The same ■■■■ that happens every season. Capitulation.
I’m not as upbeat about our performance last night as some. I thought we never really looked like challenging the Blues. They were a class above, bar a 15 minute patch during the third quarter. The final margin flattered us in my opinion.
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Our offensive game needs working on. Defensively we’re better and not as easy to score against as in the past…this is progress but we’re still a fair bit behind the best teams.
9.16 with 60 inside 50’s (20 more than them) tells you we were very much in that game. That doesn’t happen very often in games.
I felt Carlton had another gear to hit if required. Bad goal kicking is bad footy as they say. We never looked like it last night.
Meh agree to disagree
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Ok. So your expecting us to finish bottom 6 from here on? Is that your Capitulation?
We didn’t miraculously become a top 4 team over preseason. However, so far at least, we are significantly more competitive, consistent and we defend the ground better.
Thats a huge improvement.
The only way to “fix” an underperforming culture is to improve competitiveness. That’s got to be the basis. Now we desperately need the investment in development to pay dividends and find a few more Durhams and Caldwell ‘s.
Brad said it last night the foundation is there has been all season its now about being polished when we get our opertunities
We are still heading in the right direction
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Is this a review thread or another ‘we’re farked thread’?
Fark me. There are a handful of genuine reviews and the rest are grumbling about where we’ll end up at the end of the year. Just like every gameday thread. And team changes thread. At least there’s some respite from that in the player threads but that’s more impending injury doom than form doom.
Did anyone think we’d have this many wins at the start of the year? Very few. Probably 5% maximum.
Did anyone think we’d have a well functioning forward press like we’ve been screaming out for over a decade for? Very few. Probably 5% maximum.
Anyone think we’d be winning this many games whilst playing Laverde, Heppell, Kelly (with some forward and wing time) and Guelfi? Our perennial ‘we need to find away passed this guys if we want to be good’ type of players? Very few. Probably 5% maximum.
Heading into the bye last year versus this year is a little different. I think we had 1 uncompetitive game last year against Geelong. We fought back, but I don’t think Geelong really cared as the damage had been done. To the same stage this year, we’ve had the 1 uncompetitive game against Port. You could argue last nights game could be counted, but whilst they had a sizable lead at half time, Carlton had to work hard to keep us at bay and eventually pull away for the win. It was nothing like last year’s Geelong game at the G.
We’ve improved compared to the same period as last year. I don’t think that is such a hot take.
Whether we improve on last year is another matter. We had uncompetitive games against Geelong at GMHBA, the Bulldogs, Collingwood and GWS. That’ll be my measure as to whether we’ve improved or not (regardless of number of wins, finals appearance, etc). If we can have less than that, we’ve improved. Halve it and we’ve definitely made a good step in the right direction as far as consistency through a season.
It’ll be whatever it’ll be. I hope it’s the circuit breaker we need so that the ‘dooming and glooming’ can be minimised and fans can actually begin enjoying the moment than worrying about what is to come.
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I haven’t read the posts…for a reason. The first question we should be asking ourselves is “who predicted 8 wins and top 4” No one. Not bad. Secondly have we improved? I would argue our team defence has improved markedly. We’ve only been blown away once. Everyone bar Sydney have put in bad ones, and most more than 1. Our contest work has been good until recently when Drapes and Darcy have been sorely missed. Forward line struggling of late - yes we most certainly need more from 2MP, and we lack a class small forward, and improved entries are needed muchly. Duzz and Calders have been huge, Langers good (but looks tired), Duursma out has hurt. Goldy better than expected, Cox coming on ok. Our leaders have been excellent (Zach/Pidge/Hep (yes Hep)). We are improving, which is all we can ask as fans. Brad goes blue in the face trying to tell everyone we have a long way to go. Next month really big to see where we are at. Don’t get the gloom - and why those who salivatingly predicted 1-6 etc. and confidently predict we lose every week are surprised that we’re not playing like 2000. Absolutely take where we are, and looking forward to the rest of the season. Also, lay off Tsatas. Give him time, he can be an inside beast with elite hands. Plenty of work to do on his kicking. BTW anyone seen Clayton Oliver kicking? Anyway I’m pretty happy
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They lost to the Tiges haha
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There you go
in Geelong or at MCG?
It’s the mental application in the second half of the season that will win it for me. Are they ready to put the effort in that they have in the first half of the season, or will they put the cue in the rack and say they’ve exceeded expectations? Will there be more wins such as those against GWS and the Bulkdogs, or will we just have scrappy wins against mediocre teams?
Now that they have got to this point, that is the question for me. They’ve done well. Sure they lost to Carlton but there are injuries and we all know they’re not there yet.
I want to see the same never give in, die hard attitude they gave us in the first half of the season. Keep that up and the wins will come. End of last season had me at my angriest in my 50+ years supporting Essendon. It wasn’t the losses, it was the abject surrender. Essendon of the last decade has had the pattern of getting complacent far too easily. Even now, they still don’t put teams away, they seem to relax when they think they have done a good job.
If they can rise above all that and put in like they did in the first 13 games I’ll know they are on the right path.
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If the loss to Carlton doesn’t spark the team to into action after the bye then we might as well shut up shop. Those farks beating us last night is giving them belief to get number 17
Fix our front half game (easier said than done), recapture our clearance game and it will be the best chance we’ve had to win a final in 20 years .
How to fix the forward line:
- Move Martin forward
- Get caddy in for a block of games
- Take a look at dropping 2mp
- Consider rolling the dice with Tex or jdavey
It might be that none of that works but we need to try a few things
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We feel like a bit of a moneyball team, putting together a ragtag bunch of misfits from other clubs and mid-season drafts that play with some heart and grit, and without the flashy stars from high draft picks.
That’s made a lot of passages and quarters fun this season, but we haven’t really got on a real roll and dominated games, so only really the Dogs and Giants wins were enjoyable in a way that made me think we might be going places.
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- Consider playing Merrett forward for more patches through games, especially once our midfield depth returns from rehab and especially when he is being manhandled in the middle
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2 losses in a row Ben Mckay must be thinking I left North because I was sick of losing haha