I think our expectations were too high. We made the finals on the back of a very good forward line. Our midfield was average at best. Our back line, with the exception of Hurley was essentially the same as the wooden spoon team of the previous year.
If the team is to improve we really need to find some gun mids and a heap of A grade defenders.
I cannot see any players in the current reserves team that can fill these gaps.
…and get some tall, strong, intelligent footballers!
I agree, it is always darkest before the dawn. But now, what are some steps that need to happen?
In my opinion we need someone to get a hard tag on, to get in the face of the opposition and make them sweat when they have the ball.
Dyson, I am a fan but yesterday I didn’t see leadership. Maybe a co-captain role would be the model to go with next yr. Zach is the obvious choice and one that I think would make Dyson work harder to be seen as a leader. Get in the gym, bulk up and come up with some fire. Spitting fire balls every week of 2018. Enough of being the nice guy. We saw yesterday, nice guys finish last, and in this case kick the ball out of bounds or drop crucial marks!!!
I agree with others, need a game day coach to pull moves worsfold wont. Who that could be, well why not james kelly. Knows the players and how to win big games!
Need some tough calls made on the list but with a large number of players going out, some may stay on simply to have a full roster.
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Think a few people need to read, then re read what you wrote
Well said
I definitely agree they need to bulk up. Sydney players tossed them aside too easily - like a bunch of kids.
Not only that how many times did we see our guys switch play across half back and still not know where to kick? Whatever Sydney was doing I wish we could do it. They really did their homework. As lots of people have commented, our tactics are way too one dimensional and predictable.
I like to think it’s because they are learning and you can only take in so much at a time. Maybe next year they will have strengthened up and be more able to put the brakes on when a team like Sydney gets a run on. I hope so!
Sydney have the ability to take ordinary players and turn them into very very good players. Always have done.
The younger players will have gained enormous experience from this defeat. It’s not the first time a team has frozen in the finals and it won’t be the last. I think a lot of the negativity about being overwhelmed on the inside is a little misplaced. Had we moved the ball as quickly as we did against the Weagles and Port it wouldn’t have mattered how much pressure Sydney wanted to apply - they would’ve been chasing shadows.
I think the boys just froze, taking that fraction of a second longer than usual to make decisions for fear of making a costly mistake…which of course was in itself the most costly mistake of all. As a result the game was played on Sydney’s terms, and no-one can get near Sydney if you try and play them at their own game.
If we can recruit maybe one inside hard-nut and some cover for Cale I think next year looks very promising indeed.
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We need a few players with a bit of mongrel, who will stand up. Sydney do that well.
We needed players to lead the way when we had few. We have been thinking finals 1918/19 perhaps, we need to be looking more at a rebuild and making change happen instead of hoping it will. We have to start being the changes we want and make it happen.
A clean out and we need to draft aggressively and openly which has not been our style
in the past. We have a bad reputation when it comes to drafting with other clubs. Is it true, we say its not???Otherwise, we will be a middle of the road team for a long time to come. We play for premierships, its no good putting on a show when it doesn’t count and then looking like the survivors of a tsunami, in finals. The club got to take some risks, we can’t stay sitting pat and hoping change will occur because we will simply attract more of the same.
I don’t think it’s as drastic as a rebuild, though I agree we need more mongrel and aggression. By my way of looking at it we need 3 decent midfielders, a decent tall back, and maybe a back pocket, back flank. It sounds a lot, but I think we probably have some of those roles developing in the VFL, but I would hope - and expect - that we’ll trade to fill some of those spots, most urgently the midfield.
It’s a dangerous time the days after being kicked out of the finals, and after an ordinary performance. Everything looks bleak. Come March next year it won’t seem so bleak, but between now and then there’s a power of work to do.
Unfortunately, we didn’t put the time into developing some of the kids in the seniors this year we should have, but they’ll have a free run next season. The returning players, with another pre-season under their belt, will be better, and the team as a whole should begin to gel better as they play more together.
We need players, including some mongrel. We need to put some effort into our defensive systems, which are inadequate (and badly exposed yesterday by the Swans). We need more agile match day coaching and adventure, as well as a viable plan B. And the team as a whole needs time together to develop as a cohesive whole.
All of that together is a challenge, but not insurmountable. Time starts now.
I am sad not so much we lost but the way we lose it. Granted Shitney is in top form and we have players returning from injuries, our form is down, our midfield not up to it etc., but having 7+ goals kicked against you in as many minutes without deploying any defensive countermeasures is just, IMHO, inexplicable. In finals matches, this cannot be allowed to happen but it happens to us time and again. Maybe against lower teems we can still rebound when we cop an avalanche but certainly not in a finals setting. We can certainly play downhill football but will be shown up big time when the going gets tough. Any team can have a bad day. However the ability to dig oneself out of a hole as a team and limit the damage at least, is what separate a mediocre team and a top team.
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Ok, think about it.
Consider which Essendon players lost their positions/roles absolutely yesterday. Quite a few I think. Many didn’t stand up when colleagues need them. Ok, was it a one off? Have they won their position consistently most of the year, or do they struggle through many of the games and only shine when things are going well.
We need more players with grunt, i.e. those who can win their positions against the odds.
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Some blokes with a bit of mongrel.
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Fixed.
We are to nice.
Fixed
We are not unsettling enough in packs.
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You did well only waiting 10 minutes in line for a beer
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Heading back to Dubbo. Very disappointing game last night.
Will post some reflections in a day or so.
There is no rush.
I like Worsfold but the bloke is just a ■■■■ match day coach and many Eagles fans will tell you the same.
When Buddy went on that little rampage in the 2nd qrt alarm bells should have been going off in the coaches box to slow the game down and go ultra defensive mode to stem the bleeding for 5-10 mins but what does he do instead? just tells the team “Don’t worry just keep playing the way we want to play it eventually click” and when it wasn’t still working he just sat in the box like a stunned mullet was only after we were 10 goals down that he realised “Ok guys it’s not working lets try something different” by that stage the game was dead and buried.
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It was more than 10 minutes all up - we left our seats immediately after the Q1 siren, and we were sitting back down just as they kicked their 7th - i’m guessing about 20 minutes all up?
The SCG is a ■■■■■■■■■■■ just like the rest of Shitney.
Heres a hint for buying food/drinks at stadiums. go at the end of the quarter break. stuffs still getting pumped out so its as fresh as you’re gonna get it, even tho its stadium food quality so whatever. also takes less time to do it than at the start of the break as everyone and their dog goes.
So I flew back last night and sat in the Qantas lounge and Leigh Matthews, Matthew Lloyd and Alastair Lynch walked in (obviously after covering the game).
Matthews said that Hurley repeatedly tried to move off of Sinclair and go to another player but Sinclair kept following him.
When Sinclair has that kind of upper hand on one of our best defenders, it’s a sad day indeed.
I can cop the lost, Sydney at the SCG in top form, there’s no shame in that. But it was the lack of effort that got me.
I caught Mark McClure on the radio in the taxi to the airport and he said that Essendon were not ready for finals, and played as if they didn’t want to be there. Hate that this is the impression we’ve made after a successful season. You can only hope that the boys learn from this one.
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