Intense inconsistency

There inlies my point about the perception of the reality.

you can have the best intensity in the world, but if the gameplan is set up poorly, it’s not gonna matter.
we had 4 qtrs against carlton where everyone on here screamed til they were blue in the face, man ■■■■■■■ docherty up.
but the coaches didn’t, at any point.

I agree you need intensity, i mean i’ve always argued for that fact too. but you need that along with a gameplan that works, and we didn’t have that against carlton, for whatever reason it fell away from what they are trying to do.

FWIW just looking up the tackle counts for the games, we are on top of the av tackle count per game with 57.2.
the worst count was the sydney game with 49. collingwood being the best at 65, and freo being 57, carlton56.

but again at the end of the day, against collingwood, we only scored 2 goals more than the carlton game, the forwards didn’t have an increased output, collingwood had chances to score.

So the intensity may well have been there against carlton, but again not sticking to the gameplan, and making too many errors, you can’t cover that, with just intensity alone.

Will give our boys some confidence going forward. No backwards talking or walking.

The intensity from the game just played was ridiculous.

There was definately something deeper driving it.

I think you need to tap into pride and anger about the opposition ■■■■■■■■ in your face.

When Essendon was a powerhouse we always knew that if we got angry and fired up enough that we could knock any club over.

We have enough talent, brute and a game plan now to capitalise on our emotions.

You can’t produce it for four quarters every week.

You can produce a basic high standard (Worsfolds mantra) but it’s confidence/desire/belief to take what is rightfully yours (the win) when the key moments come that makes champion players and teams and they draw on that well to go to that next level of adrenalin.and energy.

Belief that you deserve it and that you are the best. .

Confidence.

I’m curious about how such a sudden, dramatic, and team-wide shift in attitude and intensity can just happen like that. What sparked it? Was there some kind of message from the coaches or the captain after Parish’s goal that lit a fire under everyone? Was it Parish’s goal itself? Did one or two players just decide “enough is enough” and go all-in on the intensity, which quickly infected the other players as well? Was it the rain that strengthened the players’ resolve to crack in and apply pressure? This wasn’t just a momentum shift; how does such a massive change in attitude and execution happen seemingly at the drop of hat, and simultaneously across 22 players, in the middle of a quarter?

Answer; Crisp dropped a sitter of a mark and that left the door crack open.

We had more class in 2017, but we had a very soft underbelly. If we didn’t win clean clearances, we got blitzed.

The midfield (and whole character of the side) has been rejigged since, we’ve got a lot more scrap and fight but not the same potency in attack.

Match fitness and being able to train in the week help.

The intensity alone will win you plenty of games but we need some of the Doggies overlap style of play to get us to the next level.

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I don’t really find that to be a satisfactory answer: that a single error by the opposition can produce, in that moment, such a dramatic change in mindset and application across the entire team. There’s surely more to it than that. We were nowhere near it prior to that point in the game. What changed?

Sure, but I’m more wondering how the first ten minutes of this game were so different to the rest, and how it could turn so quickly. What was the trigger for such a dramatic and comprehensive psychological shift?

The first ten minutes we were 3 goals down, and barely strung two touches together.
Carlton game was even stevens, or were we down 1?

But I’m going to assume that’s not really what you meant.

Match fitness and training gets you tuned up. The side had enough focus and miles in the legs and confidence that they were able to roll with the punch and get back into the game.

Adrenalin and endorphins.

You can’t just turn them on.

No doubt they wanted to play with intensity but all it takes is a goal or a few contests where a teammate suddenly smashes a guy and the juices start flowing.

You need a spark.

It just suddenly happens. That’s the beauty of sport and particularly AFL.

It’s why I wax on about Townsend a bit. Those crunching moments have a bigger effect on the team. Good Essendon sides always had had a few nutters who set the example physically.

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I’m only talking about the Collingwood game here. What caused us to suddenly become so good after spending the first 10 minutes so utterly ■■■■? I’m not really trying to make any point here except that I’m just curious about what the trigger was. The psychology of it is interesting.

we’ll no doubt lose to north

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IMO the psychology was “this sucks, maybe we should stop sucking”

But psychology doesn’t make it magically happen. We gave an effort, in bits, of the Blues game, and ended up giving ourselves an (undeserved) chance to win. We just didn’t have the smarts, touch and cohesion to actually make it happen.

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I don’t know what the trigger was and tbh I don’t really care.

What I care about is that that there needed to be a trigger. Why were we so bad for the first ten minutes? Why were we so bad for so long against Carlton? Why (even though we managed to scrape wins) were we so bad in the first two games?

Ivan and Jonodvp hit the nail on the head. We shouldn’t need a trigger. The intensity against Collingwood should be the rule, not the exception. Players who don’t play with that level of intensity should not be in the team. They should not be at the club. Hard, intense football should be demanded every week from every player who pulls on the Essendon guernsey. And it evidently isn’t.

I get so sick after every ■■■■■■, half-hearted, stop-start performance of hearing Worsfold and every other coach who speaks talking about “the positives”, “implementing a new game plan”, etc., etc., etc. – everything except what a ■■■■ poor slack effort it was. On the one occasion in recent years when the CEO said that a particular effort was unacceptable, he got stood on and made to retract.

Pathetic. Until the club is prepared to recognise what the problem is – lack of basic standards – we are destined to remain Essington. Forever promising, forever failing to deliver.