The ironic thing is after years of drafting half back flankers for fun we have a severe lack of quality half back flankers.Especially one's with good footskills. It is killing us.
Dempsey and Gleeson have real question marks in this department. And Ashby did his job pretty well tonight but again, polished kicking isn’t his forte either.
Do any of the guys coming back help us dramatically in this area? Hibberd can be damaging at times on his left and he seems the one most likely to go elsewhere.
Oirish.
Yes that would be fantastic if he could come on in that role. There is a spot there for the taking for him.
This one hurts because it was self-inflicted. We threw it away and gave it to those arseholes and that's a ■■■■■, because who knows how many more chances they will get to win a game this year.
Hurt but farkkk, I had to drag myself there expecting to lose by one million. Yeah, we parked it up but that was the best footy we’ve played since 2013.
Would not have blamed Goddard if he punched him right on the nose.
Not one bit.
On a related note it was hilarious, in a good way, to see Goddard screaming at the GWS player like a Barbarian warrior as he tried to chase him down in the last couple of minutes.
Great effort, lot of spirit which is impressive given where our season has been last couple and also that it is 4.40pm Sunday evening with all the atmosphere of Forest Hill Chase. The class won through. Got a great ruckman last draft and Orazio really has guts and skills. Much needed break and I think it’s a great game to have morale wise going into it. We definitely have some things to look forward to in the second half of the year and of course plenty of losses. Can’t believe Zach Merrett has played only 50 games, he is such a great player already. In the words of NAS well it’s halftime
Would not have blamed Goddard if he punched him right on the nose.
Not one bit.
On a related note it was hilarious, in a good way, to see Goddard screaming at the GWS player like a Barbarian warrior as he tried to chase him down in the last couple of minutes.
Just had to be the slowest guy on the list chasing that ball, too.
Thought Ashby was good. Hope he gets another gig. He’ll improve his kicking as he becomes more comfortable and his tackling/marking are pretty good. Can definitely see him becoming a Baguley-like player for us down back given some time.
It’s time we start sending tweets to Patrick Keane questioning why Parnell is still umpiring Essendon games when he clearly doesn’t have the professionalism to put bias a side.
We might as well have Barrett, Walls & Healy umpiring our games.
Loved the effort and intensity but disliked the basic skill errors and set shots.
Can’t believe clubs have a coaching staff of thousands but don’t have a full time goal kicking coach. ■■■■ off a nutritionist or one of those other wankey jobs and employ one FFS. So many games are lost due to guys missing sitters
Defensive pressure and tackling ferocity was top notch. Goalkicking poor at times but at the same time to get 30 shots and produce the highest score of the year’s a pretty damn good effort. Let down by some poor skill execution and decision making at crucial times and a team with as much depth as GWS have will be tough to stay with for four quarters.
And whilst I generally don’t like referring to umpiring decisions as a reason for a loss… some crucial decisions going against us, leading to or costing goals, and changing momentum, didn’t help. They’re human and make mistakes like the rest of us but there is zero excuse for some the incompetence they put on display tonight.
Just got back. Crowd numbers were terrible, but those who did go made a decent amount of noise. Very proud of the guys out there tonight - unlike some above I think if we’d won that we would have been knicking it. Got within 2 shots on goal against a very tough side. Unfortunately a few things really made a telling difference in the end.
Goal kicking - although they missed some sitters too, we really needed to nail our opportunities to win any game this year. Unfortunately we didn't, with Fantasia, Brown and Dempsey all missing a bevy of gettable goals. Jamar has been good up forward a bit now, but his goal kicking is woeful.
Umpiring - sometimes we win these, sometimes we lose. Tonight we really lost. A number of their decisions lead directly to GWS goals, especially in the first and last quarters. And someone needs to explain to the extra guy that the goal line technology is from the side - i.e. the line of the post means the ball has passed it. Should have been a goal.
Kicking - gave away a lot of turn overs, with two in particular in the last where players centred the ball and stuffed up really hurting us.
Fitness - its a young side, and I don't think we had the fitness. Never really felt we were going to win the last quarter as it just felt they had more in the tank. This will improve with more preseasons and games under the belts of the youngsters/inexperienced players. And unfortunately Fantasia was a shadow of himself after coming back on after that courageous collision.
Overall, it hurts. But I was pretty pleased with the way we played. Lots of positives.
I expect all the people who shout "I just want to see some effort" will now be shouting "we need to kick better" because it turns out they don't just want to see some effort.
one can be pleased with the effort without being pleased with the decision making and skill of certain players.
I’m pleased with the effort, but that doesn’t excuse the poor disposal of LISTED PLAYERS.
Just cos you need something to vent at, cos you think it’s not proper to criticise the club or players, don’t take it out on other supporters, and what they might do.