It is difficult to explain Essendon’s rapid turnaround, but when you break it down, there are many factors that explain this group’s transformation.
When reviewing the list management of all clubs at the end of last year, the first thing that stood out about Essendon was that the list pruning had been done. Hard decisions had been made on some older players, and some of these had been stars of the club. By the time Hird stepped back into Windy Hill, he had a solid list of exciting young players that had been developing for up to seven years. Credit must be given to the club’s football division and recruiting department for getting this squad together, as the Bombers have a nice balance of key position talls and exciting running players.
This squad has been coming together from as far back as the 2005 national draft, where Essendon picked up Patrick Ryder at pick seven. In 2006, it was Scott Gumbleton (pick three), Leroy Jetta (pick 18) and Alwyn Davey (pick 36). Over the next four drafts, players such as David Myers, Tayte Pears, Heath Hocking, Michael Hurley, David Zaharakis, Jake Melksham and Dyson Heppell have all been fine selections.
The managing of the list is a club responsibility. If the football division gets this right, it can set up a club for a decade. Football followers place too much emphasis on the responsibility of the senior coaches in list management; he is only one of the club’s decision-makers. The coach cannot have a handle on all the young talent around Australia, and therefore must trust the recruiting staff to do their job and secure the right players.
Once you have chosen your players through the draft as Essendon did, there becomes a huge responsibility to develop that group effectively. Matthew Knights deserves credit here from Essendon supporters; he put time and effort into the young recruits when coaching the Bombers’ VFL team, and progressed their learning when taking over as senior coach. He knew that players such as Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas, as good as they had been, were going to slow down the development progress of his group, so he made the hard and unpopular call to let them go.
After the 2010 season failed to develop the group dynamic or tactical edge that the club was looking for, the Bombers hierarchy swooped on both Hird and ‘Bomber’ Thompson and that, along with a completely new coaching structure, was when the huge transformation started.
Tactically, the club is now at the cutting-edge of what is called in the football world the ‘full ground press’, and regardless of which senior or assistant coach is responsible for its execution, the coaching group as a whole has done a great job. The press has allowed the Bombers to fix their two major deficiencies from 2010, which were contested footy and the leaking of goals. The playing group would also take real confidence from having a premiership coach in Thompson overseeing their structures and strategies.
From the outside, it seems another change that has been critical to Essendon’s early success in 2011 is club solidarity. From the moment Hird was brought back to the Essendon Football Club, the ‘Bomber Army’ was a united group. Very rarely will a team have genuine success unless all facets of the club are rowing the boat in the same direction. It’s very clear that all at Essendon are now united to the common cause of bringing success back to the club.
The final area that seems to have changed is the intrinsic power of player faith in the club, its direction and those who are leading it. In any team sport, the playing group needs to buy in to achieve the maximum performance. It is clearly obvious that this group of young men are happy to follow their leader in Hird.
As remarkable as the Essendon turnaround has been, it has clearly been well planned. Many at the club - including some that have moved on - can be proud of their efforts, as this Bomber line-up is one of the more exciting features of the new AFL season.
The views in this article of those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.
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