I didn't appreciate just how much they viewed Joey Daniher to be the second coming of Christ, or in other words, the second coming of James Hird.
That bunch are truly a weird type of cult.
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Discussing this the other day but are Essendon just North Melbourne with supporters?
It seems every season their main strategy is to top up their list with whoever is moving clubs anyway in an effort to be the best of the mediocre clubs. Sure, unlike North the Bombers at least get the "big fish" to nominate them but ultimately both clubs have completely non-threatening lists that have fit neither the "top four quality" group nor the "group of promising youngsters who could eventually be top four quality" for years.
With Daniher and Fantasia going there goes two of their only four decent forwards, their defence is lead by two key defenders that are on the decline and their captain is an ageing Heppell that has never really been that good anyway. They'll fail at rebuilding their list if they try and I expect they'll just continue this topping up strategy that seems almost specifically built to earn the club a first week exit in the finals. It seems they are too proud (read: arrogant) to deliberately have a down year although having seen the young talent they gloat about (Francis who is kilometres behind draft colleagues like Dunkley, Oliver, Hipwood, Rioli) (and Parish, who is the most vanilla, vanilla mid that ever vanilla'd) then maybe bottoming out really isn't an option.
So Essendon and North, two clubs on very different budgets hoping to be the "best of the rest". Glorious.
The Dons culture is absolutely toxic. They're just so pig-headed with their attitude to everything and their refusal to admit fault in any given circumstances that they can never see the forest for the trees and actually improve the conditions around their club to try and see some success. Instead, every time they opt for a weird Orwellian PR statement about the shape of the club that their media harem eat up; their spongy floors, how galvanised the playing group is by shared drug intakes, how being too cowardly to sack a coach and instead leaving him in purgatory for 12 months is actually a succession plan, and so on. If nothing is busted and everything is awesome, how can anyone be responsible for it?
Compound this with their unwillingness to engage in long-term planning and inability to draft and you have all the ingredients to not win a final for two decades. They won't address their problems because they don't want to believe they are there.
Going after Cox smells of desperation. Keep the Essendon takes coming everyone it's fantastic reading
Over on Bomberblitz they have a thread that is a competition to name their Trading forum for the year. Some of the suggestions so far include:
‘Last one out turn the lights off’
‘Sam Powell-Pepper’s Broken Hearts Club Fans’
‘Its Pronounced Fanta-See-Ya ?’
‘MASS EXODUS
A
S
S
E
X
O
D
U
S’
‘Leaving for Life$tyle Reason$‘
‘2019: The leader-ship has sailed.’
‘Everything Is Bad And On Fire’
Mark Stevens believes that Collingwood approached Essendon as a salary dump exercise.
I’m still in love with the Stringer deal , if anything he is the same old Jake. They pump out to all the media how he is flying in the off season, a huge year coming up playing in the midfield etc
BT raving he will win the B&F and he doesn’t even fall in the top ten. Seriously if a half forward flanker that averages about ten touches a game wins your teams award your in strife.
I think he typifies Essendon, plays the odd good game shows promise but it never eventuates into a team of consistently good footy.
I'd believe it. Stevo tends to get decent info, certainly compared to some (e.g. Tom Browne).
The Pies have a cap squeeze and everybody knows it. Makes the Beams trade last year even more baffling. Not a need, high cost in picks and cap. It's easy to get seduced by a 'good' player and forget whether you actually need them or not.
he must be if they were trying to salary dump him
I think he is going OK. Pies had to up the offer last time because there was a competing offer from (I wanna say Brisbane) worth a lot more $.
Biggest issue with Cox is that he is nearing 30 years old. I think he has some attributes as a second tall in a good side because he can take a turn in the ruck...pretty sure the Pies would have played him in the finals this year and am pretty confident it would have balanced up their front half vs the Giants.
Why would Essendon do it though? I know we all hate them but their list build in terms of replacing players in that 23-27 year group (many of whom they lost through their own doing - aka the drugs scandal) has been going OK. Kelly wants to go home but Geelong is OK whereas Fantasia wants to go home = Essendon is toxic? I think that is pretty harsh.
I'm not sure they would do the Stringer thing again - certainly not on the $ they gave him - but that was a club being opportunistic and grabbing an elite talent (undeniable) who surprisingly dropped onto the market place...As for Shiel, well, not too many people were critical of the 'race to sign' him that went on last year and he had a reasonable season. He was never Adam Treloar but they only paid half the price that Collingwood paid...and the 'Pies had an actual ruckman (the Bellchambers and Draper injuries killed Essendon's season) + other tier one mids in Pendlebury and Sidebottom already in place...who did Essendon have? Parish is a foot soldier, Heppell is a foot soldier...Merrett is pretty good though and McGrath is an excellent small defender but no-one seems happy with letting him play that role.
I don't know. If Hogan was worth a top 10 pick + a second rounder then so is Daniher. If the Bombers get more than that, well, good luck to them (it doesn't hurt to ask).