It is becoming increasingly clear that our game plan of 2014 under Bomber Thompson is not working. It is a possession based style with too much short kicking. When we get the ball in the back line we are slow with our decisions, look side ways first and sometimes switch. When we do switch it is lethargic (the idea of switching is to do it quickly with hard offensive running so the other side of the field is open). In our slow paced play we allow the other team to get all their numbers behind the ball and zone off to eradicate any free space to find a team mate with a pass. Furthermore the slow pace means our forwards dont actually know when the ball is going to be delivered inside 50 thus they have no idea when to lead which means they often lead too early, get ignored then are caught in the congestion up the field.
Another con of slow ball movement is the fact that once we eventually turn the ball over in our forward half, the opposition have space ahead in their forward half to counter attack with run and carry and thus they enter an empty forward 50 and pluck us off (coz 36 players are in our half coz the oppositon has time to get numbers back).
We are not hawthorn, we dont have elite skills by foot! With greatest respect to Watson who is obviously a gun, he is not a great kick neither are the likes of Stanton and Heppell.
We should be basing our game on the likes of Port Adelaide and Geelong who run hard and carry and dont take an eternity to get the ball forward, Geelong give the likes of Hawkins what they want; one on one contests by quick ball movement.
Players like Dempsey want to break the lines and kick a long ball inside 50 but instead they have this game plan instilled in their minds to look sideways instead of attacking when the opportunity presents itself.
I feel like once we do start playing on and moving the ball quickly (like after quarter time v Sydney, when the damage had already been done) we are silly with our decision making. There is a difference between playing on and using the overlapping handball effectively and blindly playing on and handballing to your team mate who hasnt called for the footy.
We also look unfit and dont apply enough pressure (Nick Kommer and alwyn Davey absence), hence why teams are kicking so accurately against us... sydney 18 goals 6 (couldnt hit a barn door against hawthorn the week before)
Looking forward to having Hirdy back, but I do trust that Bomber will have us playing our better footy in August as opposed to March which has happened in the past 3 years and I do commend him for giving the kids a go
it doesnt matter if our game plan is to come out and blind the opposition in full scottish battlegear regalia while singing I may be a tiny chimney sweep but ive got an enourmous brush.
we are being screwed over a long hot saucy barrel for the next 2 years minnimum.
personally im going to get into ancestry. to see if any relos ever fought, dressed and sang in such fashion.
Pretty much agree. Actually the switch we do is the "safest" you could see. The switch kicks go backwards very often; lets call it the "slow backwards switch" An attacking switch is a fast diagonally forward switch, and over the players in the corridor. Since your team is in possession, the opposition have already "manned up" and flooded back as appropriate . The opposition forwards have run into the corridor, to clog it.
But the fast diagonal forward switch is far more risky. since in a long kick, there is a higher chance of a turnover. So teams dont do it very often.
The slow switch has become the Essendon trademark. Its so xxxx slow its next to useless. When they start doing that , I take the opportunity to go out and turn on the kettle.
Certainly Essendon has learned to live with turnovers in the forward 50. They bomb it long all the time or switch. If they try handball, eventually the chain of handballs result in a turnover, you cannot get it right all the time.
My take on it is . If you want to goal from a counter attack , make it fast, and make sure you have a player with a 1/1, within goal kicking distance when you try it, and expect that 50% of the time it will be turned over anyway ..
Remember, Buddies statistics were not that good. Nor were Tippets. Buddy had kicked 5 goals out of 50 inside 50s Ablett senior once kicked 14 goals in a losing side against Essendon. Essendon had 2 less inside 50s and lost by 8 goals in the Sydney match.
Opposition teams can read the Essendon game plan on social media. Its not in the news any more in 2014. Sorry. I agree fast and direct is the answer for the 2nd half of the season. Risk it and kick it forwards over the middle of the field every so often !
what game plan????
I thought we were just tanking
Bomber tells us that they boys aren't playing the way he wants. Is it a lack of belief in the game plan? Do the boys need to find some confidence in executing it or should we expect this to be a 'gap' year. We know what the boys are capable of and I hope its a case of 'clicking' but I am not confident this is the case. I'm looking at it positively and expect the boys to kill the 2nd half of the season. As bad as we have been over the last month of so we are still in the middle of it.
Bomber tells us that they boys aren't playing the way he wants. Is it a lack of belief in the game plan? Do the boys need to find some confidence in executing it or should we expect this to be a 'gap' year. We know what the boys are capable of and I hope its a case of 'clicking' but I am not confident this is the case. I'm looking at it positively and expect the boys to kill the 2nd half of the season. As bad as we have been over the last month of so we are still in the middle of it.
I agree. l dont believe how the team has been playing recently is an accurate reflection of Bomber's game plan. The first 3 weeks were, but since then, they have deviated away from the plan.
Stanton was interviewed by ABC Radio after the Brisbane game. When asked what he thought the reason was that the team was playing so badly, his response was that he thought all the other teams had worked out the EFC game plan.
Stanton was interviewed by ABC Radio after the Brisbane game. When asked what he thought the reason was that the team was playing so badly, his response was that he thought all the other teams had worked out the EFC game plan.
The blueprint to beating us was there from the geelong game last year, so it wouldn't surprise me if the players thought more teams than not had figured out how to beat them.
We need to go harder than other teams, break some c***s.
I agree in the fact I actually don't think there is a game plan. The short-kicking style is more to conserve energy I think. I don't think the players had a big off season at all - I think the chip game is because the players don't have the engines to run forward to receive, and in turn run hard back to cover.
This is why games turn on their heads in the blink of an eye. 6 times this year the opposition has kicked 4 goals unanswered or more - once they've manned up on the Bombers and flooded the centre square that kills any chance the Bombers have of scoring goals quickly. Conversely the opposition then get their running game going and bang there is a run of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 goals in a row. Collingwood DIDNT do this in the first quarter and Essendon could just chip around and move through the centre. Carlton DIDNT do this all game, and Hawthorn got complacent in the 3rd Q. Similar with North, which Brad Scott was peeved about big time, they kept zoning off their man rather than playing man on man - allowing Essendon to chip around.
You see this in many ball sports - soccer, rugby, aussie rules at the low level. An unfit yet skilful side will hang in there, but will eventually get blown away. I think the Bombers have the skills, they don't have the fitness. Incidentally, has any EFC player bounced the ball this year? I've watched nearly every minute this year, and I can't recall one single running bounce.
The chipping game is NOT a fast game - it is a mirage. It makes the side look quick, but they aren't.
Have a look at Port. They play a similar short-kick style to the Bombers but they RUN and present, and then chase hard back. Hinkley has got that former rabble into arguably the fittest team in the comp.
^Excellent observations.
We are no where near fit enough, save 1 or two.
Relax guys, I watched Bombers post match members video. He promised me we will play better next match.
I agree in the fact I actually don't think there is a game plan. The short-kicking style is more to conserve energy I think. I don't think the players had a big off season at all - I think the chip game is because the players don't have the engines to run forward to receive, and in turn run hard back to cover.
This is why games turn on their heads in the blink of an eye. 6 times this year the opposition has kicked 4 goals unanswered or more - once they've manned up on the Bombers and flooded the centre square that kills any chance the Bombers have of scoring goals quickly. Conversely the opposition then get their running game going and bang there is a run of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 goals in a row. Collingwood DIDNT do this in the first quarter and Essendon could just chip around and move through the centre. Carlton DIDNT do this all game, and Hawthorn got complacent in the 3rd Q. Similar with North, which Brad Scott was peeved about big time, they kept zoning off their man rather than playing man on man - allowing Essendon to chip around.
You see this in many ball sports - soccer, rugby, aussie rules at the low level. An unfit yet skilful side will hang in there, but will eventually get blown away. I think the Bombers have the skills, they don't have the fitness. Incidentally, has any EFC player bounced the ball this year? I've watched nearly every minute this year, and I can't recall one single running bounce.
The chipping game is NOT a fast game - it is a mirage. It makes the side look quick, but they aren't.
Have a look at Port. They play a similar short-kick style to the Bombers but they RUN and present, and then chase hard back. Hinkley has got that former rabble into arguably the fittest team in the comp.
Hey, this may be deliberate. Maybe the idea is to build fitness during the season so it peaks in late September. Last year shows that running out of gas at round 18 slows you down and can cause you to drop out of the 4. HOWEVER, its no good if you go into the business end of the season having lost too many games by trying to conserve energy and not going in hard for the ball to reduce injury.
Actually Bomber made an interesting comment post match...... there are apparently things they dont tell us , secrets; things we would never know. Jeez , that sounds like a good idea, maybe they have been reading the art of war or something.
yeh it seems to me that if teams match us up man on man we have no outlets. It is correct in saying we dont run with the ball, barely ever have bounced the footy this year and thats a fact. We are so slow with movement that teams clog up all the space once we get the ball.
We are unfit to get to the contests hence why our contested possessions are so low.
Bomber did say that the pre season was less about fitness and more about game plan, hence why we seem unfit?
I think the fact that we are playing badly yet still winning games says that we can be a very good team but just arent playing like it.
There are serious issues with the team right now on field, lucky to beat 2 of the worse teams in doggies and Birsbane. We havnt strung 2 good quarters in a row since the Carlton game.
Maybe all this off field crap has taken its toll mentally on the players, but im sick of excuses from turning hot and cold every year, stemming from 2012, when soft tissue injuries were blamed, 2013: ASADA distractions and now 2014 the same.
Gleeson. Last quarter of Saints game.... Incidentally, has any EFC player bounced the ball this year? I've watched nearly every minute this year, and I can't recall one single running bounce.
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Stanton was interviewed by ABC Radio after the Brisbane game. When asked what he thought the reason was that the team was playing so badly, his response was that he thought all the other teams had worked out the EFC game plan.
Yep, and in fact the blueprint has been there for a couple of years.
You flood our forward line until we long kick to a stationary, out-numbered forward, turn it over, then they fast break down the ground into an open forward line. Its generally the game plan for the lower ranked sides against us, beaten by St Kilda (twice), Brisbane and Melbourne over the last couple years this way. Its a Richmond favourite as well so expect it next week.
We’ve hit the ground running in every year under Hird. Been up there the first third of the year. Covering options, belting forward,outworking sides.
Then fallen in a heap.
I’m not entirely sure they wanted that again, it might be interesting whether we open up a bit as the year wears on.
That’s not the gameplan.
Moving to space to receive is there to remove congestion so the middle opens up, not so we actually pass backwards
The problem is the some players are not working hard enoug to find space up the ground and through the middle, so the only options players are seeing is sideways and backwards.
On top of that there has been habit building about this, so players aren’t trusting the corridor even when it is free, or just aren’t looking there anymore.
We destroyed Carlton playing as we did because we ran harder Nd opened up space to get forward and score. We just aren’t doing that anymore.
It is form, confidence and execution, not the gameplan.
Right now other teams know that if they clog the corridor and forward line we run scared into chipping about. But if players were running harder to space all over the ground then clogging the centre would leave one wing open. But we just aren’t running hard enough for that, and we aren’t brave enough in our use of the footy to go fast through the middle before it clogs, or switch fast enough (because no one has run there yet).
The players are ultimately responsible for bringing their commitment and effort to the team plan. If it isn’t working then maybe they’re being asked to do too much: however all the evidence to date, Hawks second half, Collingwood first quarter, North, shows they actually can do it.
They just need to stick to it, and not start playing lazy ad safe when they get scared. It’s no coincidence that some of our best moments if play have been when there is nothing to lose, and that some of our worst have been when defending a lead: they don’t have the confidence to stick to what they need to when they feel pressure.