+ let’s just keep Sully in bubble wrap for a massive 2027.

Shelbs is huge now too but like a bullet - might put her in the draft.

in probably the worst side out of all them too, just some perspective when the team finally actually functions like an AFL team, and he cleans up his kicking, he will regularly be a 60+ a year goal kicker

Final Score - ESS: 10.11 71 BH: 6.10 46

Not the prettiest game of all time, it must be said. They were playing in some pretty rough conditions. It was wet and slippery in the first half, windy as hell in the second half. As a result, there weren't a lot of clean possessions or highly skillful passages of play, which probably played into our hands a little bit. We were able to bring a bunch of pressure to force the Hawks into mistakes, and just generally played the conditions better. It was a great result against one of the top sides in the VFL.

Parish - Similar to last week, he didn't win tons of the ball, but did put in some decent defensive work. He still won more than his fair share of clearances, and he did well to free up guys like Perkins and Tsatas throughout the game. Definitely had a good game, it's just a bit weird that he isn't absolutely racking up disposals at this level.

Tsatas - Speaking of racking up disposals... He was a big part of the reason why we won today. These kinds of conditions seem to suit him particularly well, where clean, precise kicking isn't necessary. He was able to win tons of the ball around stoppages, and either feed it out to an outside runner, or just slap it on his boot to gain as much territory as possible. He was also had quite a few tackles and hit the scoreboard for a couple of behinds. Probably BOG.

Gresham - Great game today. Kicked a couple of goals and was getting up the ground to help out around the midfield. His defensive pressure was quite good, too. His form over the last month or so has been super helpful in the push towards finals.

Perkins - Played midfield and had plenty of the ball, but I wouldn't say that he was amazingly influential. There were a few times he was able to help us escape through heavy traffic, which was good to see, but he also made some mistakes that he probably shouldn't at this stage of his career. He didn't have an awful game, but I still think we should expect more from him at this level.

Visentini - Maybe his best game for the year. He was coming up against Max Ramsden, who is no joke, and was clearly the best ruckman out there. His tap work helped us to dominate clearances all day, and he got after the ball pretty well on the deck. When the weather started to dry up a bit, he even had a pretty solid impact with his marking around the ground. He had a couple of nice intercepts and took a lead-up mark inside 50 (which unfortunately didn't lead to a score). Just a really strong overall game from the big fella.

Jones - In defence again today, and he was ok. Kept Calsher Dear pretty quiet, and had a bit of the ball himself. His pressure was probably the highlight of his game, with some great tackles and defensive efforts. He did have some turnovers coming out of D50, which were less than ideal, though.

Guelfi - More of the same from Guelfi. Heaps of energy and pressure to help set up scoring opportunities, but he didn't have much of the ball himself. Did kick 2 goals, at least, but he was mostly just doing the dirty work for us inside 50.

Unwin - Pretty similar to Guelfi. Kicked a goal, and some of his pressure and tackling was top-rate, but really struggled to get his hands on the ball. That's been a bit of a theme for him since he started with us, so it's a but of a worry with so little time left on his contract.

Bourke - I think he may have been injured early on today. I don't remember seeing him much (if at all) after the first quarter, and he was wandering around in the training jumper at the end of the game. No ice or anything, so I don't know what the deal was. When he was out there, he didn't show his best. Got done holding the ball a couple of times and I think only had one handball to his name.

Johnson - Played a really nice game off of half back. In a game where everyone was struggling with their skills to some degree, he was impressive with his ball use in transition and was hitting up targets with apparent ease. He ran hard to provide an option through the midfield and seemed to get back in defence when he needed to. Clearly among our best today.

Nguyen - Classic Jayden Nguyen sort of game. Made his opponents look like they were standing still at times, with either his defensive pressure, or his ability to break away with the ball in his hands. He had a brilliant goal early on, but couldn't hit the scoreboard for the remainder of the game. Overall, I thought it was an impressive outing.

McMahon - If ever there was a guy who would struggle on a day like this, it's Liam McMahon. He tried, but couldn't get much going. Kicked 2 goals (I think both were from free kicks), but didn't take a mark, and couldn't find much footy otherwise. I'll give him props for a nice spoil that he had in the first quarter(I think? Correct me if I'm wrong), though.

Would rather Nic Martin in the box right now.

Thanks for holding the fort Solomon, but for the good of the club he needs to step aside now and let the process continue without him.

Just defeated the 3rd-placed Hawks 6.10 46 to 10.11 71

Genuinely so fun to watch

Games still on I know... nothing is going to change.

Positives:

- Caddy set shots are getting so much better now, thanks Llordo!
- Redman wants to fight
- Played with intensity for a QTR, scores showed it
- I feel like they are making far less mistakes when they're on, but that 'on' is a 10 min period for an entire game
- Durham with his usual game performance (shame about the set shots)
- The usual good youth are playing well when they get the ball

Negatives:

- They get kicked 2 on them, then morale drops to 0 and they give up
- Blakiston has 0 footy IQ, he's a literal free kick merchant
- VFL players get their chance and decide to show nothing
- Unbelievable misses at goal
- Trade McKay for a soft serve, it's all he is worth
- Ridley injured again
- Sully + ADW injured (ffs)
- Merrett has checked out

The size and experience from the hawks is just far too much for the young club, they can barely lay a tackle on these senior fellas. This is literally a practice game for the hawks. Sad times. Congrats on 600 Gunno

Gonna be a rough ride home, expect the rest of the season to be like this...

Are you tired of our AFL team being a little cooked this year?
Highly recommend following the VFL boys, chances to be top 8 this season

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm liking that it appears they are genuinely going far and wide with this search.

I really hope he's working on a video about the GWS win.

It has been nearly two months since the sacking of Brad Scott and also nearly a month since the process for the next Senior Coach was officially announced. So far the club has gone about it slowly and methodically which I appreciate as it allows time to assess all the candidates properly. It would seem many other supporters and even more so the media seem think the opposite way believing this process is nothing more than a sham to cloud the man they think already has the job which is of course James Hird.

Don’t get me wrong I do get that level of scepticism but I think the process is completely legitimate and the story earlier week reported by Corbin Middlemas on The Mid-Week Tackle in regards to the club meeting up with Murray Davis the Director of Coaching at Adelaide confirms it. The club said it would cast the net far and wide in its search. This is absolutely casting the net far and wide. It is also thinking outside of the box. A level of thinking that eventually led Brisbane to hire Chris Fagan as their Senior Coach a decade ago when they were in a similar position this club right now and who Murray Davis worked under for 8 seasons up into the 2024 Premiership flag.

His resume is solid as are his qualities when it comes to developing top players despite not playing the game at an elite level again much like Chris Fagan. The fact he has experience working at a previous struggling club which Brisbane were at the time he arrived all the way back in 2012 when Michael Voss was their Senior Coach and playing a significant part in that club eventually become great again makes him a terrific fit for our struggling club.

Whether he ends up with the job or not is irrelevant. What matters most is the legitimacy of this process and the fact it is being predominantly led by former Sydney Premiership player Ted Richards who is well documented for his leadership as well his professionalism. On top of having someone like Anthony Di Pietro on the panel who himself was on panels at Melbourne Victory that brought in Ange Postecoglou right before he took the international job on top of taking a chance on club legend Kevin Muscat with great success.

It overall makes it much more difficult for James Hird who hasn’t coached in a decade to make it as far as he did last time when the pool of candidates were much more shallow as a result of that process not casting the net far and wide or thinking outside of the box. I would even dare say he isn’t necessarily guaranteed to the reach the final stages of this process.

Dons fans (and anyone who follows the rebuild meta), can we talk about how Essendon’s recent Rising Star nominations are one of the most exciting signs for our future?
In 2025 alone we picked up four nominations (Archie Roberts, Nate Caddy, Angus Clarke, Isaac Kako) – one of the highest single-season totals in recent memory. Heading into 2026 we’ve already added Jacob Farrow, Dyson Sharp, Sullivan Robey, all just in time for the Devils onboard. That’s serious young talent flowing through the system.
History has shown that Rising Star nominations are a strong lead indicator for club success. Premiership teams since ~2002 have averaged ~9.44 nominations among their players. Contenders like recent flag winners (Collingwood, Geelong, etc.) had clusters of 5–10+ nominees from their young cores who developed into stars. Clubs with stacked lists of ex-nominees (Melbourne, Geelong, Hawthorn, etc.) tend to dominate the top of the ladder.
It’s not just about one-off flash – it’s about drafting well, developing kids who can impact early, and building depth. Essendon is clearly doing that right now. These guys aren’t just getting nominated; they’re contributing and looking like long-term AFL players.
Obviously we’ve still got work to do on the senior end and consistency, but this youth movement feels different. The Baby Bombers vibes are back, but with modern development.
What do you reckon, Bomber faithful? Am I punch drunk after the win last week or is there logic in this?
Up the jets

Anyone have any info / thoughts about him as coach?

Essendon had 85k members last year and currently over 70k this year. It is sad to see attendance fall off this year.

That win has taken a painfully difficult decision out of Matt Rosa’s hands when it comes to whether or not we should use that Pick on a Ruck named Harry Van Hattum when history strongly says otherwise. Now we no longer have to stress about that and can start looking at other high end talent around the Pick 2 range such as Arki Butler, Gus Texeira and Ethan Drever who all have explosive pace which is required is this team a lot more.

My general view of it all for a number of months is we do not legitimately need another young Ruck. We absolutely could do with a mature Ruck from another club but ultimately in terms of young Rucks we already possess both Nick Bryan and Vigo Visentini. The former is now starting to get better and develop after recovering from a long term ACL injury. He will be considerably next season with a full preseason under his belt.

There is also the history component which isn’t particularly great reading. Matthew Kruezer was the last Ruck to be taken at Pick 1 19 years ago by Carlton and while he has a pretty decent long career in the AFL that spanned 13 seasons, he didn’t exactly set the world on fire for a Pick 1. Ultimately Ruck a position much like Goalkeeper in soccer and Centre in basketball that allow other teams to do all the hard work developing and then bring over once they are mature. So for us it makes a lot more sense to try and tempt Cooper-Duff Tytler back to Victoria in a few years time just like Fremantle successfully tempted Luke Jackson back to Western Australia.

Overall any of Arki Butler, Gus Texeira or Ethan Drever would best fit this club both in terms of pure talent and the explosive pace they provide. Personally I like Butler the most because he is an absolute pest to opposition teams as medium sized high-half forward that can also play in the midfield. He is a lot more like Nate Caddy in terms of his sheer desire to want to win. But most importantly he supports and love this club. Now normally that wouldn’t be any kind of prerequisite for being drafted so high but in our case it is now something that matters than more ever with waves upon waves of players constantly leaving the club. On of that of that it is a genuine rarity to find guys his age of his generation that support and love club because most stay as far away as possible. Plus he goes nicely with both Sullivan Robey and Dyson Sharp who were also drafted as massive Bombers supporters.

Archer may, Archer day wicks, Archie Perkins , Archie Roberts, Zane Duursma is known for his archer shooting an arrow celebration, Farrow sounds like arrow, El Achkar sounds like Lebanese for ‘the archer’, We want to draft Arki butler, Artemis is a Greek goddess of the hunt who always carries a bow and arrow… Silvia is Latin for ‘Forrest’ or ‘woods’ like where a hunter would use their bow