AFL app seems to think it is.
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Thank you,
I will have to check if it still streams again this year though to my Amazon Fire Tv Stick.
But the idea of sharing Kayo with a mate might be ok. Might get a bit mroe interested in NBA then.
Theres no money for the AFL in AFLW, so they are cutting their losses as fast as they possibly can.
A lopsided conference system to cut costs, TV ratings have died, attendances have died, What is it? A reduction of 2 games a season? At that rate it will disappear completely within 3 years.
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GAME DAY
Essendon doesnât have an aflw team. So take your high horse and â â â â off.
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I hope we actually do it in the season tbh.
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It should be. They all are i think
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Itâs not quite that straight forward though. Female interest in the game is growing a fair bit as a result. As the kids start playing and become more involved, they watch the AFL, buy memberships, go to games etc. You could think of it as marketing for the whole game in general, not just the womenâs league. Theyâll definitely stick with it for a long time.
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You would think it might be easy to find out⊠but no.
It will be covered by the AFL app. But no information regarding whether that is just score updates, stats, radio or live streaming.
Last year they streamed it online for free. Greedy â â â â â â â .
Get the @35 and share with 2 mates - even cheaper!
Their app must be busted. Itâs been saying 8 hours and 18 minutes for the last 24 minutes.
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we beat them by 60 points
Last time at Princes Park
Essendon will return to Fark Carltonâs heartland on Thursday in a throwback to the great clashes of the past to kick off the JLT Community Series.
While the Bombers havenât played a home and away match at Ikon Park since 1998, you donât have to look too far back to find the last time the club took on the Blues at their traditional home.
February 28, 2016 â this very day just three years ago â was the last time the teams faced off at the venue, and it was an afternoon to remember for red and black fans.
After a tumultuous off-season, all eyes were on Essendon to get a guide on how itâs new-look side would measure up throughout the season.
A slow start yielded just a single goal for each team in the opening term, but the fired-up Bombers were keen to make a statement.
A second-quarter blitz saw the Dons pile on an unanswered six goals and one supergoal to quash the contest and shoot off to an unassailable lead, eventually finishing the game 60 points clear of their bitter rival.
A large contingent of passionate fans saw the Bombers take on the Blues at Ikon Park in 2016.
Experienced heads Brendon Goddard (21 disposals and three goals) and David Zaharakis (28 disposals and six inside 50s) led the way on the ball, while Joe Daniher gave fans a taste of what was to come with three goals of his own.
Emerging star Zach Merrett also impressed through the middle with 24 disposals and a supergoal, and fellow young gun Orazio Fantasia also showed his class with 19 disposals at 94.7 per cent efficiency.
It was a dominant performance from the Dons, who led disposals 374 to Fark Carltonâs 234, clearances 35 to 23 and inside 50s 54 to 31.
It also proved to be a special day for the club, with several Bombers entering the field for the first time in red and black.
Draftees Darcy Parish, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Michael Hartley and Mitch Brown joined ex-Swan Craig Bird and top-up players Ryan Crowley, Sam Michael, Jonathan Simpkin and Sam Grimley for their Essendon debuts that afternoon.
13 of those who played for the Bombers on that occasion remain on Essendonâs list today and only two of those will be unable to take part in Thursdayâs rematch with the Blues .
The club is taking a conservative approach with Fantasia after the dazzling forward suffered a corked quad on Monday, while Marty Gleeson will be the other omission as he continues to recover from a serious ankle injury suffered this time last year.
Only time will tell whether the Bombers can recapture the form from that memorable pre-season encounter three years ago, but one thing is certain; a bumper crowd will be there to witness every minute of what is sure to be an extremely competitive and exciting match.
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Reckon there might be a bit in this game⊠what self-respecting Dons side wouldnât take the opportunity to hand FCFC their a*rses on their home patch, no matter the time of year?
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Which is 2018. Who knows with these greedy farking carnts. And I mean that without the cartoonish interpretation Ms Filter USA forces on it.
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I will preface this by saying this guy is a west australian and in typical fashion most of them hate Essendon so some of his comments are a bit â â â â to say the least.
But not a bad read overall.
The big question hanging over the Essendon hype train
Ryan Buckland
Facing one of the longest finals loss streaks in the league, Essendon has emerged as the 2018 offseasonâs darling. One key unknown dogs them as the preseason gets underway.
Tonight is the first test of many for the Bombers, and you better get used to watching them, because theyâll be on your free-to-air screens every other week in 2019.
With a staggering 13 games on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights, the AFL has made an extraordinary bet on the rise of Essendon as a finals contender â or something more.
This seasonâs narrative isnât a passĂ© âComeback Storyâ marketing campaign, which spun the punishments dealt for a sophisticated doping program into martyrdom. I raise it for two reasons; one, it stunk and it still stinks, and two, this season is much more real and tangible.
That being said, thereâs an element of the usual types long on the hype train. Nary a week goes by without a long column or a lengthy radio segment devoted to the reasons why the Bombers are back. Weâve had Richmond and Collingwood emerge from the bottom four mire to play in finals and win premierships. Itâs Essendonâs turn, they assume.
But they arenât alone. Essendon is one of the consensus picks among the people who know to rise from loser to finalist in 2019. An at times scintillating second half of the season is the spark, and the boost to its playing stocks through acquisition and better health are the timber.
Whether that creates a flame remains uncertain, and hinges on the answer to one critical question.
A game of one third and two third halves, or something
Essendon hit the one third mark of the 2018 season with an improbable 2-6 record, scoring just 69 points per game (wouldâve been third worst in the league if it carried the full year) and dropping games to Fremantle, the Western Bulldogs and Carlton along the way.
From that point on, the Bombers were 10-4, scoring 92 points per game (wouldâve been fourth best in the league if it carried the full year) and winning games against Geelong, West Coast and Sydney along the way.
This is the greatest source of Essendon optimism. Subtract the teamâs performance in the first third of the season â note: it should probably be discounted as a rule anyway given it was between 10 and 12 months ago â and the Bombers were winning at the pace of a 15 to 16-win team. In 2019 that wouldâve seen Essendon reach the top four.
What changed? Essendon released assistant coach Mark Neeld for one. Reports at the time suggested Neeld had an outsize role on match day â nothing specific was ever on the record â and there were communications issues across the coaching group. Whatever it was, Essendonâs improvement coincided with his departure.
If we look at some simple first third/second-two-thirds splits, not a whole heap changed on the stats sheet. Essendon won about as much ball at the contest (112 adjusted contested possessions and a +2 differential per game in the first part, versus 113 and +5 in the second part), took about the same amount of marks inside 50 (12.5 per game versus 12.1 â both relatively high marks for what itâs worth), and surprisingly took about the same numbers of shots for goal despite the significant difference in scoring output (26 vs 28).
Where the Bombers tightened things up was in their ball use and defensive work. Essendonâs tackle rate (tackles per 50 minutes of opposition possession) surged from 60.7 to 70.8, while incidentally their average opponentâs tackle rate fell from 64.9 to 55.0.
As a reminder, avoiding tackle pressure is just as important as creating it, as last yearâs West Coast and Collingwood teams demonstrated (their full season opponent marks were 59.9 and 56.7 respectively).
How did Essendon do it? Returning to their ball-controlling ways of a year or two ago. The Bombers took 90 uncontested marks per game in the second part of the season, versus 76 in the first.
Advanced statistics would paint a nice picture here, but I suspect watching some tape there was plenty of slow play in the back half before an incisive move forward eventuated. As a result, Essendonâs time in possession rocketed from 48 minutes per game (bottom four rate) to 52 minutes (wouldâve been second behind Geelong).
Last I checked, the only way to score goals is if you have the ball in hand; according to Newtonâs law of physics or something the opposite holds for stopping your opponent from scoring goals.
At this sort of headline level football can be a pretty simple game if you want it to be, and that seemed to be Essendonâs approach in a post-Neeld world.
This should be the clubâs default philosophy heading into 2019, with a twist that weâll get to shortly. The Bombers demonstrated an aptitude for constructive, incisive football in the back half of last season; if they can pull off something similar again, theyâre going to have the weapons to lift their scoring to another level.
Essendonâs points per scoring shot in the second part of last season wouldâve had them ninth, despite it sitting in the top six for both shots and raw scoring. A lift to Melbourneâs league-leading rate would see the Bombers rise to 98.3 points per game, which wouldâve been second to the frenetic Demons.
Red and black topped up
The Bombers have the tools to get there. One of the upsides of the doping saga was the improved draft capital that came with a year or two down the bottom of the ladder. To this point, itâs hard to argue Essendon has put a foot wrong taking advantage of it.
Indeed, the Bombers have been one of the shrewder drafters in the league in the past five years, picking up Zach Merrett and Orazio Fantasia outside the top 25 in 2013, the serviceable Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde in what is rapidly becoming a wonky 2014 draft, and nabbing another serviceable AFL player (Darcy Parish) in 2015 (the jury is still out on Aaron Francis, more on him in a moment) â albeit paying a fairly high price considering the return to date.
Then in 2016 they used the number one pick on Andrew McGrath who could be one of the best 20 players in the league if he hits his projected level. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was a doping ban year flyer in the rookie draft, but has solidified himself as one of the most watchable players in the league.
A pre-doping core in place, and the young talent pool stocked, Essendon flipped to bolt-on mode. The past two years have seen the Bombers leverage their draft capital to add Adam Saad, Devon Smith, Jake Stringer and Dylan Shiel to its home grown core.
Last yearâs Essendon optimism turned out to be a little misplaced, though it was somewhat justified at the time given the strength of the Saad, Smith and Stringer acquisitions. Ultimately injuries to key forward half planks Joe Daniher (seven games played due to osteitis pubis) and Fantasia (13 games, knee) and the slow start were too much.
But if we flip that, the Bombers are suddenly set to receive an extraordinary boost in their attacking potency.
Joe Daniher was rated inside the top 20 on last yearâs The Roar AFL Top 50, with Cam and Josh having him inside their respective top 10s. He has dropped in this yearâs ranking on account of injury, but if he were to repeat his 2017 output (65 goals, 15 touches and almost two contested marks per game) thereâs little doubt heâd leap back to that sort of ranking.
Daniher has what it takes to play a Lance Franklin-style range game, but will undoubtedly spend most of his time as the teamâs true full forward given the midfield and half forward weaponry available.
Fantasia and McDonald-Tipungwuiti provide the pace and ground ball control â Fantasia also providing some scoring punch. Smith and Stringer will be the high half forwards, rotating through the middle to throw alternate looks at centre bounces.
James Stewart presumptive second tall forward, but the Bombers have options to put around Daniher as the focal point in Cale Hooker (presumably starting down back in 2019) and Shaun McKernan if required.
Itâs a front half full of punch, and itâll receive quality service all year.
Dipping back into The Roar Top 50 for a moment, former GWS Giant Dylan Shiel divided opinion in 2019. He dropped from a spot inside the top 30 in last yearâs to outside of the top 50 in this yearâs list, which is perhaps a product of his status as the fourth or (gasp) possibly fifth best midfielder at the Giants.
Of GWSâs six best midfielders â in this columnâs opinion: Callan Ward, Stephen Coniglio, Josh Kelly, Dylan Shiel, Lachie Whitfield and Tom Scully â Shiel has played the second most games in the past three years (70 of 72, Ward hasnât missed a game).
Whatâs fascinating is Shiel hasnât flexed up his workload in games where one or two of those six players have been missing. He averaged essentially the same number of disposals (26 to 27), clearances (5.5 to 5.7) and contested possessions (10.1 to 10.3) in games where all six played against where four or five of them played.
Heâs Mr Consistent, and consistently great (only 21 players had 25 touches, five clearances and ten contested possessions per game last year; Shiel was not one of them) but perhaps to the detriment of his reputation. It also perhaps doesnât help that Shiel isnât a noted goal kicker, booting just six majors in 2019 (and a career high of 13 from 23 games in 2016).
However, Shiel has been at best the fourth or fifth best midfielder for GWS for his entire career. Thatâs not his fault. Now at Essendon, he is going to be the number one midfielder, and heâs got a chance to shine.
His situation has been compared to Chris Judd moving from West Coast to Carlton in the middle of last decade; heâs not Judd, but I get where folk are coming from.
Aaron Francis is a wildcard for the Bombers. He stormed onto the collective consciousness of the footy wonk community with his two stellar games as an intercepting defender to end 2018. He joins a defence that is a little light on traditional stoppers, and which will instead turn to the team-based defensive strategies of fellow Big Four member Richmond.
And this, folks, is where the biggest question mark hanging over Essendon will need to be answered.
Take it to the top
Can John Worsfold coach? I have no idea. But the queries that came Essendonâs way in the first third of last season all centred on this one â significant â question.
It was a common refrain of West Coast fans and followers at the end of the premiership coachâs tenure in 2013. By the time he left the Eagles, the teamâs game plan could be summarised as âkick it long down the line to a stationary forwardâ and ârun back in defence if that doesnât workâ.
It gave us Mark LeCrasâ 12-goal game in 2010 â against the Bombers â but it also gave us 9-13 and three ten-goal losses to end the 2013 season.
But if weâve learned anything in the past three two itâs that head coaches donât have as much sway over things as they did in the past. Coaching is as much a team game as ever; Essendon made a key addition to its team by attracting Richmond defensive coach Ben Rutten in the off-season.
To be clear, Rutten is not the architect of Richmondâs ball movement and defensive strategies. Thatâs Blake Caracella, who has been lauded by all and sundry for his impact on the Tigers over the past two years. But Rutten clearly worked with Caracella to implement Richmondâs strategies and tactics, and brings that nous to the Dons.
Essendon might be as uniquely placed as a team like West Coast to implement a zone-based defensive structure: Michael Hurley is a lesser Jeremy McGovern, Hooker has shown he can nullify a big bodied forward when required, and Francis and Martin Gleeson (who missed 2018 with an ankle injury) playing the mid sized interceptor roles.
It will require a similar level of commitment the Dons received from their midfielders in the second part of 2018, but if they did it once why wonât they do it again?
Thereâs little doubt Essendon have all of the pieces they need to make a leap from 11th to the top eighth in 2018.
Indeed, like North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Adelaide around them, the ladder is somewhat misleading given we had such a quirkily close finish to the season (four teams on 12-10 records, all missing the eight).
Can Worsfold and his off field crew put it together? We will get our first look in a few short hours.
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Oh dear, in case you didnât get my drift, I am looking forward to real footy as well.
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Agreed, they will stick with it, but money is a big motivator and they will definitely want to cut their losses
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