What's gone wrong

[Speedy_Gonzales]

Woosha needing to rely so much on others for strategy / game plan & the club putting those around him not even remotely up to it. Our coaching group is an embarrassment compared to other sides.

Lost his good friend and experienced right hand man who was a motivator & energetic person.

Kerr - “I would like to thank Guy for his service to the Club, as well as bringing his football knowledge and strong work ethic to the table, he has added to the spirit and morale of the Club with his enthusiastic and positive nature"

McKenna pushed out. Proven failure in Neeld effectively now in charge of the performance of whole team & devising midfield strategy & Skipworth switched to mids. Corrigan to fwds.

Utter disaster of a move post a coaching review which should have improved our situation if a change even had to be made. IMO it didn’t.

Confusion, in fighting & now lack of confidence in the playing group. Can guarantee players don’t like Neeld, believe in what he is saying or like how he delivers his messages compared to McKenna. Nor does Skipworth carry any credibility either.

The combination of that which now means terrible ball movement and lack of inside 50’s in combination with Stringer not being capable of more midfield time (which we needed post Jobe) = defence under pump and Hooker back out of necessity.

Our successful fwd structure impacted significantly by no Hooker who was THE reason it was all working over last few years - allowed more freedom for Joe, always gave contest for our smalls, was always a bail out option up ahead which is no longer. Did not lose contests ever, JD loses most.

Then not only Hooker missing but all of our smalls are either out or not in form. Fwd 50 tackles/ pressure lacking and not keeping ball in.

Gleeson out also hurting us. Intercepts and his taking the game on and neat ball use missing. Kelly as well who was in the right spots always and made right decisions more often than not.

Ball use & decision making across all our team including experienced senior players is at Dingley 3rds standard. Cannot get chains of play happening as continually miss easy targets or do not deliver the footy in such a way to make it simple for team mate to take & retain possession.

It’s laziness & dumb footy, and not good enough for supposed professional footballers. Take care with disposal, farking think before disposing.

If you have the footy then the opposition can’t score & more likely to score yourself so stop farking it up and giving back to them so often. And stop botching our own clear scoring opportunities which includes set shots also.

Our season is done, forget 2018.

Look forward to the kids getting more games this year, better picks in a strong draft, addressing our midfield weakness via trade, & complete clean out of assistants.

2019 it is. Maybe it always was.

[Johnny_Mac05]

While Jobe was a shadow of himself he still had the highest number of centre clearances (53) and highest average clearances (4.8) of any Essendon player in 2017. He hasnt effectively been replaced. You also wonder whether the absence of Jobe has also put more focus / pressure on Merrett leading to a downturn in his effectiveness.

Been thinking about why things have gone completely pear shaped compared to last year. I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list.

• the backline has gone through a very big change. Initially Gleeson, Kelly and McGrath were all out of their for a variety of reasons. I think I’ve perhaps underestimated the importance of Gleeson and Kelly last year. All 3 reliably win contests and use the ball quickly and and aggressively. They were key components of our quick transition. Saad is winning contests but his first option is to run not kick low and hard to a 45. Zerret has also been denied ball at half back and Hurley just doesn’t seem to hurt by foot atm. I do wonder how much this has upset the positioning of the forwards who are getting caught too far up the ground, leading for that quick kick which isn’t coming perhaps

Also we have no small pressure forwards. Raz, Begley and Green all injured. Walla playing on one leg / might as well be based on form. I don’t know any team who could put on forward half pressure with 2 of their 3 small forwards out injured, the first replacement injured and the only one on the park playing horrible. Everyone keeps talking about repeat forward entries and locking it in. We have no healthy cattle left to do that. I’m sure this would have been apart of Worstfolds game plan however I’m tipping he couldn’t have predicted the impact the changes to line up have had.

But they’re all excuses and this is a huge part of what’s been wrong with the club. So I guess this:

What’s gone wrong?

The season started.

[Humbert_Humbert]

1 Teams are clogging up the corridor, forcing us to overuse and go wide. Also has the benefit of starving Zac of the ball.

I don’t know why this is an issue. If thats the case, long kick forward down the line to our big contest marking talls. Play crash and bash footy. We can mark it or bring to ground, collapse down hard on the contest, get any of ball up, out of bounds or tackle for free kick. Move the zone up, reset and go from there. Play it like an NFL game.

In fact, given our talls, that’s probably a better game style for us than trying to be flashy picking targets.

Also gives us a plan B when plan A through the corridor fails.

I tend to agree. I’m a fan of the “Mark Viduka strategy” - tell a big strong body to stay put at centre half forward, providing a long option. This body used to be Hooker, now it could be Stewart. When we get into the situation where we’re bottled up at halfback or in the centre corridor, as happened time and again on Saturday, the runners (Conor, Walla, Parish, even Saad) are under instructions to break forward and the ball carrier (Hurley / Goddard / Heppell / Zerrett / whoever) puts it long towards Stewart, whose instructions are to either mark it or bring it to ground.

I know this sort of thing isn’t seen as “pure” football because you’re not keeping clean possession - kicking to a one-on-two contest in the forward line and relying on the cavalry to arrive on time, but it enabled the Socceroos to punch above their weight for a long time.

[Brasha]

The coach is what’s gone wrong. He doesn’t have the passion for this great club. He is only going through the motions until he resigns to the fact he has lost it.

[Nocturnal]

Yeah agree.

All it means is we need an outlet player starting at the F50, pushing to receive a 45-55 metre kick at the end of a lead. Then once the kicker lets go we need the HFs and wings to run like ■■■■ to be at the foot for pressure. A FP should always be ready at the feet.

I thought green was playing the FP roll nicely before the hamstring. Always dining of the key forwards dropped marks around the ground.

[Reboot]

He’s actually trying to play Gleeson’s role, but unfortunately his kicking is not as good as Marty’s.

[Aceman]

We can’t have both Hurley and BJ running around getting cheap 15m kicks. One of them has to go man on on man or play elsewhere

[westozziebomber]

You can’t play Daniher, stewart and stringer in the same forward line. It’s too slow. Pity none of them any good anywhere else

[Houli_Dooli]

the gameplan from last year. He did this because we ‘leaked’ too many goals. However, in changing the gameplan, the players seem confused and unable to execute what the coaches want.
Our lack of inside midfielders. Last year we delisted Howlett, Hocking and Bird. We did so in the hope that Stringer , Langford and a few others i.e. McGrath could step up in the middle. This has completely failed.
Numerous players are out of form.

Yep Howlett Hocking and Bird would have saved us

[Bomb_Doe]

We have become timid with our ball use. Reckon that’s partly responsible for our poor disposal as we don’t have the belief to kick/handball firm and true. I recall video of Hird coaching on the boundary and calling out to the players to “Be Brave”. That’s what the players lack, that believe to fearlessly back themselves individually and as a team.

On last week’s Crawf-Hirdy podcast they spoke about mindfulness and the positive impact that can have on the players. They said Richmond are big on it. There’s a lot going wrong for the players in their heads, and if they are not doing it then the club should bring in the necessary mental coaches to get their heads right.

[Aceman]

Stewart and Stringer play inside 50 and push Joe up the ground. Think Joe has the capacity to play a really good link up role by pushing up to the wing, wheeling on to his left and getting it inside 50 quickly

[ivan]

He’s actually trying to play Gleeson’s role, but unfortunately his kicking is not as good as Marty’s.

In past seasons his kicking has been at least as good if not better than Gleeson. The big difference for me is how quick they transition. Gleeson can mark cleanly, land and explode, and then kick off a few steps. He generated a lot of forward momentum from his intercepts.

Hurls double grabs, gets back behind his mark and then can’t make his mind up. Eventually he’s forced to go sideways.

[efc1robbo]

This week I would drop joe and go with a forward line of stringer and Stewart as the key talks. If they can’t mark it they are to bring it to ground. And surround them with mobile players who can apply pressure.

The game is all about pressure, and keeping the ball locked in your forward 50

Edit: sigh wrong thread

[Nocturnal]

Daniher could be tried in the ruck when Belly needs a rest again.

[ivan]

Daniher could be tried in the ruck when Belly needs a rest again.

So I’m the second half then.

[Davo]

He’s actually trying to play Gleeson’s role, but unfortunately his kicking is not as good as Marty’s.

In past seasons his kicking has been at least as good if not better than Gleeson. The big difference for me is how quick they transition. Gleeson can mark cleanly, land and explode, and then kick off a few steps. He generated a lot of forward momentum from his intercepts.

Hurls double grabs, gets back behind his mark and then can’t make his mind up. Eventually he’s forced to go sideways.

[Preliminary_Point2]

Good post. It’s even starker, if we acknowledge that fwd line was really only fully functional for a month and a bit. It was from the Geelong game you mentioned until about the bye. After the bye we played weaker teams and had good quarters, but wasn’t the same as that month.

[effendon]

Why are the skills down? Is it because training has focussed more on structures and game plans than actual game play? Is it because some of our key players have lost some of their love for the game (maybe saga related) and aren’t putting in the extra ‘extra hours’ practising?

And what influenced the change of game plan? Did the loss of Kelly and the recruitment of Saad and emergence of McKenna make the coaches want to run the ball out of defense more?

[is_good_is_don]

Ryan Buckland theroar.com.au, a reasonably dispassionate analyst (economist by day) of the game, on how to play modern footy, (brackets mine)

“It’s a matter of absorb the pressure, (prop, stand up in a tackle, handball to teammate) counter quickly (run quickly away from opposition, kick accurately), then apply pressure (run constantly to press, hit players hard so they dispose poorly and they’re out of the next play), scramble back, (run hard and constantly), rinse and repeat.”

Who on our team can run quickly into space/away from opposition, has the body to hit hard/stand up in a tackle and do it all day? McKenna? Who else? Begley? Another preseason maybe. Clarke… maybe?

Nothing causes more fatigue than hitting/getting hit - its not all about running. I’m a broken record but Parish, Smith, Mcgrath etc. would be fatiguing quicker than guys not going to ground every contest, like these guys do every time because they’re undersized. Meanwhile, Heppell, Myers, Goddard, Hurley etc. are too slow (the game is quicker this year) and kick and hope because they don’t have the toe to find an extra second or two for their disposals, and their teammates can’t provide adequate enough protection. Forget poor structures, poor disposal etc. These are not the cause of our struggles, but the symptoms of not having the cattle.

[darkknightpheonix]

Backline - as you say, gleeson and McGrath added some better composure.
Kelly offered that in droves, and his defensive efforts were still top notch, some disposals were declining similar to goddard, but he made the backline walk taller.

Forwards- our attack was built on fast counter attack/slingshot footy.
Raz isnt out there , tippa down on form, daniher down on form and we have replaced fast players with slower ones.
Teams also dont get sucked up the geound as muxh following us. They stay back, our forwards push up even more, its weird.

Most teams know how to set up against us now. Loose men back, apply pressure.

Players have regressed badly. Talk about players not handling the increased forward press etc , but senior guys are missing targets when they are in open space.

Either they don’t back the change in gameplan or dont rate the person who made it.

Teams have mimicked richdmonds game and pressure, we are still playing worsfolds 06 way. We just donr havr judd cousins or kerr.

Sums it up really.