Essendon has launched an in-depth review of its football department – the second in three years – in a bid to address the 2021 finalists’ horror opening to the year and help the club attack the off-season “with a real head of steam”.
Bombers president Paul Brasher featured prominently in a video that was released to Essendon members on Monday night, vowing to get to the bottom of the Bombers’ disastrous start to 2022 as they enter their mid-season bye sitting 16th on the ladder with just two wins.
It comes weeks after Brasher insisted at a president’s functionhis club wouldn’t bow to external pressure and conduct a review during Ben Rutten’s second official season as senior coach.
Stream every match of every round of the 2022 Toyota AFL Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
Brasher said the club was “examining every aspect of our football program”, with football director Sean Wellman overseeing the review. The Bombers president hinted Wellman could call upon club legends Kevin Sheedy and Simon Madden “at any stage” to help with the process.
“I think you’re going to see real improvement in the second half of the year,” Brasher told members.
“We don’t want honourable losses. We’re happy about effort, but that is the baseline and we’re looking to improve upon that and not going to take to light about losing to good sides by narrow margins.”
AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson, who flagged that Essendon’s football department was already under review a fortnight ago, said the announcement wasn’t a surprise.
“We are talking coaching, we are talking recruiting – the two major elements,” Robinson told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night.
“The fitness and stuff, that‘s very, very important. But I would think that the coaching structure, the coaching mechanics, what are they coaching, why aren’t they listening, the connection and the recruiting (will be central).”
In the video, Brasher suggested any actions to emerge from the review were “likely to be incremental in terms of additional resources, rather than transformational”.
“Are there particular skills, are there particular areas we need to invest more in? We’re looking at that. Support for coaches, including support for Ben and the other coaches – what do they need?” he said.
NEW FIRST CRACK PODCAST — R11 wrap: Dons stars’ tense clash splits panel, Pies are alive
Listen below or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Brasher suggested the club would likely beef-up their recruiting department considering the club should be in strong salary cap and draft positions at season’s end.
“This year, we’re likely to have reasonably high draft picks, room in our salary cap and the ability to go into a period of trade, free agency and drafting with a real head of steam,” he said.
“How quickly some of the actions we’ll be taking will translate into results? we’ll see.
Robinson said the Bombers had the capacity to attract a big fish from a rival club in a few months.
“I think they’ve got enough money to go after a $1 million dollar player,” he said. “Now does a $1 million player want to go to Essendon? How many $1 million players are out there?
“I’m saying in The Tackle Collingwood, ‘they’re not losing Jordan De Goey’. But Essendon will go for Jordan De Goey, because they’ve got the money to go after him. Now what’s he worth? Maybe $750,000 to $800,000, $900,000? He’s worth what you’re willing to pay.
“They’ve got some money. They could pick up a top-three, top-four draft pick and they could pick up a free agent. Does that satisfy the millions of Essendon fans? Who knows?”
AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley suggested Brasher’s “incremental rather than transformational” comment suggested jobs weren’t on the line – but Robinson said “they (jobs) have to be”.
“What are they doing a review then? They’ve got to work out what is going wrong,” Robinson said.
“It‘s a really big two weeks for the footy club, because they’re doing this review at the moment … going into the 150th game against Carlton on a Friday night at the MCG and the 150th dinner on the Saturday night afterwards. All roads, not for the first time this year, lead to the MCG on that Friday night.”
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here