yeah this is spot on. i got the distinct impression from the Rutten presser that he isn’t going to hand out any gifts at the selection table. he’s going to need to players to demonstrate that they are a 100% and that the risk off selecting them can be justified.
i would be interested to know precisley what the role caldwell played was, what his minutes were and how he pulled up. That he missed a few set shots probably takes some of the pressure of the match committe. If he kicked 3 playing as a forward/mid the tempation to pick him would be significant.
There are 2 different determinants.
Performance in terms of whether you get into the 8 is dependent on your form over the whole season.
Performance in the finals is dependent on your form during the finals.
The Bulldogs and Sydney might be out doing Mad Monday this time next week.
Stars aligned the last time we played the Dogs… and about bloody time too.
Essendon played the most efficient brand of footy on the back of 2MP’s 7 and rode their luck with some misses on goal by the Dogs. They will fancy their chances on reversing the result from round 21 based on the belief Essendon couldn’t possibly be as efficient this time around? At least, that will be the coaches’ messaging.
For the record, in round 21, the Dogs had a possession differential of +50, contested possession + 19, uncontested possession +42, marks i50 + 7, tackles i50 + 7 and inside 50’s +21. They owned the ball but with limited hurt factor.
Interestingly, in their last 2 outings the Dogs have lost the possession count, both contested and uncontested. That suggests their engine room is out of form giving Essendon a strong chance at registering another win against the Dogs. GO DONS!
We were lucky to beat the dogs last time. I thought they really butchered the opportunity to win through inaccuracy in front of goal.
However our side looks to have improved and have got some players who could potentially come in whereas they’ve probably gone backwards with form and Bruce out.
I think our best opportunity is to attack aggressively as I don’t think they can go with us if we score heavily.
I want to get ahead of the game on the reaction on here if we lose.
We might lose on Sunday, and we might lose badly. That’s a possibility.
Whenever we get belted in a final there are a bunch of mouth breathers on here who start bleating about “how we haven’t even made any progress since last year”. Hell, there were people around here saying that only about 5 weeks ago.
If anyone says that if we get belted on Sunday, then they should be permabanned. Seriously. We have made so much progress from last year that it’s unbelievable.
Whether we win on Sunday or get belted by 150 points doesn’t change that.
Mahoney going with Langford 50/50 sounds very much like “we are apprehensive about risking him for a Final”.
Sounds more likely to have to prove his fitness in a Scratch Match.
Which opens the door on Caldwell coming in for Clarke.
Still a risk but at least Caldwell has played in 2 practice matches leading in
Essendon don’t have to belt the dogs in the middle just match them said Essendon on paper have a better back six and fwd line compared to the dogs and that’s where we can get them
best lead up to a finals campaign the club has had for the better part of 20 years.
beat a top team (hard thing to do recently for them)
had 2 chances to essington it up and didn’t
most players are in form and peaking probably at the right time. Gonna call it early, they are going to win their first final in 16 years, or however long it’s been.
and that’s not even based on being cocky or falling for the hype some around here do.
Remember who said it first ( i’m sure i said it somehwere yesterday also but ■■■■■■ if i can remember where ), they will win
), they will win