I'm not sure this is something that can be fixed this season. But we can still get some value out of the next 8 weeks if we're smart about it.

Stage 1 - The MC finish swallowing their pride and leave Setanta forward for the next 8 weeks. He keeps doing what he's doing. The mids will begin to realise someone other than Fev can take a mark and win a contest. Fev realises with a partner up forward, he gets one less opponant, he doesn't need to do i all himself, and he doesn't have to take himself and his man to contests other people are winning. We may need consultants to explain this to Fev using some sort of pictorial representation.

In other words, spend the rest of the season letting everyone develop some confidence in Setanta, and letting Fev and O'Hailpin work out how to play around each other.

Stage 2 - Sit Chris Yarran down after the post season wash-up and tell him we want him to kick 40 goals off the HFF next season (in place of Brad Fisher), have Cordy tatoo a training program on his chest, and make Chris Judd his training partner.

Stage 3 - make Austin and Warnock weights partners and lock them in the gym.

Stage 4 - spend a pre-season working out fwd structures and drilling.

Stage 5 - Austin to CHB, Warnock to the ruck rotaing through FP with Krezuer. Waite to the wing with a licence to roam.

Stage 6 - Think of a more understated membership slogan. Something like "F@$% Essendon*".

Season to taste.

..Walker will make a huge contribution up forward.. ..genuine hardness at the ball and mongrel at the player, elite afl endurance, high marking but also good on the ground, with strong work ethic.. ..will be our ace across the HFF..

Let me start by saying I am rapted that we won ugly against Freo today. Interstate wins have been few and far between in recent years, so congrats to the lads. BUT, that first quarter was inexcusable and so too was our finishing in front of goals (again). So...

I've got three words for you ... too predictable, no structure and poor finishing.

Only one forward option: We still go to Fev too often as if he is the only option up front. We have the odd game here and there where we mix it up and have done it very well, but that doesn't happen often enough. Carlos has been playing up front lately, even when we may have needed him for a defensive option, so I guess the coaching staff are trying something. But they need to keep trying. Remember, noone in the herd controls the herd, so we need to make it unpredictable.

No structure: In a sense this ties in with the previous para, it's all Fev or nothing. And if that means Fev having a shot outside 50 on the boundary line then we'll still take that option. Worse, if Fev takes the mark he rarely, if ever, contemplates looking inside to a teammate in a better position. Of course, this is a flow on effect because noone offers any leads because they know they're unlikely to be honoured.

Further to that, there's the old chestnut of double/triple teaming of Fevola. Where are our free men? What about creating space, decoy leads? All pretty basic stuff.

Frontal pressure: Do we even know what that is? Well, yes, of course we do, at times we apply great pressure inside our F50, but too often teams run it out without a care in the world. I know we can't expect to lock the ball inside our 50 every time our opponents have the ball, but we need to get better at minimising those instances.

Our finishing in front of goals: In 2009 it has been shit. It has cost us games we should have won and very nearly cost us again today. I don't care what the reasons are we just need to !@#$%& fix it! Every week. Not some band-aid one week solution. I'm not sure what plans/practice we have in place for our goal kicking at training, but it's not working. Fev used to convert at comfortably over 60%, now, he's missing more than he gets. This further exacerbates the "Fev is the only option" problem.

If you look at the bigger picture the team is getting better and players are improving in general terms. But, if we are fair dinkum we need to start fine tuning. And quickly!