Welcome Back Jimmy!

Like many Essendon Football Club supporters I’m elated with the announcement that the 3rd greatest player the club has ever produced, James Hird is returning to Bomberland as head coach for the 2011 season and beyond. Unlike many fellow supporters I won’t be racing to the clubs membership turnstiles to sign up with my hard earned dollars. I don’t need too - my membership will auto renew like it has for the past decade. I’m the worst (and best) kind of supporter, I’m a footy tragic. 


Despite my passion for the club and a yearly attendance of between thirteen and eighteen games a year, I too had lost faith, and didn’t like the direction Essendon was heading. Even with a finals birth in 2009 I was apprehensive of our 2010 fortunes, as the retirement of veteran’s Lloyd and Lucus alongside the departure of mature and experienced bodies in Lovett and McPhee left a large void in the best 22. It was always going to be a hard task to improve or produce a similar result. I predicted in my heart of hearts a slide in form despite the occasional glimpse of decent football; I didn’t however expect the circus that surrounded the club in the last half of the season.


It is almost comical to recall that at the half way mark of the 2010 season the Don’s where only sitting in a slightly unfavourable five wins and six losses. Prior to a very narrow loss to Sydney at the SCG, they’d amassed three wins in a row, two of them against a pair of the seasons fancied premiership contenders. The team’s fixture wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t too bad, some experts even gave them a chance of making the eight. A mere month and a half later and the Bomber headlines where anything but rosy. Six consecutive losses, including a six goal towelling - at home - from interstate wooden spooners, West Coast stamped the seal on the Essendon 2010 season - disgraceful.


I’m a pretty forgiving person, and while I had some strong reservations in late 2007 when the club appointed Knights to the lead coaching position, I’m pretty good at going with the flow. I did broadcast an ‘approval’ percentage of Knights, starting at a low fifties base and over a season and a half eventually settling on a low nineties value. The delisting of Kepler Bradley was a good start, but I do digress.


The beautiful thing about hindsight is you can never be wrong. Knights turned out to be a poor coach, among his greater faults was turning a number of senior players against him. I credit the early retirement of Essendon’s own goal kicking legend, Matthew Lloyd to differences between Knights coaching ideas and Lloyds clear strengths. Lloyd has been a revelation in the media this year, opposition supporters that couldn’t stand his on field demeanour and idiosyncrasies have – begrudgingly – told me they honour his opinion. His knowledge, presence and footballing smarts where greatly missed in 2010, his track record should have secured him the automatic key forward role in the 22, playing second fiddle to slowly developing forwards that should be learning in the reserves is madness and ultimately why the number 18 hung up the boots. 


In a personal first, in round 21 I did the unthinkable and knew then and there that Knights would be very lucky to be coaching come 2011. At half time in the Essendon versus Brisbane game I picked up my bag and trotted down the many steps of the stadium, proceeding to leave the match all together. This was a huge action for me; I typically can’t understand why supporters leave games with minutes to go in the last quarter. Yet I was leaving when the match was as close to the beginning as it was to the end. This wasn’t a completely isolated incident as over the preceding month I’d lost interest in my four or five weekly football related panel shows. Opting to delete the recordings I’d scheduled over enduring the predictable bashing of the clubs current state. 


I didn’t even bother attending the last match of the season against the Dogs, and I wasn’t alone. It was the lowest attended match at the Dome of any Essendon match played there in the last decade. Without knowing it for sure, but having an inclination I’d voted to sack the coach. The board acted swiftly and within 12 hours of the end of Essendon’s 2010 season it had also become coach less. A feeling I’d never experienced in my first near thirty years of supporting the club had now occurred twice in almost as many years.


Regardless of my elation at the eventual signing of Hird as the head coach of the Dons, it is not without huge risks. The club has essentially appointed a multi million dollar coaching panel that will be lead by a 2010 under 9’s coach. That coach just happens to be a dual premiership player, Brownlow medallist and five times club best and fairest. Hird does have a certain right to the role, but many would like to see him fail – a word he doesn’t seem to understand. While Hird denies that he is a marketing puppet designed to right the clubs commercial opportunities it would be naïve to disregard that component of his appointment. 


This alone, is the sheer brilliance of the signing. Hird has taken the role to pour his considerable football knowledge down the throats of an exited and willing young list, to rebuild the club to the envy of the league. The board has appointed him to unite the clubs supporters, board members and of course corporate sponsors towards a common goal. While Hird’s coaching abilities are raw and untried his strength in the corporate world and in front of a media conference are second to none. He is a born leader of men; on the field he led by example, his sheer will to contest carried others to greater things. Essendon are attempting to assemble a super football department to train him to inspire from the sidelines in much the same way he did on the field. Hird ticked too many of the right boxes to really ever consider anyone else for the role if he was available. Regardless of if Hird is a great or horrendous coach the decision to appoint him was always the right call …

The problem with idolising Boys

This entry is more than a fortnight late and while I don’t apologise for the delay I do feel it loses a little bit of its bite. I hope to keep more up to date with my entries in the future. For the time being please humour me and cast your minds back not a week or even two, but around three to Grand Final and its lead up.

I was asked on the Saturday (Yes GF day – try and keep up) if I was disappointed ... with the Lloyd decision to retire. I grimaced and responded to be honest I’m more disappointed with the Hurley incident. It is ridiculous that I judge the single action of a nineteen year old boy during the post season the greater of two evil versus losing the clubs single greatest goal kicker – ever!

If you haven’t heard, Michael Hurley who’s teenage brilliance at both ends of the ground in the closing rounds of the 2009 season, was involved in an altercation that include the play book of don’ts. "Alcohol", "Police", "early hours of the morning" and "assault" where all words alleged in the articles and news clips reporting the incident. It was devastating to have one of the brighter shinning kids of the football club being consistently brought up in talkback radio and editorial’s in conjunction with Brendan Fevola‘s Brownlow night antics.

The only defence Essendon faithful have is that Hurley is a teenager and Fevola should know better. Despite the fact that Hurley is as young as they come it still doesn’t remove the fact that he has a strike against his name and depending on his actions for the next decade or more, it could haunt him forever.

I know I’m being a little melodramatic but a West Coast supporting friend of mine still grimaces when reading media stories about Ben Cousins and even Michael Gardiner. Instead of calling them Premiership player or All Australian respectively they are often tagged as ex-drug attic or disgraced ruckman, just for dramatic effect by editors trying to sell newspapers.

I will miss Lloyd and thank him as I did Lucas for over a decade of spectator-ing goodness, but just as the winds of change blow the shadow of a new era over Essendon FC. It will take the emerging brightness of kids like Hurley and Pears to eradicate that shadow and ensure the club’s star burns.

From all reports the incident was completely out of character and everyone, especially teenagers should be given the benefit of learning from their mistakes. I’ve already seen a glimpse of Hurley on the field and still - though a little nervously - look forward to his growth both on and off it in the red and the black for many years to come ...

The Soloist

On my recent trip to Adelaide I was left with the better part of a full day to entertain myself, with limited resources I decided that a trip to the cinema was as good a solution to kill a couple of hours as any.

Besides bumping into Cale Hooker, Tayte Pears and Tom Bellchambers in the Cinema Foyer and yelling out encouragement for the then pending Footy final. I found myself in the next most interesting scheduled session. With little to pick from and having already seen District 9 and expecting to see some of the other candidates with my wife I settled on 'The Soloist'

The irony isn't lost on me that I found myself watching the Soloist alone. For the most part I've no issues with checking out a movie, event or even an interstate football final solo. There is a remarkable amount of freedom when you only has to consider their own whims and fancies and not require a general consensus before deciding on a course of action. Interestingly the movie did touch on some of these emotions which induced a little self reflection

Nevertheless I digress. The Soloist isn't my usual cinematic genre but given my selection criteria my expectations where non existent. Brilliant performances by Iron Man err … Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx made this a very compelling Drama that did captivate me at times. The dramatic undertones and serious characters did feel like attempts at getting nominated for the upcoming cinematic award season. As professional actors its in their best interest to get critical acclaim so it's hard to really fault Downey Jr or Foxx for this.

While I did enjoy the movie you would typically need to be in the mood for the themes this picture exposes the viewer too. Personally I'm probably only open to this heavy a movie half the time unless they can disguise the intellectual context behind thrilling or action packed sequences.

The other true marvel of this film is how Downey Jr can look so good all the time even in a random arrangement of hats ...

Wolves Premiers 2009

This years AFL advertising campaign was brilliant, dubbed "In a league of its own" and featuring the best players throughout the league running, crashing and bashing their way through a handful of sporting backdrops. It was backed up come finals time with the revised slogan "The hardest, fastest, fiercest finals series ever"

One thing is for sure, the Wolves of 2009 where in a league of their own! A keen observer might have browsed my post in early August about the pending finals series for my beloved fantasy football competitions.

In a marvellous feat or fantasy player management and brilliant tactical mastery I managed to walk away with both Dream team and FootyHero silverware. As a keen spectator of the game and a long term advocate of footy fantasy it was great to take out the top honours against some like minded enthusiasts.

The real challenge now is defending my premierships better than Hawthorns 2008 campaign ...

Franklin, an old fashion hip and shoulder and the armchair bandwagon

In some ways I’m a little dirty on myself for not blogging this entry before the events of the weekend and in some ways I’m glad I can incorporate them into my musings. I decided on this topic after reading a very good article in the Age.

A lot of balding middle age men in prominent media positions are claiming the suspension of Lance Franklin after making high contact against Ben Cousins as the penultimate sign that the bump is dead. They continue to then argue that all the hardness and bravado is being slowing strained from our great game. One club president even had the tenacity to suggest all contact would be removed and the sport would be akin to Basketball.

While I understand some of the comments are made tongue in cheek I don't subscribe to the theory at all. Merely observing the physique of an elite footballer suggests they live, breath and train for one purpose. To run all day and crash into one anther time and time again. The game is hard and 44 spent bodies ache and beg forgiveness after every match.

The fair as day old fashion hip and shoulder will always be part of the big bustling forwards arsenal. It isn't even restricted to forwards with plenty of great key position backman happy to throw around their weight in a contest to allow a quicker player to rebound with the footy safely.

As with any evolution of our game the media and talk back radio with whip the armchair bandwagon into a frenzy. Foaming at the bit for the good old days in order to draw an extra listener or sell another paper. At the end of the day the general public accept the rule and move on as little can be done once the governing body make a decision.

The deliberately rushed behind rule and last years hands in the back where as heatedly debated but haven't destroyed the fabric of the game at all. While the written rushed behind rule is mostly gibberish, the net result on the game has been marvellous. A packed stadium cheering an under siege backline for successfully clearing a hotly contested ball just as loudly as when the star forward slots a long bomb from 50m.

The head has been clearly signalled as sacred and only a fool could argue against that stance. It is still more than legal to land a bump on an opposition player but whilst you can intend to crunch them temporarily you can't knock the sense out of them.

Prior to the Lloyd incident on the weekend I felt that Buddy shouldn't have been suspended and that the rule is too firmly worded. I've since come around to the AFL's thinking that any serious impact to the head when the players soul intention is to crash into an opponent should have some consequence and a weeks suspension seemed fair so had they not fought the charge in my mind justice would have been served. I guess since I felt it was a one week offence that should have been the penalty and a good behaviour early plea would have had him on the paddock on the weekend.

Lloyd also seemed to get slapped with a heavy ruling as re-analysis of the video tends to suggest it wasn't all that premeditated an act and while a penalty for hitting the sacred head is understood a third of the regular season as a penalty is far to zealous.

It will go down in history as one of the more fiery games in the modern area and as a final in all but name I'll never forget the day a new star was born. Welcome Michael Hurley to the Essendon FC

I'm sure he will lay plenty of bumps in his promising career ...

Farewell Scotty

I've followed the Essendon FC all my life and really love my footy, however I've only been seriously breathing the red and the black for around a decade now. I guess writing it down it seems like a long time but as a percentage its only a third of my life.

While I know of Essendon greats like Tim Watson, Mark 'Bomber' Thompson, and Gary O'Donnell and even recall some of their playing days, I don't have a long standing supporter/player relationship with them.

Scott Lucas on the other hand has always felt like a pillar that helps support the Essendon FC Club as much as a player that makes up the 22. While I'm not arguing that it isn't time for Scotty to hang up the boots it does feel like a changing of the guard. As a supporter who recently experienced* his first ever change in coach at the ripe old age of 29 its hard not to look back fondly on such a great career.

Maybe its because Scott and I are practically the same age, maybe its because Scott was always such an easy target for opposition supporter to get stuck in to. Whatever the reason I've always had a soft spot for the big left footed number 25. While his greatest strength was also his most notable weakness. It never got old watching him wheel around on to his left side by any means possible, and hoisting a long long goal through the big sticks.

His last quarter in 2007 against a finals bound West Coast Eagles in the Hird/Sheedy farewell match was maybe the most dominate quarter of football from a forward I've ever witnessed. Whilst I believe it took Lucas 10 years of consistently improving football to produce his best, it was simply spectacular. Not many players in our great game can claim a club best and fairest from both Centre Half Back and Centre Half Forward in varying years.

If I had one criticism to aim at the man, it would be simply why does he only have three daughters? You'll have plenty of time on your hands Scotty its time to produce a heir ...

AFL Ladder OpenSocial Gadget

It has been a week since I finished developing the first version of my AFL Ladder Gadget. A full round of games have been won, lost and drawn and like clock work the ladder is still up to date. I know it may not look like much but its doing a fair bit or work behind the scenes. Parsing an xml document of the ladder and then rearranging the data into the html table you see on the side pane.

It's uses the OpenSocial Gadget API and is hosted on my MobileMe site. Gadgets are written in a module language using XML that wraps HTML and JavaScript. Sites such as iGoogle, orkut and you guessed it blogger are all containers that support OpenSocial gadgets.

I'm yet to decide if I will submit my gadget to Google and need to make a few tweaks here and there before I do regardless.

For anyone who is interested in using it on their own site please get in contact with me and I can provide the existing url or the code base if you'd like to host it yourself.

Go Dons ...

That last day in August

It might be a full month before the regular football fans gets to enjoy finals fever but for footy tragics like myself tonight is the eve the real finals series.

Thats right folks thousand of fantasy football leagues all over the country are gearing up for there first week of finals. Masses of coaches brooding over team selections and tormenting themselves over those last few vital trades.

This year I managed a 66% success rate entering three different types of Fantasy Footy competitions and managing finals in two out of three, even picking up a minor premiership in my Dreamteam league much to my cousins dismay.

Decimated by injuries in both leagues I've patched up the holes as much as I can and need a win in Dreamteam to earn the week off and a win in FootyHero to aviod elimination.

Go those mighty Wolves ...

Aussie Rules

Just a small post today but one to lay the foundations for many more to come. I'm an Australian and more importantly a Victorian and this implies an inherit language when I talk sport. I won't mention it again but it needed to be said once.

Footy is and always will refer to the great game that is Australian Rules Football. On the odd occasion that I need to talk about other codes I'll call them Rugby, Soccer or Gridiron ...