Review Thread - Nightmare-time at the G

[FTWinderlich]

Why are we no good? Because we have both dumb players and coaches.

Agree 100%

[Paul_Peos]

That’s a very convenient way to remember things.

[Go_Team_2.0]

How long did he have? And with an inferior group

More time than Worsfold

[dmorg1]

I always look forward to your summaries. I wish our coaching panel could see your views on our game plan. It all makes sense to me. In my opinion Worsefold should go. I didn’t like the selection of the team especially for wet weather football.

[dbeas]

You’d think by now Francis, Begley, Smack, Ambrose would be a well oiled goal kicking machine.

It was Francis’ 3rd or 4th game as a forward. Ambrose showed a long time ago that he’s not up to it as a forward. Begley has barely played 10 games.

McKernan with all his talent is not an elite forward, never has been and will never be. Brown is better than him and we need to replace him with a decent forward who is consistent to partner Daniher next year.

[Lance84]

McKernan with all his talent is not an elite forward, never has been and will never be. Brown is better than him and we need to replace him with a decent forward who is consistent to partner Daniher next year.

Agree. Apparently Brown re-injured his wrist yesterday.

[Lance84]

The lack of sprint efforts and the huge differential is such a ■■■■■■■ blight on our players that they should be shamed over yet get away with it year after year.

Was it even a problem last year? Do you have the stats?

[Killer_Mike]

McKernans not an elite forward?

Who is saying he is and is that really what we expect of him?

Do you think Brown is elite?

[bltn]

What are talking here ?
Toto, The Pretenders, or something even lighter such as Air Supply ?

[barnz]

You get to go to Venice for work?

Do you need a not-particularly-good lawyer to join your team?

Someone that flys to Venice for dinner probably needs a good lawyer. Sorry smj you’re out Ivan’s in.

[Captain_Jack]

Where to begin?

1. We are, statistically, the least accurate team in the competition. Again we missed 4, very get-able set shots in the first half (remember the Geelong game?); again it cost us a chance of at least being level at half time.
2. We are not fit enough - period. Arguably, we are the least fit team in the competition. Look at the AFL tracker, the numbers do not lie. Overall, Richmond ran over 5 km more than we did (282.3 km to 276.6 km). What’s way, way worse is that they had an incredible 109 more sprint efforts (that is not a typo) than we did (148-39). This is a recurrent theme across the season:

• Versus Freo: lost total km 275.7 to 280.1, lost total sprints 259-268 (very different game under the roof unless the numbers are wrong).
• Versus Sydney: lost total km 285.9 to 295.6, lost total sprints by a whopping 34-90.
• Versus Geelong: lost total km 245.5 to 270.7, lost total sprints by a whopping 29-70.
• Versus Collingwood: lost total km 262.5 to 269.8, lost total sprints by a whopping 54-114.
• Versus North (our best win of the season): just won total km 275.5 to 275.1 and comfortably won total sprints 291-241 (again, under the roof very high sprint numbers; indicates the game is played differently there than the MCG).

I can keep going back but you get the picture. I don’t believe we won either stat against any other team (certainly didn’t against Brisbane when we won well). Every other team in the competition is fitter than us.

3. Putrid game plan: again, the forwards are told to race up the field and then race back. Again, opposition coaches are wise to this and simply instruct their HB line to stay back - hence why yo see Houli rack up possessions at will. Hence why you see Walla once in Q2 and both Walla and Francis in Q3 hesitate with ball in hand going forward because there literally is no one to kick to up forward and get caught with the ball. It took McKenna, late in Q3, to simply race straight up the middle and literally kick for goal from 75m out that forced Grimes to lose his footing just to get a hand to the ball to stop a certain goal and gift Langford and easy dribble goal from behind as a result. In Q4, all our forwards stayed forward and it was a completely different game; again though we didn’t our chances. It’s almost like Worsfold waits until the game is lost and then changes the game plan.

In summary, we are the least fit team in the competition, with the worst goal kicking accuracy in the competition with arguably one of the worst game plans in the competition that has proven repeatedly to fail. In some ways, it’s remarkable we are even 4-6 which is testimony, in my view, to the talent on the list.

Forget playing personnel availability. Get your fitness and game plan right and you can still be a good team - look at Richmond last night missing 4 of their best 6 players.

You fix fitness by changing the fitness plan or changing the head of fitness if he won’t learn from his mistakes to change the fitness plan.

You fix the game plan by changing the game plan or changing the coach if he won’t change the game plan.

Do those two things and I suspect the goal kicking accuracy will take care of itself as the players (especially forwards) will be in a better position to receive the ball to start with and fitter to push harder to best spots near goal to receive the ball.

If ever a club needed a massive, independent, in-depth review of the football and fitness departments it’s ours. That’s what I want the Board and Executive to focus on - not on e-sports, VFLW, etc. that have zero impact on well we perform in the AFL but soak up precious time and resources that could be applied to our core mission.

Quoting because this is an important post and more Blitzers need to see it. The sprinting efforts are damning. Does it come about because we are chasing most of the time? Does a chase count as a sprint?

Having the forwards move up the ground, then turn around and sprint back to get cheap goals isn’t going to work as a strategy. Instead they get pulled out of position and the forward line loses all semblance of structure. Forwards need to maintain their offensive shape better and then lead up to the ball carrier.

The lack of accuracy in set shots for goal is a major concern. Last night conditions played a part certainly, but it is a recurring theme carried over from other games. Many of those set shots are simple and easy ones, but we miss them and it is deflating. The misses appear to have a mental component, players lack confidence kicking for goal.

[Deadly]

Absolutely agree, they’re is a method to every set up by Richmond, and players who cant get the ball are looking to block and clear paths for their team mates, we know only to follow the ball and if we can’t get it, stand there like a dill. Meanwhile the other players all start moving to, geez it’d be nice to see our players do this - we rely on individual act of skill on after another, just not going to consistently make you a winner at afl level. It makes a huge difference in opening up passages of play to a goal or two a quarter. It was a huge and obvious difference all night.

[Aceman]

You can’t sprint when you are walking.
Bellchambers set the tone in the opening minutes when he “gave up” and his opponent was only a short space away. Watch in the background at nearly every contest, Richmond players are sprinting to either get to the next contest or sprinting towards space if they have the ball. Contrast to us constantly jogging or walking to the contest. Those stats should be pinned to their lockers and I’d have the players out this morning doing repetitive sprints

[Deadly]

Agree, except the last point, if the club has seen the light that Worsfold is not the future, one game win or lose doesn’t matter at all, make the call and move on.

[M10G10]

Interested to see if the stats back this up. Many here have complained we hacked the ball forward too much in hope!

We did hack it forward which was ok but because we have too many up around the contest, there’s no one where the ball is likely to land, hence Houli cleaning up all night.
Tigers also just kept pushing the ball forward or wide where their numbers were and ours weren’t.

[barnz]

Heres another problem.

[Captain_Jack]

Richmond players are sprinting to either get to the next contest or sprinting towards space if they have the ball. Contrast to us constantly jogging or walking to the contest.

I would like to see what the data keepers define a sprint to be.

[wimmera1]

How long did he have? And with an inferior group

More time than Worsfold

I can cope with giving him eight more games then.

[SplitRound]

24km/h for at least 1 second. There’s a whole thread about it here

Essendon Players' Workrate

Being at the ground for the pies and cats games I noticed that we don’t get numbers back quick enough to help our defenders nor run hard to create options up forward. Looking at the telstra tracker, our numbers back this up (providing that they are accurate). Surely there has been a mistake like there was in round 1? Look at these sprint effort numbers. Not to mention the pies players ran 7kms more than us and Geelong 25kms [7918ABFB-FE47-45D2-ACF7-7EE267D35F47] [1102706A-42DE-4732-A2AD-4…

[Speedy_Gonzales]

We were always fkd as soon as it rained.

Played right into Tigers hands with the style of footy required. Teams can’t pick their way through their pressure with clean ball use.

We were really lacking in the quality smalls for the day. Tippa hardly fired a shot and on the reverse they have Baker with 24 possessions/ 9 tackles. Lav still stuck 6 tackles, best of our fwds.

Once again we are really struggling to capitalise on our fwds entries, losing games as a result.

Night went from bad to worse with such important players in Stringer & Shiel going down. We just can’t take a trick on the injury front at present.

Not many of our players performed well enough, only a few could hold their heads high & too many who were basically passengers