People whining about negativity in here. What do you expect, people to be happy that:
We suck on field again
We are once again stuck in no man’s land
The club clearly isn’t rebuilding
Our coach doesn’t have a clue
The selections most weeks are diabolical and short sighted
How is the club not rebuilding 6 players have debuted and most likely more in the coming weeks.
We wernt much differnt to Richmond last night
If it wasn’t for injuries the majority of those debuts wouldn’t of happened
Still rekcon they would
Scott said it last night, that Clarke only got his debut because of injuries
When did he say that?
Last night, as I mentioned in my above post
Well dosent exaclty have a choice when he has players injured every week
Also said that Clarke did no harm to his chancess in staying in the side.
You really will defend him for every single thing won’t you
I’m just stating facts
Coaching staff probably thought he wasnt ready and were pleasantly surpised at the out put
We’re one debut behind Richmond (6 so far, likely 8 for the year) who are on a full on rebuild and people will still complain kids aren’t getting opportunities
Or squabble around why those opportunities have presented themselves
Yep tigers 7 essendon 6
Get Matty to the club to fix Petes goal kicking wtf has happend was a pretty relaible kick at goal not anymore
I’d leave Prior free every day of the week. And twice on Sundays. I’m not a fan of his. He was a winger at Brisbane. And a pretty average one at that. They preferred to play another midfielder there instead of him. Maybe they did spend one year turning him into a defender at VFL level, but what I’ve seen is actually better than I expected. His positioning is poor and he has no confidence to win a one on one contest, so he aims to halve the contest more often than not. I actually think it’s been one of our under the radar bigger list failures during Scott’s time here. We have not got many small defenders on our list outside of the ones playing every week. It’s good that we have Nguyen, but I thought he played as much a forward at junior level as he did as a defender. I’m not expecting games from him this year, but hopefully next year. But we need a few more small defenders. We’re lucky that the small defenders we have had aren’t injury riddled. It would have been worse off having to play Alistair Lord or McDonagh there in their place. Even Tex Wanganeen was trialled there and he’s now in the VFL scrapheap.
Perkins was unnoticeable. I was surprised to see he got possessions though. But also unsurprised. Possession counts mean nothing with the style we play. I’d probably lean towards metres gained as a better measure but even that’s a bit skewed. A rushed kick out of the backline gets you metres gained and is the better thing to do more often than not, but if it gets to the opponents loose man and they get another forward entry off it, it’s sort of worthless.
I’m actually fine with Perkins. His role is a crappy one that won’t bring consistency until we’re actually good. Langford is feeling it now. Langford and Perkins’ game style is better for one on one marking contests than getting out on a lead. Which worked better in 2023 and last year because we didn’t allow a loose man. But this year, more teams are creating a loose man and that’s why we need to become a lead up to the ball handler kind of team. I’m fine with the split between forward and centre bounces though.
Gresham isn’t doing what he’d prefer to do. I suspect he’d love to play in a team where he’s the high half forward and gets to the outside of the contest as the extra midfielder. But he’s not doing that this year. So he’s largely invisible in this year’s setup. There were a few times where he got on a lead and it wasn’t honoured. Other times, the lead and space was there and he didn’t take it. It wasn’t just this game, but the North Melbourne game too. It’s not a lost cause for him. I think he could get more out of himself.
I haven’t been a fan of Hobbs prior to this year. I think he’s been fine this year though. I don’t think he makes it as a midfielder. The way the game has shifted in the last few years, it’s gone away from the shared midfield responsibility and leaned more towards four or five midfielders at the centre bounce over all, but two of them have very few centre bounce attendances. But around the ground is where you get the high half forwards working up to the contest and that’s where Hobbs’ role has been beneficial to us. A few times he can go into the ruck contest and someone like Merrett could work on the outside of the contest. And the opposition get caught on the handover and leave one of them loose. I think he’s found his best role and a role where he can find four or five years in the AFL. As a full time midfielder, he’d be spat out pretty quickly. I actually have Hobbs ahead of Menzie and Davey Jnr as the extra small in our forward line. He’s not necessarily there to use his speed, but it’s his contest work that can really be a point of difference against small defenders.
I’m not a fan of Guelfi. I thought we should have moved him on ages ago. But he does seem to be a ‘glue guy’. Both within the locker room and in our forward line. I think his direct opponent was Vlastuin and I didn’t think he hurt us too much. He’s another in our forward line that just won’t get the stats because of the style. I’d prefer to play Menzie or ADW in that lockdown defensive small role.
Unless we have a functioning forward line, you just aren’t going to look good in our forward line. Even Kako is starting to struggle. He’s young and we have to persevere with him as he’s just too talented. He’s still got time on his side, but I’m beginning to wonder whether we will bottle his development. I think he’d thrive in last year’s forward press style more than this year’s style.
We own two first round draft picks, have two second round draft picks, salary cap space and two NGA prospects that are possibly first round too. We’ve also had 6 players debut. Our forward line has a 2nd season and 1st season player as a centre point. Our key back is a first round pick finally delivering on promise. Seven of our top ten possession winners were under 25 last night.
Were are a ■■■■ team this year but there are teams more ■■■■ than us.
I think I’ve just come to the realisation that Nino doesnt actually believe most of the stuff he says…… he just comes on here to argue.
no you’re not, you’re refuting something scott himself said for a hypothesis that has no way of being tested.
The traffic was horrific last night, and conveniently there was road works on the West Gate. Didn’t get home until 2am.
I’d like to thank Fiona for getting me through that painful drive home.
100%
That doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have forced his way into the team though VFL form at some stage this season.