Team Mgmt. Makeup of our team II - Strengths & deficiencies, player development

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Yoda_ said:
The whole list bar a very small handful will be here from todays list in 8 years


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I doubt that very much.
 

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We need to be mindful of Tasmania entering the league and the inevitable dilution of the draft pool.


There’s no use hovering between 9-13 as we usually do. Ideally we cut the following OOC players this year:

  • Heppell
  • Kelly
  • Guelfi
  • Goldstein
  • Hind
  • Weideman (is he ooc? I’d pay him out if not)

We then need to hit the 2024-26 drafts hard. That means ideally minimum three top five picks and no trading away any picks in the first two rounds. We can add experience via FA if the opportunity presents.

Any players of our own - OOC or not - that want to leave should absolutely be let go if the FA or trade compensation improves our draft hand. That includes Merrett who will be 32 at the end of the 2027 season and in all likelihood, will not win a final during his time at Essendon.

We need to use these picks on a combination of prospective elite midfield talents, KPF, small forwards and half backs with an emphasis on kicking skills, pace and a desire to compete relentlessly.

Our 2027 draft points will likely be consumed by our lord and saviour, Koby Bewick (no pressure on the kid) and from that point forward I’d switch strategies to fill any remaining list holes via trade.

If the club can handle a tough four year period of genuine bottom four finishes, I’d be reasonably optimistic that we could competitive by 2028.
 
i know how some of you feel about jake kelly but at this stage we could really do with about four clones of him. pea hearted front runners everywhere they make me sick.
 
mike ross said:
Not sure that's a joke or something but that's a crap statement. We're all angry but come on.
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Not really. Multiple supporters complain every week that we do not defend and we are soft yet the first bloke in the gun is the bloke who may be average but does defend and does do the team stuff that other can not.
I am happy to replace him as long as the replacement is as good team wise. Sadly most are not.
 
www.theage.com.au

Port’s talent embarrassed Essendon; the Bombers should invite their recruiters to the post-mortem

To properly review an underwhelming performance, Brad Scott could do worse than invite his recruiting department in and ask where they might locate players of the calibre of Port’s midfield.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au

Adelaide: Essendon’s midfield didn’t get obliterated by Port Adelaide because of any tactical breakdown. Brad Scott did not believe that the Bombers wanted for effort, either.

“It’s a good wake-up call for our guys, [but] it’s been a strength to our game,” said the Essendon coach after the 69-point loss at Adelaide Oval, harking back to the first three rounds, when the Dons’ midfielders, propelled by the metronomic consistency of their skipper, Zach Merrett, outran the Saints, beat up on the fledgling Hawks and went toe to toe against the Swans for three quarters.

Scott couldn’t say it, but the carnage of Friday night’s midfield massacre was primarily due to Port Adelaide’s vastly superior top end of talent in the midfield.
“Port right now are where we want to be,” said Scott.

To properly review an underwhelming performance, Scott could do worse than invite Essendon’s recruiting department into the room and pose the question of where they might locate players of the calibre of Connor Rozee, Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters; Essendon, unfortunately, haven’t recruited anyone with that combination of acceleration and class for a long time.
Despite Merrett’s professional excellence and the extractive talents of Darcy Parish, Port Adelaide’s midfield trio represented a giant step up in class – from midweek welter to group 1 thoroughbreds – compared to St Kilda and Hawthorn.

In fairness, there isn’t a team in the competition with three young mids as formidable as Port’s.
Rozee and Horne-Francis were embarrassingly dominant, Butters merely classy and serviceable. The upshot was that Essendon were smashed 19-6 in centre bounces and Port scored heavily from the lopsided forward entries that ensued.


“Rozee and Horne-Francis were just totally dominant in that part of the game,” said Scott.

“Whatever we threw at them, they were good enough to beat us. That’s a disappointing part of the game, but that is the difference right at the moment between the two sides.”
Six days earlier, Melbourne managed to overcome Port’s edge in the midfield and territorial advantage (66 entries to 45) by dint of outstanding defensive work and superior efficiency, despite the absence of Steven May.
But the Demons have excellent, experienced defenders and also Max Gawn and Christian Petracca, plus Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney.

The Bombers don’t own those weapons, nor that quality of defensive rebound/interception (and Jordan Ridley was missing). Thus, they can only compete with the better teams – and occasionally overcome them – by raising their energy, effort and pressure to a higher pitch.
Essendon’s backline was besieged. Consider the deluxe service and sheer abundance that Jeremy Finlayson and returning Mitch Georgiades received from Port’s mids, compared to Essendon’s Harrison Jones.

Scott stuck up for his defenders, headed by recruit Ben McKay. “I thought McKay was outstanding. I thought our defence held up under a tidal wave of pressure.”
If anyone is still questioning West Coast’s decision to retain pick No.1 and draft Harley Reid, rather than selling it for multiple lesser picks, they should watch the Port v Essendon match and especially Horne-Francis and Rozee; the value of the prospective midfield superstar was the underlying story of this mismatch.

“They’re obviously super players of our competition and I think every midfield in the comp, on their day, looks scary and can have their moments, but they probably had more than us today,” said Essendon vice captain and half-back Andrew McGrath of the midfield rout.

“Having Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis running sort of out of centre bounces and stoppages it’s a dangerous look against any defence.”
Where had the Bombers broken down?
“It’s hard to put a finger on it right now,” said McGrath. “Like, you think about different things but often when you look back at the vision there’s a whole lot of things that we’re not doing right.”

Insufficient pressure was a likely failing, McGrath suggested. “So it’s probably a lack of pressure from down defence and our midfield. But ideally, we don’t want teams running out the front of stoppages.”
Coaches cannot tell their players that they’ve simply been outclassed. Typically, the storyline from a bad loss will be that they didn’t defend, apply pressure or that ball use wasn’t up to standard this time. Pressure, of course, is something that even the less talented can bring to the fight.

Scott noted that Essendon had 18 more tackles and that their pressure, as it is measured these days, was “probably on the positive side of the ledger”.
To the naked eye, at the ground, Essendon’s pressure did appear to sag in the second quarter, as they buckled. Or was that simply that Rozee and Horne-Francis ran away from them and busted tackles?

Management of expectations after so long without tasting finals victory remains a tricky task for Scott and the Essendon hierarchy. The Bombers have three forthcoming major tests on the big stage – Friday nights against the Bulldogs and the Crows back here in Adelaide, followed by Anzac Day.
On this Friday night, the gap between Essendon’s aspiration and reality is roughly the same as the distance between Rozee, Horne-Francis and Butters and the Bomber mids.
 
ant555 said:
So we still need a gun class strong midfielder. A strong marking CHF. A couple of speedy small forwards. A consistent ruck.
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I agree and I'd add at least one speedy rebounding defender with elite footskills.

All up that's probably going to require 5-6 drafts unless we get very lucky or trade someone out to get a few first round picks.
 
Heppell and Shiel to retire
Stringer i'd like on low $$$$ on a year by year basis
McGrath would throw up as trade bait

Would toss/trade the Guelf, Menzie, Hind, Weid

Would throw the farm at Gulden (doubt he leaves Sydney though)
 

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brutus76 said:
Heppell and Shiel to retire
Stringer i'd like on low $$$$ on a year by year basis
McGrath would throw up as trade bait

Would toss/trade the Guelf, Menzie, Hind, Weid

Would throw the farm at Gulden (doubt he leaves Sydney though)
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Who comes in? More youth? Uncertain where we go from here other than draft and hope for the best.
 
Anyone who thinks they can run, chase, tackle and kick better than some of the peahearts we have i'm all for
 
Foxx said:
Who comes in? More youth? Uncertain where we go from here other than draft and hope for the best.
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If you’re specifically talking next year, quite a lot should be ready to go -

Davey twins 21, Hayes 20, Tex 21, Baldwin 23, Bryan 23. Hunter 23, though he’s probably gone.

That’s not including Tsatas, Caddy or Roberts.

We’ll only have 3 players out there this weekend aged under 23.

Port just spanked us and they had six under 23.
 
staaation said:
i know how some of you feel about jake kelly but at this stage we could really do with about four clones of him. pea hearted front runners everywhere they make me sick.
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The paradox of opposites.

We have a heap of pea-hearted front runners

Therefore we need more players who are dour, disciplined and tough, to the exclusion of anything else.

The reality is we need neither extreme.

Every team probably tolerates a player or two at either extreme, but that's it.

The rest of them need to be good at everything - disciplined and tough, but also quick, creative, and skilled.
 
owen87 said:
Convenient spot to draw that line.

View attachment 1955151
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The number's not important, at least to what was supposed to be my point - being that adding 1/2/3 guys in their early 20's into the main 22/23 next year isn't the craziest idea. Port were my example of a team who've added young players and continued to win (granted we're only at R4).

In the original post I replied to, I read 'more youth?' as suggesting it was a poor idea.
 
Gumby2Hurley said:
are we better off than the period when we drafted the likes of hurley zakka melksham carlisle colyer heppell and hibberd? i don’t know.
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We don't know yet, the KPPs we've drafted all have a lot of questions still to answer.

If Draper, Bryan, Jones, Cox, Reid, Caddy come on then we'll be in a decent place.

Hooker and Hurley were both AA KPD's, Carlisle probably had the ability to be the same, and Hooker ended up being a pretty damn good forward too.

How good those KPP's end up is going to be a large part of whether this list will have some success or not.
 
owen87 said:
We don't know yet, the KPPs we've drafted all have a lot of questions still to answer.

If Draper, Bryan, Jones, Cox, Reid, Caddy come on then we'll be in a decent place.

Hooker and Hurley were both AA KPD's, Carlisle probably had the ability to be the same, and Hooker ended up being a pretty damn good forward too.

How good those KPP's end up is going to be a large part of whether this list will have some success or not.
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Yep there’s still a world where Jones becomes an AA CHF. Believe it or not.

Caddy and Reid could be bonafide superstars.

Personally I believe Baldwin is the second coming of Michael Hurley.

Or it could all be nothing.
 
fairbump_playon said:
Yep there’s still a world where Jones becomes an AA CHF. Believe it or not.

Caddy and Reid could be bonafide superstars.

Personally I believe Baldwin is the second coming of Michael Hurley.

Or it could all be nothing.
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Sums us up really. We will be okay "if" this bloke finds the next level or "if" that bloke does not get inured.
 
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