Valid bump… someone should have definitely provided a comprehensive response to your initial post with 9 minutes.
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How about you go watch those 2 games and tell us, your the football analyst with multiple websites after all.
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Yeah I don’t think we used the new rules very well.
A few times Merrett was slow to kick or handball when the option was there, especially when Hawkins was on the mark
On intensity:
Ess vs Geel > Geel vs Ess >>>> Carl vs Ess > Ess vs Carl
EssCarl was very dull; Fark Carlton were just somewhat less dull than us.
The accuracy/conversion rankings may be a bit different to the above…
All in all, pretty happy that the only injury we copped across the intra club and 2 praccy games was Stewart
We turned it over closer to carltons goal. Against Geelong we handballed more often and cleaner on the rebound which allowed multiple numbers to stay within the contest and allowed us to set up a higher defence which made it much easier for us to defend the rebound and kept it in our offensive half.
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crisp
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You still drunk?
Overall it was a good performance, got to finally see a defensive gameplan. It wasn’t perfect, vulnerable to that kick over the top which we’ve always been vulnerable to, but no plan is perfect it’s impossible to cover absolutely everything the opposition can do if they’re good enough.
What it was was what we were told to expect last year, forward-half defensive pressure. It had an emphasis on intercept marking and good kicking out of the backline.
Personally I’m still very much on the fence, fantastic to go down to Geelong and put in that kind of performance where we should arguably have won comfortably. Can they give that same defensive effort week in, week out? That’s what we’re being promised from the club and that’s what I need to see to be happy with where we’re heading.
Other positives, our trade-ins looked good and very much like bargains.
2MP - I never wanted Wright I thought all he was good for was uncontested marking, straight kicking and a lacklustre ruck chop-out. If he can compete in the air like he did consistently against Geelong he’ll be a very handy pickup. He won’t be Daniher and win a game on his own, but he will be a solid team player which arguably we need more.
Hind - I was dubious at best on Hind, I thought he was a speedster with poor disposal. Shows what I knew, he’s a speedster with really good disposal. Early vision against Carlton and Geelong hasn’t given me a lot of clarity on his actual defending ability, but offensively he’s giving us what Saad did.
Caldwell - Gun. Was the one I really wanted in trade period and has not disappointed at all in either game. Can’t wait to see what he’ll be like after half a season playing with us.
There’s a lot more that could be talked about, Laverde looking great in defense, Smith looking back to being close to what he was a couple years ago, Parish showing what he can do when finally given full games in the middle, Draper, Cox, Ham, etc. but all been discussed in other places. The main point is if we can consistently put in performances like we did, we’ll probably win more games than we lose… IF
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What did you guys think of Heppell back at half back?
I think he has looked pretty good except for 1-2 instances a game where he’s had poor awareness/taken too much time to move the ball on and been pinged HTB or had kick affected when shouldn’t have.
Perhaps that will pass once gets used to being back there
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Holding my judgement for now, some good, some bad stuff. Will give him a couple more games once he gets back up to speed before I decide what I think of the move.
Thankyou for hiding my face for privacy purposes.
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I mean, of course it is.
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Also, you should report to the Baldwin thread, as you appear to have suffered a right knee injury.
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100% agree I’m the same
If they can bring that performance every week I’ll be very happy with where we are heading
The key to beating Essendon is still the same… and every team will continue to use this strategy.
- Lock the ball up in Essendon’s defensive 50.
- Apply plenty of tackling pressure on Essendon’s backline.
- make sure their only outlet from defence is to kick long down the line.
- have a spare defender behind the ball
If we have solved this problem, and can then consistently enforce the samething on other clubs… thats when we have turned the corner as a club.
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i think thats the key to beating every team lol
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