Positive:
We won by 5 goals
Kicked 20 goals
Won ugly
Negatives
Played a team who is pretty average (disregarding they are 17th) and they “rested” their best player and best defender
Anyway, 4 points. Hope we improve next week
I have us finishing in the 8 on percentage only. That’s dropping only the Crows game. On today’s form, that may be a little optimistic. Also relies on Melb, Tigers, Sydney, PA WCE win/lose on current form.
So because we’ve dropped games we should have won/ were winning we’ll be relying on every result and margin going our way.
This is why our unreliability hurts so much and why some can’t be happy with ‘just the four points’.
For now I’m sitting in the ‘at least we have a chance’ box.
All the experts have us losing to the Dogs next week (and still making the final 8 mind you) - I think that’s the kind of game we’ll win. That and they don’t have a tall forward line (hello weakness. Waite and Brown were hard for us to deal with)
Drab and predictable Essington.
Anyone that honestly believes we’ll be a threat during finals should watch the ■■■■ dished out during the first 3 quarters.
6 Likes
We will trounce Adelaide.
2 Likes
A ball of wet, hot garbage for the entire first half and periods of the third quarter. Certainly will give credit where it is due for pretty much dominating the clearances in the last, but so much of this game was just so much of the same old, same old…this was always going to be a tense match because of these factors… are we ever gonna get over this hoodoo that keeps us from winning three weeks in a row; are we ever gonna play in a fairly umpired game; are we ever gonna switch on against a bottom side or against an opponent that routinely farks up our season for the better part of a decade and a half? You can see that there is plenty of angst to go around in the match thread and yeah, some of us are a jaded, cynical bunch these days, but when you’ve seen what seems like literally the same match replay itself dozens of times over a period of 15 years, then yeah, you expect to see things come together to sabotage it, ESPECIALLY when you get a vintage Troy Pannell reaming.
I don’t know what it is about this opponent that draws out our absolute worst again and again and again, but I felt like the talent differential enough should have at least accounted for most of it this time… North is a side that lifts against Essendon and so many times, Essendon doesn’t seem interested in matching the effort. Early on it certainly looked like the case again… I think later in the game it was better but there was still some woefully atrocious play all the same.
Defensively I thought it was among our worst games this year… Hurley got absolutely trashed and pretty much nobody else could contain Brown (understandable) or Waite (much less so). So many other times there were half-arsed attempts at tackles, spoils, shepherds… of course those things all got better when we had our ascendancy.
I still don’t really know entirely what these guys are or where they are going… ultimately I think things on the right trajectory but I still think the mental state of these players are very fragile (again, understandable) and are working to improve that, but some of the old habits are dying hard.
This was a very good time to face North, considering the state of everything. Probably exactly the opponent we needed because of the history of season-derailing losses and the ever so frustrating and recurring mental test of being a heavy favorite over a depleted but plucky bottom four dweller and our tendency to play down to said opponent with remarkable predictability and frequency.
Chalk this one up as another building block despite all the ugliness… a few minor lingering demons have been temporarily quashed.
5 Likes
Letting them kick 16 is.
13 Likes
Agree again.
Pannell & Fisher should not have fking done that.
5 Likes
But you got 4 wankers,sorry, 5 now, to reply.
Cheer up old mate, lets win ugly and take the 4 points.
Go the Dons!
And that’s exactly the reason why if they can hold their nerve and sneak in, we might actually do some damage in finals.
Underdog in all games, hunting the other team, going for broke, less expectation. Key elements before all of the beltings we have given some of the more fancied teams ahead of us.
It’s just crazy.
1 Like
I think it’s actually a guy with a defensive bent and reasonable pace, (not a Heath Hocking type) who is the missing link.
I don’t rate Bird, but I don’t disagree the balance looked better last week with him in the mix.
Zerrett is our only main mid who you would say is really good defensively. Heppell and Watson are pretty poor, Goddard and Myers try hard but are pretty slow and the rest (Parish Zaha Colyer etc) are middle of the road.
Part of why I don’t know if D Martin would be that great in our mix. IMO he’s one more guy who can be very inconsistent defensively.
I know north have a pissant supporter base but wtf, they wouldn’t have had more than a couple of thousand there and that’s being generous.
Take the 4 points and move on
2 Likes
Haven’t seen it yet. Heard most of the first in the car. Was playing mini golf with the young one for most of the second half and checking the scores. Glad I didn’t make a scene with the putter as we kicked away in the last.
20 goals 10 behinds. That’s a great score!
Worked hard, probably could’ve played better in first half. But 20.10 is a awesome result. Weekend is looking better. Bombers in 8. Match of the round coming up soon with Crows in 3 weeks time. 4th highest scoring team - the other 3 are in top 4.
Lots of upside.
Get around the team. Go Bombers.
10 Likes
Crows are far better than us.
I think we will belt the Dogs next week though
Majak killed us in the ruck. We scored a lot of goals when he was being rested. I would have rucked Daniher against him after half time.
2 Likes
Hey, the Dons won- at least you can drown your sorrows.
Not in the last qtr.
1 Like
“He should react and make moves!! But also not be reactionary!”
Do you wear Velcro shoes?
2 Likes
Both true.