Jetta's Late Surge Continues

Leroy Jetta’s stunning late season form continued as he moved to finish a clear 3rd overall in voting for the 2010 Nobby Clarke Medal with another Bomber BOG game in their AFL Round 22 season ender against the Western Bulldogs last weekend.

With already announced winner skipper Jobe Watson missing through injury, some lesser lights took the chance to nab some votes – David Myers picked up his first votes for 2010 with a four vote game while Ben Howlett’s 3 votes saw him finish equal fourth overall in his debut AFL season.

Official results as tabulated by esteemed vote counting Canuck, Mero

Final Voting for Round 22

Leroy Jetta 156 – 1st – 5 votes
David Myers 78 – 2nd – 4 votes
Ben Howlett 66 – 3rd – 3 votes
Henry Slattery 10 1× 3 votes – 4th – 2 votes
Kyle Hardingham 10 0 × 3 votes – 5th – 1 vote
Travis Colyer 5
Michael Hurley 3
David Hille 2

FINAL 2010 OVERALL STANDINGS

Jobe Watson 38
Dustin Fletcher 28
Leroy Jetta 23
Jason Winderlich 18
Ben Howlett 18
Heath Hocking 17
Michael Hurley 16
Cale Hooker 16
Brent Stanton 14
Tayte Pears 14
David Hille 14
Nathan Lovett-Murray 14
Alwyn Davey 10
Angus Monfries 9
Patrick Ryder 9
Kyle Reimers 9
David Zaharakis 8
Henry Slattery 8
Travis Colyer 8
Mark McVeigh 7
Courtenay Dempsey 7
Scott Gumbleton 6
Kyle Hardingham 6
Jake Carlisle 4
David Myers 4
Andrew Welsh 3
Sam Lonergan 2

Posted Wednesday September  1, 2010 in Nobby Clarke Medal

"Unlock The Choc" Says The BomberBlitz Interwebs

Former Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams has put his hand up to coach Essendon and judging by a poll on the BomberBlitz.com Forum – he is the overwhelming choice of Bomber fans to replace the sacked Matthew Knights.

“The prospect of working at such a great traditional club is high on my priorities, and I look forward to putting my case to them,” Williams said Monday.

At of late Monday night, a poll on the BomberBlitz.com Forum was running at an extraordinary 88% support for the hiring of Williams.

Much like the hiring of Matthew Knights three years ago – where the majority of the BomberBlitz.com fanbase wanted Damien Hardwick and derided the choice of Knights – there is little enthusiasm for the other mentioned ‘favourite’ – current Essendon assistant Alan Richardson or any other untried inexperienced coach.

With over 6000 registered members, (blowing our own trumpet here) BomberBlitz.com is by far the largest independent AFL club site on the interwebs and is the definitive online microcosm of the Bomber fanbase.

Posted Tuesday August 31, 2010 in News

From The Armchair #26 - A Knights Tale VII - NECROLOGY

By No32
Admitted To Hospital: Thursday 27th September 2007
Symptoms: Severe puncture wounds to his back, arms and legs
Time of Death: Sunday 29th August 2010
Cause of Death: To stubborn to take medicine required to stop the bleeding

Matthew had coached an amazing club even though his tenure was rather short (under breath, not short enough). Matthew was bullish, the kind of coach that would stand by you when you needed to be dropped to Bendigo even if you made it into the Best’s in Sunday’s Herald Sun, and your dropped for some pasty Milky Bar Martian from Killoe… eeh hem. He once saved a career, for some reason it happened to be the same pasty little bastard from Killoe. Those decisions are in the past, we were all young once like our list (under breath, still) and they weren’t very close, I mean Jobe and Hilley said they were close

Matthew turned out to be a really nice person, I would have been happy for him to stay however inner peace is what he sought and the club needed

OKAY OKAY, enough shenanigans however we had to sign off A Knights Tale appropriately.

Posted Tuesday August 31, 2010 in Important Articles

Ugly, brutal, but inevitable

By Jon D
Matthew Knights was on a hiding to nothing from the outset.

So to the delight of many supporters the Matthew Knights era at Essendon is finally over. After weeks of speculation and the spectre of an impending review, Essendon moved with alarming alacrity and speed to end the Knights stewardship.

No doubt many in the outer will be delighted with this result, but they shouldn’t be. No one has come through this with much dignity, save for maybe Matthew himself. Essendon is increasingly taking on the appearance of a government in it’s death throes, frozen by indecision and backtracking., knifing it’s leader for the sake of saving face.

But it had to be done. The Knight’s game plan had not evolved from its inception and the defense leaked goals like the board leaked information. Players never looked settled and there is only so long members were willing to wait. However, this need not be the end of it. A full revolution is still needed and the review must continue.

Firstly, players must not be allowed to act petulantly and “not play for the coach”. You play for the club, period, otherwise please leave.

Posted Monday August 30, 2010 in Important Articles

Sunday Night Update On Knights Sacking

Speaking at a press conference at Windy Hill on Sunday evening, Essendon Chairman David Evans said the lack of on-field success was the reason for Matthew Knights sacking earlier in the day.

The axe fell swiftly on Knights, gone within 12 hours of the Bombers season ending 29 point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Jihad Stadium on Saturday night.

At a hastily arranged EFC Board Meeting at 8am on Sunday morning, the decision was made to sack Knights, leaving the club with an $800,000 cheque to cut for the remaining two years of his contract – a two year contract which was extended last year by the current board, despite Knights original contract set to expire at the end of this season …. but let that be a debate for another day.

By 1pm Knights was summoned into Windy Hill and told the news of his sacking and within an hour word began to leak out to the media and the interwebs.

“It has not been an easy year on-field for our club, but I do want to say that Matthew has started the process of rebuilding our list and playing many new young players.” Evans said.

“However, it has become very clear … that we have not made the progress we needed to make this year, and we needed a fresh start going into a new season. This lack of progress is the basis of the board’s decision today.”

After replacing Kevin Sheedy and his 27 year run at the end of 2006. Knights has never been warmly received by Bomber fans – the majority of whom wanted now Richmond coach Damien Hardwick appointed at the time and has been under the gun since day one and combined with the Bombers dismal 2010 season, his sacking comes as no great shock.

Bomber fans wet dreams imagine James Hird as Knights’ replacement … but realistically that won’t be happening and the two favourites seem to be ex-Port Adelaide Premiership Coach Mark Williams and current Essendon Assistant Alan Richardson.

Essendon fans on the BomberBlitz interwebs have installed Mark Williams as their favoured option – with the reasoning that the Bombers in their current situation need an experienced hard head in the role, not an untested, untried gamble like Richardson – who would be seen (rightly or wrongly) as Matthew Knights Mark 2 and would start the job on Day 1 behind the eight-ball with a fractured fanbase not supporting his appointment.

Few however have little confidence in the EFC Board making the right choice.

Posted Sunday August 29, 2010 in News

Bendigo Bow Out At Box Hill

VFL ELIMINATION FINAL

Box Hill Hawks 5.10 11.13 15.15 20.16 (136)
Bendigo Bombers 5.1 5.2 8.7 10.11 (71)

GOALS:
Box Hill Hawks: Hoegel 5 Lisle 4 Gibson 2 Kayler-Thomson 2 Morton Muston Jackson Suckling Fagan Breust Savage
Bendigo Bombers: Bellchambers 3 Still 2 Liddle Bock Stroobants Shinners Atkinson

BEST:
Box Hill Hawks: Gibson Hoegel Lisle Savage Fagan Kayler-Thomson
Bendigo Bombers: Quinn James Bellchambers Shinners Neagle Liddle

By saladin
pretty impressed with neagle’s workrate and ball-use today. especially after quarter time. played up the ground, several strong marks and delivered to advantage.

houli. one purple patch and pretty decent overall. played midfield mostly. still handballs too often.

Still – a few good marks, kicked a couple of goals, missed a couple of others that he shouldn’t have. it’ll be interesting to see how much this preseason changes his frame.

belly – not a great game. did some good things but caught out of postion a lot. not always his fault – when playing forward our lack of midfield control meant plenty of butchered delivery.

tyson – competed hard. got smashed during the third and looked sore after that.

cloke – vanished during Q1 and did not return. not sure what the injury was.

atko – standard atkinson game. dashing, but also error ridden.

duscher struggled. delahunty again showed a good pair of hands. scanlon and skippy couldn’t impact the game. quinn appeared to have a tagging role, but i don’t think had much effect.

Posted Sunday August 29, 2010 in Bendigo

Special BomberBlitzCast! 7:30pm TONIGHT!

By Riolio
Following the stunning sacking of Matthew Knights today! We go live to cover all the latest news, as we know it tonight and in broad strokes discuss whatever we deem necessary while consuming various amounts of pizza.

Ben is a lock, Dingus is AWOL. Get your Skype in order as we take your calls in this Matthew Knights Memorial Edition of the Podcast!

For all the details, visit the ALL NEW official show page!

http://bomberblitz.com/bomberblitzcast/

Click Here for this weeks forum thread

Posted Sunday August 29, 2010 in News

Knights - Gone Diddly Gone!

Media reports are coming out of Windy Hill that Essendon have sacked coach Matthew Knights.

3AW have reported that Essendon Chairman David Evans told Knights he was no longer required at a 1pm Sunday afternoon meeting after the Essendon Board met earlier in the day via an emergency meeting to ratify Knights sacking.

Posted Sunday August 29, 2010 in News

Is The Knightsmare Finally Over?

Essendon’s 2010 AFL Season is over and more than likely the coaching career of Bomber coach Matthew Knights.

The Bombers racked up their 10th loss in the past 12 games with a 29 point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Jihad Stadium on Saturday night.

In a fizzer of a contest, the Bulldogs jumped the Bombers with a six goal to two first term and that was enough to set-up a 17.5 (107) to 11.12 (78) win and condemn the Bombers to a 14th placed finish in 2010.

Posted Saturday August 28, 2010 in Match Review

Round 22 - Western Bulldogs Match Preview

Essendon wrap up their dismal 2010 AFL Season with a contest against the equally struggling Western Bulldogs at Jihad Stadium on Saturday night.

The injury riddled Bulldogs AFL Premiership hopes seem shot already, but they will still want to go into the AFL Finals with winning form while the Bombers just want the season to be over.

The match looms as Bomber coach Matthew Knights farewell, with speculation growing that he will be sacked within 72 hours of the final siren on Saturday night.

Few will mourn his loss.

Posted Friday August 27, 2010 in Match Preview