00:00I think we'll start with Essendon half, talking of great venues, the MCG.
00:03That was an interesting match. They were competitive.
00:05But what do you make of the Bombers sort of casually
00:10and inferring that they'll ask for some draft assistance?
00:14No, I can't have that.
00:15I can't have that the Essendon Footy Club need draft assistance.
00:17Watching them play the other night against Carlton Sunday night at the MCG,
00:22they're more than capable of competing.
00:24And what their problem is isn't personnel necessarily.
00:27It's been able to get that personnel out on the park.
00:29Now, they've had two years of horror injury runs.
00:31I understand all that.
00:33And on the back of that, they've had some challenges.
00:35I've obviously sacked the coach and Brad Scott.
00:36And they haven't seen that the path they're on was going to be the right path for the Essendon Footy
00:40Club.
00:41So they've made a change.
00:42That doesn't mean they need draft assistance.
00:44I'm not a massive draft assistance guy, to be honest.
00:46So it was never going to be an easy sit for me.
00:49But watching them play and you think, OK, there's enough here.
00:51Dean Solomon did a really good job tactically the other night against Carlton,
00:54trying to get them into the game and be competitive.
00:57At halftime, they were fantastic.
00:58They'd been fantastic up until halftime.
01:00Played a few players in different positions.
01:02Meridoff, halfback.
01:03Mackay, forward.
01:05Durham, back in the team, obviously helps.
01:06But go back to round 17, 2024, Steve-O.
01:10So a year and a half ago.
01:11Where do you reckon the Bombers were on the ladder?
01:13I've got a feeling half they were top six.
01:15They were fourth.
01:16Maybe even higher.
01:16Fourth.
01:17They were fourth.
01:18Dodgy percentage.
01:19But that doesn't matter, though.
01:20Winning games of footy.
01:20Winning games of footy.
01:21They were fourth on the ladder less than 18 months ago.
01:24And they clearly fell away very quickly on the back of that.
01:27And then last year with injuries and the similar scenario this year.
01:30But on the back of that alone, they can't be asking for draft assistance.
01:34You have list managers recruiting staff for a reason.
01:37That's your job.
01:38Get it right.
01:38Get your list right.
01:39I would ban all assistance forever.
01:42Put it in stone.
01:44What did they call it?
01:45Not the tombstone at the AFL.
01:47The Mantra Stone or the Charter that Mark Evans started.
01:50The Charter's gone.
01:51We can't find the Charter.
01:51We can't find it.
01:52That's gone.
01:53Put it in stone now.
01:54Never, ever again do we assist a football club who's made mistakes drafting and recruiting
02:00and with list management, trading, et cetera.
02:03Never, ever bail them out.
02:05Let's just stop it now.
02:06We could easily do it because it's just compromising footy again.
02:08Yeah.
02:09And it's a heavily compromised system, as we know, with the draft, the trade, the father,
02:12sons and academies and all that sort of stuff.
02:14And nothing's equal, which we also know in the AFL,
02:16despite the fact that they claim all that stuff.
02:19No, they don't need to.
02:20Round 17, 2024, top four team.
02:23Now, the bottom has fallen out, but they will be back.
02:25If they can get some players back on the park, they will be back and be competitive.
02:29Now, they're a long way from a premiership.
02:30We know that when a final in 25 years, but they'll be competitive.
02:35And then you start to grow from there.
02:37But they don't need a draft assistant.
02:38Look, they are a fair way from a premiership.
02:39I'll put this to you, the half.
02:41Who's closer to a premiership right now, Essendon or Collingwood?
02:45I think with the kids that Essendon have got, this sounds crazy.
02:49But Collingwood aren't asking for assistance.
02:51I think Essendon are closer to a premiership right now than Collingwood.
02:54If you look at the two lists, unless the Magpies can pull off a miracle with some free agency,
02:59then Essendon are more likely to bounce forward.
03:01Quite probably.
03:03If you've got a good coach, put a good system in place, you might be right, Steve.
03:06Because the Collingwood list is in a bit of a schmozle at the moment, the way that's built.
03:10So they've got a hell of a lot of work to do.
03:12But the Bombers list is not too bad.
03:13The grand scheme of things, the talent they've got in the last couple of years.
03:17Zach Reed was awesome on Sunday night against the Blues.
03:21I thought he was fantastic.
03:22Really saw why they invested so heavily in him.
03:25He's out there.
03:25He's fit and healthy.
03:26He's getting good returns for himself and his team.
03:28They'll be okay if they can just give themselves time to get players on the park.
03:32Yeah, they can make a quick improvement next year, I think.
03:35What about the other drama in that game, the shot clock?
03:38Big Harry having a shot was a pretend shot.
03:41I mean, he conned the umpire, Eleni T.
03:42Eleni, you've got no feel for the game if you think that he was having a shot there.
03:46He hesitated, paused, put the ball on ground.
03:4841 seconds gone.
03:50And then even worse...
03:51That's not a shot clock issue.
03:52That's a judgment issue for the umpire.
03:55It's a judgment issue, Eleni...
03:57He should be able to kick 53, 54 metres though, so he might be able to get there.
04:00It was longer than that.
04:01It was 60.
04:01Nah.
04:02The mark was 53.
04:04Yeah.
04:04The bloke on the mark was 53 metres out.
04:06Well, it's a grey area in footy, isn't it?
04:08It is.
04:08It is.
04:08I think if Eleni had more feel for the game in that situation, other umpires would have
04:12said, Harry, you're kidding yourself.
04:13You've got to play on there.
04:15Then for Harry to not even have a shot, there's some theory that if you do that half and you
04:20don't have a proper shot, then that should be a free kick.
04:23He's just kicked it to the top of the square.
04:24Harry's kicked a seven eye.
04:25Well, we're so pedantic with time these days and managing the game from an umpire perspective
04:31in seven seconds when you get the mark, it's now quicker on the kick in.
04:35So it's so pedantic with time.
04:37I'm surprised they allow that to happen in those scenarios.
04:39Now, who's to say that he wasn't having a shot?
04:42He just fell short.
04:42You know?
04:43And who's to say that he doesn't...
04:44Oh, you can tell that the chip...
04:45No, I know exactly what...
04:46You know what he was doing.
04:46You're 100% right what was happening.
04:47And it was beautifully manipulated by Harry in that moment to save the game and run the clock down.
04:52So well done to him for being a professional and organising that in the moment.
04:55But who's to say, at the end of it, he doesn't try and get there and it gets punched over
05:00the line.
05:00And they get a point for it.
05:02Who's to say that doesn't happen next time around?
05:04Not that that was ever going to be his intention on that occasion.
05:07So they've got to come out with a hard and fast rule.
05:09But I don't know how you do it.
05:10Where's the mark?
05:12Because some guys can kick 55.
05:13Some guys can only kick 50.
05:15So where's the line?
05:16I think in the end it's feel for the game.
05:18The timing of the game.
05:19Razor Ray, he's sitting on panels now doing media, does a good job.
05:23I don't think he would have allowed that.
05:24There's more experienced umpires wouldn't have fallen for that.
05:27So I think Eleni needs to just, in the review this week, I'd say that she went way too far
05:32to allow that.
05:33You've got to have feel for the situation of footy when you get to that situation, Huff.
05:38Well, you've got to be able to play the game in the first place.
05:40And Carlton showed that I had a capacity to play another win for Josh Fraser.
05:43Four wins in a row.
05:44By the way, his ability to reset that team after halftime is another big tick in the box for Josh
05:50Fraser.
05:50You talk about reset.
05:50I was watching on Fox.
05:51The clock sort of stopped at 44 and then spun like a Ferris wheel to get suddenly, or quicker than
05:58that, to get down to 22.
05:59So little glitches in footy.
06:01The AFL will say, oh, it's just a Fox thing.
06:03Well, it's more than that because apparently the AFL app froze as well at the time.
06:07And it happened.
06:08But there was no time lost in the game.
06:10No, no time lost.
06:10There was no issue actually with the game.
06:11They don't happen in the NFL.
06:12I wouldn't have thought half NBA finals.
06:14You're not seeing these sort of things.
06:15So they need to look at that.
06:17Collingwood Bulldogs game, I was sitting there nervously awaiting the siren there.
06:21The AFL had frozen at 7.
06:23For the Bulldogs?
06:23No, this is the week earlier.
06:24Oh, the week before.
06:25So 7 minutes 50 or something, the AFL was frozen for 10 minutes.
06:28So that's unusual.
06:29These little glitches, half, that someone needs to check out.
06:32So the AFL was frozen too in the Essendon Carlton game.
06:36The Fox clock went haywire.
06:38Something's going wrong with the timings.
06:39Well, something's going wrong with the clock, but the timings of the game actually were fine on the weekend.
06:44We've got to be better than the half.
06:45We're not in the VAPA playing Adelaide over there.
06:49It's not amateur footy half.
06:50It's not amateur footy.
06:51We're in the pro.
Comments