Originally posted by go team
Yes, Kevin Sheedy is on an evil hell bent mission to destroy VFL football - the far superior league of Australian Rules Footabll nationwide.His plan - stack the reserves side with senior players raising crowds and exposure (second page in the age sports section).
I think that match can only work as a positivie for the EFC both at AFL and VFL level. The VFL get a much needed win, this keeps them in contention for a finals spot at 5-6. In return the AFL players keep their skills in touch, and the VFL players benefit from this as the Essendon team would learn from playing with the more experienced senior players. . I'm sure many of the players eg. Mercuri, Alessio, Hille weren't taking this game as anything more than a Sunday morning training run. Proof can be seen in the numerous mentions of the Essendon senior players only winning soft possesions. They aren't stupid. Put yourself in their shoes, Golden Hawk. Would you be going 100% in a VFL match, risking injury, or would you just go through the motions, get an easy kick and remain in touch for the following week? But whether they were going 100% or not, they've still played footy at the highest of levels - just watching how mercuri and alessio find the footy would provide a great learning experience for the regular VFL teammates and even more so for the box hill hawks.
Fair point. However the problem was it wasn't like there were 8-9 young kids out there from the VFL top up list to learn from their senior AFL "teammates".
I'm pretty sure only 2 players (Josh Mahoney and Goddard) actually played who weren't on the Bombers senior list, and both started on the bench.
For example, what happened to that exciting youngster they have brought down from the NT, Darcy? Looks a good prospect, and probably would have benefited greatly from Sunday's game, but didn't even get on the park (he may be injured, not sure).
I don't really have a problem with the Bombers dropping senior players - that's their right and like you said, it was a great promotion for the VFL and probably boosted Box Hill's coffers. But I do have a problem with Sheedy, even if tongue-in-cheek, then goes and denigrates the competition by comparing it to a training run.
