Absolutely. It’s very well known that Essendon’s best defence was back in late 2018, just before Rutten took over as defensive coach. We entered 2019 and the players had no idea what they were doing.
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Yep. No confidence in themselves or what they’re trying to do. Unsure in the moment what to do, scared to do the wrong thing, end up doing nothing at all.
Could’ve been our best but has never been good since bomber Thompson coached in 2014
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Coaches game plan not working hey? That says, the plan has not been tailored to the strengths of the list and the coach has farked up big time. Trust is fractured on all levels of footy operations.
Fark, this club in its 150th year “celebration”, is lurching from 1 crisis to the next. They’re a reactionary basket case.
2022 was meant to be a joyous occasion. It’s an absolute nightmare watching the fabric of the place being ripped to shreds.
And, just like the SAGA before it, this current sh_tstorm is of their own making. Bloody disgrace Essendon.
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Footy is a pretty simple game. KISS.
Not sure why coaches feel they need to implement these complex game plans that completely take away a players ability to play footy. Lets not forget that every player that is selected has above average footballing ability (Except Draper who can jump high), yet some coaches coach those strengths out of players in order to come up with some perfect game plan that they have concocted in their heads.
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lol at McClure, being cagey about who is source is and what “sections” of the club have initiated this and seconds later comes straight out and says “the players” could initiate that conversation emphatically. bravo journalism.
I wonder which of the player managers has been talking to Sam… I’d hope the players themselves wouldn’t be…
It’s be a combo of players and operations manager IMO
Rutten wouldn’t just change things from players saying to do so, but would if directive from above
Mahoney has to have been having convos with the leadership group at a minimum ongoing
…
We’ve definitely done something over preseason which hasn’t worked and player revolt of sorts/lack of understanding has been obvious
Not that we have had an amazing defensive system being implemented at all during Ruttens time.
But there was far more buy in and effort last year
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All the training reports said a lot of work was being done on defence in the preseason.
I wonder if it’s identical to Richmond 2017-2020 and our players just can’t pull it off
Or they don’t apply enough pressure so it becomes unstuck
Or the new ‘stand’ rule means ball movement breaks the zones far too easy
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I said it a bit earlier on in the thread but I seriously believe Truck has asked them to do a lot more unrewarded running and he simply didn’t get buy in, because Dodoro has built a list that wants to attack.
It’s why the dropping of Shiel was so badly mishandled because who in the VFL coming through that is a defence first player? There was constant suggestion of ‘drop Shiel for anybody’ on here. What message does that send, drop a one way runner for an even worse one way runner? Drop Shiel because he’s soft and replace him with Ham who’s even softer?
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Wouldn’t be surprised if Mahoney has been in crisis talks. He was visibly shell shocked after the game.
Pretty easy solution for this…sack the ■■■■■■■ coach
There are no easy solutions in this scenario…
And the easiest one usually isn’t the best one.
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Our best defence was in late 2021. I’ve made a thread about it.
2018 (rounds 9 onwards)
Points conceded per game - 76.2
Inside 50s conceded pre game - 50.6
Points per inside 50 - 1.50
2021 (rounds 9 onwards)
Points - 72.2
Inside 50s - 48.6
Points per inside 50 - 1.35
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Sack the coach, sack X and sack Dudoro!
We are a rabble and it is so sad of who and what we represent. We are irrelevant.
We played tougher opposition in 2018.
and these numbers stacked up pretty well with the top sides. We’re entitled to ask why the coaches felt the need to completely re-work the defensive system (again) rather than focusing on getting our forward line functioning properly and and work on our contested ball game which where clearly the areas that needed the most work.
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What is our average score for the season?
What is the average score kicked against us?
either way, we were defending well in 2018, through that system in the bin and had a disastrous start to 2019 and we’ve just done exactly the same thing. Why?
Because the club is farked.