I picked Essendon for the wooden spoon<\/a>, so their ladder position isn\u2019t a surprise. But even I didn\u2019t expect them to be so uncompetitive.<\/p>\nWe can\u2019t have a team playing in the AFL that is completely non-competitive. They aren\u2019t competitive in any phase of the game.<\/p>\n
Would handing the Bombers an assistance package make them competitive straight away? Probably not. But it wouldn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
Essendon leave the field following the loss to Brisbane. Picture: Russell Freeman\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
I understand that the AFL, in the past, has leant on a \u2018body of work\u2019 when handing out assistance packages. West Coast last year received an end-of-first-round pick, as well as four additional rookie list spots for three years, after 11 wins in four seasons. Two years earlier, North Melbourne got an end-of-first-round selection in the 2023 draft and two end-of-first-round selections in the 2024 draft, as well as two additional rookie list spots through the 2024 season, after winning 12 of 84 games.<\/p>\n
But haven\u2019t the Bombers had a poor body of work for the last 20 years?<\/p>\n
There are so many rules and directions made by the AFL to get equity. You want every fan to feel like their team is a chance of winning every week.<\/p>\n
Essendon fans, for too long, have not felt like that.<\/p>\n
If an assistance package is available, I\u2019d have no problem with it. In fact, I\u2019d encourage it.<\/p>\n
Just give it to them.<\/p>\n
BOMBERS CAN\u2019T GO FOR A \u2018BAND-AID\u2019 SOLUTION<\/p>\n
As for who should lead Essendon as coach for the next period?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if John Longmire has put his hand up for it officially, but it should be him. If he\u2019s available and you can get him to the football club, you have to make him the top priority.<\/p>\n
Longmire has overseen sustained success in creating a winning culture \u2014 arguably the strongest in the AFL. He\u2019s an experienced coach who understands the media and has repeatedly built strong lists through smart recruiting.<\/p>\n
Solomon sees lessons in defeat | 05:55<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re Essendon, you can\u2019t get a Band-Aid solution like James Hird, proclaim \u2018The King Has Returned\u2019 and everyone\u2019s happy for a month. You\u2019re then just back to a really poor list and a non-competitive playing group.<\/p>\n
The Bombers need someone to change the place. Not rehash the past.<\/p>\n
Longmire to me jumps off the page of someone that would be perfect for the role.<\/p>\n
NO.1 PICKS GET NO.1 PRIORITY \u2026 AND THAT MEANS NO YEO<\/p>\n
At West Coast, which has clearly improved this season after its own AFL hand-out just under 12 months ago, it\u2019s time to hand the midfield keys officially over to Harley Reid and Willem Duursma.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been calling for this for several weeks \u2013 and on Sunday against the Western Bulldogs, it felt like the first time it properly came to fruition, with Duursma and Reid leading the way on the ball alongside Tim Kelly. That\u2019s their No.1 midfield mix going forward.<\/p>\n
Yes, Duursma is still in his first year and has room to grow physically. But he\u2019s as ready as he\u2019ll ever be to be unleashed in the guts full-time.<\/p>\n
The biggest lessons come from actually playing the role. So if the Eagles see him as an inside midfielder, you have to look at Marcus Bontempelli as being the direct correlation to how he plays.<\/p>\n
Duursma was playing on Bontempelli for a lot of the day. That goal the young Eagle kicked out of the middle was Bontempelli-like, rushing out of congestion, running fast \u2013 but looking like he\u2019s loping \u2013 and then banging it from 60m.<\/p>\n
Give Duursma keys to WC midfield! | 01:33<\/p>\n
But then there was a goal kicked from a forward 50 stoppage by Bontempelli, who was being manned up directly by Duursma. He was daydreaming next to Bontempelli for one second before Bont put 5m on him and kicked a goal in a flash.<\/p>\n
Duursma probably never makes that mistake again. Highly talented kids learn the fastest \u2013 they just need to see it. We wouldn\u2019t be able to say that if Duursma hadn\u2019t been given midfield exposure. You can\u2019t learn that from vision alone. You need to make the critical error and it needs to be shown in the team meeting for you to feel the feeling of: \u201cGee, I never want to let my teammates down like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The time has come to hand the two No.1 draft picks full midfield responsibility for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
That means no Elliot Yeo on the ball for now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure if Yeo is carrying an injury or not, but I saw him in person two weeks ago and then watched him have more midfield time on the weekend \u2013 and he\u2019s not impacting games at all.<\/p>\n
So how do you get the best out of him?<\/p>\n
I think Yeo\u2019s match minutes need to be heavily managed, which they already are considering he played a team-low 66 per cent game time against the Dogs.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t put him in the back line. Use him in short midfield bursts before resting him forward as an explosive option, similar to Patrick Dangerfield.<\/p>\n
Willem Duursma and Harley Reid.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
That might help him return to the power player that has him as a two-time All-Australian and two-time best and fairest winner. But no longer can you just have Yeo out there plodding around \u2013 because the game\u2019s gone past him plodding around.<\/p>\n
MAJOR RISK IN DIMMA\u2019S PRESSER TAKE<\/p>\n
I had mixed feelings when Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick declared his team\u2019s season was \u201ceffectively gone\u201d and that they would \u201cforge our way forward about what we want ourselves to look like for next year\u201d.<\/p>\n
On one hand, I loved the honesty \u2026 because it\u2019s true. The Suns\u2019 season is \u2018done\u2019. They\u2019re falling away. They\u2019ve become irrelevant.<\/p>\n
And that must be so disappointing for Hardwick and his players in a season where they\u2019ve gone from premiership favourites at the start of the year to losing 10 of their next 14 games, including their past seven straight.<\/p>\n
But on the other hand, I was very surprised by his statement \u2026 because on paper their season isn\u2019t officially done.<\/p>\n
The whole game is to fight to play finals every year. Once you play finals, you fight to make a Grand Final and win the flag.<\/p>\n
So conceding the season six games out \u2013 it\u2019s not only mathematically possible, they\u2019re one game out of finals \u2013 although I love the candour, I hate the message it sends to the players that there\u2019s nothing to gain out of this year and it\u2019s time to get the eyes on next year.<\/p>\n
Dimma’s ‘refreshing’ take on poor Suns | 01:35<\/p>\n
Imagine some of the players who might be in or out of contract and what they\u2019re thinking for the last six games of the year? That doesn\u2019t motivate any sort of performance.<\/p>\n
I wonder about players who are there for the long-term, too. Are they thinking: \u201cThis is how it goes at Gold Coast. We don\u2019t fight. We\u2019re done. It gets hard and we can\u2019t perform well.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this discussion is always a two-way one. It\u2019s never \u2018just\u2019 the coaches or never \u2018just\u2019 the players.<\/p>\n
So where do the coaches\u2019 futures lie? Have they developed this group enough, both on the field and off the field, to withstand adversity and turn the talent on paper into consistent performances?<\/p>\n
Matt Rowell is a Brownlow Medallist. Christian Petracca is a Norm Smith Medallist and premiership player. Even Ben Long is a heart and soul player coming off an awesome 2025 season. They\u2019re three of many players who are significantly down on their potential \u2013 and that\u2019s on both the playing and coaching groups.<\/p>\n
Hardwick\u2019s openness is great, but it\u2019s a shocking message to send to the whole club.<\/p>\n
Will Schofield is a West Coast premiership defender who played 194 games for the Eagles. He is also a Fox Footy analyst and host of the BackChat Podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon needs AFL draft assistance. Desperately. It\u2019s not even a question. The Bombers shouldn\u2019t have to ask for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-798530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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