I take a lot of encouragement from last night, they couldn’t put us away and given how poorly we defended in the back half that shows some real back bone.
Our mids were pretty ferocious in the contest and we fought like hell in the front half.
We were just too clumsy and ineffectual in key moments to take serious advantage of many of our contest wins.
Their defence stood up and showed backbone where ours looked down right embarrassing.
For once, I put this loss mostly on their shoulders, their lack of accountability and their effort. They looked meek, timid and completed outclassed.
Hell Chol looked liked a contested beast. …. Wtf
TBH, I was surprised by that.
I thought our back 6 was one of the best we have put out there.
They lowered their colours and embarrassed themselves.
I hate to say it but Heppel/Kelly/LaVerde/Hind would have shown more determined resistance.
But all is not lost, the Defence can only get better and if it doesn’t we will be screwed.
I believe the fumbly, clumsy … to quote Paul Simon “slip sliding away” stuff will not be a recurrent thing and I am prepared to accept that as Round one assimilation into the real stuff.
The opposition had an advantage there having already played their round 1.
He mentioned how we got cut up on transistion and we need to do better
Fark me its the same crap i keep hearing every year when is it going to get fixed im sick and tired of hearing how they need to do better on transition
I said to my bomber mate that I would probably accept a 25-30 point loss this week, and thats what happened.
Its not the worst result in the world, especially considering what happened after quarter time and the umpires absolutely demolishing us. They kicked 5 or 6 goals from direct free kicks and more than half of them were the wrong call.
So overall not a terrible result, but there is still so many alarming things that we do for a team in its third year under the same coach.
Redman as a midfielder, while Hobbs played small forward and Gresham was the sub was just bewildering. People in footy need to call that out, because thats just terrible coaching. A big reason for the move is to fit Shiel in at half back, which thank god everyone on here can now see is a disaster.
You can get away with being soft as a half backer but you cant play that position if you’re also extremely unaccountable and cant kick the ball. Everyone in the afl world asks why we cant defend, the biggest reason is because of how often we turn the ball over coming out of the back half. We force a turnover or win a contest and our players flood forward (as every other good clubs do) and we turn it over and get caught out.
100% our biggest need moving forward is good users of the ball in defense. For me, Merrett needs to play Shiels role moving forward and sacrifice his game for the team. Play tight man on man defense and then use the ball as he does moving forward. Bring in SeH for Prior if he has another stinker.
To not be all doom and gloom, Jye Caldwell is an unbelievably good player, and still only 24. He genuinely can be one of the 10 best midfielders in the competition if he continues to grow. His balance of speed, willingness to tackle and ferocity at the ball is not common.
Durham can also take a similar step, I truly believe Parish shouldnt just walk back into this team anymore. These 2 need to be moved into the leadership group asap, I dont care if they cant talk corporate like Pidge, on the field they are our two biggest leaders with how they go about it. We are so lucky to have them both and both under 25 years old.
Perkins was another big tick for me, highest rated player on the ground his second half was elite. Hopefully he can take that next step now and produce this more often this year. He has the ability he just needs to match that with consistency.
Kako will be a star, Roberts will be a very good piece.
Tsatas and Reid had stinkers but we have to be patient with them as a fan base.
This year we have to find out which of Tsatas or Hobbs we will move forward with, and use the other in a trade to bring in someone with good foot skills.
Its very hard to not get caught in transition because of the players we have kicking the ball out of defense.
We either need to drop those players and move pieces around (the best idea imo) or completely change the way we play, which is tough because most good teams now use transition football to score.
There’s a common theme among fans accepting the result on the basis that Hawthorn are better. Disagree all you want, but this is the foundation for mediocrity.
There was an effort from Reid on Chol that was really soft bacisly just stood next to him and let him mark it easily didnt look like he made a contest.
I dont care how many games he’s played he needs to stamp those type of efforts quickly he’s not a first year draftee anymore
So let me get this right, you won’t throw leeway to a player who’s only played a total of 10 games due to being plagued with injuries, but you’ll give Brad Scott endeless support regardless of what he does and doesn’t do?
Flag favourites will win most games, in the main they are better than their opponent… fact! Essendon fought on valiantly but just weren’t good enough to bridge the gap… not an admission of mediocrity.
He only kicked it 3 times last night and only one of them was bad. One of his kicks was actually really good, low and fast and split the needle in a small gap.
It’s only a fact if you can measure it; and the reality is it’s only round 1. If that’s the pinnacle, then apparently we’re not far behind - and I know that to be bs.
Well i didnt say he was great , but I thouhgt he was OK, Its a nerw position for him, his DE wasnt great but he got a reasonable amount of it, he was about half way in the ranking for the team, so I think that passes as sort of OK.
If you want to hate on him just because, that is ok too. He is high on the list whipping boys at Essendon, which is fine, I am more worried about Mackay to be honest.His last few games last year he did some very odd things , and I thought his look and effort was woeful last night. More than a few very weak to non efforts to spoil worried me a lot
I guess that is the angry parent in me, sometimes you only see the negatives.
I do believe he has taken a step up in his physicality and presence at the contest.
He is no easy beat, and is well worth having in there as a brother at arms and his ball disposal by hand under pressure is noteworthy.
Hawks were very good last nite, I dislike them so much but cant deny how good they were to elveate their game whenever we challenged them, which we had a really good crak at them several times, and each time they found a way to get back on top.
They had the round zero game too which would have also been a huge advantage