The one thing I really believe now is that even if we’re down by a fair bit at any stage we’ll back ourselves to get back in the game.
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I think if we do the past Essington thing of trail by a lot only to show some heart in the last 40 minutes then I will be extremely ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ off…because it would show we still have a long, long way to go.
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What game were you watching? We had our best game midfield stats wise since 2017 and they had their worst. We scored 70 points from clearance takeaways or something ridiculous. We completely smashed them.
since last time we played,
they lost bruce and gained trelor?
we gained heppell and mcgrath?
anything else note worthy?
Yep agree a lot is riding on this very important we don’t get smashed
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I would put a poster up of “6000 days since Essendon won a final” in the rooms on game day
Let the team know that it ends today no more laughing stock
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You do know that the midfield is more than clearances?
They’ve totally ■■■■ the bed in the statistics they were strong in. They haven’t won a game. They’ve lost the comfort of a second chance.
Not sure how many 4 game losing streaks they’ve had in the last few years. Alternatively, probably been even longer since EFC won 4 on the trot.
This ain’t country footy mate, a bit more sophisticated than that.
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Yep. I’d rather the Ted Lasso sign that simply says “BELIEVE”
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The ‘Love you too’ thing was pretty powerful the other week. More of that vibe
Some argued the Dogs should have beat us by 4-5 goals too.
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Well they need to do something I feel like every time we play finals players just seem not to care hoping it’s different this time
I don’t think Hooker being out and Francis being in is the contributing factor to our scoring improving at all.
If you were to plug him back in to how we are playing now he’d be a very strong fwd marking presence and goal threat for us
Those now not in since GWS game - Ham, Cox, Zaka, Tippa, Hooker
The keys since the GWS game have been
- Returned focus on contested ball/winning clearances which we got belted vs GWS. Draper and our midfield group have lifted significantly and been dominating.
- Shiel getting back up to speed and McGrath being back in as well. Now have quality mid personnel for our rotations instead of part timers/not up to it players.
- Clarke is being deployed as an extra mid when Stringer drops back to fwd line, and Clarke is very hard runner and tackles/pressures a lot.
- Durham and Guelfi are settled on wings, run very hard both ways
- Ball use. We are not giving the ball back so easily. And also being selfless and efficient with our delivery into fwd line.
So really IMO the increased scoring is not about Francis but heavily based on our midfield dominance in the clearances/contested ball & fwd pressure which includes what our wingers are providing. We are causing plenty of forward half turnovers and thus good scoring opportunities coming off that.
And some might say Francis is providing more defensive pressure than Hooker would. He’s not. His tackle numbers are 0 or 1 most games. His pressure acts in bottom few players consistently. Yes he is quicker but his defensive intent & 2nd/3rd efforts are poor / non existent. .
Given the way we are playing right now could form an argument a refreshed Hooker could increase our scoring even more so. Certainly my view.
It may be that Rutten and the selection committee would rather keep pushing Francis up however, better for the future for the team. And Hooker isn’t part of that.
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2019 - rounds 15-19 - GWS/swans/norf/crows/suns - we won 5 in a row
Right before the absolute back-to-back capitulations against port and dogs
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I’m sure that Treloar played against us, it was his first game back and got about 22 touches.
So from their round 23 side compared to who played us the changes were: Bruce, Ugle Hagan, Garcia, Scott and Schache out and Keath, Young, Hannan, Vandameer and Weightman in.
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Weightman is a concern, kid can play. Hind will need to lock down tight on him.
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maybe people are simply doing what you want them to do with walla, but with the likes of clarke, guelfi etc. they are merely “backing them in” to continue to do as decent a job as they have the last 3 weeks.
they also don’t have the added weight of having to go against the grain of poor form from the last 10 odd weeks to “back them in” to get to the level required of them, that they are ironically already at.
tippa will no doubt come in, but maybe just maybe some people are willing to back in the players who are in the team at present to get the job done, and it’s nothing against walla, or any other player that will be rought missing out.
I’ve noticed few guys saying Guelfi is good on wing… I believe he has been playing as a pressure or defensive forward in last 2-3 weeks, not wing, and he has done very well. He is not good anywhere else. He cracks in harder than anyone but you need more than that to play wing, and he doesn’t offer that much. I hope he stays in but only as a pressure forward, nowhere else.
Durham is the main wing, and other mids are rotating on the wing such as Shiel, McGrath and Merrett.
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His possessions are well up which would suggest more midfield time
Absolutely his pressure been awesome for us.
But yeah perhaps it’s HFF pushing up to wing, or just in those rotations for outside mid together with Durham and McGrath (whose still would have been on managed minutes)
Def been times he’s been in defence and then ended up forward again in a chain.
Vs GC
Vs Pies
