Have the boys even been training?
A lot of the players social media indicating they’re on holidays. Find this a bit concerning considering we’re on the eve of the season.
If that’s the case and they’re this confident the new structures and plan will work, I’m not gonna cop the we need time to gel excuse, when we should be training instilling it into the playing group .
It’s a little concerning.
Great question. Here is another of the same ilk.
Do you even lift Bro?
SMACK will be strutting around like a fkg peacock pointing to the sky
and
you
will
LIKE IT
8th most - Ie 12th “worst” defensively. One of us is confused with negatives.
I think we’re decent with midfield pressure. Top 8, maybe even top 4.
The big question is more about sustaining it. Which is certainly a question. And we’re probably not “there” yet, but we should be getting close to it.
We win on Sunday and this forum will be all frothy and lid offish.
Lose same old…
Lose pathetically. Heads a rollin week 1.
Even before our injuries to Hooker and Daniher, and before our practice runs in the JLT, I thought GWS were a tough gig.
Less about the result and more about how we play in round one for me.
IMO the real gloomers are waaaay worse after reasonably close losses, than when we’re absolutely destroyed.
Particularly on the coaches.
Which is interesting.
It’s a mandated week off for all AFL players at all clubs.
Look, I don’t think we will win. Even if we were in good form, it would still be a huge win for us to get the points, and let’s face it, the little things that give you a good feeling in the lead up to a match haven’t really been there for us.
Having said that, I think our players will probably, deep down, expect to get rolled, and so we could well have one of those situations like the 2018 Geelong or Weagles games where we are so ■■■■-scared that we play out of our skin.
Round 1 is always tricky to pick.
WCE and Pies lost handily in rd1 last year, St K and GC won comfortably.
We knocked off Adelaide.
Crapshoot.
My Guess at the team (and squad of 26)
B: Saad - Ambrose - Francis
HB: Ridley - Hurley - McKenna
C: McGrath - Shiel - Zaharakis
HF: Smith - Brown - Fantasia
F: Tippa - Stringer - McKernan
R: Bellcho - Heppell - Merrett
INT: Parish - Myers - Langford - Guelfi
Emerg: Draper - D Clarke - Baguely - Laverde
Thanks to our pathetic preseason I’m not even anticipating this game.
A##hole club.
I hope you compiled those stats yourself and didn’t get them from CD, or you are dead meat.
Yeah, the Pies were far from convincing early rounds before they turned things around (soft draw). Mind you, their form against top 8 teams during home and away was ordinary too AND they still managed to play in the GF! Eagles after their round 1 loss got on a run with some impressive scalps.
Essendon’s recent round 1 record:
Winning 6 of the last 8 is impressive so form is on Essendon’s side. 2 of those wins happened in the last 3 years so Worsfold knows how to get the boys up.
I feel like that proves the group is often “up” for rd 1 despite the coach.
But yep, we often spark up for rd 1, and I feel like we almost always lose rd 2.
I agree. But GWS will also be buzzing, given their exit last year and the departure of Shiel. Fascinating game.
GWS are gonna be all like Shiel Hepp Merret watching and BAM! Pidge is gonna rip them a new one.
Essendon’s round 2 results are slightly worse than round 1 over the same period. But they have been very competitive…
What recent history suggests is that Essendon will be competitive away to GWS
I must rate GWS higher than most. I can see us losing comfortably on their patch and still having a very good year overall.