So is James Hird still the Messiah?

[Steamin Demon 401]

How do you spell SHARDEFROUIDER ?

[Striker475 696]

Agreed.

Unfortunately the winner in me cannot see past us having a great year right now

How do you spell SHARDEFROUIDER ?

Scheudenfreude?

[Steamin Demon 401]

Unfortunately the winner in me cannot see past us having a great year right now

Scheudenfreude?

Nothing unfortunate about it Striker. I have watched us be the whipping boys for the last four years. Lets just embrace the wins !! C'mons Dees !!!!!

[Striker475 696]

Nothing unfortunate about it Striker. I have watched us be the whipping boys for the last four years. Lets just embrace the wins !! C'mons Dees !!!!!

It will be unfortunate if we miss finals by a whimper

[east gippsland demon 7]

gee how the wheel turns through a footy season... thats why we have to be patient demons... lets judge our coach and list at the end of the season..

[Guest lambtotheslaughter]

SACK THE COACHES

[P-man 13,366]

After us beating them and then the massacre tonight, they could skip Christmas this year for all I care.

[Steamin Demon 401]

gee how the wheel turns through a footy season... thats why we have to be patient demons... lets judge our coach and list at the end of the season..

If only everyone had the same outlook.

[Dockett 32 1,239]

'Have a look at their list.

What does it teach you?

Don't hold onto not quite rights hoping they come good.

A clean out is needed at that club.'

Totally agree with all that. The cleanout route is the one we have taken and its a brave one for a while and is the first stepping stone. Hawthorn, Geelong, Collingwood sometimes Carlton and West Coast on their day just monster opposing teams with their unrelenting, fearless, endeavour and bigger bodies. They also then have 1/2 a dozen non stop elite runners a piece. It was evident tonight.

On a slightly different tack, whilst probably all the other clubs are trying to wedge a few of our younger and uncontracted players,I trust we are also plotting and scheming heavily right now for next year and for free agency time for what will be the icing on our cake.( Lets not get too hung up or side tracked on the other 'hand wringing' 35 odd page thread which I refuse to subscribe to. We have Viney and compenstation as plan B for that number if anything adverse happens and I would be surprised if Scully couldn't see where we are headed and with increasing speed.)

My point is that Hawthorn (seemingly effortlessly) manage to secure Gibson, Burguoyne and Hale who are all good fits for them along with Bruce and Cheeny for back up. Collingwood effortlessly get Jolly, Ball. Carlton Judd, Stevens before that, Geelong Ottens etc.These clubs know how to go about it and so should we. We can't sit on our hands with this sort of stuff and have to get involved for the right people. We have the basis to get ruthless and start do a bit of clever cherry picking. I look forward to us getting on the front foot like the top clubs.

[Crompton's the man 660]

Pretty sure Essendon will be ok

They just need a good coach

[Pates 9,680]

Just goes to prove; you can't polish a turd, but apparently you can spray it with perfume so it doesn't stink as much for a while!

For the record, i am LOVING watching Essendon's free-fall!

[Luck Lucy 0]

I don't know much about how conditioning players and teams works but there must be a lesson in this about how Essendon went about things during the pre season. From the get go in the NAB Cup the Bombers looked sharp. They were fast and strong, killed it in the midfield and had the players to finish it all off. They did well to make the Grand Final of that competition

Then we looked at their draw and they had a tough start to the season including the two grand finallists) which they negotiated very well. Five games against teams in the 2010 top eight - Bulldogs (big win), Swans in Sydney (narrow loss), St. Kilda (thrashed them), Carlton (honourable draw after losing two players in Q1) and Collingwood (with them till the last 10 minutes). Then came three big wins including that 15 goal first quarter v Suns and wins over WCE and the Lions.

They've completely fallen off the pace since then. They look slow, hesitant and lack confidence. Jobe Watson has gone from Brownlow contender to hamstrung and the three big men policy that looked so good early has become a liability. Next week, the play Geelong so the pain is likely to continue.

Incidentally, I'm glad that our FD decided not to go with three ruckmen. Maxy's time will come but the three ruckmen policy is a loser.

[Flying Cloud 152]

I don't understand why when Melbourne is beaten by Hawthorn by 45 points, people call for Bailey to be sacked, but when the Esssendon is beaten by Hawthorn (with a heap of injuries) by 65 it is the lists fault!

[Dee Adjudicator 9]

I don't understand why when Melbourne is beaten by Hawthorn by 45 points, people call for Bailey to be sacked, but when the Esssendon is beaten by Hawthorn (with a heap of injuries) by 65 it is the lists fault!

Exactly! The irony is that Hird and Essendon were being used as an example by people that wanted Bailey sacked, as to how a ''good coach'' can turn around a club's fortune's in a short period of time. It is funny when people's arguments fall down around them. Even if Essendon come good during the rest of the year no-one can say that it has been a resounding success. It is about the players performing on gameday.

While the coach can help them get that bit extra in a tight-close match, in a routing there is normally little that a coach can do. So why doesn't everyone lay off Bailey until the end of the year and give him and the players a chance to show how they have developed. This is really just the second year of Bailey's tenure since the first two were just a complete rightoff/ cleanout.

It is bad enough that the media are bagging us above and beyond what they do to other teams, let alone us giving them more ammo by eating our own, as so to speak. This year has not been a true indicator of where we are at since we have more than our fair share of injuries.

(Btw, I dont know if Bailey is the right man for the job, but he has to be given a chance, we have the benefit of time on our side since we have a young list, if it isn't working out at the end of next year, then by all means MFC can start to shop around,).

[Range Rover 1,935]

Exactly! The irony is that Hird and Essendon were being used as an example by people that wanted Bailey sacked, as to how a ''good coach'' can turn around a club's fortune's in a short period of time. It is funny when people's arguments fall down around them. Even if Essendon come good during the rest of the year no-one can say that it has been a resounding success. It is about the players performing on gameday.

While the coach can help them get that bit extra in a tight-close match, in a routing there is normally little that a coach can do. So why doesn't everyone lay off Bailey until the end of the year and give him and the players a chance to show how they have developed. This is really just the second year of Bailey's tenure since the first two were just a complete rightoff/ cleanout.

It is bad enough that the media are bagging us above and beyond what they do to other teams, let alone us giving them more ammo by eating our own, as so to speak. This year has not been a true indicator of where we are at since we have more than our fair share of injuries.

(Btw, I dont know if Bailey is the right man for the job, but he has to be given a chance, we have the benefit of time on our side since we have a young list, if it isn't working out at the end of next year, then by all means MFC can start to shop around,).

Please don't turn this into a pro/anti Bailey thread.

Let us just have our fun kicking the hapless Bummers while they're down!

[The Big Ticket 94]

I called it at the start of year. I said they'd peaked way too early and they'd flop bigtime.

I love it.

[Guest 36DD]

Please don't turn this into a pro/anti Bailey thread.

Let us just have our fun kicking the hapless Bummers while they're down!

Mate, you dont get off that easily. You were at the forefront of the sack Bailey its the coaches fault moron collective.

The moron collective often cited the fact that Hird had managed to turn around the Bombers fortunes with the same list that Knights had.

Now, why is this suddenly irrelevant?

The argument doesn't seem so strong now does it?

I dont want to be seen as grandstanding, if you take a hardline on an issue, have the guts to follow through or admit you were wrong. Christ its a faceless internet forum, it shouldn't be that hard to quell the ego.

[Range Rover 1,935]

Mate, you dont get off that easily. You were at the forefront of the sack Bailey its the coaches fault moron collective.

The moron collective often cited the fact that Hird had managed to turn around the Bombers fortunes with the same list that Knights had.

Now, why is this suddenly irrelevant?

The argument doesn't seem so strong now does it?

I dont want to be seen as grandstanding, if you take a hardline on an issue, have the guts to follow through or admit you were wrong. Christ its a faceless internet forum, it shouldn't be that hard to quell the ego.

Read back through the posts to just after the victory over Essendon. I started a thread titled "Apology To Dean Bailey". Admitted I was hard on Bailey and that he deserved until the end of the year to make a case for himself. Go have a look. Once you've done that, climb down off your high horse and lighten up a little.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

I don't understand why when Melbourne is beaten by Hawthorn by 45 points, people call for Bailey to be sacked, but when the Esssendon is beaten by Hawthorn (with a heap of injuries) by 65 it is the lists fault!

There were many posters on here that said when Brad Scott had his honeymoon period with North and Hird his stint with Essendon, it was clearly "obvious" that they were doing things right and MFC and Bailey were doing things clearly wrong. Where are they those sages now?

At least this should deflate the fantasy that all you need to do is bring back a golden boy and suddenly everything is alright. That balloon has popped but probably wont kill the "lets bring back Gary Lyon as coach" calls.

It all get down to the calibre of the list. Essendon has nearly the same list under Hird that it had under Knights (exception of Heppell). This outcome is not a surprise. There are no easy quick fixes in AFL to correct a teams deficiencies.

[Waltham33 475]

Essendon trained all out over summer.

It was always going to catch them out at some point. Their goal as I see it is to weed out the players who cannot play how Hird wants them to play. From last night, that could be quite a few.

[jnrmac 20,276]

I don't understand why when Melbourne is beaten by Hawthorn by 45 points, people call for Bailey to be sacked, but when the Esssendon is beaten by Hawthorn (with a heap of injuries) by 65 it is the lists fault!

The way we were beaten has a fair amount to do with it. 27pts up jst before half time and then they had 21 scoring shots in the 3rd quarter. We were rabbits in the headlight.

We still can't play a press. Or defend kick ins...

[Face Your Demons 175]

Two people who stated they did NOT want to coach " last year" No wonder there stuffed.

[rpfc 28,925]

We still can't play a press. Or defend kick ins...

We go ok.

[Adam The God 30,617]

Ordinary list, with a coach who thinks he can coach merely because he was a great player. Bottom four material, for the next 4 to 5 years. Can't wait to drop this one at season's end: "Should have kept Knights...at least you would have finished ninth!"