And from his post match interview it was clear he was doing it as a club-sanctioned “fark you” to the AFL.
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Some of the passes to our leading forwards was pretty good in this game. IMO, it must give the midfield players a lot of confidence if they know they have a teammate in the forward line who is a pretty good mark. i.e. 2MP + Caddy.
Qualifying Note: I have only watched this replay to 3/4 time.
I’ve tried to write a response to this multiple times and had different ways of responding each time.
I don’t want to go into it too much because it’ll be a long essay that challenges the Lord of the Rings books with a lot of ranting about sports fan discourse, the simplistic nature of discussion (we don’t have a plan B, we can’t develop, we have no idea, etc) and separating the difference between opinion and probabilities so I’ve touched on some of it, but tried to minimise it.
You’ve actually stated the premise of what most of my response was about though.
If you have a plan and you give it to people who lack the skillset but have the experience, people you rely on to do a decent job but cannot do it because they physically cannot and people who are still learning, developing and trying to figure out where they fit in on the plan, do you think you’ll be able to see the plan in it’s best view to be able to judge it? Do you expect improvement from week to week, or is it more month to month or more year to year?
Everyone will have a different answer. And there’ll be the, ‘we’ve had 20 years’ emotional response or the ‘he’s had two years’ emotional response filtered in amongst it. I get it. It’s frustrating. I’ve lived it too. But ranting and raving on an internet forum doesn’t change where we’re at.
This part of Saladin’s post is pretty much where I am with it. And I’m fine with it.
Another factor at play is does the way the game is played look like absolute garbage? If you just watched Essendon and no other games (like I did for the majority of last decade), my reference point was the mid 80s, 1993 or 2000. We are garbage compared to that reference point.
Bring that in further, the last 3 or 4 years, I’ve made a concerted effort to watch other games (actually watch them, not have them in the background while reading the Blitz non Essendon game thread). A high majority of games look like garbage too. There are times when it’s great, but mostly both teams are stopping the opposition from doing what they want to do, then attacking off the back of that. A lot of games are arm wrestles. The game is over coached, players are capable of covering far more ground than ever before and it’s as much of a running game as it is a kicking game. I remember hearing that Nathan Buckley did 12km of running in a game and thought that was crazy. Twenty years on and 2MP does that as a forward on his worst days (and that was three years ago, I’d say he’s doing more now). That’s in less game time. With less rest. It’s a heavily defensive game. Almost every team has a defensive first mindset attached to whatever gameplan they are trying to achieve. I always point to Collingwood in 2023 who were celebrated for taking on risk during the year and continually running through the middle of the ground, etc, etc. It looked fantastic. When finals came around, they played a hard nosed defensive, contest to contest game. If you weren’t looking at the score, you’d think that was garbage compared to the 90s or our 2000 team. They won their finals by 7 points, 1 point and 4 points. They did a lot right and tilted many things into their favour. A lot could have gone wrong and a lot could have right. Unfortunately, back to absolute garbage game plans, that prick Wallace with his flood has changed the way the game is played after an extreme tactic and now that style is played by every team. Because it’s more likely to work and has more margin for error than going head to head against the opposition like most teams did before that time. Sydney have been successful across time and Geelong under Scott have also been successful by balancing back towards that defensive game style.
Everyone will have their own opinion of whether it looks like garbage and is swayed by their own reference points. That’s perfectly fine. When it’s on repeat every day/week in every thread it becomes incredibly tiresome to read.
For me, I’m fine with a defensive first gameplan. We’ve lacked that for 20+ years. So we should be focussing on that because it gives us a better chance to compete than not doing that. And it should be the backbone of whatever we do. It’s what every other club has and does far better than we do across time. We’re still playing catchup with this aspect. And it should take time because it’s not something we’ve naturally good at or has naturally been ingrained in us. We’ve traditionally (80s and 90s) leaned towards relying on talent with some of that defensive grit infused in there.
The offensive part of our gameplan is a frustrating watch, but we have a forward line of 2MP (who is playing a different role to what he was doing a few years ago), Caddy (who is developing and will fluctuate in form), Kako (developing and will fluctuate in form), Langford (who has a vastly different role now that most people don’t appreciate), Perkins (obviously struggling for form), Hobbs (I think he’s doing well for what I expect of him as a forward), Gresham (not fitting in at all) and Guelfi (injured more often than not, but is a great fit) with Menzie, ADW, Martin (who we use to plug other gaps) and Durham (who is great as a high half forward, can be on the ball and can also play on the wing). And that’s before you get to Draper (who was fitting in) and May (who looks to be fitting in). Do you expect that forward line to be consistent and good enough to stop whatever the opposition is trying to do to stop them? And that’s before we get to our shoddy skills and decision making through the midfield, let alone the gameplan, or style of play.
I’m more disappointed in our midfield than any other zone. The fact is, they are a key reason why the backline and forward line struggles. Their ability to pressure the kick into our backline makes a massive difference to how effective the backline is. And that’s a large reason why a fantastic and disciplined midfield can make a terrible backline function well. West Coast in 2015 is a great example of this. It can also make a crappy forward line look dangerous. The West Coast 2005ish teams are a great example of making Quentin Lynch and Ashley Hansen be dangerous options. Whilst I rag on our midfield, they have improved across the season. But the overall results of the team are still as poor as previous years. So most of that goes unnoticed.
The backline has been reformed. And through the year, we’ve dealt with injuries that has thrown out the balance of it. It has been so bad, we were playing Redman on a key forward. On the weekend we played Pryor on Jed Walter. That’s not the preferred matchup, but the options we have at hand aren’t great. You can’t expect the backline we play to instantly gel, handover opponents and deal with the number of inside 50s that we give up, without giving it time.
It’ll take time to deal with the decisions we’ve made over a long period of time. And I have no interest in going through them, where it began, who did what, who has more blame, etc. It makes no difference to the situation at hand right now. I don’t know how much time it’ll take or whether it’ll be successful. Neither do the club. If they could forecast the future I’d want Tattslotto numbers, not when our next premiership window is. All they can do is build towards a premiership. And whatever comes from it, comes from it. That’s sport. It could take another 3 years, it could be 5, it could be 10, it could take 20 or it could very well be 50 years. If that’s not the answer people are looking for, then find something better to do with your time whilst that is occurring. More likely than not, we’ll sack Scott and change direction (whether that’s marginally or greatly is anyone’s guess) before we get to see the results of where this going. That’s sport. A very good percentage of coaches are sacked (or contract left to run). That’s probabilities, not opinion. It doesn’t mean that it will happen and doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
As far as Scott himself during his time, I always bring myself back to what the terms were around his appointment. It was ‘to get more out of this list’. And he showed them what ‘getting more out of this list’ looked like. Like it or not, that was his job. If people don’t like that direction, then do something active about it. Put up a board challenge. It’s never been easier to do. Even nuffie Richmond supporters had enough of a backbone to do it. And be ridiculed for it. Otherwise just accept that’s the direction we’re going or do something else with your time.
Basically…
tldr…
If you think the way we play is garbage, then don’t watch it. Nobody is forcing anyone to watch garbage. If you want to rant and rave on an internet forum because it makes you feel better (or because you want to be ‘right’) then so be it. No one is obligated to read it, nor is anyone obligated to engage in discussion about it.
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I was disappointed at 3 quarter time that we were going to do something stupid, like win. The last quarter was a relief.