Thought there were quite a few positives from the night. People are harsh on Conor and using confirmatory bias. He’s coming back into the team, trying to establish himself early in his career. You don’t expect his game to be flawless. He did quite a number of things that suggest there is a future. Those passes not every player can kick like that. Anyway to early to tell at the very least and deserves more of a chance this year. Langford looked better too. He’s a reliable kick for goal when his heads in the right place. Great mark and looked less flustered with standing up in tackle and dishing off.
All the old guys need a bit more time to find their feet. It’s still the first month. All have looked okay at times, but more up and down than they have in the past. I would expect that. Hurley definitely looks more scratchy, but he plays a very difficult role.
Best game from McGrath and they have all been pretty good. Bit like how Sydney must feel when they pick up some gun academy player who just fits in straight away and is above average at the level.
I wasn’t sure if Walla would kick heaps of goals this year. He was great tonight with his out bodying and marking. He’s not tall, but he knows where the ball is going can protect the space and launch for the ball. Him and Colyer were such a handful deep, with Hooker and Daniher pressing into the middle of the ground and then delivering into the forward line. Was exciting play.
Leuenberger I think is better than that. Jacobs is a good ruckman and had his measure all night. Did a lot of things Leuenberger struggles with, such as roving packs.
Parish was good, has not quite reached the level he could. The kicks are variable in quality, but always show a vision. He is always bouncing around in the last quarter which s invaluable.
Loved Ambrose’s game. Got touched up a little when first went to Tex and Tex’s confidence was sky high and then gradually wore him down.
Anyway we are 2 and 2 which is probably our season this year 8-12, developing young players, seeing who’s left from the older players and looking ahead to 3-5 years time.
Wow, Essendon delivers a new (but all too familiar) type of pain for supporters
Crows were super pumped for the game.
Essendon couldn’t match them as much as they tried
Initial gains made in first 2 weeks are now gone
Last night was ground zero … hopefully
Now the players have 10 days to recover
I suspect a 2:2 split is what the coaches budgeted for
Problem for Essendon is they can’t handle the heat
All teams know, apply the pressure and the boys will crack
Little accountability in the midfield continues to be Essendon’s Achilles
And as average as the Pies are that’s 1 area they’re good at … pressure
As things stand it’s hard to see where the next win will come from
Torched tonight.
- Our inability to bring any defensive pressure to the ball carrier was the biggest concern
- Our mids outside of Merrett just aren’t defensive enough.
- Our inability to stick a tackle very costly, very frustrating
- clearance work improved
- ball movement still pretty good, very offensive
- Jobe a liability if he isn’t winning clearances.
- Watching Heppel and Jobe and Goddard turn and lumber after opponents in the defensive spread is painful
- Hurley looks to have completely lost confidence, I think he is struggling playing this light.
- hooker get the ■■■■ in front of your man
- Goddard, Colyer, Merrett, Daniher, Tippa, McGrath very good.
Langford spent a bit of time on the ball and didn’t get near it. Was much better up forward
Yep it definitely is the jumper. I hated him at the scum but love watching him now. He is a freak.
That’s been our problem all year, including the JLT. We can’t win quality clearances. When we get the ball off half back we transition really well but good teams like Adelaide just don’t give you much of an opportunity to win it back once it’s down there.
Sadly, unless we fix our clearance problem, we’re making up the numbers this year.
we dont win quality clearances as we have too many in there who cant spread from a contest. They arent suited to the modern game.
Thus - what do we do?
We slingshot - reset the team and get a number or 2 behind the ball, protecting the backline. We then counter with speed and agression as we have the tools to do it.
We need multiple game-plans in any event, but it seems we are hell bent on the knights model.
We have to make serious decisions about serious names at this club. Not convinced woosha wants to do it.
That game was always going to be difficult and is why we needed to beat Carlton.
We played a team that was red hot. They clunked absolutely everything and kicked straight. There’s at least 10 other teams in the comp that would have been spanked by them last night.
Ambrose was fantastic when he went to Tex.
Stanton is a worry. Not sure what he’s meant to be doing. I’d give Bird a run in the team instead just to give some grunt around the stoppages.
Lots of others to talk about but most have been mentioned.
I’m not giving up yet. I think we can beat the Pies…hopefully…maybe.
Let’s put it this way, if we don’t, there’s always more good draft picks at the end of the season.
Our midfield setup needs a radical rethink.
No more than one old tractor at the centre bounce from now on.
Goddard is our best clearance player at the moment. Heppel is probably second best so they should take it in turns. So for the others, these should include players with the best hands and speed, Darcy, Zerret, Tippa, Trav, Pigeon, Fanta, bring in Francis, maybe Bird.
It’s a fkn nightmare watching Goddard, Stanton, hep, Jobe, Kelly try and run the other way. Deadset, they are some of the slowest players inthe game. When teams get the break, we can’t go with them because my nan is faster than them guys
mcgrath on betts is not an obvious move at all. who has mcgrath shut down this year? who has he played on? anyone of bett’s ilk? who in their right mind would play a 4 gamer on betts? baguely is the absolute logical
gleeson has been pretty average if not poor so far this season… you keep him this game and he stinks it up again and everybody would be going “oh hes got photos zomg”… i dont agree with mckenna in, the ■■■■ has he done to deserve it? but gleeson deserved his spell
smack in the side is just no. with a full time ruckman in luenberger (who deserved his spot in the team off the back of a great last season) smacks spot is gone, and theres no way you could play smack against jacobs
Hurley on tex, why is that not a logical devision? Hurley is historically a better defender than ambrose and has done the job on him before, and when it was clear he wasnt going to get the job done ambrose was put on him
Hooker back I agree with
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh don’t mention the Gillon McLaughlin curse out loud.
I thought it was poor umpiring across the board because of continually changing of the rules. And it is. But it is also more than that. We have to find a way to deal with it because we cannot control it and there is no point in ■■■■■■■■ about it. We have to deal with it. Other clubs find loop holes as a way to exploit the rules.
Is one of the most insipidus performers, I’ve ever seen from Esse Don tean ,in the first half 16 tackles and 10 turnovers, cost us about 9 goal. Hurley is not a key position player anymore, he’s a half back flank. Move Hooker back to the backline, they were so loose,didn’t brother to man up on Adelaide, theirs performance was directed by coaching panal and John Worsfold, ourGame Plani is recalcitrant, should be ashamed of themselves they should take a leaf out of McGraths book.Jobs Watson is a shell of a player,he looks disinterested,got no passion,.Time will only tell on,John Worsfold ,as Essen Don coach ,ls John Worsfold in the same mold as Knight,hird
In the presser Woosha noted that Watson was out on his feet in the fourth, I suspect he wasn’t alone amongst the returning players. That is some important context.
Many are asking, why are we not getting the match ups correct? Part of it is that the team is still an unknown quantity. I can’t have been the only one surprised (and impressed) at how well Ambrose went on Tex. Some have said it was ‘obvious’, I disagree. Ambrose was giving away half a foot and at least 10kgs but it turns out Ambrose is continuing to grow as a defender, combining smarts to go along with his work ethic.
Just like last year, it’s going to take Woosha time to get this group cohesive. And like last year we are going to look like a different team in the second half of the season.
Thats because a defender…a damn good one…wish he would just get back there. Hurley looks lost and poor old bags. he was up against a pretty slick operator last night but really needs to stick closer to his opponent
If I put a business perspective on it, then we may be at risk of pushing a tired product on new market conditions.
If I’m positive, then I take the view that a new venture isn’t working out, and we’re better off consolidating our strengths while
we work out our next growth move.
I’d look to send Hooker back because he makes Hurley a better player. I’d go with locking in the midfield combo and then worry about the forwards. But then I’m not a rocket scientist either.
We are seeing glimpses of the good and bad that comes with the territory of a team trying to gel.
We tried to play on our terms in the first half and they played theirs and we lost badly.
Isolating tex and betts was awful for us. Having kelly and McKenna follow their hf into the middle killed us. Our inability to get back after turnovers to support the backs was eye opening to. If it moved quick, our half backs and miss were way to slow. McGrath stood out as he could actually make up the ground.
The glimpses of good came when we don’t turn the ball over. I thought we showed we had some good patterns up forward and again we scored well. Fanta, walla and colyer in the middle seemed good as well. I thought Parish was outstanding.
I think 6 weeks or so is still the measure of where we are at for this year.