Gleeson gets an “arguably” but Francis is auto in?
Why would you want to weaken the side?
I love THIS brand of Essendon football. Clean, hard, fast and team orientated. Trademark it.
I am sure a great deal of it is due to getting rid of Neeld. Nothing but trouble!
maybe Worsfold broke into Hird’s house and stole a gameplan.
Really?!! One person surely not
Put Stringer and Smack in the square and kick it to them
DONE.
Gleeson would dislodge Ridley who is part of “the future”. Francis when he is fit enough is unquestionably best 22 and will improve us immensely.
I’m not saying that Gleeson won’t be picked, but he’s closer to his peak than Francis is.
You might be surprised how people can be very damaging to organisations.
Just dropped in to hear Finding_Nino’s profound pronouncements. He and pbomber are two reasons to keep away from the football threads.
This is the kind of game that makes me angrier… very very very happy that we won but ffs… where has that been all season!!! It wasn’t more skill… it wasn’t even the changes in players per se… but just effort, maniac pressure and the desire to compete for every ball.
Was exactly what I called for two weeks ago… win, lose or draw… each player needed to put their opposition on the ground at least ten times for the game… they did that today. Not just tackled but absolutely monstered. Geelong became scared of their own shadows.
We went back to the 2017 blueprint WHEN we were coming out of the back half but added a nice twist of plenty of forward pressure. Walla back to his attacking best… Laverde was also very good at creating stoppages - he isn’t quite there but does a lot of unnoticed stuff under packs… should have been on the end of 1-2 today. Ridley showed why he should have been in the team long before now and Dea a much better option in that role than Hurley has been this year - not sure if injury/form or something more.
I don’t recall many “OMFG” style turnovers today and that was a key difference… we didn’t seem to be butchering the ball BUT we also had a lot more “scrappy but moving forward” style chains… guys just intent on keeping the ball moving our way… was exciting to watch and more often than not resulted in us breaking free. Perhaps they were told to worry less about the ‘perfect’ option and instead just keep it moving. It worked.
Hooker showed why we demanded him back… epic game. Absolutely monstered Hawkins and controlled HB. Benefitted from the pressure through the middle but did a lot of work in his own right.
Heppell… way to win me back!! Was epic today. Just epic. Same for Z Merrett… Geelong let him loose and paid the price. These two are the engine room and today we were humming.
Smith has been awesome but this week he had a few mates.
However before I get excited, we need to see this level of pressure every week, every quarter, every contest. It can’t go missing for another month. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose… but that maniac pressure should be “non-negotiable” at all times.
GWS on the canvas… do we dare to dream?!
All of a sudden we have depth!!
Would like to see that Langford get a decent run at AFL level.
We have to play against every team as if they’re top 4. The other side always has to plan for your game style.
Front half pressure was impressive
Kick to HB ratio was 2:1
Centre clearance work was an improvement
Ridley debut was encouraging, showed composure
Mckenna & Sadd running off hb and changing the angles.
Stringer showed more defensive effort
Bags, tippa, smith and raz worked well together.
Ummm, …
Knew we’d win that umpire paid that deliberate against Geelong.
But Joe would replace Smack!
On the train with many relieved Essendon fans. Much different ride home to last week. One of those games where you knew early on we were going to be competitive. Tackling and second efforts were the standouts. Ridley and Smack were awesome. Raz, Zac, Zak’s and Hepp knocked up getting kicks and Hooker was a general down back. Special mention to Bags who went down forward and starred- heartening to see him come good. Great win. Let’s build on this.