How many times did Rance actually out-mark Hooker or anyone for that matter. They maintain a defensive setup with him as the key but when they have struggled is when teams don’t let them have free defenders. IF we had kicked it to Hooker/Rance with an even number of other players I believe we could have still won enough contests to kick a winning score. You have to be prepared to have enough forward of the contest or winning the clearance is pointless. We’ve had no answer to the lose defender even when it’s a lesser player than Rance.
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Rance spent considerable portions of the game as a loose man down back.
Not exactly something you’d think we would want to tolerate.
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Agree. I think we should have taken the risk of getting the ball in quickly. But I think there was obvious instructions not to bomb it in. Especially when you count the number of times Myers had the ball in congestion with enough time to hoof the ball forward but chose to handball.
We should have backed in our Key forwards to atleast get the ball to ground.
We just wasted our clearances last night with slow ball movement.
Got up in a bad mood this morning…wife not happy…saw the psychiatrist…childhood ok…root of the problem was Essendon losing last night in such a weak fashion.
Players did not fire up.
Stuffed it up waaaaaay too many times to even put a worried look on the Bitchmond faces.
Frustrating because if we had done what we did the previous 2 weeks we would have really damaged them
It was like there was a wall between something going right for us or not and that wall just could not be broken.
Still have faith for the future but doesn’t take the heart ache away from losing to sh it teams in such a poor manner.
Looking forward to next week to see the effect this had on the players especially Walla. Feel for him. So much pressure on him to do well this round. Missed a real easy shot 10 metres out. Meh.
There was atleast 3 times we kicked to Fanta who was outnumbered 2 to 1 with Rance being the spare
I think that is pretty spot on. It looks quite obvious that when our aggression was on the last two weeks we were as good as anyone. Last night there was no aggression and our whole game was sh it because of it.
Am looking forward to when they get it right consistently.
They believed their own publicity. Won’t happen next week.
Fletcher had them all covered imho
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Publicity? All of been reading on here the last two weeks is people complaining about how the media won’t credit us for winning, more the opposition for losing.
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I’m not really upset and that worries me but I think it is just because it is the same crap in different jumpers most weeks.
Colyer - managed that small window of good performance before the suspension but is back to his early form. Turnover merchant that makes horrible, horrible decisions with the ball.
Myers - Too slow and has been FOREVER… yet still gets a game… why I will never know. offers nothing. Absolutely nothing but more medical bills.
Hooker - saw last week that he can play forward but that is a ‘rare’ performance and surely, surely, surely we have seen enough now to realise we are just ruining another great backmans career (see Hurley, carlise, et al) Right now he is so out of form, he will need several weeks at FB in the VFL before he can come back.
Tactics: You can go round and round discussing it… but it is the SAME problem… put a loose man back (particularly a skilled one like Rance) and we are farked. Like pack up shop, we won’t score stuffed. Woosha is either blind or so stubborn he refuses to acknowledge the obvious. Frustrating to watch.
Our next month could see this very quickly descending into another wasted season. Such a shame too.
Can’t believe it was the same team that dismantled WCE just a week before. It wasnt just the kicking accuracy but the handballing too (either completely missed a target or took the wrong option). I’m a Colyer fan, but last night cringed when he got the ball…it’s a sad night when I’d rather see McKenna with the ball in his hands than TC.
We did well to keep it so tight after getting smashed in the inside 50’s. All the teams have been up and down this year, so hopefully we’ll bounce back from this.
■■■■ i hate Richmond supporters. All ■■■■■■■ game they were complaining about the umpires, crying ball after every ■■■■■■■ tackle. Then at the end of the game the ■■■■ in front of me turns around to try and rub our nose in it. So close to clocking him one in front of his wife and kid until my dad stopped me. Just ■■■■■■■ enjoy your mediocrity and don’t be a ■■■■ about it.
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Lyn1 is that you again?
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We won the contested possession and the clearances?
No, I don’t mean the players are unfit.
What I mean is when you have a (near) world record number of turnovers - most of which were unforced - players who have run hard to position then have to run just as hard the other way to try and retrieve the situation.
When this happens, time after time after time like last night, you simply exhaust yourself.
No one can possibly train for literally turning the ball over every 1-2 minutes, the same a way as a captain in cricket can’t possibly plan a field setting for a bowler who bowls a bad ball every second delivery.
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I think the most disappointing part of this loss was every time I believe this club is just about to turn a corner it just reverts straight back to Essington.
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not sure about the exhaustion part, but it’s plausible.
but this is the area to which alot of people are misjudging the small forwards on last nights game IMO.
For the exact reasons you say, the forwards were in position further afield running back towards goal.
the problem was the turnovers in the middle/around the fwd 50 puts them out of position to defend, hence the 4 tackles inside 50 and looked like richmond defenders were running it out with ease.
I keep saying, it’s as simple as we hit even half the the 67 turnovers last night, we win by 5 goals.
all the problems as to why we didn’t win last night, simply stem from the turnovers, as you say you can’t plan a winning strategy for a mistake by disposal 1 in every 2 possessions it felt, let alone 1-2 mins.
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Anyone have a stat breakdown for forced and unforced turnovers? Curious to know of the 67 how many were under no pressure. I would guess 50%.
This right here.
Seriously when is the last time you have gone into an Essendon game knowing 100% we cannot lose this. You know that feeling in the morning or going to a game where you are so relaxed that the boys will get the job done.
Every ■■■■■■■ week all I worry about leading up to a game and during the game is, when will essinton appear.
Even last week being that far ahead I was still nervous watching them.
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I said this last week.
History says we were going to lose against Richmond after 2 good games in a row. I wish I could say I was surprised by the loss, but I simply was not.
There was an air of arrogance and cockiness last week around the club and supporters. We were believing the hype that was driven by the media of the fact we are good enough to win a premiership.
Until we can deal with the expectation of winning games we are expected to win, we will continue being a middle of the road club.
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