Yesss, Joe like his mates were charged to the eyeballs on Sunday and his body language reflected this. Despite his horror set shot snap in the second he attacked the contest with gusto. Even his disposal efficiency (+ distance in his kicking) spiked from his preceding 3 game average of 45% to 66%. The signs were positive and it feels like a breakout game is not too far away.
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Being at the game and watching the reply, this isnt true.
He was still constanrly outmarked by oppnents, or didnt hold easy marks.
He still constantly just stood there poinring his finger saying kick it to me.
He has gone back to having 0 goal kicking confidence, as evidenced btthe snap.
And defensively he gets caught ball watching alot.
The onky contests hw attacked with ‘gusto’ were marking contest , and i could peolly count about 5 at that.
He is along way off pace.
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Like DJR said, Joe had 8 score involvements. That says he’s engaged in the contest. Not 2017 standards but what I saw at the game was a change in body language that was missing the previous 3 weeks. Certainly not where he wants/needs to be but there’s progress. Building nicely
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Plenty of things going against him at the moment.
Has cried wolf too often and is now getting nothing from the umpires. He’s getting some intense attention from the opposition and I can understand that he maybe doing the team thing by taking two players with him. But he is our best and fairest and we should be playing through him. Maybe not being the most accurate and tall forwards aplenty has not called for this as well as being early in the season.
He’s looked off when having the opportunity, he had enough opportunities to dominate the game but didn’t. I don’t know if he wants it in space or the kicker is waiting for him to lead but there is some disconnect.
Hopefully playing at the MCG in front of a packed stadium it begins to click. His last quarter could be a big confidence boost.
No worried about Joe there were signs last week that he’s coming will have a huge Anzac Day
He’s had a bad year so far, and he hit rock bottom with that ridiculous decision to kick around a corner instead of run in straight from an angle of no more than 45 degrees.
But after that he seemed to wake up, and he took a straight shot from close in and got it and followed it up with a beautiful classic kick from 50.
He still needs to take a leaf out of Scott Lucas’ book and delete appealing for frees from his game, and he also needs to get a bit smarter about which marks to go for and which are just not gettable; but I’m hopeful that he’s turned the corner and the rest of the season will be worth watching.
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How limited was his preseason?
Perhaps he has really just been getting up to speed after being carefully managed with this knee
His JLT2 was very ordinary IIRC and it’s really just been building up form recently.
I think he had a better pre-season than the previous one…that’s not to say it was good.
The advice I would give him is to use more of the ground to lead into. He’s just as reliable deep in a pocket then directly in front. If he leads wide we’ll either honour the lead or wait for him to double back.
Can anyone provide the distances he’s running? From afar he seems like he’s got the most left in the tank at the end of a game.
Umpires need to start paying the frees that are there before they ruin another Essendon forwards career.
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Who was the other ?
Well best stop the acting then.
I reckon he’s getting a rep as an oscar nominee.
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If I was a maggot with no Essendon bias, I’d probably be inclined not to pay joe any frees because I’d just think he was acting for one, like he does most of the time.
What about Merrets one in the goal sqaure in the last qrt? I know he staged it but you just know the umpire would have payed it if it was Joel Selwood.
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Staged it? He actually got taken high. What do you watch nino
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It effected Lloyd’s career
They are paid to treat each contest on its merits.
I don’t think Joe has ever been treated fairly so I’m not surprised he feels he has to accentuate the contact.
Umpires are cheats.
So you missed 2 of the first 3 goals of the game where Joe was involved in setting them up. He also shepherded through Myers second goal, and gave one to Stringer. Plenty of team oriented aspects of his play.
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On the replay it looked like he staged it but yeah like said if that was Selwood the ump would have paid it.
Are you trying to justify why he flails around like a fairy looking for a free? It’s farking embarrassing
And so they might be paid to do so, it’s only human nature to pay less fees kicks to blokes who act for them
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