i am so sick of it

[SS_Fury]

please dont put 'we are essendon, **** the rest', as a sig, its too carltonesque and your mob are above them. Bombers will be fine, there are suprises every year and it adds another year of experience to some good young talent in gumby, jetta, reimers, Ryder, Myers etc etc....these things come in cycles, you dont have to completely bottom out before you go back up the ladder again, which i think the OP may fear.

 

[boncer34]

I would agree with this 100%. A couple of 1 point wins, a couple of points the other way and the end result wouldn't have been much different to the '06 season.

Same could be said in reverse. A couple of close losses with a couple of points the other way and our '06 could've been the same as '07.

This is my main problem, everyone always talks about how lucky we were to win the close ones. So why couldnt we say we were unlucky in '06? Its gotta go both ways.

 

[TheDon35]

Same could be said in reverse. A couple of close losses with a couple of points the other way and our '06 could've been the same as '07.

This is my main problem, everyone always talks about how lucky we were to win the close ones. So why couldnt we say we were unlucky in '06? Its gotta go both ways.

That's true and at the end of the season, I thought we were slightly better than the 15th best side in 2006 with a couple of unlucky losses. I thought where we finished up last year was pretty much spot and highlighted our lack of depth as a couple of key injuries to Hird and Davey realy cost us.

My point is again that if we have a couple of key injuries to our big name players, we still don't have the depth and experience to cover them like some of the other teams do. That could make for a long season in terms of results. The most important thing for '08 is that the young players on our list are making significant improvements to their game so come '09, 10 etc, Houli, Hissy, Gumby, Ryder, Dempsey, Monfries, Myers, Jetta, Neagle, Reimers, Stanton all have around 50 - 75 games under their belt and are stepping up to be high quality AFL players.

 

[The Donners]

You might be sick of it,but thats what most observers feel about the Bombers,potential is one thing but translating that into performance is another,who cares about what other people think,there are always one or two bolters from the previous years cellar dwellers,who knows it might be the Dons, i highly doubt it but that is my opinion.

That's a fair assessment, very level. Thank you.

I hate the word potential, it means that we could be potent... or we could be impotent!

Slightly off topic, Myers reminds me a hell of a lot of Pendlebury!!!

 

[B-Bomber]

please dont put 'we are essendon, **** the rest', as a sig, its too carltonesque and your mob are above them. Bombers will be fine, there are suprises every year and it adds another year of experience to some good young talent in gumby, jetta, reimers, Ryder, Myers etc etc....these things come in cycles, you dont have to completely bottom out before you go back up the ladder again, which i think the OP may fear.

I agree SS -- arseh*le clubs like Carlton can have this attitude but I for one would rather see us as above this kind of attitude. I'd rather respect my opposition (can't do that for Carlton though ).

 

[GoDons]

Who cares what the so called 'experts' on BigFooty think. Believe it or not, where we finish in 2008 is not decided by a SMS Poll or anything to that effect.

We are unknowns in 2008. Nobody can say whether the large amount of young talent that are going to be unleashed in the seniors are going to cut the mustard or not. Nobody knows if our older champions are going to become past it. Nobody knows if we're going to have injury problems. And nobody knows whether or not Knights' new gameplan is going to be up to the rigours of AFL football.

No smart man should be writing us off, and nor should they be putting us in for September action.

With Essendon in 2008, expect nothing because everything's a possibility.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Agree with GoDons.

We are in the unknown bucket for next year as we have a lot of inexperienced guys that should be taking the next step.

If they take the next step we play finals.

If not then we are looking at bottom 4.

I am banking on guys like Stanton, Watson, Ryder, Nash, Winderlich, Lovett, Dempsey, Davey, Laycock, Slattery, Jetta, etc getting better and pushing us into finals calculations.

 

[Blueinblood]

Essendon are an intersting one next year.
You have alot of flair and pace in the team along with some indigenous talent so you dont lack to much pace. Your midfield is ok. If jobe watson can pick up a few yards in pace he could be an eliteish midfielder and mcveigh is already a star.
You Have a good spine although Mal Michael is not exactly a spring chicken. Nor any of them. I feel becasue you have a few iindigenous players and players with flare on any given day u will be HOT(reall hot) or NOT... if i was a fan i would be expecting 6-12 wins incuding a few good wins (3o-50) and soem big losses if a few players arent firing

 

[B-Bomber]

That's pretty fair... for a carlton supporterr

 

[warney7]

Our list really is looking good.

I try to maintain an unbiased view, but it really does look a lot better than it has for a while.

So many quality young guys and still a few Champs like Lloyd, Lucas and Fletch.

2008 won't be the year, but I would expect finals in 2009 if we keep improving and 2010 will hopefully be the year when we start challenging the top 4.........hopefully!

 

[Big Bucks]

That's a fair assessment, very level. Thank you.

I hate the word potential, it means that we could be potent... or we could be impotent!

Slightly off topic, Myers reminds me a hell of a lot of Pendlebury!!!

If that is the case then you have a gun, one player on your list that i believe will step up is Dempsey,this kid will blitz.

 

[herecomestheboom]

I don't think we are in as much trouble as everyone makes out. However i also think we are a few years away from being in contention to win the flag as we really need our midfield group to develop.

 

[Slattery_20]

That's true and at the end of the season, I thought we were slightly better than the 15th best side in 2006 with a couple of unlucky losses. I thought where we finished up last year was pretty much spot and highlighted our lack of depth as a couple of key injuries to Hird and Davey realy cost us.

My point is again that if we have a couple of key injuries to our big name players, we still don't have the depth and experience to cover them like some of the other teams do. That could make for a long season in terms of results. The most important thing for '08 is that the young players on our list are making significant improvements to their game so come '09, 10 etc, Houli, Hissy, Gumby, Ryder, Dempsey, Monfries, Myers, Jetta, Neagle, Reimers, Stanton all have around 50 - 75 games under their belt and are stepping up to be high quality AFL players.

Stanton's played 90 or so already I think
Same with Gus, he'd be up over 80

Agree on the depth. Although there were signs last year when we brought in Rama, brought in Neagle who made handy little contributions. Problem was we were hell-bent on playing the kids which meant Bolton & Heff were out of calculations

 

[Vulture_72]

Stanton's played 90 or so already I think
Same with Gus, he'd be up over 80

Agree on the depth. Although there were signs last year when we brought in Rama, brought in Neagle who made handy little contributions. Problem was we were hell-bent on playing the kids which meant Bolton & Heff were out of calculations

Gus is still along way of 80 games.

 

[Slattery_20]

Maybe I'm getting his debut year wrong

Surely 50
He played about 6 in his first season & he's had two full years since that I think. So maybe just shy of 50

Anyway
The point is, he cops a lot of crap, & 50 games is often the turning point between being a youngster & being a senior player. I think this is the year when he'll make that turn. Mind you I said that alst year as well...

 

[Longy413]

Played 12 games in his first year, 21 in his second and 20 in his third for 53 all up.

 

[Classyecho]

I agree with everybody who says we are 'unknowns' in 2008. Let's look at it this way, we took some enormous steps last year - so anything is possible this year. Our older players are really good older players, and providing the kids coming through fire like we've seen Davey, Ryder and co. do in the past, then anything is possible. Including finals. Including top-four. Including even more...

 

[topdon]

anyone notice that its mostly the hawthorn supporters that say junk about us?

Small club syndrome.

 

[NathanS]

Small club syndrome.

I would have said "small 'something else' syndrome" perhaps ;-)

You can always coax the nay-sayers into saying really outlandish things. People with half a brain then realize that they have no idea what they're talking about, and will stop listening to them.

And even better... if you record what they say, when the mighty Bombers beat their team in 2008, or heaven forbid, finish above them on the ladder, you can send them a private message, with their original quote, and gloat.
If they're still around to say the same things the following year, you've got great ammunition against their supposedly 'uncanny' football knowledge.

 

[Ants]

Generally, I feel when you look at the players we lost, the age of our spine, our decent injury run, and how many close wins we had, you can't help predict us finishing near the bottom again.

Hird is obviously a huge loss, but people forget Bolton was damn influential in several games (notably the Sydney one) and Campo held us together versus Carlton.

Our main KP players in Lloyd, Lucas, Michael and Fletcher are all of an age where you'd only expect a dropping off, not further improvement. Also JJ and Pev were important, espescially at the start of the year. If JJ stays injured, we'll miss him, and Pev is starting to slow down.

We had a pretty decent injury run. Although the injuries to Davey, Stanton and Winderlich hurt, we got pretty good runs out of Lloyd, Lucas, Hird, Michael and Fletcher.

We had a lot of close wins this year. Will that continue?

And remember, the gap is big. Against the top 7 teams from last year, I think we won two games, both by less than a goal. And against teams from the bottom half of the eight, well a lot of those have as many youngsters as us coming through.


Offsetting all that is the kids, but will they be enough? Generally they've shown signs, but I don't think enough will come on to make that big a difference in 2008. Just look how long Geelong's class of 99 and 01 took to mature.

 

[HirdforPM]

im so sick of everybody saying how bad essendon are and how there going to struggle next year...last year if it wasnt for a few key injurys we would of played finals football...hird was out for a while and we were ok....i think we have the potential to really be a great team over the next 5/6 years ...i dont know what team there looking at but i think its potentially very very potent....

get over it mate, where simply no that much chop

 

[The_Young_Gun]

yeh , finnaly some1 that saw it....

 

[GoDons]

if this is what they are doing at training things arn't looking good for the bombers

And things turned out terribly for the Melbourne Storm last season...

It was just blokes getting competitive, obviously a concept you're not familiar with.

 

[ant555]

yeh , finnaly some1 that saw it....

I saw it happening about 40 meters in front of me. Live. I was there. There was nothing in it.
People get sucked into edited news vision way too easily