Bombers v.s Cats Review Thread - Neelded to find a way

I don’t think any of us are under any illusion re the finals.

Was just asking re what said on the ABC.

If that means picking more youngsters we might actually play better this year as well then we have been.

Not your post, just over the past 24 or so hours there’s been alot on here about it. I reckon we just write the season off, play kids to help build depth and look to the future, finish with 7 or so wins and get a top 6 pick which we use on a HFF to turn him into a midfielder

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This the beginning! We won’t lose another game for the year.

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Some thoughts

  • Amazing what getting rid of a level of middle management does for efficiency and motivation within an organisation.
  • Anyone who can’t tell the difference in what we were doing tactically versus the previous few weeks needs to watch again. Instead of having bulk numbers near the contest and trying to run it out of traffic, we went back to winning contested possessions and spotting up runners 20-25m away. In the first half we went super wide because Geelong will usually corral teams into the middle. They adjusted wide in the third, and then we started attacking the middle finding gaps everywhere. They also played 1-on-1 in defensive transitions rather than trying to emulate a full field press like WCE.
  • Goddard is still our best deliverer to inside F50. McKenna not far behind.
  • The back 6 is about 85% responsible for that win. Geelong heavily rely on scoring from set shots, and we kept them to ZERO F50 marks for over three quarters.
  • Unbelievable how mentally fragile Tom Hawkins is. Loses the first contest of the night and he absolutely blows up.
  • I like Bags being across HFF.
  • Heaps of shepherds were laid for our runners. There’s no way this a coincidence post Neeld as players never even looked for them before.
  • We had a lot of umpire decisions/non-decisions fall in our favour in the first half. However that first one on Dangerfield in the goal square was absolutely NOT a trip. The tackle started at the hips.
  • Stringer still positions himself poorly in the F50 when we have the ball on a flank. Just posts up in the pocket asking the kicker for a short one, which denies the leading forwards any space at all. He needs to be in the centre of the F50 area or the far pocket if he wants to do that. Our F50 movement looks way better when he isn’t in there.
  • I remember thinking at half time that even if we went on to lose the game, I’d be happy because we showed a bit of ticker in the first half.
  • Whoever is in charge of playing the pre-game 60 second countdown video needs to sort themselves out. That’s twice now it’s had to be cut off at 20 to go.
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oh it felt so goooooooood

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This is shaping as one of those years where the form ebbs and flows can be massive. The competition is incredibly even, with no stand out top teams, and the bottom teams at least providing something. Keep winning and you give yourself a shot. 12 wind might get you there, or you might need 13. Or 13 might sneak into 4th.

All I want to see is the team playing well. Do that consistently from here and we’ll play finals.

But that’s the challenge isn’t it. We haven’t done that for 20 years.

What we have been doing for 20 years though is beating Geelong and losing to Carlton. It’s incredibly frustrating because I want to be stoked that we just won and boy oh boy what a grouse week. But we’ve been churning this ■■■■ out for 20 years and it’s meant nothing.

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agreed, but if we come out of this current 3 game period (geel, gws, rich) with 2/3 its a huge step forward.

usually a loss against carlton like that signifies the collapse of the side. that being said i want to win with good youth rather than auto promoting players like myers, I reckon mcgrath could do with a few games in the vfl.

I thought the rule was like a good tackle that slips high. If it ends up high or legged it doesn’t matter where it starts, it’s a free.

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I posted similar after watching Ridley play VFL in July 2017. He had played 4 or 5 games by that time.

could have been you that i was thinking of. pretty spot on. as composed as any debut weve had in recent history.

Me. :slight_smile:

I think all our players are the best though. :stuck_out_tongue:

you’re meant to say ‘good call by you’

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im an individual, i do what i want

grouse :rofl: love it

I don’t know what this means.

The best way to prepare for 2019 is to win as many games as we can in the remainder of 2018.

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I’ve been watching the replay and had a few questions/comments

  1. Early first quarter, commentators mentioned that Goddard was unchecked but Horlin-Smith was going to follow Merrett around all game. Did Geelong drop the tag? Or did Merrett just break through it during the game?

  2. Our players just swarmed at the ball. So many times you’d see one Geelong player with 4-5 Essendon players closing in from all directions. Fantastic to see.

  3. During his post game interview on the field, Heppell mentioned the thing that go to the group was Worsfold saying they have “no identity or brand”. Thought this comment was interesting as Worsfold got criticised for that comment, but it appears to be something that stuck to the players.

This win really felt different to that of Port and Crows - can only hope that we’ve turned that corner and will get on a bit of a streak win wise.

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The exact opposite to the past 4 games.

I said early on in the game that Geelong looked like us over that Month, and we looked like every team we’d played in that period.

Game Plan Shmame plan, … it doesn’t matter what strategy you employ, if you play like that, it works, … if you don’t, it won’t. Simple.

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There were so many times where we forced Geelong to hand ball to a player who was about to get tackled. It was insane.

Honestly, i can’t remember the last time we were that manic in applying pressure for 4 quarters?

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