The only positive news is the sun will explode in 5 billion years to put us all out of our misery.
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What was the crowd?
92k
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Sorry but gotta disagree with some of these takes.
Prior was garbage Elliott kicked 5 on him and won the game. Poor positioning, poor 1v1.
McGrath was one of our best, blanketing one of the best small forwards in the league.
Jones was absolute garbage. Got a couple cheap touches in the first half which resulted in absolutely nothing. The guy cant even handball 2m.
Hobbs and Durham were in the middle a lot and it didnāt help one bit. Hobbs had a nothing game while Duz tagged Daicos.
Ridley i thought played a great game after qrt time.
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McGraths mistakes are what kill us.
And as for Ridley watch who the scum played through when they got the run on. He gets caught out of position way too often. His first half was good. His second was diabolical.
As for Goldy the bloke is amazing to be playing at 37. Wouldnāt you rather pump games into Vigo now ? He needs to.learn on the job.
Itās the mobility we miss around the ground
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Pies have gone past us
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McGrath was brilliant. Kept Hill to 7 possessions in the wet and beat him countless times. Disappointed we let them get three junk goals at the end but overall Iām happy with the effort. We need to learn to play better wet weather footy.
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I always wanted a midfield of Goldstein, Shiel, Setterfield and Merrett.
Iām just sooooo glad that I got what I wanted!
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Roberts had Elliot as well not all 5 were kicked on prior. Two goals no one couldāve stopped. Prior is also on of the better ball users.
Did well apart from last qtr against a more accomplished team.
Unfortunately loss of Draper made us slower.
Swaping Shiel for Jones didnāt work
now thereās something to fkg meditate on.
Maybe we are in worse shape than it appears.
Sure, one win amongst many losses does not a summer make. If we are hanging our hats on a win 4 years ago then we suck more than I thought
Kicked more than the Lions last week in dry conditions 
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I use to be horrified at the thought of losing the Anzac day game, I guess if there was 92 k there it wont happen but right now I am truly embarrassed to be part of it, its time to share it and move on .
3-3 with a ā ā ā ā percentage. Oh Essendon you could have the most mid table premierships this century
One of the better ball users??? Are you serious??
3 turnovers by him missing simple targets in the 2nd half turned into Collingwood goals
Issue is you couldāve posted this every year for a while and very likely for a while to come.
There is zero evidence we are on the right path, we could be but absolutely no one knows.
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Go and watch the first quarter again, and count all the players who were panicking under elite pressure.
That should tell you how many players need to be traded.
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My notes from the couch where nuffies lieā¦
A few things firstā¦
- Team selection. I donāt see our talls as lumbering types. And the calls to āgo in smallerā would have meant you take out Goldstein, McKay or Caddy. Our other talls donāt play to their height. They are more āmobile tallsā. They certainly arenāt the lumbering talls of yesteryear. I donāt think it affected the result as much as people would think. All three of those players were either required structurally (Goldstein) good (Caddy) or allowed others to perform well (McKay).
- Backline structure. It was very good. Yes, we got beaten in the first quarter because our midfield was overpowered. Newsflash, our backline needs the midfield to put pressure on the player delivering to the forward line. Thereās no other way it functions any better. I thought McKay did his job well enough to allow Ridley and Reid to command the contests in the backline. Again, when the midfield pressure the player delivering, they are both are chance to pick off the ball and get it going our way. I liken this strategy to the way Port use Ratogolea and Aliir to try and stop attacks. Itās just they are doing it up on the wing, weāre doing it closer to goal. I think playing McKay was the right choice, so he wasnāt the tall to drop for an extra āsmall runnerā.
- Midfield matchups. As expected, it was going to be tough to keep them all quiet. We just donāt have the fire power and in all honesty, we were too defensive with the matchups to be able to be able to force them to react to our play.
- Forward line. Itās still a struggle. Caddy played very well. 2MP did what was expected of him. Hobbs was our best small forward even though he played midfield in the last quarter. Our small forwards do a lot of unrewarded running that means their stat sheet looks pretty crap. Regardless, Gresham should be getting more involved in the play than he is.
- What went well? Iām not sure what we did vastly different in the second quarter. We put more pressure on Collingwood, but I also think they dropped off a little bit during that period. We got momentum and they took some time to get the momentum back going their way.
- The game style was going to be more of a contested game style. And we failed the test. Collingwood could turn their contests to outside run. Itās part of their gameplan and is very tough to combat because they have multiple ways to get it going their way depending on the opponent. Long can do it. De Goey can do it. Today it was Sidebottom. And that helped feed Daicos and get him into space. Whenever we won the contest, it wasnāt turning the inside ball into an outside running opportunity. It was more of a hack kick forward. Exactly what Tsatas was doing last weekend in the VFL. That style is okay for VFL, but is tough in AFL because the centre bounce is more isolated contests, so itās more important to get the combinations working together than getting the clearance. The best Iāve seen in the last four years for us is Parish and Merrett. They are the only two that can work well as a combo turning a ground ball get into an outside situation where you can honour a lead. Weāve seen it a few times with Shiel and Durham.
- Our skills were poor again. Itās the main reason why we donāt play fast footy. Do you really want to play more instinctive footy if you canāt trust leading patterns to be honoured or your decision making is shoddy?
- Honouring leading targets. Having said that, we are doing more of this this season than previous years. We arenāt playing a heavy āforward pressā. But that means that errors will be sent to the other end of the field just as frequently. I actually think weāre defending our own turnovers better than last year. The style weāre playing actually helps 2MPās game style more than anyone else in that forward line. Iām not sure if it helps Caddy much, but todayās signs were positive.
- Forward line contested marking. After two years of playing a system to bring the ball down, weāve struggled to replicate that this year. It was mentioned on the broadcast, but there were a few key contests where we needed to bring it to ground as a minimum. Instead they got the intercept and moved it their way. This is going to be tough to fix because this was Draperās strength.
- Goal kicking. Itās been decent this year. Very similar to last year. But Iām expecting it to regress to the mean just like last year later in the year. Letās not sugar coat it, itās keeping us in games. Even against the poor teams like Melbourne and West Coast. The Port game is a bit of an anomaly as there were excessive rushed behinds.
Onto individualsā¦
- Caddy. That was his best game of his short career. Great game, kept working at the contest and eventually got rewarded.
- Duursma did a lot of unrewarded running. The first half was quiet, but his second half was great. This is the norm for wingmen. Massimo is having similar problems. The game style is a particular way that doesnāt quite work for them. Then it opens up later on and they both flourish.
- Setterfield. I still donāt rate him. But he did nothing wrong. He defended well. I didnāt notice him being exposed for pace. And his kicking skills havenāt been a detriment.
- Perkins. Still finds ways to disappear during the game, but I think thatās a product of playing in our forward line. There will be a lot of unrewarded work involved in it.
- Martin. I think heās had a worse year this year. But again, just like Perkins, heās doing a lot of unrewarded running. One thing I notice is that regardless of where heās playing (wing or forward) he does find himself doing heavy defensive running when the opposition are out on a break. I donāt recall him doing this as often prior to 2024. Maybe Iām reminded heavily of him being exposed for positioning against Henry against Freo in 2023.
- Shiel. I think he was injured in the last quarter. We couldnāt find a spot for him in our midfield setup. If weāre playing Durham as a tagger with Setterfield there as well, then itās tough finding time in there for Shiel. Not sure what the injury issue is, but hopefully, he gets a break and we can give Tsatas a shot.
- Harry Jones. Itās getting tougher and tougher to defend him. He would have been the only tall Iād drop if we needed another ārunnerā but he is a decent runner. He just doesnāt get much of the footy. The only positive with him is his tackling is far more consistent this year than previous years. Youād think thatās because heās playing wing, but itās still beating the tackling numbers when he was wing last year. Iād say the coaches like his defensive pressure and are hoping for better offensive input. Heās the inverse of Stringer.
- Zach Reid. Iām loving watching him. We can see why heās prioritised and if he was showing this kind of stuff at training, then the coaches are fine to trust what they see at training. Weirdly, I donāt think heād play as well without McKay there. I think McKay plays lockdown defender and Reid and Ridley are capable of playing on the āthird tallā and create the mismatch in the air. I think they are perfectly fine with the ball on the ground and their kicking is good enough to trust their decision making.
- McGrath. He was okay. He still made mistakes. That quick handball in the third quarter (I think) was not needed. This is why we shouldnāt play on instinct. That moment called for calm, not moving the ball on quickly. Otherwise, he minimised his opponent well.
- Gresham. Heās been poor this year. Heās just not getting the footy. Iām not sure if he fits into our forward line anymore as I think Hobbs is performing that role much better than Gresham is. Hobbs can at least play as an extra midfielder at the contest. Gresham canāt do that and doesnāt offer much as an outside runner. I can see why heās a sub option.
Overallā¦
We did better than I thought. I didnāt think weād reel that 5 goal deficit in the second quarter. But fully expected a response from Collingwood when we did. I never felt we were a chance to win that game even when we got ahead. It was a bit disappointing the way the last quarter went, but they out ran us in every part of the ground. They have far more outside run options than us which means they can get on a downhill ski slope and run away quickly. When we go on our run, itās a slow grind.
Onto next weekā¦
Weāll make injury changes only. Iād be looking for Shiel and Jones to be out. So itāll be interesting if we hold players back from the VFL game tomorrow night given we play on Thursday. Iām hoping we donāt and that we just sit them in the second half or mange them through the game.
If someone is to be dropped, itās Menzie. Hobbs has gone past him and Kako deserves priority. I actually think him as sub doesnāt work for him. We need midfield runner as the sub to provide run, not a forward who can run up the ground, but does his damage (in the very few times it actually occurs) in the forward 50. Just bring in another midfielder and work with Kako, Hobbs and Gresham in the forward line.
Things that need a lot of workā¦
- Midfield / high half forward pressure. I donāt mean putting Durham or Setterfield as defensive players at the centre bounce. Every midfielder needs to commit to putting pressure on their opponent. Regardless of the situation. It is the backbone of our game style and is the key difference between any kind of defensive structure being able to work well and rebound out of the back line. I actually think, weāve been getting better at it. Itās nowhere near as bad as it was under Worsfold, in 2022 or late 2023. I think part of it is better fitness, but also better commitment to the cause. I do think weāll fall short of teams like Collingwood, Hawthorn and Port who when they are up and going have multiple outside run that can break through defensive lines.
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^^ THIS ^^
Conditional footballer who is stealing a (unjustifiably high) wage.
Someone on here reckoned heād heard that Gresham wanted out. Letās farking hope soā¦ donāt let the door smack your arsse on the way out.
Take whatever token pick we can get and runā¦
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