Especially the one-armed “tackles” of our midgets
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Good for Clarke - At least we didn’t give up two first round picks* for him
We can’t have McGrath, parish, Snelling and smith all in the same team. They get pushed off the ball too easy against the bigger bodied sides. And the can’t stick a tackle to save themselves
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The last time we had one of those was when the much-maligned Skipworth was forward line coach.
Just saying.
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We’ve just got to iron out the stupid unforced errors from our game, most obviously with our disposal, there are a few regular culprits.
We routinely rob ourselves of easy goals and undo good defensive work with unnecessarily poor disposal which turns it over again with our defence exposed. Several times tonight we forced good forward half turnover, farked it up with the hard bit done, and then got scored on out the back.
Joe just can’t miss from 15 out near to straight in front, he just can’t.
We also just need to go quicker and honour the first short kicking option more. Again there are some regulars reluctant to take the first option.
By my count we cost ourselves 5 goals tonight through basic errors.
- Hurley beating darling on centre wing then farking up and easy handball
- Ridley uncharacteristic kicking error.
- Snelling little chip over the top to stringer for what should have been an easy goal being over cooked for a behind.
- Saad play on
- daniher bad miss
You could probably find some others. You can’t expect to beat the best sides making errors like this consistently.
I think a bit of momentum and confidence would help with some of the errors but there are some personnel who routinely make those errors who we should move past.
We need to significantly improve our defense on kick in and generally work harder to deny uncontested marks. We let them control the pace of the game for long stages far too easily. That’s guys not being switched on, cheating and having a rest, or our structure being geared towards falling back a little too much. We probably also need look at our defensive starting positions and try to take front position more in certain parts of the ground.
If we were to add something to the list I’d be looking for a real quality half forward with loads of smarts who just reliably finds a way to be damaging around the edge of 50. I’m not sure that player is available though. Maybe also a ready made key defender.
I’d shop Hurley, you will not get much but it will force us to roll the dice in the key defensive posts. Zerk, Francis, Ambrose, McBride, I dunno but I just feel we need to take a risk here and see what happens.
Perhaps more than anything though we have to set standards and make every player accountable to them. More than X unforced errors, dropped, more than X arm tackles, dropped, poor defensive running, dropped.
There is enough talent floating around on the list to be better than we are but the players have to believe and they have to really really want it. I don’t think they’re hungry enough to be honest. It’s up to the coaches and the players to unlock that desire, that’s really the missing piece of our puzzle.
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I think this is the key thing.
I have said for a while that in these days of professional footballers for whom this is just a job, all they have to do is not be in the worst two or three players at the club and they will get their contract renewed. That is not a very high standard to pass, especially at a club where so many players have such poor skills and such low footy IQ.
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Essendon ranked 18th in allowing coast to coast transition after opposition kicks a behind.
That is deplorable and costs unnecessary goals.
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Excellent post, and they need to start believing they are better than the opposition every time they run out.
Other than Zerk I’d agree. What’s the thinking dropping him? Needs all the experience going forward he can get.
Getting Francis in, and Hooker back in Defence to teach the young guys.
But i guess we could just play Ridley or Francis as a small and pick Zerk too, McKenna misses.
My only knock on Zerk is he lacks the size. Best moment for him was probably that spoil which was quality, then the umpire gave it to the eagle, quite deflating. Agree he does need games.
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Excited that we have a very good midfield all set for the next 4-5 years:
Draper, Merrett, parish, McGrath, Shiel, Heppell, Langford
Besides hooker we aren’t going to miss anyone who retires in next 2-3 years
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will miss depth
Hooker/Hurley/Zaka/Belly been good servants. but their replacements have arrived.
Think we really need McBride to come on to take the big gorillas, like Hooker has.
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Geelong have 3 1st round draft picks.
Let that sink in.
With all their success,retirements of stars.
Recruiting of stars from other clubs.
Premierships.
Sigh…
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All very very late first round picks in a very compromised draft.
You probably wouldn’t trade a top 10 pick in a normal year for all those 3
Yeah good servants In years gone by but are so far off it right now that we won’t miss them
How did we get to a stage where it’s September and the following all don’t have a contract for next year:
Ridley
Langford
McGrath
Saad
Daniher
Stewart
6 of our best 22 right now and a 4/5 of our top dozen players.
Brisbane have 36 players signed up. We have half our list out of contract.
Absolutely bizarre.
Contract freeze is nearly all to blame. No fault of the club that.
Plus you don’t know what is going on behind the scenes.
A few have probably already agreed but they’re just waiting to announce it or work out the bells and whistles
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Perhaps we need both? Which of the two would either of you prioritise?
That then ends up with players scared to make mistakes. End up with guys taking safer options rather than risking the turnover. Choosing not to make a tackle unless they’re in a position to make a good, full-body tackle.
Terrible if you’re trying to introduce new players.
Wrong rein to pull IMHO.
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the worst part of it, Bomber thompson called it the second he walked into the club, something along the lines of, a bunch of blokes who are happy JUST to be afl players.
that’s the “leadership” that has and still is being passed on/down from our “leaders” at present.
That’s the worst part for me, the players will hide behind the “it’s only a job” thing yet their job is to individually and collectively get better at performing on the 2 hours it matters most, and yet again we still have so many players who struggle to execute basic skill on any semi regular basis.
The added worse part is, they literally pretty much have nothing else to do at present, they are living away from home, in hubs in controlled environments where they are pretty much restricted to training and living in a hotel room, and they still haven’t focused on improving their ability to kick a ball, or handball
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