I’m concerned we aren’t trying to set up our defensive line as well as we should. There were a number of times our forward/midfield pressure forced the opposition into making a long kick forward, but our defenders were then simply caught out of position and unable to lock the ball in.
I understand there are plenty of tactics we shouldn’t be showing teams just yet, however, we need to be practising these kinds of setups if we want to be able to take the game to GWS in a couple of weeks, let alone take the game to Collingwood come ANZAC day.
Our disposal by foot has also been concerning. We don’t necessarily need to be playing flowing champagne football, but I would have liked us to hit a few more targets and maybe take a few more than 2 marks inside 50 in the game against Geelong.
true - if JLT form went 2-6, we’d say this team is completely shot and cannot/will not do any good. Bang and they turn it around. We will keep oscillating between it’s only JLT and we should be concerned until the real season starts and then we’ll know. Although as last year showed we won’t necessarily know it all as things can change.
How can you be sure what our game-plan compares like, since (I take it) you think it looked pretty poor in the practice games? ‘List & Talent’ are the same thing. Yeah, I agree we have a comparatively talented list. Doesn’t mean a lot, though. Th4ey have to play well together, and then better than the opposition. Do you think they will? If you do not - then you can’t have them as a ‘top 6’, can you?
Its not like we had to sack the senior assistant coach about 13 games ago because the side was a shambolic mess. We can afford to treat these games as a joke because we know our systems stand up right…right?
Different clubs treat the JLT differently but I think its fair to say that more often the teams who put the least into it are usually teams that already have had finals success. They have a reasonably settled side, have systems & a gameplan in place that they know is working. They can use the JLT to blood new players & try new things because they know they’ve got the bulk of the work already done. We are simply not in this position.
Don’t stress. The results from JLT have been all over the place. About half of the favourites have lost so far.
Look back to how we played the last 14 rounds of last year. It was great footy. High pressure stuff that beat a lot of the best sides and got within a couple of kicks of the others.
Drop Shiel and Joey in the mix and it’s an exciting year ahead. I have a lot of confidence in the group.
As a former coach ( rugby) not at all. The players are fumbling, missing handballs etc but the players are trying. The energy and effort are there. My personal viewpoint is that they are in a very heavy periodisation phase so look tired slow and unskillful. When freshened up they will be a great deal better. The question is will the improvement be enough?
I’d say 12-13 of the 17 games so far have been won by the team I’d expect to win most weeks had it been the regular season. Stkilda beat 2 non-finalist so thats not that great a surprise & you can hardly say its shocking that Brisbane beat a Hawthorn side with about 5 senior players.
Nobody I’ve read here is saying that the JLT form means that we won’t be a much better side when our best players have full games. Other than a disappointing show from Parish & Langford, a rusty Joe & some continued worrying signs with Hurley the JLT concerns are not about the players - its about the coaching, the gameplan & the structures. We were a disorganised mess for much of 2018 so its not unreasonable to have expected some more positive signs from the JLT.
It concerns me a it has done over the past few years. Our players dont seem to improve. Our kicking is woeful, we handball to people under pressure all the time, we have a full forward who cant kick straight. Our midfield is mediocre, not bad, just middle of the road, and I cant see it getting much better, even with the addition of Sheil.
Stringer goes into the middle and gets a clearance straight away. Why cant the others do that? What is going wrong with our systems?
Our backline, once a brick wall, is more like swiss cheese.
I am tired of hearing how we are going to be terrific when the season starts. I hope we are but on that display of skill alone I have my doubts.
My prediction is some games will be brilliant wins, others will be embarrassing defeats. There will be no rhyme nor reason for these results.
I doubt this side will ever become consistent.
I hope you are all able to hold me to ridicule at the end of the year when I am proven completely wrong. But i doubt it.
That’s just your opinion. We don’t know what the club was using JLT for. The guys were clearly playing bruise free football so the structures aren’t going to hold up under pressure anyway. I’ll hold my judgement of how the teams looking until after the GWS game.
It was tongue in cheek. Sort of like when someone digs up a politicians tweet done 5 years ago that is completely in contrast to their current position.
But I do have concerns. We are just so inconsistent. I feel that there is nothing underpinning our side. All those basics that hold a side together when things are going wrong, that enable the team to climb out of a hole, seem to be completely missing in Essendon.
F#ck me.
Another sky is falling thread. @bomberbutch2 - Perhaps have a bit of a read of the forum first before you start a topic on something that has been discussed and moaned about for about one million posts already.
Otherwise, welcome to Blitz!