Where was Raz’s free kick for holding the man?
There is a little bit of history starting to form with our club, that it’s one in, some in.
Seven vs Three. Yes Bags could take them all on himself but it’s a little embarrassing to see this.
My feelings sitting at the game last night were of an overwhelming sense of boredom, apart from watching Tippa do his thang.
The first half was diabolically bad skills wise by both teams.
The umpiring ditto.
Sadly I’ve come to expect this from most games that I watch these days.
As much as I love following Essendon, I yearn for the days of a Crazy Sheedy type coach who isn’t afraid to try something from outside the box and swing players around during games to try and change things up if things aren’t going the team’s way.
I find that most sides are coached way too conservatively in this current era of football with the advent of “role players”.
The instinct and versatility of the modern generation of footballer has been coached out of them in place of filling a role and following team rules.
The only positional switch these days that you are likely to see is that of a kp defender up forward to snag a few goals when a side is screaming for a big guy to take a grab inside f50.
Fark me! It’s like everyone involved with coaching is bereft of any new ideas or way too afraid to try something different in case it doesn’t work out.
Would’ve been nice to see someone in the coaches box have a crack at trying different things last night but alas, it wasn’t to be and yet it is what I’ve come to expect these days not just from our club but most teams in the comp.
Conservative football and ideas are killing the game.
TGFT…Thank God For Tippa though.
They beat us by over 100 when we had a full side last season.Just saying.
Rewrite of history continues - there was never a full side for any game last season - even when they beat Hawthorn.
Most of the year the coach had at least as many players unavailable due to injury as the current one has as a result of the accepted suspensions.
Garbage. Look at the players out dip s h I t
Such eloquence from the ignorant - Nevertheless, it is simply a fact that the 2015 disastrous injury toll meant that a “full side” was never available to play last year.
Whether the current lack of top liners absent is as many as last year is a matter for statistical analysis.
However, last year’s injured players were not replaced by “top ups” except for the pre-season.
- Man, I thought Essendon's "GAME DAY EXPERIENCE™" was woeful. This was something else. Piped in cheers and a kid racing against an animated cyclist. Wowee.
It was the saints home game. They always pipe cheering through the sound system.
Get on your bike Polks - the kids are trying to fly the flag ■■■■■■■ do something.
We play on from our backline while our targets up ahead are running with their backs to the ball - still along way from knowing how to play instinctive football together.
Geez it wasn't that bad. Outclassed but they didn't give up.
Yeah, I didn’t think it was that bad in the context of things. The mid set up was abysmal though. Goddard sitting off Riewoldt gave me the ■■■■■. They were things that could have been looked at.
Rhys Mathieson 11 3 14 3
Mason Redman 2 0 2 1
Sack Dodoro !!! lol
For those watching at home: for the bulk of the day St Kilda played 7 defenders and 5 forwards.Happening far too often and we are allowing it far too long in games
The spare man has killed us not this year, but for a long time.
If us plebs on here can identify it, that it hurts us, why cat the coaching staff?
For those watching at home: for the bulk of the day St Kilda played 7 defenders and 5 forwards.
Happening far too often and we are allowing it far too long in games
I don't know how the coach gets a 'pass' each week as we get comprehensively beaten by basic tactics time and time again.Find posts from each and every match review this season and you will find plenty of ‘armchair coaches’ who can see that the spare man in defence kills us. Yet we let Saints have a spare man for about 85% of the game and, somewhat unsurprisingly, it killed us again. At what point does a coach (any one of the 10 we have sitting up there) think to go man on man and change the dynamic? This tactic (and it is a pretty basic one) kills us every week and yet we rock up and do it over and over again.
Then you have the baffling decision to play Polk and McKenna again… both of whom have done exactly SFA for two weeks… instead of perhaps changing up the dynamic with Edwards or Eades or Long. In particular I was strongly in favour of playing Edwards this week, his game in the VFL indicates he would have offered more than Polk, McKenna and Redman combined.
However the overriding issue remains our inability to score. We can all celebrate breaking the 60pt barrier with 1 second left to play. It was a major achievement, particularly against a powerhouse side like St Kilda. How can a team that has struggled to score over 60pts in the majority of their last 20 odd games still continue to persist with the same forward coach, forward structure and forward players? Do they think it will magically sort itself out?
Today’s biggest problem was the midfield. Beaten so badly that we were outnumbered in 80% of contests. The centre clearance stat was one of the most lopsided in history and I still haven’t got on to the horrendous umpiring. Umpiring didn’t cost us the game but either we need to learn how to ‘drop the ball to a teammate nearby’ or give up tackling. Most of the fast breaks came as we used 2-3 guys to tackle a saint to the ground, only for him to drop/throw/hand the ball to one of the free players on the outside. All of that doesn’t change the simple fact that we didn’t have enough midfielders willing to share the load. The coaching decision to leave Fanta sitting idle in a forward pocket whilst we got obliterated up the field was another great move. Really smart. When they finally woke up from their slumber and moved Fanta on to the ball, he quickly racked up some stats and we had at least 3 positive forward movement.
On the flipside there were some really big positives:
Tippa is a star. Not just cult hero but a top 50 caliber talent imho. Smooth, composed and smart… vision is elite.Parish got tagged and some heavy physical punishment and fought his way through it and still got 20 touches. That is very promising for a kid with under 10 games. Could have easily gone completely missing under the heat. Impressive.
Hartley is very solid as a defender and will give us plenty of options next year. Turned it over twice and got caught out of position a couple more times but for a guy with less than 10 games he is taking the key forward each week and matching them in 1-1 marking situations very nicely. Great find by the recruiting team.
JD looked a whole lot better as a roaming CHF. 2 goals and 3 “1%ers” should be enough evidence that we have found his position.
Brown looked very good overhead and really added a nice element to the forwardline. Could be a very handy swing player next year.
Zerrett is a gun. Gun. Gun. Gun.
We are one game closer to getting our team back.
Pretty much agree with all of that
Gwilt out
And Stanton.
I still can’t believe that rat Montagna got away with elbowing Bags in the head and then eye gauging him.
You watch nothing happen about it either.
The good.
First half we were competitive and playing like poo, really lost the game with 15 mins of ordinary football were they hit the scoreboard hard in the 3rd. Goes to show how average saints are when they struggle to put the worst team in the Comp away when they are playing badly.
Zerrett continuing his good form.
Tippa being well, Tippa. He is amazing and will only get better, put him in the centre square and watch him commmand the middle like an only fashion centerman.
Our backline, at least they are getting plenty of practice. Such troopers being pounded against quality ball week in week out.
Matty Dea, sign him NOW!
Brown, he is building and becoming more comfortable by the week. I like him as a running big forward and he has a real composure about the way he plays. I think by season end we may have found our FF. His mobility really compliments having Joe, and he will be more dangerous along side a hulking forward like Hooker.
The bad.
Anybody thinking Goddard would play well against the saints, he stinks it up every time. Which I can understand. Not being within 15 metres of your mate Roo who is carving us up, I can’t. That’s just bad unaccountable football that he should be ashamed of, and I’m sure he will be open and honest about himself on the Monday review.
Our lack of an inside midfield, it’s great for the development of our up and coming players. But gee it’s depressing to watch. I am not looking forward to playing the dogs!
Not playing fantasia on the ball. If your worried about a small forward, bring in Eades and play him up the field. He is wasted at HF/FP. He should rest forward, not be stuck their permanently.
Oh yeah, that happened too. Chalk up as a positive for the day/
Broke my self-imposed exile from AFL yesterday - opportunities to go to games with my old man are rarer than rocking horse sht. Here are my thoughts and observations.
- 29k attendance, probably over half Essendon. StKilda continue to be a sht, irrelevant nothing club.
- Man, I thought Essendon’s “GAME DAY EXPERIENCE™” was woeful. This was something else. Piped in cheers and a kid racing against an animated cyclist. Wowee.
- Zerrett is amazing. I love him.
- TIPPA was worth the price of admission alone. Should be having spells on the ball.
- I am really looking forward to Parish playing alongside Watson and Heppell.
- Goddard was poo. Held the ball up too many times when we had a run-on. Handballed to stationary/under-pressure targets too often, or even worse, behind them. And I’ve seen more physical defense on Bert’s Family Feud.
- Don’t get the Gwilt hate. Was quite decent considering how many times the ball was pinged straight back into the 50 after the work was done to clear it.
- Someone (Rocky?) said earlier that Brown is our best forward since Lloyd. I agree.
- Wtf was Baguley doing up forward? It feels like one of those things you might try in the 3rd quarter if they’re rebounding far too easily, but starting him there when he’s far better down back seems odd.
- Why the ■■■■■■■ FKNG FK did we not have someone set up defensively on Steven at the centre bounces in the 3rd? He got about 6 clearances in the row reading off Leunberger’s tap. How many times does it have to happen before one of the seventy-three coaches says, “Hey that’s happening a lot…”
I don’t know how the coach gets a ‘pass’ each week as we get comprehensively beaten by basic tactics time and time again.
Find posts from each and every match review this season and you will find plenty of ‘armchair coaches’ who can see that the spare man in defence kills us. Yet we let Saints have a spare man for about 85% of the game and, somewhat unsurprisingly, it killed us again. At what point does a coach (any one of the 10 we have sitting up there) think to go man on man and change the dynamic? This tactic (and it is a pretty basic one) kills us every week and yet we rock up and do it over and over again.
Then you have the baffling decision to play Polk and McKenna again… both of whom have done exactly SFA for two weeks… instead of perhaps changing up the dynamic with Edwards or Eades or Long. In particular I was strongly in favour of playing Edwards this week, his game in the VFL indicates he would have offered more than Polk, McKenna and Redman combined.
However the overriding issue remains our inability to score. We can all celebrate breaking the 60pt barrier with 1 second left to play. It was a major achievement, particularly against a powerhouse side like St Kilda. How can a team that has struggled to score over 60pts in the majority of their last 20 odd games still continue to persist with the same forward coach, forward structure and forward players? Do they think it will magically sort itself out?
Today’s biggest problem was the midfield. Beaten so badly that we were outnumbered in 80% of contests. The centre clearance stat was one of the most lopsided in history and I still haven’t got on to the horrendous umpiring. Umpiring didn’t cost us the game but either we need to learn how to ‘drop the ball to a teammate nearby’ or give up tackling. Most of the fast breaks came as we used 2-3 guys to tackle a saint to the ground, only for him to drop/throw/hand the ball to one of the free players on the outside. All of that doesn’t change the simple fact that we didn’t have enough midfielders willing to share the load. The coaching decision to leave Fanta sitting idle in a forward pocket whilst we got obliterated up the field was another great move. Really smart. When they finally woke up from their slumber and moved Fanta on to the ball, he quickly racked up some stats and we had at least 3 positive forward movement.
On the flipside there were some really big positives:
Tippa is a star. Not just cult hero but a top 50 caliber talent imho. Smooth, composed and smart… vision is elite.
Parish got tagged and some heavy physical punishment and fought his way through it and still got 20 touches. That is very promising for a kid with under 10 games. Could have easily gone completely missing under the heat. Impressive.
Hartley is very solid as a defender and will give us plenty of options next year. Turned it over twice and got caught out of position a couple more times but for a guy with less than 10 games he is taking the key forward each week and matching them in 1-1 marking situations very nicely. Great find by the recruiting team.
JD looked a whole lot better as a roaming CHF. 2 goals and 3 “1%ers” should be enough evidence that we have found his position.
Brown looked very good overhead and really added a nice element to the forwardline. Could be a very handy swing player next year.
Zerrett is a gun. Gun. Gun. Gun.
We are one game closer to getting our team back.
I doubt there will be very many Hurley leaving stories in the media this week.