Probably right, Weid and Jones were super ineffective yesterday. But the midfield and half back line couldn’t find any composure at all, we never had the ground set up for our forwards to actually work.
Need to see something vs the Cats.
If we lose round 1 to Hawks, 0-7 isn’t that unrealistic.
what i don’t understand when people say “it’s just a practice match” well um why didn’t re practice being the supposed professional outfit they keep crapping on about when they are trying to extort yet even more money out of people ?
why can the saints 2 years in a row be so more advanced and prepared to practice and belt us, than a team who’s catch cry has turned into “we want to be a professional outfit” ?
i’d have thought a practice match would be the perfect time to start implementing this non negtioable, ultra professional supposed attitude the club keeps speaking about as what they’ve been focussed on over the summer.
Or don’t watch at all.
after missing most of the match live yesterday was not sure whether worth watching the replay, but since i signed up for kayo did.
yeh well it probably wasnt worth it.
nice to see Reid play footy and Hayes.
but yeh given reports here was a bit of a meh game. even our good stuff, there was no real highlights.
we did have one passage of play early where we ran it the whole length of the ground from defence uncontested and result in a shot on goal.
I was probably expecting more of a competitive effort after the first qtr.
Maybe i exoected too much. Giansiricusa seemed happy enough with the hit out.
lets just call it a rust buster.
Typical Essendon promise so much deliver nothing
I have seen most main training sessions post-Christmas including all match sim/intra club hit outs, this is what I have witnessed compared to what I saw yesterday vs the saints.
Personnel
This is the healthiest (most players completing the pre-season) pre-season I have seen for a long time. Only 3 players can blame having an interrupted pre-season, Draper (even though he has been running since Christmas) Shiel, only been running for 3 weeks and Tex, who has just started running. Everyone one else has done the majority.
What we saw from Jones and Weideman yesterday is what I have seen in the pre-season. Jones doing bits here and there but not enough and he is a one trick pony (i.e run and jump marks). Weideman has had a very poor pre-season, last year he had a decent one and started the season well, don’t feel he has been anywhere near it so far.
So replace Weid and Jones with Draper and Wright we will have guys who will compete for marks at least and should take a few, therefore tall forwards don’t concern me. Caddy too, once he gets going will complement these guys beautifully.
The mids have been on fire in the pre-season. Perkins has had a great month, but disappointing yesterday (maybe because he was pushed to half fwd). Hold fire before judging him off this game. Parish was going at half rat power yesterday (he generally doesn’t play well in these games) Merrett just wanted to get through a half. The mids were solid IMO yesterday, won enough contested ball and clearances.
The backline is still gelling, Reid and Mckay are working things out and Martin is new back there, this may take more time than the other parts of the ground. But I think it will be our strength and I’ve seen it throughout pre-season. Heps has been in the B team 80% of the time in the pre-season and I hope we go past him and we should as Rids comes back and I thought Cox did okay down there.
The MAJOR concern is the half fwd line. Only Gresh has stood out in the pre-season and he was the one yesterday to stand out. Menzie has been just okay, Guelfi the same. Davey hasn’t popped, Tex injured and if we are playing resting mids in Caldwell, Perkins and Hobbs when fit there I have my concerns. We need elite pressure and then elite goal scoring. I’m not sure how we get this mix right as it really hurt us yesterday. I would go with Hind over Menzie at this stage (he has had the better pre-season)
Effort and Fitness
I can truthfully say the fitness work and effort this pre-season has been really good. Anyone who wants to blame this for the result is off the mark. I though the effort was there yesterday (practice match level effort anyway) but when there is a break down at half fwd for the reasons outlined below, then it can look like the players are not working hard etc. Effort and Fitness do not concern me. The next part is my concern.
Structure and Game Plan
As a training watcher these are the hardest things to work out as it’s Essendon vs Essendon. What I have noticed there is intent to move the ball faster and use Martin off half back as much as we can. What I’m not sure about is how we want to defend, are we pressing up or are we holding our back 6 back?
We still look confused, when to hold and when to push up. Is it personnel? Is it a confusing game plan? Do we just have dumb players?
We lost the arial duel in the fwd half then there was no pressure from the half fwds, so the saints just flew it out of there at will.
This has to be the major focus until Rd1. I hope we can execute, cause if we don’t it will be a long season as other teams are exploding out of their back half and if this is our major weakness, its’ going to really hurt.
Next week vs Geelong
This should give us a better indication of where we sit. 95% full strength team. I will though point out it is down at Geelong with the narrow field which won’t work in our favour and if both teams played at their best I would expect the cats to win by 3-4 goals just based on home ground advantage. Lets hope the structure is there and we play to it. If its’s another blow out, I’ll have big concerns.
It’s just the old Morrabbin ground with the old grandstands pulled down. Bayside Melbourne. I didn’t watch the game but I’m guessing the grass was like carpet. If it was windy there it would have been windier at Tulla. I don’t think we can blame the ground.
It’s mabo, it’s the vibe.
You know what to tell an Essendon fan who is expecting a finals win? Tell him he’s dreamin’
we sound like the carlton supporters losing their ■■■■ and wanting the whole team dismantled and coach fired after they went into that slump who wouldve thought they would almost make the grand final? we just need to calm down.
i agree
id pick hind over Guelfi and Menzie and then one of them as the sub.
I probably would too but it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. It’s shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic sort of stuff.
Our small forward contingent sucks balls by league standards.
I was pumped after that Adelaide win. That was a good win. Not sure what happened after that.
Even in that game we were miles ahead and then let them back in and late in the game they had a sneaky chance to pinch it. We have no ruthlessness.
That first half against Adelaide was like Harlem Globetrotters stuff. I reckon it was the best we had played in years.
Thanks for that post, after reading through this thread I’d just about lost all hope.
I didn’t seen the game yesterday, but am noting the vast pile-on. Not encouraging to be beaten easily, but not throwing the baby out with the bath water just yet. Ross Lyon teams have been fast running teams which do very well at the start of the seaon. Geelong in Geelong will also be very difficult, as they hardly ever lose there.
But I would rather get beaten up in pre-season, than to go in with some unrealistic hype, and have some time to adjust the plans.
Also remember teams go into these games with different agendas. It’s chalk and cheese between this and regular season games. Geelong will be a much better gauge, as they will be testing say like nearly their entire game plan. Get belted again though, and I would worry, especially to their confidence.
So don’t give up all hope yet. There is a lot to play out before the season begins.
All lip service
On paper this looks like a good back 6, but this back line minus Ridley couldn’t clear our defensive 50 for about 20 mins in the second quarter. I’m very concerned about the system our coaches are putting in place.
You’ve got it wrong localbomber. Brad arrived at 12.45 and watched the whole game!
It’s concerning that there is concerns.
We have all the coaches in the world but haven’t really implemented a game plan to beat the best teams.
We still don’t know where Cox should be played, well I have to say his first season on the wing he went alright, so why not play him there.
I’m still convinced to get games into Caddy as he is a genuine KPF and just needs experience and time to gain muscle. He will be a player and this team isn’t going anywhere this season so give him exposure.
Draper isn’t a forward at all, he is learning how to kick a ball still and we have seen time and time again, the ball in our forwardline needs pressure to lock it in, he wouldn’t provide what is required down there.
Stringer body can’t handle the rigors of AFL anymore
Hind ( speed ) Wright. Caldwell
Perkins Caddy. Langford
Caldwell because of his defensive pressure at the contest to try and lock the ball in