Why Were Essendon So Highly Fancied Before Round 1?

[WN123]

We were not highly fancied at all.
My memory was that less than half had us in the 8. Same old 8-12.
So I went back and checked through the Herald Sun, Age, Sen, Fox Footy, even AFL.com.au. Not a single Top 4 prediction. Over half had us out of the 8. Same on Bigfooty. Mick Malthouse was the only outlier.

 

[RAPPA]

The loss/sustained absence of Stringer (explosiveness), Hooker (tall forward target that can generate a contest) and Tippa (forward pressure), and the inability to properly cover their absence, hurt them greatly.

 

[Great8]

I don’t know any Bombers fans who had us higher than 7th or 8th with most including myself thinking 10th-12th and with a lot of luck sneak higher.
Unfortunately Essendon sells papers and gets plenty of media clicks so the absolute hacks know that by pumping us up they will get good audiences

 

[TheBigHorne]

I didn't think they would be good and make the finals but I also didn't think they would be as bad as they are.


I had them from the 9-12 range I think.

 

[flipper83]

There seems to be a bit of obsession in the Melbourne media with the big 4 Melbourne clubs and and expecting/waiting for them to be good again. I feel like the same thing has happened with Carlton in the past too.

 

[Ati Tude]

It's like the economist who has prediction 10 of the last 3 recessions. The media want to ahead of the game and predict the next bolter. There was a bit of talk for Freeo but they aren't a big club. And many probably got burned predicting Blues as a bolter in the past to do it again. Oh, and Malthouse cursed us.

 

[Dazb86]

There seems to be a bit of obsession in the Melbourne media with the big 4 Melbourne clubs and and expecting/waiting for them to be good again. I feel like the same thing has happened with Carlton in the past too.

Strangely enough Collingwood don't really seem to get their tires pumped. They're realistically on a similar level to Essendon at the moment but barely get spoken about as potential finalists leading into the season.

I feel like the Bombers are underperforming this year. A lot has gone wrong for them but they were always a long shot for any sort of meaningful finals impact.

 

[citizen-erased]

too much made of foxfooty clickbait where "AFL Great predicts bombers for the flag)

we were never top 4 material.
Easy draw last year, hard draw this year.
And we lost too many components of the fwd line early. Tippa, Snelling and Jones were missing pre-season. Then Langford in minute 1 of the first game. Then Stringer. On top of Hooker's retirement and no backup.

bottom 3 is a bit of a surprise.
10-12 is where I had us.

 

[Joffaboy]

Saw them pre season and thought they we are team that didn't pressure much and relied on Two metre for scoring. Seemed a bit slow. Thought 'oh well preseason form', don't read anything into it. My team the Saints seemed just as plodding.

However it seems the Dons haven't improved their preseason form while the rest of the competition has stepped up.

As for the media, I have seemed to hear someone in the media top fouring them for about the past five years. They seemed to get sucked in to them because of below

Shiel - GWS 17yo
McGrath - #1
Stringer - #5
Hurley - #5 *
Parish - #5
Francis - #6
Heppell - #8
Wright - #8
N. Cox - #8
Perkins - #9
Reid - #10
Caldwell - #11
Hobbs - #13
D. Smith - #14
Langford - #17
Laverde - #20

Some real talent there but it seems not to be able to get it together

 

[BuffDog]

Id agree that the Bombers seem to be perpetual media darlings. Maybe it’s because Robbo is a supporter, maybe it’s because Watson and Lloyd are pretty loud voices but we certainly do get more than enough puff pieces.

FWIW I tipped them to finish about 12-14 but am disappointed that they haven’t been more competitive in their games.

That being said they are putting out of the three youngest teams every week and have missed Stringer/Jones/AMT/Snelling/Langford who aren’t all stars but pretty important to their structure and pressure.

 

[Back One Out]

Essendon fans every October after they "win" trade week.

Essendon fans in May when they realise they are garbage

 

[dmc333]

Media addicted to giving them coverage.

 

[jim boy]

god knows what Mick Malthoses was thinking tipping them for the flag pre-season?

Maybe it was a typo and Mick was tipping them for the pre-season flag? ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[citizen-erased]

Media addicted to giving them coverage.

I don't get why either.
we never deliver. I guess it's trying to be the first one to predict when we finally arrive.

A scan of our list depth, gaps & fixture would have had anyone with half a football analysis brain doubting our credentials.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

Oh look, another thread exactly like the others - can we just have a "Let's shit on Essendon" thread stickied to the top of the main board?
It would make it so much neater than a new version of the same thread every week with a different title.

 

[banzai]

How many in the media predicted Melbourne to dominate the comp last year? or the Eagles to win in 18 or Tigers in 17? They aren't very good at predicting things.

 

[JackFlash]

Maybe it was a typo and Mick was tipping them for the pre-season flag? ¯\(ツ)/¯

Whatever it was, Mick has got to stop sniffing the rug cleaning fluid!

 

[HirdsTheWord]

when the **** were we fancied?

apart from malthouse saying one comment about us winning the flag who else thought we'd be good? This is news to me?

 

[Reximilian]

The loss/sustained absence of Stringer (explosiveness), Hooker (tall forward target that can generate a contest) and Tippa (forward pressure), and the inability to properly cover their absence, hurt them greatly.

This is pretty much the right answer. Add in missing Langford, Snelling and Jones who are structurally important to forward line and we’ve done well to score what we have so far. Most of the young players like Perkins, Durham, Reid have improved. Given what we know about how the teams we’ve played so far, at best we would be at 4-7 now anyway.

 

[RonnieRaven]

It's like the economist who has prediction 10 of the last 3 recessions. The media want to ahead of the game and predict the next bolter. There was a bit of talk for Freeo but they aren't a big club. And many probably got burned predicting Blues as a bolter in the past to do it again. Oh, and Malthouse cursed us.

Freo aren’t a big vic propagand club situated where the media and afl house live but the biggest crowd between freo and bombers Was at Perth stadium not under a roof next to the main train station where 60k+members live.

 

[freddy mercury]

Collingwood must've had a win on the weekend.

 

[Ati Tude]

Freo aren’t a big vic propagand club situated where the media and afl house live but the biggest crowd between freo and bombers Was at Perth stadium not under a roof next to the main train station where 60k+members live.

I am not trying to have a go at your club but in Eastern states media on AFL, stories about the bigger clubs will always get more clicks / interest etc so media will run more stories.

As for the crowd, I am delighted. There are a lot of Ess members in Perth which is why we play there so much and part of why the Dreamtime game was played there last year. Ess markets its games like Anzac Day, Dreamtime, rivalry matches against Hawks and Blues etc, and we have to play 7 home games at Marvel so we are never going to get massive crowds against Dockers in Melb (or Crows, Port, Suns etc). Put another way, when Ess plays Freeo in Perth, it is a bigger game than when Freeo plays Ess in Melb.

Was good to see what seemed a big and loud crowd of Dockers supporters against the Demons on the weekend. Was a lot of noise when the Dockers got on a role. Always happy to see crowds at footy games regardless of who is playing.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Too many sycophants in the media.

 

[Righteo]

They are well represented in the footy media and they seem to have a lot of punters willing to splash the cash.

Freo aren’t a big vic propagand club situated where the media and afl house live but the biggest crowd between freo and bombers Was at Perth stadium not under a roof next to the main train station where 60k+members live.

We aren't a big club, chill bro. I'd say we're upper middle class but with high potential if we keep playing attractive footy.

 

[dmc333]

I don't get why either.
we never deliver. I guess it's trying to be the first one to predict when we finally arrive.

A scan of our list depth, gaps & fixture would have had anyone with half a football analysis brain doubting our credentials.

Probably a combo of fans working in the media and a fairly big fanbase to cater to.