an otherwise amazing thread has been Johned
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Basic Essendon principles are:
1 Essendon kick a point, opposition goes coast to coast for a score most times.
2 Opposition kick a point, Essendon kick long and wide to a congested contest almost every time.
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Yeah, thatās worked a treat for the Giants
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Same thing happened against the Hawks
Senior players organise a zone and hold structure - standard blitz analysis is āall Goddard/Zaka/Hurley/whoever was doing was standing there pointing instead of picking up a man. ā
The difficulty is that zones have to be held but stretched (but not collapsed by chasing a loose guy through it) to cover the attackers without losing the basic structure, and switch to man-on man in deeper defence. As pointed out, we never got that zone in place initially.
Often zines leave a bit more space in the corridor - tempting them to a dangerous kick - but this one was just a case of didnāt get there rather than design.
Close to the contest there are always the competing imperatives to have numbers at the ball while holding structure outside, through the middle of the ground. Too many players sucked in without us winning it means getting torched by the loose guys. Too few at the ball means not winning it much. Itās a fine balance.
Itās a good analysis. Maybe whatās needed is a bit of thought about how we attack in a manner that gives us lots of options to get a goal but assume a good structure once we turn it over- when to start setting up defensively even while we are attacking. Before the first picture in this analysis. Like if you are unlikely to help getting us a goal, or where the state of the game says āletās hope we beat an outnumber further forward, but make sure we have their outlets covered if we donāt (like when Shiel has the ball late vs Dawks). This is where a player or players playing that fat-side (with help to the corridor) defensive role that we at least think they were trying to get Zaka to do last year may be important, and might work ok even if they seldom get the ball - because theyāve denied the easy outlet, and forced it back to the zone on the ball-side line.
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In the preseason we played against Geelong, who overpossessed and switched a lot in defence. Our zone worked very well against that game style.
Fast forward to Port, and they play differently. They adopted the fast attack off half back, via the corridor team that was Worsfolds 2018-2019 trademark.
But our bestrunning half backs are out/gone, we have 2-3 debutants playing, our once great defence has been decimated.
The analysis is excellent. I am sure the coaches have explained it to them in similar terms over the last 5 days.
Even if our players are inexperienced, the coaches are proven, top line coaches, while maybe Truck needs to learn a bit about game day coaching.
I am confident that the coaches can fix this issues, but we will not know if the new players are good enough to enable us to win a final for at least 1, more likely 2 seasons
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And for that time when they donāt:
2b ā¦ Essendon has a dinky kick to the back pocket who then kicks long and wide to a congested contest at HBF.
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we dont even use the space after a behind to get the ball down the ground we go sideways ā¦
opposition team will always allow a short sideways kick then the cut off the switch and outnumber down the lineā¦
Least they are eating well I guess.
Awesome thread.
Well done 
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That worked well for Cameron
Great idea. The giants are an unstoppable force because of it
Reckon John takes pleasure completely derailing threads.
I was enjoying this thread
Iāve used the nut job ignore button.
Thereās no point engaging with a few.
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we need to put more players like Redman in the guts ,someone is not afraid to put his head over the ball look at Richmond, who play in the centre square Jack Graham tough as nails, Dustin Martin, their ruckman, you could say that to any of our players
We have all seen now the diabotical backline set up from the view from the behind the goals, it wouldnāt happen if our midfields were controlling the ball in a centre ,they have become lazy,afraid ,scared to put their head over the ball, the last 2 games in the second half teams have kicked 10 goals ,that reason why weāre getting obliterated in the Centre square, when they havenāt got the ball thereās no defensive effort
It needs someone (probably the senior players) having a heads up view, but also all players need to be aware of the numbers at all times
I think weāre falling down in both areas.
Yeah, we definitely lack for players with an uncompromising approach to attacking the ball. Hird was really big on this and wasnāt afraid to call out players for being soft.
Itās a non negotiable for good teams but we really struggle to set standards in this regard. Iām not sure about redman in the middle but I certainly want him up around half the forward line for this reason. We really need to find players to set the standard and lead by example.
Caldwell really stands out in our midfield for the way he approaches the pill. Really itās an indictment on the rest of them that a guy with less than 10 games to his name can show them up so badly in this area of the game.
Itās a shame will hams didnāt weigh an extra 20kgs.
Iād love a couple of Johnsons in this team to lead the way.
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All the zone defence issues of when to guard space, when to hold back or go, when to follow a man and when to hold your position, lead to hesitation, and hesitation is disastrous.
There needs to be some instinctive attack on the football combined with smart holding of position in a zone defence, and it is the balance that is lacking. To some extent, experience in the same system matters, but to some extent, natural football smarts are inbuilt or not.
I personally was hopeless playing back (way before zones were even thought of) because I had no idea when to hang back with my man and when to just attack the ball. Our whole team seems to struggle with it.
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Wouldnāt we all?
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