Ash35

I would say : constructive - 10% of the time just plain stupid - 20% of the time taking the [censored] - 70% of the time But I love Yze_Magic, and wouldn't have him any other way.

To be honest, we don't really need him. Alwyn Davey, Andrew Lovett, Leroy Jetta and Courtney Dempsey fill his role already on our list. Obviously Aaron Davey is better than a couple of these blokes, but we have other needs [key backmen, genuine midfielder with pace] to fix before we worry about getting Aaron Davey to Essendon.

Maybe he wants Aaron to come to Essendon.

Aaron Davey 5th?!?!?!?! Unbelievable.

What happened to "greatest player of the last two decades, if not ever"?

100% correct as always Yze_Magic.

I think that was mainly Ray Horsburghs criteria. And thankfully, he isn't the only one selecting the coach.

36 I think.

Yep, everyone here on Demonland would know. I assume you all sat in during the interviews and presentations. You must have, you guys know everything. The Essendon Board sat around on Monday arvo, and thought to themselves, "lets hire the bloke who presented worst, that would be good for a bit of a laugh". It's funny, I read Bomberblitz, but don't post there because of the narrow mindedness of alot of the posters there. This seems to be creeping into Demonland. Anyone dumb enough to write Matty Knights off the day after he is appointed is very narrow minded.

This is what I wrote about the appointment in another thread : I'm fine with the decision. I heard Knights speak on 3AW last night and he sounded impressive. I am a bit bemused at the hysteria over his appointment. Surely you have to give the guy a chance before you decide whether it is the terrible choice that alot of ill-informed people think it is. He went through four 2-3 hour presentations before he was given the job. As did Hardwick, Sumich etc. If people are naive enough to believe that the Essendon board hired Knights for any reason other than they believed he was the best man for the job, they are kidding themselves. From what I can gather, he was football operations manager for a year at Port Adelaide in SANFL, then coached them for a season, has coached his own team at Bendigo for the last 3 seasons, sat in the box with Sheedy in 2006 and was involved with player development this season. Other than Sheedy, no person in Australia knows the Essendon list better. I don't subscribe to the theory that you have to come from a Premiership winning club to be a successful coach. I can't remember Paul Roos having much success at Fitzroy, yet he was able to coach Sydney to a premiership. Terry Wallace played in countless Grand Finals and premierships, and how is he going at the moment. People can think what they want, but I will give Knights a chance to prove himself before I hang him like most have.

I agree entirely. It took me a while to come to terms with it, but my club needs to move forward. Sheedy will always be a legend at Essendon, but it had to end at some stage.

Was Matthew Knights considered by Melbourne at any stage?

I'm fine with the decision. I heard Knights speak on 3AW last night and he sounded impressive. I am a bit bemused at the hysteria over his appointment. Surely you have to give the guy a chance before you decide whether it is the terrible choice that alot of ill-informed people think it is. He went through four 2-3 hour presentations before he was given the job. As did Hardwick, Sumich etc. If people are naive enough to believe that the Essendon board hired Knights for any reason other than they believed he was the best man for the job, they are kidding themselves. From what I can gather, he was football operations manager for a year at Port Adelaide in SANFL, then coached them for a season, has coached his own team at Bendigo for the last 3 seasons, sat in the box with Sheedy in 2006 and was involved with player development this season. Other than Sheedy, no person in Australia knows the Essendon list better. I don't subscribe to the theory that you have to come from a Premiership winning club to be a successful coach. I can't remember Paul Roos having much success at Fitzroy, yet he was able to coach Sydney to a premiership. Terry Wallace played in countless Grand Finals and premierships, and how is he going at the moment. People can think what they want, but I will give Knights a chance to prove himself before I hang him like most have.

Taken a pretty average Bendigo team to the finals 2 out of 3 seasons. Although lost a final this year to North Ballarat they shouldn't have [up by 5 goals at 3/4 time only to lose by 6 goals I think]. It probably wasn't the easiest gig, as I doubt the senior Essendon players really looked forward to travelling up to Bendigo in the middle of winter to play. I am going to give him a chance. I doubt Essendon would go through the process of interviewing all the candidates and narrowing down the list and choosing someone if they didn't think he was the best candidate.

Thanks ok Yze_Magik.

Letting this one go through to the keeper.

As usually Mike is a bit late. Perhaps he was surfing Demonland and came across this thread.

Almost vomitted on Saturday morning when I picked up my Herald Sun and found a feature article on the Shineboner spirit. From the article Ron Joseph was quoted : "At clubs with bigger memberships, their supporters only touch their colours, but at North we have the Shinboner spirit. North people can touch that spirit." This is the sort of crap I was talking about. If North people believe this sort of junk, that's fine. But don't try to tell the rest of the footy world this magical spirit exists when your team puts in pathetic performances like it did on the weekend against Port Adelaide, and two weeks ago against Geelong. I actually felt really bad for Glen Archer. The guy deserved better than to finish up his career in that sort of game. Reminded me of Anthony Stevens last game for the 'Shineboners' in Round 22, 2004 against the Brisbane Lions, and the Lions won by 113 points.

Shocking news. Condolences to his family and friends. Expect a big performance from the Pies this friday night.

Mooney in front of Franklin, Riewoldt or even Lucas is a joke. Surely there are better CHB's running around than Matthew Egan. Not sure what the criteria for picking the Captain is, but Mcleod did surprise me. Other than that, it wasn't a bad team.

Mark Robinson has reported on SEN that strong word out of the West is that Judd has already decided on either Collingwood or Carlton. Not sure about this as Judd said at his press conference 4 and half hours ago that he hadn't even contemplated which team he wanted to go to and would decide over the next week or so.

Awesome news Ben. Not real happy about Beckys defection though. Doesn't she want to barrack for Juddy next year?

Exactly right deanox. My comments were in relation to why the Hawks midfield under performed on the weekend. Not because they are crap, but because they weren't fit. To be honest mo64, of the 4 teams left in the flag race, the Kangaroos are the team I'd like to win the premiership the most. I don't think they will, but if it was up to me, I'd have them winning it. I've said before, I don't hate the Roos. I was glad they won Saturday night. And how good was Aarons Edwards mark. The best mark taken this year, shame it can't win the Mark of the Year award.

Plus, Hodge and Mitchell, especially Hodge, probably shouldn't have played due to being injured. Bateman and Campbell Brown were also struggling with injuries.

Congratulations to the Roos. I'm glad they won. And as mentioned by a few posters, there were many actual tangible reasons why they won. They showed a fair bit of determination to win, as did Collingwood the night before. I was even more happy that media didn't go overboard with the "SS" words over the weekend. Hardly saw it mentioned. About time.