Meh.
Is it next season yet?
They’ll get found out in a final!
We had a crack, umps reamed us, and we slipped over and kicked into the man on the mark just as much as we do when it’s dry!
Backline battled well all night, especially being under pressure.
Forwardline totally devoid of spark and structure tonight…I think thats the 4th score under 50 and the 12th score of 60 or less this year…wow
Has got to that kind of point hey?
Hurley was pretty good. Was nice to see McKenna get a goal with his first kick in footy. Like Hooker up forward once again.
Hooker > Rance
Early pissweak frees to the opposition once again put us on the back foot!
■■■■ umpires!
Had four guys on about 20 disposals at half time. They finished on 25-29 for the game…
And yes folks … there really was a Kiss Cam
Conservative Essendon homophobes … all guy + girl, no girl on girl action
It’s the end of the AFL as we know it
Enjoyed the company of VanDerHaar as we watched under cover in a disappointingly empty member’s area where we sit.
We are slowly but surely regaining our mojo. We slugged it out and have learnt to defend again and fight games right out.
Similar to the North game we lost comfortably in the end but the umpiring crueled us.
Worse than the umpiring were too many turnovers and some poor decisions - like Hibbered twice leaving his man (first time Vickery, second time Martin) that allowed easy goals over the top. He worked his backside off but his decision-making and unrealistic marking attempts (in very wet conditions) were right off.
Hooker & Hurley were again immense. Carlisle took complete control of Vickery the further the game went. Melksham good on Deledio too. There’s not too many games where Riewoldt & Deledio are both held goalless.
We did reasonably in the midfield and McKernan I thought be Maric on the night. Although we won the clearances (playing an extra at the stoppage whilst they kept their spare back).
McKenna was just starting to get the hang of the game when he got subbed. Is going to be an immensely powerful player once he gets used to the AFL tempo. Hope he plays next week. Demspey played poorly but the Tribunal will see to it that he doesn’t play next week no doubt. I thought Fantasia struggled and Goddard diabolical with his ball use - wouldn’t be surprised if he is carrying some sort of leg injury as he doesn’t seem to be running to freely.
Heppell quite good at the stoppages. O’Brien useful but doesn’t win enough contested ball, or lay enough tackles, to be the true inside mid we are looking for. Stanton ran tirelessly but again his lack of leg speed meant he couldn’t quite get to the place he was wanting the ball to be delivered to or break free into space to deliver the ball freely (great example in this late in Q4 when he had the ball in the middle of the ground, had Daniher on I50 and ended up under real pressure kicking the ball as an opponent easily closed the space on him from behind. Zaka looks almost as slow as Stanton and is really struggling to cover the ground.
Speaking of Daniher, that is the best game he has played in some time. Played all night at CHF, roamed the ground, took marks and got involved in the game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him really turn on next week against the Pies. Laverde just kept attacking contests all night and seems to have boundless energy.
We are a big chance next week if we bring the same competitive spirit to the game.
Our ladder position is almost locked in stone regardless of next week’s result. Probably will be by the time we play. No reason to tank any more so let’s win next week!
Enjoyed the company of VanDerHaar as we watched under cover in a disappointingly empty member's areaWhat are his thoughts on where we are at?
Speaking of Daniher, that is the best game he has played in some time.What? I must have been at a different game. Joe was really bad tonight. Couldn't take a mark, couldn't kick, sloppy, poor effort at times and mistake riddled. I thought he should have been subbed, just wasn't his night.
Overall it was a good entertaining game with good effort and toughing it out for 4 quarters, which is great to see.
Seems wierd to be happy with a hard fought loss but it’s where we are at right now.
I thought we had a decent crack at it. We kept running ourselves into trouble, attempting low and precise passes and generally stuffing up chances. It was a respectable effort, horrible execution. Some good signs from a few kids to look forward to in 2016 and beyond.
Our midfield is harmless.
When Egan spoke about our list issues after the match, he nailed it IMO (midfield run, and scoreboard-hitting small forward)…but the coaching of the midfield must be an issue too.
We had a crack, which was heartening. Bags was immense all night. BJ is cooked, has to go. Zaka is the definition of tradebait - go and ply your peahearted brand of p*ssweak footy at another club - really fed up with his weak-willed non-committal garbage.
When i walked past the richmond grog squad at 3tr time it smelt of urine.
We had a crack, which was heartening. Bags was immense all night. BJ is cooked, has to go. Zaka is the definition of tradebait - go and ply your peahearted brand of p*ssweak footy at another club - really fed up with his weak-willed non-committal garbage.
BJ is cooked huh?
Could very well win the best and fairest…
Though I agree that the kicking into the man on the mark was poor, he gets the footy a lot and does a lot of good things as well. It’s nice to have a player who can actually win possession or take a mark without fumbling…
36K in attendance… would have to be the lowest Ess v Rich crowd for a long while… especially for a ‘send off’ game. I’m not sure a members forum is going to solve all our problems.
So many holes in this list… so many. Need at least another 2 inside mids with Jobe maybe never to recapture his best form and Myers has never been able to stay on the park… need 2-3 outside mids with good decision making (Laverde probably counts as one)… need 2 crumbing fowards… need a marking forward… need a ruck. Probably need a winger that isn’t the size of a twig.
We should be able to fill about 3 of the 8 positions needed in this years draft but they will still take a few years to come on.
I think realistically we are probably 3-5 years away from having a truly competitive team. And that is without considering players leaving/suspended.
Good to hear from somebody else in the sparsely populated members’ area. I was silly or brave enough to sit in the open and cop the elements. I felt closer to the action and enjoyed seeing us in for the scap and showing genuine spirit. And we won the contested possession count and made them earn their win.
As mentioned by others, Hurley and Hooker clearly won their duels against highly (over) rated opponents. Actually made them look second rate. Hooker is the heart and soul of the club, and the obvious choice for our next captain if Jobe doesn’t want the job. Plenty of time for Dyson.
Other positives for me were Melky who showed signs of his best form, Smack who is another wholehearted player in the Hooker mould, Laverde who really looks the part and has a bit of mongrel about him,
NOB who got plenty of the ball, ditto Daniher who covered the ground surpringly well, and Irish whose goal was the highlight of what was an otherwise forgettable night.
Daniher was horrendous tonight. Field kicking was putrid from him.
We had a crack, which was heartening. Bags was immense all night. BJ is cooked, has to go. Zaka is the definition of tradebait - go and ply your peahearted brand of p*ssweak footy at another club - really fed up with his weak-willed non-committal garbage.BJ is cooked huh?
Could very well win the best and fairest…Though I agree that the kicking into the man on the mark was poor, he gets the footy a lot and does a lot of good things as well. It’s nice to have a player who can actually win possession or take a mark without fumbling…
He’s cruising around collecting a cheque. I reckon he’s tried his ■■■■ off and has been an overwhelmingly positive thing for the team for most of the time he’s been there, I just reckon he’s pretty close to done. If he wins the B&F this year then good on him - it says a lot more about the type of year we’ve had than it says about his usefuleness to us as a footballer.
Our midfield is harmless.When Egan spoke about our list issues after the match, he nailed it IMO (midfield run, and scoreboard-hitting small forward)…but the coaching of the midfield must be an issue too.
Yeah I think it would have been a very different year if Hird had played smack from the start, bellchambers never, and colyer got a full season.
Funny to actually think that all James Hird needed to do was take out a ruckman who was obviously shithouse (bellchambers) and put in a guy who was obviously better (smack) from round 1, but seeing as he took 20 rounds to understand the basic concept of ■■■■ players out good players in, he lost his job. If anybody ever meets James can they please ask how he would purposefully lose games of football by an inability to use his eyeballs and remove bellcho and play smack. Like he didn’t just ruin his own season and the team’s, he ruined ours as well…and I really don’t think James Hird is a stupid man so why did he be so stupid?