I too was pretty disappointed with our selection but I think you are a bit over the top here. Nothing to suggest that McG isn’t going to become a fine player for us… eventually.
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JLT ‘practice’ games are no tackle no bruises no pressure no getting reported stuff. Nearly all of them have teams just playing one good half. I find them nearly unwatchable.
Bring on the real thing.
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Poor second half. But whilst I always want to win, I don’t really care that we lost all 3 pre-season games. The pleasing thing for me is that finally our forward line looks dangerous. We’ve struggled to kick decent scores from dominant F50 entries for what feels like forever. This pre-season we’ve been one of the most efficient in creating scoring opportunities from entries and that will be massive for us if we can maintain it in the season proper.
The players who are rusty will get better as the season goes on, we’ll start winning more clearances. That’s when we’ll really start to appreciate these changes.
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I would argue they’re important for a lot of testing positions, tactics, players, and game plans, not necessarily important for winning. Certainly more than cobweb blowing, but less than bringing home the win. No excuses for yet another fade out, it’s not ideal, but the cost of losing is not great in preseason. We can start worrying if we enter May winless.
I think we will win round 1
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I don’t think it can be understated how much geelong wanted to win that. Maybe we stung their pride. Or maybe it’s just a coach / player thing that they just can’t accept losing even in a praccy match. Dangerwood didn’t need to play out the game, their form is fine, yet they did.
And maybe that killer instinct is what is keeping them at the top. And it’s something we need to get for us to progress.
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Who l e game reminded me of the 1993 Preliminary where Adelaide didn’t pace themselves and ran themselves into the ground in the first half building up a good lead and only scored two goals in the second half.
We’ve been having these fadeouts for years. It’s a question of how much time we can manage to play well for. It’s not worrying so much as a frustrating continuation.
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100% agree. Laconic is a word thats been used to describe Essendon players for a generation.
By that same rationale, why would you be that upset with the 2nd half?
And then there is also Goddard, Howlett, Bird and Hocking - too many snails
If Essendon enter May winless it will mean they are 0/6 - well past the time to “start” worrying I suggest. More the time to consider the possibility of back-to-back wooden spoons
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I think it’s gonna take about 6 rounds before we know where we’re at. Unfortunately, there’s a large possibility this season may be a foregone conclusion by the time we find our mojo. I’m prepared for that, as much as it’d suck. Fingers crossed we click for four quarters as soon as possible.
Edit: yeah, reading back, “start worrying” was not the right choice of words. “Lose our collective bundles” may have been more accurate.
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I don’t buy the it’ll take a while to click. It’s all a unknown
If we beat hawthorn, we the play the two worst sides in the game. Brisbane and Carlton, who I think we will beat comfortably. That gives us a 3-0 start
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Seeing Ambrose in the ruck yesterday, however briefly, brought back memories of the horror that was the 2015 season.
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Bellchambers has historically been … not exactly scintillating when playing under and injury/fitness cloud. And taking Daniher from the forward line is like putting Grange in your pasta sauce.
Ruck is going to be a weakness until Leuenberger gets back, I think we just have to accept that and hope that Good Smack shows up.
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Right on.
People said I was over reacting in my response to JLT1, but I was staggered the team didn’t have more fight. We’ve all been saying how hard it is to pick the best 22 - here was a chance to grab a spot. We won 3 games last year, and finished 15th the year before - here was a chance at a win. We’ve been slaughtered by the saga - here is a chance to start hitting back.
But we got bupkis. It’s been a worrying preseason.
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I fully expected us not be able to run out games with the returning players lacking in any real match fitness. Three games will hopefully be enough but in all honesty, even that’s a big ask realistically.
The only thing to take from pre season besides the injuries and fitness is that we seem to be potent up forward.
Everything else is still a merry go round and I’m not really any clearer on who plays and who doesn’t.
That’s it for me.
Actually losing the second half isn’t really killing me either like some here. A switched on Geelong against us with no real ruck should win the half. Especially as they started kicking straight.
What worried me were certain signs that built on others in previous matches/seasons.
- We couldn’t stop Danger.
- We couldn’t get near a clearance in Q3
- We put a man behind and broke down our ability to go forward.
- Hurley and Bags performance in H2 was very worrisome. And why Worsfold didn’t try anyone else on Hawkins.
- A number of passengers.
- Stanton and Heppell’s games, and some elements of Jobes.
I did like how we fought back in Q4, and if not for Bags losing a number of one-on-one contests might have won it.
We lost the hit outs 24-63… Was that worth 3 goals, probably.
(Clearances was near even, I’d love to see a breakdown of when and where they happened though.)
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