Q. What position are you looking at playing Kepler Bradley and Ricky Dyson in next year? (Jarryd Strafford)
A. Strangely enough Kepler Bradley made his name in senior footy in Perth and the under-18 championships as a winger. He is a six foot five winger, which is a little bit different.
To be quite honest we don’t know where his position will be. He has got such amazing flexibility and versatility. He is only 18, so we will let his development decide where he will play. We are very open minded and I don’t think we should be pigeonholing him.
Dyson will end up being either a natural running half-back flanker or winger or when he gets stronger, he may eventually be able to go into the engine room. At the moment, he will have continued development in the roles that we saw him in this year.
Q. I believe that Essendon’s best football is up there with Brisbane but we don’t seem to be able to produce it week after week. How will the coaching panel rectify this for season 2005? (Matthew Tait)
A. Very good question and very hard to answer. We played the best half of footy against them in Round 12, but we didn’t sustain it in the second half. We have to find that second half.
How do we do that? Natural improvement of players and I think everyone in our whole club has natural improvement. Even the older players - we saw how Hird finished the year. A lot has to do with development of players. We will try as hard as we can in the pre-draft to add to our list, but nothing can be assumed there, because you might not get anything.
The likes of Stanton, Watson, Laycock and these sorts of players do hold the key. Like all clubs you need your two or three top line kids to go to the next level, which really does give you a kick along. We are not that far away though.
Q. With some experienced players leaving this year, will you be trying to recruit some more experienced players to help lift us next year? Or will you be more looking at next year as a rebuilding year and concentrate on youth and getting the young guys right for future success? (Zach Spicer)
A. First point there is that I don’t like the point ‘rebuilding’. We have basically spent the last two years ""rebuilding"" without going backwards on the ladder. It has been an excellent effort and what people don’t understand is that there has been subtle ‘rebuilding’ at Essendon going on constantly without going down to the bottom of the ladder. If Essendon supporters want us to go down the bottom of the ladder and then rebuild, then well and good, but I don’t think any of them do.
Q. Is it time to play Lloyd as a Tredrea style centre half forward and restructure our forwardline? Our ability to kick winning scores has become too dependent on Lloyd kicking a bag. (Dean McDonald)
A. That is an outstanding question and one that I have got myself into trouble with several times with debates.
I think Lloydy will always be our greatest full-forward, the question I continually ask is – whether being the greatest full-forward can equate to going to centre-half-forward and being our greatest player.
