“A Very Broken Footy Club Right Now”: A Midweek Rub Deep Dive On Essendon

From the Midweek Rub

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Essendon’s poor form has been one of the stories of the 2022 season.

The Bombers are 1-6 after a long-awaited finals campaign last year, with the manner of some of their losses attracting criticism.

On today’s edition of the Midweek Rub Joey Montagna, Wayne Carey, Dale Thomas and Damian Barrett deep dived on some of the issues facing Essendon and where they go from here.

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"It just appears to be a very broken footy club right now," Damo said.

"I know that if you go back to this corresponding period last year they went into round eight… with a 2-6 scoreline.

"We know what happened thereafter: got on a surge, got in to a final, and were ok in the first half against a grand final team in the Western Bulldogs in that final.

"But nothing’s worked for them since half time of that game... they seem to be actually getting worse as the season’s progressing, which is a bigger problem."

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Daisy has been unimpressed by coach Ben Rutten.

"I feel like at the minute you’re getting every cliché under the book from Rutten in his press conferences," he said.

"You think back to coaches who’ve been under the pump — David Teague, Brendon Bolton — it’s almost trending down those areas for mine, where you sit there and you’re like ‘mate you’re not providing any bounce or any reasons, you’re just rolling out the stuff from the handbook."

Damo also feels the club is making "desperate" decisions.

"[Jake Stringer] has gone down again with another soft tissue," he said.

"They rushed him back for the Anzac Day game, alongside [Zach] Merrett, and there was talk about 'really, he’s not right, he’s missed games already with soft tissue', then he comes out, plays that game, plays the next week and is now gonna be missing again.

"So they’re making decisions that are the decisions of a desperate team, and it’s impacting again on performance."

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Duck said that the issues shouldn’t be laid at the feet of the backroom staff.

"There’s a lot of talk about… people like Adrian Dodoro and these guys," he said.

"If you look at the talent they’ve got, I would argue that he’s done a great job… and I think Xavier Campbell is one of the smartest minds in our game.

"I love the way he goes about it, he’s very approachable, I think he’s one of the great people in football.

"So I’m putting it all back to the players."

Joey feels there is some light amongst the shade for Essendon, though.

"On the upside, I can see shades of Melbourne 2018 into 2019 about Essendon… I can see Essendon from next season and the year after, because I agree with Duck, I think their core is at a good age bracket, they’re highly talented, a lot of early draft picks,"he said.

"I can see them being a contender in the next couple of years if they learn from this season."

Joey, Duck, Daisy and Damo also discussed West Coast’s problems, which young gun will win the Rising Star, how badly Brisbane will miss Joe Daniher and more.