No we certainly are not going to get away with that. I just want to see a side that shows up mentally prepared everyweek. A team that plays four quarters of footy. Not just go through the motions and do just enough to win against a week side. I can put up with skill errors.
There is no pacing oneself in footy, you can either play four quarters and run out a game, or you shouldn’t be in the side. We will not be a good side until we can do this
Why is the first 3/4 of today’s game a better indicator of how we might play in finals as opposed to how we have already played against teams currently in the 8?
Its a good point. I would be more confident that the team would show up prepared to play in a finial. But against the team we are expected to beat its a different story. I am not saying the team deliberately does it, I am sure they don’t. Its one of those subconscious type things.
unfortunately today proved not much was learned from the Brisbane debacle. a team with everything to play for fronted up with an arrogant attitude unprepared to work hard defensively and commit to the defensive side of the game. missed tackle after missed tackle, uncontested marks to them in their fwd 50. instead we had guys wanting to run forward of the footy and abandoning the contest.
seeing bellchambers run away from a high contested ball to leave tippa to contest 2 on 1 was shameful.
thankfully the last qtr was an improvement, whether that was a lift from us or a drop off from them i’m not sure.
unless this mob can discover some ruthlessness and killer instinct we are all just kidding ourselves.
time has come to find out what we as a football team stand for, and whether or not we have the guts to make a stand.
We are playing with two KPDs instead of three. Hurley is not tall enough or doesn’t have a big enough leap to punch the ball away from a high marking forward.
When opposition team have two quality forwards and our mids are getting pantsed, suddenly our defense looks ■■■■■.
Hurley is not anywhere close to Rance. Hurls actually makes a good 3rd defender in the way he reads the ball not having to worry about his opponent.
He just looked bad all around today. Couldn’t read the play, looked fumbly and panicky.
We may or may not make the finals but the doomsdayers after a win is a little over the top.
From a training and conditioning standpoint we are most likely in a heavy training phase because we have 2 B2B 8 day breaks and we came up against a team we should beat which would increase risk / reward ratio.
I’m guessing training load is up, fatigue increases and skill errors increase.
I would guess next week may be a challenge and if we get through that I believe our best footy will flow thereafter.
Don’t underestimate training cycles and effect on gameday performances throughout the year.
this game was the twilight zone, I’m watching Bellchambers ruin a Danniher hanger, the weird thing, they’re the only two that flew, weirder, joe cleans up 10 seconds later and kicks the goal at 100th more the difficulty
Seriously I dunno if the whole team dropped right before they went out, but there was some utterly stupid football decisions going on in our players heads
edit: I just saw walla bring down the ball to Hooker who roved a snap
yep, definitely one of the weirdest essendon games ever
Nope he is just good. I think the way he looks makes people think he is a spud. He has kicked alot of goals this year and is a chance for the coleman, playing in an ordinary team.