be up for one year...won't last long though

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I've argued elsewhere on these boards that Essendon may well be the surprise packet of '07.

Not many teams slot a quality full-back and full-forward into their starting line-up over Summer, and we are finally starting to inject some pace.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

May be up for one year...won't last long though

care to elaborate?

 

[kingkyle]

No they will be down the bottom for years.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

No they will be down the bottom for years.

better not bother then, with that well thought out analysis

 

[The_Bulldogs_Bite]

They'll improve, but not to a 'devastating' effect.

Lloyd & Michael aren't exactly young and have had their fair share of injuries and whatnot. Michael is becoming a lumbering type too, so I wouldn't be counting on him to hold down the best forwards these days.

They still lack quality pace. Dyson has it, but his skills are ordinary. Same with Winderlich. They don't exactly strike fear into the opposition. Hird's a year older, so what input he has nobody knows. Lucas, again, a year older so I doubt he'll have a great as year as 2006.

Johns is OK but again, I don't think he's capable of winning a game. Lloyd back will help, but I wouldn't think he'd be carving up defenders next year at the same time.

Johnson's are older again, and lack pace. Against The Eagles, Dogs, Dees & a number of other sides with decent midfields, they'll struggle.

I have them finishing somewhere between 9th-12th. They aren't good enough to make the Finals, but they won't bottom out, as they are injecting some quality players into the lineup allbeit some a bit older & some not AFL ready.

They won't be able to keep up with the better sides, as I don't their defence & midfield will be able to hold up. Their attack could go well next year, but I just can't see the mids & defenders getting on top of too many sides at this stage.

 

[Darealrath]

They still lack quality pace. Dyson has it, but his skills are ordinary.

His kicking for goal was shocking vs you guys in r22 so i'll cut you some slack, but he'd be one of the best kicks on the run in the competition. His left foot is a weapon.

We'll improve at least a few spots imo. Wouldn't be shocked if we sneaked into the 8. Like everyone else injuries will play a huge part though.

Lloyd is massively underrated on these boards.

 

[Sheik Mathious]

Midfield is one paced and lacks class and its best players are the oldest ones on its list.

 

[The Kipster]

A Chook admiring the Bummers.....BK you fool.....answer to the thread - NO....everyone has optimism once the draft has been completed and this coupled with the new year's enthusiasm creates a false hope which can be confused with delusions of grandeur....too many aspects to consider and they still have an ordinary backline even with the gorilla in the mist....

 

[btdg]

Its called a dead cat bounce. Essendon weren't as bad as they appeared last year, although they are on the way down. They'll get a few guys back from injury, add a couple through trades, get some last mileage out of Hird, Fletcher, Johnson and co, and bounce back up the ladder - maybe even getting a top-8 spot next year.

Exactly what Carlton did in 2004 - then the real collapse comes. Big hope for Essendon is that they had their first drop prior to a strong draft - if they drafted well this year they might just avoid a complete collapse. We'll have to wait and see though

 

[rgauci]

I agree they will be the big improvers. Being Hirds last year i imagine the whole list will be looking to get off to a flyer and will be working the training track hard.

The big sliders will be interesting, hopefully its not Fremantle. I'm tipping Adelaide, but somehow Neil Craig finds a way to buck the trend when his team seems finished.

 

[tigerT]

Got to respect their goal to goal line next year, Michael will take pressure of Keppler Bradley and Hird can still be damaging if fit. Still feel their midfield is one paced but wouldn't surprise me if they were the big improvers

 

[Silvagnis]

May be up for one year...won't last long though

They'll improve, but not to a 'devastating' effect.

Lloyd & Michael aren't exactly young and have had their fair share of injuries and whatnot. Michael is becoming a lumbering type too, so I wouldn't be counting on him to hold down the best forwards these days.

They still lack quality pace. Dyson has it, but his skills are ordinary. Same with Winderlich. They don't exactly strike fear into the opposition. Hird's a year older, so what input he has nobody knows. Lucas, again, a year older so I doubt he'll have a great as year as 2006.

Johns is OK but again, I don't think he's capable of winning a game. Lloyd back will help, but I wouldn't think he'd be carving up defenders next year at the same time.

Johnson's are older again, and lack pace. Against The Eagles, Dogs, Dees & a number of other sides with decent midfields, they'll struggle.

I have them finishing somewhere between 9th-12th. They aren't good enough to make the Finals, but they won't bottom out, as they are injecting some quality players into the lineup allbeit some a bit older & some not AFL ready.

They won't be able to keep up with the better sides, as I don't their defence & midfield will be able to hold up. Their attack could go well next year, but I just can't see the mids & defenders getting on top of too many sides at this stage.

Both posts are on the money!

If they go up it will be because of the senior players they have in their side. This is reminiscent of Carlton's 2004 season when we won 10 games due to the recruitment of experienced players and the boost the senior players get by seeing a kid like Walker just take them on. The kids get worked out in their second season once the clubs do their homework on them and they come back to the field unless they're a freak like Chris Judd.

Gumby will come up against experienced defenders at AFL level and 2007 won't be a walk in the park for him.

 

[King Elvis]

The most glaringly obvious problem with Essendon this year was their complete and utter lack of any on-field Leadership.

Once Hird & Lloyd went down, they looked like a complete rabble.

 

[ManWithNoName]

A Chook admiring the Bummers.....BK you fool.....answer to the thread - NO....everyone has optimism once the draft has been completed and this coupled with the new year's enthusiasm creates a false hope which can be confused with delusions of grandeur....too many aspects to consider and they still have an ordinary backline even with the gorilla in the mist....

An oridinary backline? Fletcher, Michael, McPhee, 3 All Australins there, doesn't seem too ordinary. Add in Gumby and it's not looking too bad. Fletcher has shown himself as a very dangerous rebounding back, but unfortunately he's been stuck in the goalsquare so he hasn't been able to do that. However one game this season he could, the 2nd Collingwood game, and he was BOG by so far he wasn't funny. Next season Michael will be the defensive full back, which will free up Fletch to be more attacking, a role he's very good at.

How good Lloyd comes back will have a big say in how well we go next year. He's been training like crazy, he didn't go on the end of season trip, instead stayed here and was in the gym every day. I think he could have an absolute ripper next year. Lucas showed this year what he's capable of, so our midfielders won't have to look for Lloyd every time they have the ball. Imagine having a forward of Lucas' capabilities with only a 2nd string defender on him every week. He has the potential to be very damaging.

One other problem we've had is lack of pace in the middle. Lovett will come back next year after a bad year off-field this season, and we've drafted lots of youg, fast players.

We will improve substanially next year, will we make the 8? Possibly, to early to tell. It'll depend on how many players are on the injured list in January, and what kind of form we show early in the season.

 

[mcphee_is_a_gun]

Both posts are on the money!

If they go up it will be because of the senior players they have in their side. This is reminiscent of Carlton's 2004 season when we won 10 games due to the recruitment of experienced players and the boost the senior players get by seeing a kid like Walker just take them on. The kids get worked out in their second season once the clubs do their homework on them and they come back to the field unless they're a freak like Chris Judd.

Gumby will come up against experienced defenders at AFL level and 2007 won't be a walk in the park for him.

The thing is he probably wont get games unless his form in the VFL warrants it as we already have Hird, Lloyd and Johns as key forwards. Having 4 bigger blokes wouldnt be the smartest thing which is why we recruited Davey to help out Lovett keep the pressure on opposition backlines once the ball hits the ground.

 

[Santoz]

Both posts are on the money!

If they go up it will be because of the senior players they have in their side. This is reminiscent of Carlton's 2004 season when we won 10 games due to the recruitment of experienced players and the boost the senior players get by seeing a kid like Walker just take them on. The kids get worked out in their second season once the clubs do their homework on them and they come back to the field unless they're a freak like Chris Judd.

Gumby will come up against experienced defenders at AFL level and 2007 won't be a walk in the park for him.

Why do you dislike the Bombers so much? Jealous of our draft picks by the looks of it!

Top 8 for us anyway next year.

 

[Ripper]

The Bombres were not actually as bad in 2006 as their win loss indicates.

Had they won all the less than one goal games they would have been pushing 8th spot.

 

[Bolt]

We will have in my opinion the best forward line in the competition, Lloyd, Lucas, Hird, Johns, Lovett, Monfries, Davey with possible cameos from Gumbleton, Hille and the like.

We have two of the best key defenders in the game which should also prevent us from having to use McPhee in these roles and free him up to become the player he was in 2004.

However.....how far Essendon goes in 2007 will depend on the development of the likes of Stanton, Dyson, Monfries, Winderlich, Watson and possibly some of our draftees from this year in the middle. Our midfield was terrible last year, very one-paced with poor disposal. If we can win enough ball in the middle to supply our forwards and deliver it properly! we could be a surprise packet, definitely. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. If we see JJ, Pev, Hirdy, Campo and the like carrying the midfield on their own again this year we're ********ed though. Come on the Baby Bombers.

 

[sweetman87]

Just remember, Essendons Best players are all veyy old, Hird, Fletcher, Michael, Lloyd and Lucas.

They porbably will do better next year, however, if one of Lloyd or Lucas goes down with injury or form, expect a slide down the ladder. If they do better i believe it will only really be temporary. got some good younger players, Lovett, Monfries, Gumbleton, Ryder, Dyson, but not enough

 

[bomberbilly]

Just remember, Essendons Best players are all veyy old, Hird, Fletcher, Michael, Lloyd and Lucas.

They porbably will do better next year, however, if one of Lloyd or Lucas goes down with injury or form, expect a slide down the ladder. If they do better i believe it will only really be temporary. got some good younger players, Lovett, Monfries, Gumbleton, Ryder, Dyson, but not enough

you forgot our other elderly stars like stanton/watson/mcphee/nlm/

 

[rick James]

The Bombres were not actually as bad in 2006 as their win loss indicates.

Had they won all the less than one goal games they would have been pushing 8th spot.

I know, their inaccuracy cost them at least 4 games I can remember.

And it wasn't against crap teams either, they could easily have kncoked off Melbourne and St Kilda had they kicked straight.

 

[Corpuscles]

Given half a loophole ......they will steal 9th off Ninthmond!

Will improve position dramatically and miss out on a low R1 or PP in 2007 draft.