It wasnt so long ago that the pies were a complete rabble and the coach was on the verge of being sacked. Same with Richmond.
Sydney, Hawthorn and Geelong were good at the right time with the compromised drafts and FA introduction.
We are a long way off “it” at present and this is reflected by our ladder standing. But we are “not that far off” if the team commits to a level of work ethic required.
Honest question.
Can someone explain to me how the rucking infringement thingy works? Happens often in the centre square and I never see either ruckman doing anything wrong and I never see any of them paid our way.
Or Carlton
They make it up as they go along
Insipid kicking game. Too many times he took too long to make decisions which resulted in hurried kicks that at best went to 50/50 contests. I’m over hime and would trade him out of the side for an early second rounder. Don’t understand all the Hurley hype at all.
We said. Went to the game, hurt we lost, but pride in the effort. Especially low on rotations, our B&F from last year out, along with Zaka, Fanta.
I’m as frustrated as anyone else at the ground, watching the game.
The umpiring in the first half prevented us having a 3+ goal lead at half time.
Ambrose down 40 minutes into the game would consign us to a very high likelihood for a loss due to a lack of rotation - then both Myers and Stringer spent almost of the second half injured and trying to stay out there. We looked dead on our feet and this allowed Pendelbury and co to waltz out of the centre.
Ambrose loss caused structural issues too as he is actually the ideal physical match-up for De Goey. It forced McKenna to full back on De Goey for a period which did not make sense - if De Goey is playing out of the goal square, Hurley had to go to him. McKenna going full back meant Guelfi - who was good all day and simply outstanding in Q4 - had to leave the midfield and go to HB. Guelfi is an inspired pick and seems to get better with every game. He does the basics well and always puts his head over the ball. Hats off to Dodoro and the recruiting staff for picking him.
We have been destroyed by virtually one-sided umpiring 3 games straight and the club needs to make some public comment like this. I’ve never seen a team lose umpiring 17-33 (WCE), 11-21 (NM) and 17-27 (Pies) in 3 consecutive weeks playing as well as we have. Collingwood had a monumental 18 free kicks at HT which was only 10 short of their score.
We can’t control injuries (would love just one “big” MCG game where we don’t lose 1-2 players before HT) or umpires but we can control team selection, coaching decisions and decision-making/skill errors.
Dea out made sense as he cannot go with a Stevenson or De Goey and Hurley can cover Mihocek. McNiece offered little today by way of run (at least he wasn’t putrid like was against Melbourne). With inclement weather forecast a Clarke or Mutch in and Guelfi to HB (where, due to injures , he ended up) would have made more sense and rewarded players with superior form.
Up forward McKernan was wasteful but caused his opponent headache and Brown useful. We missed Fantasia’s skill.
Father Time is rapidly catching Goddard and he looked sluggish again today and made poor decisions (e.g. spotting, but ignoring, Baguley out wide for an easy pass at HB and handballing instead to Long up the corridor surrounded by opponents…who proceeded to try and do too much instead of simply kicking the ball wide to space. He repeated the error in Q4 to gift Adams a goal. But Long wasn’t half bad and he had some impact; unlike Colyer who played like someone after a long layoff.
Injuries and umpiring conspired us to lose by 16 points in the end against the second top team after being in a winning position early in Q4.
To put things in perspective: since we turned the corner, we are 5-2 playing nearly all the teams above us except Brisbane. The 2 losses are against the top 2 teams in the comp and today’s was a strange loss as nothing went our way injury or umpiring wise. Our early season malaise will cost us a Top 8 spot.
The test next week is bring the right intensity and attitude to a young, inexperienced Gold Coast side who will probably lose May to suspension (hit Higgins) which robs them of both bookends.
While the effort was good we still lost a loss should never be accpeted.
You mean when we don’t have three down due to injury and miss massive rotation as well as affecting the structure? Also you mean when the umps give us the same ride they give Collingwood?
Maybe learn to watch the game instead of having a cheap shot at the club like a 15 year old teenage boy whose mum won’t let him go out for 5 minutes.
We had the kents on toast in the 3rd our insipid 3rd qrts cost us again
No it didn’t. Now you are just being silly.
Honestly Im still abit in shock our season just went up in flames.
That happened when Carlton beat us
2 THE KINGS IN THE MIDDLE
There was Pendlebury, there was Steele Sidebottom and there was Brodie Grundy. Pendlebury had 67 ranking points, Sidebottom 57 ranking points and 12 disposals and Grundy 52 ranking points, four disposals and six hitouts- to-advantage. What was Essendon doing to combat them? Devon Smith had six disposals, Zach Merrett seven and Dyson Heppell five and, although the margin was only 16 points at the end, the Bombers couldn’t stop their opponents or score themselves. It was an incredibly disappointing final 30 minutes for the Dons.
Hard to disagree with Robbo
Sounded like that Smack miss really deflated the team. Think it would have put us 14 points up in the third and we had them on the ropes but instead they got the next 2 for memory
That was my first smile for about 5 hrs. Thank you.
Sadly our season was shot a month or two back when we lost to Fark Carlton and several other bad ones. We left ourselves too much too do in the second half of the season
When they pay a blocking free against the ruck because the ump ■■■■■■ up the bounce.
And they pay a free to one ruckman when they’re holding each other. Or two players holding each other.
Don’t pay a ■■■■■■■ free.
Pies looked spent and fumbly
Why is it we always seem to cop injuries when we play Collingwood?