Did it a lot last year.
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Coaches votes: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-05-21/aflca-votes-round-nine-eagle-soars-to-second
ESSENDON v GEELONG
10 Cale Hooker (Ess)
8 Shaun McKernan (Ess)
6 Dyson Heppell (Ess)
2 Zach Merrett (Ess)
2 David Zaharakis (Ess)
1 Mark Baguley (Ess)
1 Brendon Goddard (Ess)
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Having a bit of a look at the replay tonight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen us repeatedly smash Selwood like this. He gets picked off in pulverising tackles again and again. It’s glorious. Danger and Ablett also get made to feel it multiple times. I don’t recall a display of tackling to hurt like this from an Essendon side since the Johnsons, Solly, dimma and Wallis were at the best.
Sure we snuck under Geelong’s guard a bit but this was a seriously impressive display from us.
I don’t know what happens to this year from here but if we keep putting games into kids and develop a style of football based on this level of intensity I’ll be pretty ■■■■■■ pleased with the year regardless of whether we play finals.
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It was very similar of the Richmond v Geelong final last year. We broke away early whereas Richmond broke away later.
Champion Data is not impressed.
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Nah, we didn’t get near that level last year. We were on record pace for pressure acts at half time. More than the Dogs and Richmond premierships and waaaaaaaaay more than anything we’ve every produced. It was a high water mark and needs to be the standard from now on.
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Cummulative fatigue, young bodies and injuries will catch up, unless there is a good rotation of players from the VFL. They’re doing this, McGrath, Parish, Mutch, Guelfi, all getting rests, their omissions, week to week not just based on performance. Lav will likely be next, followed by Clarke. Three game rotations…it will keep them up and about but maintaining the intensity of last game each week will be difficult.
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obviously, but clearly that needs to be our aim. as kids mature they will be better able to run out games and the length of time we can “maintain the rage” will extend. We know we can do it for 3qtrs, that is the minimum from now on.
So was there less pressure on us because we couldn’t go much lower? Or more because we had finally started dropping players (and staff)? I would much prefer the latter, history suggests the former.
Some say we cross the Murray with no changes, but if that intensity is exhausting it looks like we have some depth to keep players fresh and hungry. Unless all this week’s players are really sharp, I would not mind a few ins and outs.
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IMO motivation is a huge issue for this club. I really put it down to the saga- not necessarily because elements of it are still ongoing, but because its taken that lust for the contest out of the players, they are happy to just play the game. They need a reason to commit to the contest, the match, etc. This week a coach got sacked basically because they had under performed so badly this season thus far. That would sting the players. I’m sure that was an element in them playing the way they did. The challenge for the coach will be to continually get the players up and firing on game day IMO.
Saturday seemed to be an improvement on the game style we played in 2017, particularly in the midfield pressure department, it was Richmond like… I dont think ive seen an opposition shank so many balls or spray so many kicks because of our pressure in the midfield.
If we can keep that intensity up for the rest of the season, I have little doubt we will win more games than we’ll lose, perhaps not enough to make finals, but thats what I need to see from the rest of the season to satisfy me that Worsfold is the right man- he has to be able to motivate this team to put in performances like Saturday week in, week out. It’s all mental for this club- I have no doubt about that.
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No one can now say, that not playing our talented youngsters and a mix of youngsters and other doesn’t work. We need to keep doing this and games into them.
The most pleasing thing to me was the buy in from all the players. Every single one of them.
They got around each other at every opportunity. Ran from a distance to congratulate, or even encourage. Helped one another up off the ground at stoppages. Backed one another all day and actually played with confidence. We finally showed not only the opposition, but ourselves how good we can be when we play as a team. In previous weeks it’s been 18 blokes on the ground playing like they don’t know one another. Hopefully this is now the template for the rest of the season and that a genuine bond can be formed within our list.
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Yeah we did, … just now we’ve added Devon, … which has lifted it about 30% on top.
Yeah… it’s not that easy to say ‘that’s the minimum.’ They won tackles 91 to 64… they tackled more in the fwd 50 than they have cumulatively in the preceding 8 rounds. Part of that was increased effort, but a large part of it was Geelong not matching them, being slow and indecisive and letting them tackle. If/when we come up against a team willing to match the effort, suddenly we have less inside 50s, more guys running harder elsewhere, and too fatigued to chase and tackle as much in the 50. And it’s the inside 50 pressure that was one of the main differences last week. Improved effort should be the focus yes… but its too hard to use the Geelong game as a minimum, stats-wise… my two cents (a touch overvalued, yes.).
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Anyone receive the From The Coaches Email this week?
I did but since deleted it. Harvs was noticably fired up and had a spark in his eyes that I haven’t seen this year.
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You want it sent to you?
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Could you mate?
Rang the club again for the 3rd time at least over this email thing, going back to pre season barcodes. Fella said he’d send me the last 2 manually at 4PM, still no joy … 
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