I’m wondering if Pando is some kind of portmanteau for panic merchant doer
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He was pretty blunt with his opinion on Duursma, which I am polar opposite on.
You know the team is struggling when fans try and split fan groups into smaller sections so they can still “win”.
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I’m here, I still think he should be.
We don’t have a better option now, at least he is 100% invested. Unlike all our other senior players.
He is one of the few who can play a roll and direct team mates, educate youth during a game.
He is also the one we give massive jobs too week to week and ask him to plug massive deficiencies, like go shut down the best small forward in the game who can turn a game on a dime. Go tag in the midfield, go be our driver off half back.
Yes he has deficiencies as a player, yes his own game has been impacted and he is gone from swaying good to average week to week to some pretty poor games this year. However, with growth around him that will improve.
We have piled an enormous amount on the guy and he isn’t drowning, in fact he seems to be relishing to responsibility, which for where we are at is a pretty damn good effort.
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Yep.
It’s a real “grass is greener” effect.
This joint - in Heppell’s last few years was absolutely, positively convinced Merrett would be the best captain in the history of the game - entirely because of how different they are as characters. We saw how well that went.
I think McGrath is really a 6/10 player (if we’re going to continue with him in the backline). But his level hasn’t dropped one iota since being given the captaincy. In an all time, historically bad Essendon team, that’s not nothing. I’m not convinced Durham (or whoever else) wouldn’t get dragged down by it. In reality we’re going to be ■■■■ for another year or two.
Hand it over once we’ve started the uptick.
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I would like to see us put him in the middle a bit more and lesser on the big jobs in the backline. Feel it would be far better for the teams education and allow him more brain space to direct and manage the play from a more central location.
Bringing in Nguyen for the real dangerous smalls instead of dumping McGrath into it every week.
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In a sea of absolutely skunk on this forum at the moment, this is nicely said.
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THESE AREN’T MY GLASSES!
Much better today
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Really?
Quite a few turnovers, and quite a few handballs to the feet of his teammates.
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Needs to be relieved of the captaincy in the off season.
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Captain Calamity
love the guy, but seriously!
What do we do with this guy. I don’t feel that confident with him in defence, he’s better as a mid but we need to play our younger guys there. I’m hoping as we improve and players are more proactive up the ground his willingness to take the game on helps us a lot
A better side has the ball in his hands less. Hes never going to get any better using it, nor will he ever stop trying. So the result is he makes the same mistake lots.
We really need better ball users down back consistently. Farrow yes, Johnson eventually, Redman should be there and taking that responsibility but has been quite poor on both sides of the ball.
McGrath, Roberts, Prior, Artemis, El Hawli are all pretty agricultural disposal wise.
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i think he makes a legit decent tagger.
i don’t disagree, but i also think thats equally as much about the available options to pass to being poor.
Yes and no. I don’t think any of them are ever going to be A+ kicks (Artemis hopefully improves) but good sides don’t carry 3 or 4 bad kicks, at least not amongst the small brigade.
Just makes it very easy to defend against us, we turn it over far too often.
(And yep I would 100% have McGrath in midfield too, have been banging that drum for years)
He really doesnt know how to be “composed” on the football field. Never has, never will. He’s the anti Pendlebury. Have to take it for what it is and every kick and handball is done at top pace. And errors will always come along with this.
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Also, doesn’t do anywhere near enough stuff to naturally command respect and inspire.
This is what I’m talking about. This is what I want from a captain:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AFL/comments/1shaylu/jordan_dawson_fendsoff_a_player_to_the_ground_and/
Contrarian Go Team out there furiously trying to find a clip of a similar McGrath goal to upload
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GoTeam is a very healthy antidote to the AlphaGroupThink on this forum.
Cuts through a lot of emotional bias, which triggers people.
I’m a fan.