Kevin Sheedy’s seat has been filled, and four players have been told they must together produce what James Hird did every week.
Essendon have begun AFL life post their retired master coach and superstar, and how well their successors adapt to the club’s biggest period of change in a generation will be major points of interest in 2008.
New coach Matthew Knights was still in primary school when Sheedy first took charge at Windy Hill and played his 279 games for Richmond while the master was still coaching.
The comparisons are inevitable.
Sensibly, when you follow a coach who won four premierships and promoted the code like no other, Knights has promised to be his own man.
But as he began his coaching career, first as an assistant at Port Adelaide and then as a coach with Essendon’s VFL affiliate Bendigo, Knights admired Sheedy’s philosophy of seeing light in players where others saw gloom.
“That’s certainly a trait that I’ve really tried to incorporate in my coaching, to make sure I’m looking for the good parts, good aspects of people, rather than looking at the negative side,” he says.
Knights is undaunted about leading Essendon into their major rebuilding phase after Sheedy’s last three seasons yielded finishes of 13th, 15th and 12th, and too great a reliance on senior players.
Instead, he is confident this season can pass as a development year with finals at the end.
But it will be hard work.
One of Knights’ first measures was to get tough, as he felt the Bombers’ skills and fitness were well below thir rivals last season.
“I believe we are improving but we’re certainly not at the level I’d like to take us to, so we’ve got some work to do,” he says.
Essendon’s pre-season has been gruelling, but it has not all been laborious.
Having noted Essendon’s strength lay in their speed and firepower, Knights urged Essendon to play with flair, to be creative with the ball and to attack.
Speedsters Alwyn Davey, Andrew Lovett and Leroy Jetta will get bigger roles in midfield, the skilful Mark McVeigh will become a key playmaker and Matthew Lloyd will have other tall targets beside him in attack.
Clearly the Bombers won’t be boring.
“We will play an exciting brand of footy,” Knight says.
“We have a list that suggests we should play that way and kick a lot of goals, so we’ll be going out there to put the foot down to play exciting footy.”
A fit Lloyd will be crucial to Essendon’s plans.
The skipper booted 62 goals last season and is among the handful of genuine full-forwards in the game, capable of reaching three figures.
If Lloyd overcomes hamstring worries to play an entire season, Scott Lucas reprises last season’s success (61 goals from centre half-forward), and resting ruckman Jason Laycock and tall youngster Scott Gumbleton all spend time forward, then Essendon will boast formidable scoring power.
“To get a good result it’s not just about one guy kicking 10 or 11 and the others not touching it, so we’ve got a lot of productivity,” Knights says.
But question marks linger elsewhere for Essendon.
After an encouraging start to 2007, Essendon fell away and lost eight of their last 11 games, and conceded over 100 points in all of them.
They boast excellence in their key positions – Lloyd, Lucas, fullback Dustin Fletcher and the promising Paddy Ryder at centre half-back – but the best and fairest count confirmed Essendon’s reliance on the established over the emerging.
Midfielders Brent Stanton (21 years, 76 games) and Jobe Watson (23, 53 games) were the only top-10 placegetters under 25 and still in the first half of their careers.
Hird, who won the award, leaves a crater forward of the centre and no obvious candidate to provide the brilliance and inspiration, especially in tight games.
Of Essendon’s seven narrow victories in 2007 – games won by two goals or less – Hird was among Essendon’s stand-outs five times and the five games he missed through injury yielded four defeats.
Knights has put the onus on Davey, Lovett, Jetta and McVeigh to between them cover for Hird’s departure, but accepts that is thorny part of rebuilding.
“James is probably irreplaceable in the short-term, so therefore we have to get three or four that can do a little bit extra because no one can replace James Hird like that,” he says.
“Who might be the person to fill that void?
“There’s probably four or five guys in that category, but there’s no one who’s streaked ahead of the pack yet.”
© AAP 2012ESSENDON
Coach: Matthew Knights.
Captain: Matthew Lloyd.
Last five years: 6-6-13-15-12.
Premierships: 16 (1897, 1901, 1911-12, 1923-24, 1942, 1946, 1949-50, 1962, 1965, 1984-85, 1993, 2000).
Star five: Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas, Dustin Fletcher, Mark McVeigh, Paddy Ryder.
One to watch: Alwyn Davey – a revelation as an older (23) first-year player last year with his electrifying pace, tackling and inspiring goals. Can he re-light that spark after a broken arm and now that opponents will be that little wiser?
Ins: Tom Bellchambers (Tasmania U18), Darcy Daniher (Calder U18), Heath Hocking (rookie elevation), Cale Hooker (East Fremantle), David Myers (Perth), Tayte Pears (East Perth), Adam Ramanauskas (rookie elevation), John Williams (Morningside).
Outs: Mark Bolton (retired), Kepler Bradley (Fremantle), Scott Camporeale (retired), Richard Cole (delisted), Chris Heffernan (retired), James Hird (retired), Mark Johnson (Fremantle).
Best line-up:
B: Henry Slattery, Dustin Fletcher, Mal Michael
HB: Andrew Welsh, Paddy Ryder, Adam McPhee
C: Mark McVeigh, Jobe Watson, Brent Stanton
HF: Angus Monfries, Scott Lucas, Andrew Lovett
F: Alwyn Davey, Matthew Lloyd, Jason Laycock
R: David Hille, Damien Peverill, Jason Johnson
I: Adam Ramanauskas, Scott Gumbleton, Ricky Dyson, Jason Winderlich
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