Leaderboard

Jesse has been extraordinarily good this year and nobody is saying otherwise, but he turned 20 before the start of the season. The extra two years in the gym makes this a completely different scenario to Franklin or Roughead coming in and playing at 18. Franklin kicked 73.62 in the year he turned 20 by way of comparison.

Out: Jamar, Newton, Jones

I have total confidence that Billy Stretch and Alex Neal-Bullen will be first choice regulars within 2 years based on what they've shown with only a handful of games this year. They have the essentials : reading the game, making AFL level decisions, AFL level skills in carry and disposal. Remember they are 18 years old, and have Angus Brayshaw as the first year standard at the club. Brayshaw is absolutely one out of the box, and will be a star of the competition. He's a cruel comparison for anyone. Overall an exceptional recruiting/drafting year. If next year is as good, things are looking very rosy. However, we MUST have a combination of regular and growing wins, and an inclusive 'team' collective culture to keep them all at the club. So far, so good.

Yes. I love to see Viney bury that whingeing basterd's head below grass level -legally of course.

Could not agree more, it has become so tiresome. We know his strengths and his faults. He plays a good game and the Watts support crew come out in force, reminding others of their pro Watts opinions. He plays a bad game and the Watts haters are back louder than ever questioning his intestinal fortitude and whatever else. Lets be satisfied in watching his improvement and recognize that this young man has shown character and fortitude in dealing with the criticisms, scrutiny and public pressure. I thinks its a remarkable that he is still in the game, still wants to play for the MFC, and has been able to keep smiling throughout.

I logged on to Bomberblitz earlier and it was full of the usual desperate hope mixed up with conspiracies against EFC. Really quite sad. One bloke posted something saying if WADA had this evidence 2 years ago it would be all over and they would have just had 3 week bans. I couldn't help myself and posted that if perhaps Hird hadn't fought it on technicalities that would be true. And asked why EFC supporters put up with him. Just tried to logon to see if there were any response and lo and behold those guardians of free speech on Bomberblitz have cancelled my account. Doesn't take much to be considered a troll over there.

The way he swoops his fringe to the side. When he points to the spot he marked the ball and makes the man on the mark walk back to it.

Someone should organise to help pay Nathan Jones' fine.

And so the edifice ESSENDON has carefully built up starts to crumble before our very eyes well before the November hearing. WADA finds 'abnormally high' TB4 levels in Essendon players For those of you who express doubt about how important this is, I remind you that CAS interpretation of Comfortable Satisfaction" will be much less onerous than was deemed necessary at the AFL tribunal, AND WADA is likely to be able to compel witnesses to testify and to be under oath. CAS has convicted for a lot less proof than this on numerous occasions in overseas cases. This revelation is just another nail in the coffin. This is now looking very bad for the players, Hird and Essendon. My understanding is that this is the first of a number of such revelations we shall see before the November hearing. Also seems to show the issue we discussed here extensively several months ago - namely the emergence of a credible test for TB4, has also been put to bed, or is close to being. It starts to make Hird's legal bleetings look even more absurd if that is possible, and builds a case for Hird to be fired for underperformance and breaking the law, both of which would be grounds for dismissal without compensation in most employment contract (yes I know this is Essendon!). This might also explain why he has not gone by now because Little and the Board have started to face reality, and feel they will have firm grounds for dismissal without compensation after the November hearings. Where is Little by the way - seems to have gone to ground completely, and now almost never defends Hird in public. Another sign he is cooked.

Hope Angus gives his uncle the bird on the way off the ground

Small article from The Age, but I think it's interesting: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essendon-players-frustrated-by-leaks-dons-boss-says-20150806-git1ym.html "In a recorded interview on the club website, Xavier Campbell said some of the players had found out WADA's claims for the first time through the media." So Tim Watson knew about the 2 abnormal results 4 weeks ago, he has stated as much. Some PLAYERS didn't know until today. It seems to me that the club has intentionally left some players in the dark about this. I would assume that there will be some VERY angry calls from players to the CEO today. Oh and the good ol' captain is sipping beers at the Ashes. Leadership.

Watts has been trained by Brendan Mccartney to take a run when he has the ball. Back his pace in and try to get into space to free himself up to use his effective disposal in a more damaging way. You can really see the aggression and willingness to bork his opponent more and go for a run. It has been refreshing.

Those that have unnecessarily fawned over Watts' insipid efforts for years can't have it both ways. If you recognise what we've all admired over the last 8 weeks surely it's dawned on you how deluded you were to gush over his previous extraordinarily inadequate offerings. It appears that in his 7th year the penny has finally dropped, but even then I'd like a larger body of work to conclude that this is the new 'norm' and not a dastardly aberration.

The best thing I have seen him do was kick that behind where he took a couple of players on and actually used the pace that he was shown to have at draft camp.

People were already writing the history as it was happening Bossdog. Some decided in 2001 that Green was soft and couldn't let go of it despite the evidence. He was no inside player, for sure, but he put his body on the line when it was required. He took some amazing marks going back with the flight when he was playing as a mid in the later years.

Sorry Mate that is crap......I have seen Green go for the hard ball on many occasions. He may not have been a stand up fighter but he went when he was supposed to Lets not re write history

He brought me a drink at the corner of Collins and Queen and did not take blonde biddy I was chatting with away from me, when he very easily could of, but rather suggested that she have a splendid time with me.

Unfortunately, JW will never please everyone, all of the time....nor should he. The haters, those calling for him to be traded, need to stop. We have an exceptional player on our list. AND he will be a one club player. Fin.

my understanding too in fact if one wanted to be a smartarz you could say "all essendon players tested that day showed elevated levels of tb4"

posted a while back that his brain had to catch up with his feet,now it appears to be happening doubt we will see the best of him until 2017 then he will go on and be a champ.Body size has increased ,confidence in his own ability to impact games ,support from inside the club,all the things he never got as skinny 6.5 kid thrown to the wolves during the bailey and neeld eras.Sure he is on the right path

I love the way he has little wrestles with his opponents. Let's chip in $2 each to support him

Raising a glass to Fitzy tonight. Thankyou for your service. I will forever feel you were hard done by but it may be best for both parties. I wish you luck in your career and promise to support any future success.

Long was a dog of a player. Still have not forgiven him for the cowardly hit on Troy Simmonds and for a hit behind play on Ricky Jackson out at Windy Hill.

He is a team player and does the team thing. His defensive pressure is good and he competes, chases and will give the ball off if required. He also knows when to take a shot and does not do the silly short pass to someone closer risking a turnover. He looks like a hard tough kid who looks a lot older than he is. It reminds me of my days as a junior footballer, when at the start of the match you would see an ugly tough kid coming toward you and realize that it was going to be a tough day. As to Hogan going home, well it may happen but as the old saying goes if you worry about the future you cannot enjoy the present

Following Melbourne must be a dream for philosophers who subscribe to logical fallacies. When Melbourne are the bookies' favourite, they do not win. When Melbourne is not favourite they (sometimes) win. Ergo, when Melbourne are not favourites they are more likely to be favoured to win. I reckon there's a PhD in this for someone.

Even the horse is on cobalt!

Some people are just blinded by their own frustration.... According to many sitting around me (if you are to believe the comments being yelled out) on Saturday, Watts was the worst player on the field. People just find it so easy to pick on him for anything... Like the time (maybe a few weeks ago), where the opposition were breaking free and he had 2 men to cover and people would whinge they he failed his job... where was the anger towards the rest of the team for not manning up? He gets the ball, looks up, assesses his options, waits for a free man, then pinpoints someone on a lead or in the open.... People need to stop yelling "WATTS!!! JUST DO...... SOMETHING!!!", while he's assessing his options. He's a whole lot better than anyone else in our team in doing that.

Yes, it's a lovely read... Oddly enough it is used by both sides in the argument for draft assistance over the last couple of years. I say oddly because my Hawforn supporting mate is still adamant that we shouldn't have got any help 'because we did this to yourselves' with our terrible drafting. When does a team not 'do it to themselves' when they become horrible? He can be such a [censored] this bloke, we weren't even talking about PP or anything, I was just musing that it is good to see perennial losers like us, Saints, and Dogs finally rising with the expansion clubs... Sigh.

Jab: The doc reckons my shoulder's gone. I don't think I can play any more games this year. Craig: Damn. Listen, why don't you go away for a while, take a break and get your head right and your body 100% fit? Jab: Jeez, I dunno. I'm the captain, I don't want to let the boys down. If I can be of any use around here ... Craig: Hey, why don't you go into the coaches box? Hang around with Jim, learn the ropes, be his kind of right-hand man --- Jab: WHEN'S THE THIRD TEST START????

You didn't finish off that thought.

Seconded. And, more to the point, where's Blanche Underhand to answer all our questions about this? People are just leaping to all sorts of unwarranted conclusions without his incisive advice.

I'm glad you didn't suggest this in 2012 or 2013. Our forwards would hardly ever get on the park.

To add to this post. http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/wada-reportedly-find-abnormal-levels-of-tb4-in-samples-from-two-essendon-players/story-e6frf3e3-1227471708250 Extract from article: "Club great Tim Watson and father of skipper Jobe said he had known of WADA’s apparent evidence for four weeks, and thought it was confidential...I don’t know how significant it is, because it was buried in WADA’s submission...Having had a discussion with (lawyers) after they read the submission I said ‘OK, is there anything in there that you’re concerned about’, and they said their levels of confidence in the players being cleared again … of there being sufficient evidence to charge the players with anything, that hasn’t changed at all". The '4 weeks ago' tallys with the first week of July and the July 5 St K game debacle and Jobes maybe retiring from football. I wonder why would Tim Watson be talking to lawyers? Yes, an interested father but could it be that one of the 2 players is Jobe? Maybe that explains the 'shoulder' injury and getting as far away as possible. Maybe he knows his Brownlow will be taken away.

An interesting timeline at play here: -WADA handed its brief (with the new TB4 evidence) to other parties on July 9. -Players would have had a verbal 'heads up' on what was in the brief in the week of July 1. -About July 2 Jobe started talking about 'not enjoying footy anymore' and retiring at eos! Just laying the groundwork for an announcement...! -Ess collapsed against StK on July 5. -On July 6 they have a pow-wow and decide to 'play the kids' (getting ready for suspensions of other players next year I suspect). -On July 7 Jobe Watson pulls out of the rest of the season with a 'shoulder' injury. I would bet my bottom dollar they all knew about the TB4 tests going into the StK game. Its why they continue to play like cra p.

Head in the sand approach does nothing but create s false reality for yourself. The reality is, if we don't offer this kid what he he is worth, and look like we are gonna play finals then he will walk.

This is an often under rated factor. He clearly is a great club man and his team mates love him. That's clear. In a team sport it is critical to have blokes like Vince and Watts around the club. He's also a solid citizen with his head on straight and seemingly good values. On top of all that he seems like a ripper bloke. Roos (and all coaches) talk about how critical good culture is and Watts is one of those blokes who brings people together and connects them. His team mates also now trust him onfield and the pattern him being ignored on leads seems to be long gone (and perhaps was a symptom of the culture problems at the club?). A related factor is he rarely misses through injury which suggest a high level of professionalism in his preparation and training. In short he is reliable. Crucially we are more likely to win when he plays well. If you look at our wins in the 3 years he has been a vital element in almost all of those games (the win over the bullies this year being perhaps the once exception this year). He is involved in so many of our scoring chains, either through direct assists or scoring involvements (eg def taps, handballs to space, accurate kicks to the corridor etc etc) that it could be argued he is our most influential player in terms of our chances of winning and losing. It dumbfounds me how anyone could argue that a 23 year old 100 game player that is the best user of the ball in the team, has the best footy brain and helps us win is a dud selection. On an unrelated point another area he is becoming important is going third man up and hitting it to advantage (reflecting his basketball background perhaps). I have lost count of the times he has gone third man up and hit to straight to a running player to set up a scoring chance.

Ugh. I spit at that image.

Just out of interest wanted to see how other key forwards who went on to kick a few sausage rolls fared in the first seasons in front of goal: Buddy - 21.13 N Riewoldt - 21.18 (2nd season) J Reiwoldt - 7.3 (Didn't kick over 30 until 3rd year) Plugger - 19.7 Dunstall - 36.27 Fevolution - 26.29 Roughead - 6.5 Pavlich - 14.9 This is mint.

Must say I loved the half time scuffle, especially Jones getting up with a massive smile on his face, all the players getting in to stick up for each other, and Viney taking Varcoe and throwing him meters behind the scuffle and continuing on with it. Was definitely a highlight of the day!

your wrong mono, he pulled apart the sick bits & unsettled the place, started the routing of the soft players, & sent the ones packing who would have kept the virus within. & Roosy has continued what Neeld started, but in a more diplomatic manner. even if you choose to not see it, because of blind loyalty & passion. & for a doctor to resort to insults, shows you've lost your sense of humor, & your better judgement.

I can't wait for Watts to become a bonafide star of the AFL. The guy is gonna turn into the most loved Demon when he starts consistently tearing games apart. It'll be the feel-good turnaround of the decade. Go Watts!

I remember being a Melbourne supporter going to primary school in the early 80's,as sh*t as Melbourne were back then I could still be proud we had the best player in the league.

I recall they also rated Aiden Riley.

I wasn't aware of there being multiple entities of any of those players. Why don't you just say 'players such as...' and then name them. Unless Bretreton had a brother or two I'm not aware of and wtf are you talking about anyway, is this comment supposed to be some sort of discussion? small handful of posters are starting to wreck this site with absolute drivel in every thread

I think we would gain a small advantage over all other clubs if we abandoned this lazy tactic. ( I call it " lazy" because it's the easiest time to do rotations,due to the extended stoppage time) A player who has just kicked a goal is on a confidence " high"..... I think he's in good head space to take a big grab or snap another goal. Nowadays, he dashes 100m to the bench( which puffs him out), sits down, and the "high" abates. All those coaches should be able to arrange rotations without removing fresh forwards from the field. We shouldn't do it just because all the others do it. I remember a Port game( not v. Melb) years ago, when Tredrea was marking absolutely everything in the first quarter. He had 4 goals up in the first 15 min. They then rested him for ten minutes. He didn't get any more goals. I remember thinking, " if they lose this by about a goal, it's BECAUSE they took him off when he was unstoppable." ( as it turned out , they won easily, but they weren't to know that early on)

My old coach said, "hit em low, hit em hard, hit em often. If they get up hit em again." He did not mean punch them, I don't think he did anyway. It was in the day that you could do a Byron Pickett shirtfront (Pickett could also tackle). He preferred a hurting hip and should to tackling. Pickett tackling

Good Q. Never understood that one either. When you are hot then you should be on the ground.

Love the last comment. But you can get this, if you are prepared for the "one out of 5". I am talking about the feedback loop here. Watts gets tackled. Holding the ball. Opposition jeer. Our own DH supporters criticise him with "Bloody hell Watts your hopeless".... The first bit of courage/brains needed is actually from us supporters to accept the 1 out of 5 holding-the-ball from him. The flip side is that the 4 out of 5 burst-throughs far out-weigh any downside from the 20% outcome.