Review Round 8, 2015 - Essendon vs Brisbane Lions

[Elixuh]

The bombing it inside the f50 was a problem today, but when you don't have forwards consistently making leads you can't hold onto the ball and wait to enter forever. Unfortunately we couldn't even get 50/50 contests a lot of the time. Gives our smalls no chance.

 

[a mayes ing]

Goose hasnt played any football in 3/4 weeks, coming off a concussion and hasn't played forward in how many months and peopl still forgetting how badly he last played in the seniors last time... Would rather play Bewick up there.

 

[iBeng]

 

[Harris Specter]

McGuane, Paine, Freeman, Close, McStay, Staker. All injured. Jesus!

 

[bato]

Poor McStay taken to hospital.

 

[Toffee Lion]

No Brion, no win.

 

[a mayes ing]

Surely Mayes is over his 2 week foot thing?

 

[iBeng]

Surely Mayes is over his 2 week foot thing?

Just like Merretts over HIS 2 week thing...

 

[bato]

After match function: Lions poster signed by Browny sells for 600 dollars. Club making some nice coin today lol.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Surely Mayes is over his 2 week foot thing?

stress reactions in the foot tend to be longer term injuries most of the time.

 

[Ceebee]

Jack played with a dislocated finger for almost a season.
Blacky played a week or two after breaking his hand.

 

[Skoob]

At the start of the season, the new 'interpretation' for HTB was to not allow an eternity for prior opportunity, as this had gotten longer over the last few years and players were getting away with incorrect disposal as a result. So 2 situations were occuring;

1. Players were caught after taking a few steps and umpires balled up instead of awarding a free. This contributes to the constant stoppages and congestion.
2. Players feeling a tackle coming, dropped the ball to avoid being caught. Sometimes this even resulted in the tackler being penalised for holding the man, as the carrier magically made the ball disappear.

The solution was to not allow so much freedom for prior opportunity. A re-evaluation of what was a reasonable chance to dispose of the ball. Basically, if you have clean possession, you can dispose immediately (more or less) so one and a half steps or taking the decision to take on a tackler instead of getting rid of it is enough prior opportunity. For the ball carrier, the ball can be knocked out in a tackle, but you can't simply drop it, and if you are tackled with prior op, you cannot drop, throw or fumble the ball away. Those things have been allowed to creep into the game over the last few years.

This was umpired well for the first few rounds and congestion was down. Unfortunately, people then complain about the number of frees, so it slacked off again. This leads to confusion (I don't know why). Today we saw * knows how many HTB decisions that were just wrong. Glad they tighten up on it, but you must still be allowed some prior opportunity, and the ball can still be knocked out in a tackle. I don't understand the hard part for some of the dickheads.

 

[AFLQLD]

The umpiring was truly awful and I rarely feel the need to comment on it. But this umpiring effort was just woeful.

The HTB they called on Lions players about four or five times, maybe one of them was half right. The one called on Gardiner that got Daniher a cheap goal was chronically, embarrassingly bad. That umpire should be sent back to the under tens for a few weeks.

I don't even think the Bombers got a fair run from them on a few occasions but we definitely got the worst of it. It was shameful.

 

[BigEasyPeasy]

Stray thoughts:

- Completely outclassed in the air, due to a range of reasons. Players not making it to contests, poor/ inexperienced body work, horrendous disposal, poor reading of the game etc.

- Lethargic of mind and languid by foot, particularly in the second half. Last week we started the second half with a chain of mark, play-on, mark, play-on... just wasn't there today. Slow to recover the ball from free kicks, slow to push off the mark, slow to spread defensively, too many bail out kicks to the wing and minimal desire to take the game on from half back. I think part of that was the effect an end to end, very open and free-wheeling first half had on our guys after last week. Still, we weren't up to it.

- Too passive around the contest. To sum up the difference in the two sides when the ball was in dispute: Essendon; "Must win ball", us; "Must not let Essendon break away with ball". The difference is when Essendon didn't win it, they were on our hammer with some serious tackling pressure, whereas we were often in the vicinity but always second to the ball. That's why we lost both contested possessions and the tackle count. Mostly between the ears.

- Daniel Rich needs to change (imo). I feel bad dishing Richy some criticism because he played somewhat of a lone hand in the first 5 rounds. But. I'm over games like today. You think of Rich, you think left foot. Right now he is thought of as potentially that mercurial player who can take the game away from the opposition in a 15 minute patch of brilliance. I don't want that anymore, I want his left peg to be a bonus.

He appeared to be a touch lost out there today. At one stage he went to man the mark for a kick-in, but was beaten to it, so he peeled off, jogging back towards the arc. An Essendon player absolutely took off from one wing to the the other to provide an option, about 15-20m away from Rich, who was the closest player. And Rich just watched it unfold. He continued to jog straight down the corridor, meaning a Lions player had to leave their man, allowing for an easy chip over the top, followed by same again, same again, with Rich just jogging alongside (it was the play where Essendon went down the wing uncontested forcing a mismatch between Bellchambers and Adcock and only a poor delivery meant an uncontested mark in our defensive 50). If Richy had of taken off in that first instance, he could have at least stood the mark allowing us to be man on man down the wing.

In attack, he doesn't explode into a lead, he doesn't crumb marking contests well, and he doesn't provide much attacking defensive pressure, yet too often today he was sitting in the forward fifty taking up space and not really posing a forward threat. He needs to be the guy delivering the ball. At stoppages, he is far too passive and doesn't attack the ball with the urgency of someone wanting to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

I love Daniel Rich, and maybe it's just me placing his ceiling too high, but I genuinely believe he has the ability to be a top-10 player in the comp. I want to see him be ruthless at the contest. I want to see him win the ball. I want to see him throw his body around and be a clearance machine. I want him to improve his fitness and go looking for short chips, because the ball belongs in his hands. I want him to get angry. I want him to give the umps a spray every now and then. Get angry Richy! I want opposition teams to think geez Daniel Rich is dangerous, and his left foot isn't bad either. I want his left foot to be the cream, not the cake. And I want him to stand up each and every week as if the game and this team belong to him. He looks like a lion, I want him to play like one. Is it too much to ask Daniel? Do you have it in you?

 

[Requiem]

Stray thoughts:

- Completely outclassed in the air, due to a range of reasons. Players not making it to contests, poor/ inexperienced body work, horrendous disposal, poor reading of the game etc.

- Lethargic of mind and languid by foot, particularly in the second half. Last week we started the second half with a chain of mark, play-on, mark, play-on... just wasn't there today. Slow to recover the ball from free kicks, slow to push off the mark, slow to spread defensively, too many bail out kicks to the wing and minimal desire to take the game on from half back. I think part of that was the effect an end to end, very open and free-wheeling first half had on our guys after last week. Still, we weren't up to it.

- Too passive around the contest. To sum up the difference in the two sides when the ball was in dispute: Essendon; "Must win ball", us; "Must not let Essendon break away with ball". The difference is when Essendon didn't win it, they were on our hammer with some serious tackling pressure, whereas we were often in the vicinity but always second to the ball. That's why we lost both contested possessions and the tackle count. Mostly between the ears.

- Daniel Rich needs to change (imo). I feel bad dishing Richy some criticism because he played somewhat of a lone hand in the first 5 rounds. But. I'm over games like today. You think of Rich, you think left foot. Right now he is thought of as potentially that mercurial player who can take the game away from the opposition in a 15 minute patch of brilliance. I don't want that anymore, I want his left peg to be a bonus.

He appeared to be a touch lost out there today. At one stage he went to man the mark for a kick-in, but was beaten to it, so he peeled off, jogging back towards the arc. An Essendon player absolutely took off from one wing to the the other to provide an option, about 15-20m away from Rich, who was the closest player. And Rich just watched it unfold. He continued to jog straight down the corridor, meaning a Lions player had to leave their man, allowing for an easy chip over the top, followed by same again, same again, with Rich just jogging alongside (it was the play where Essendon went down the wing uncontested forcing a mismatch between Bellchambers and Adcock and only a poor delivery meant an uncontested mark in our defensive 50). If Richy had of taken off in that first instance, he could have at least stood the mark allowing us to be man on man down the wing.

In attack, he doesn't explode into a lead, he doesn't crumb marking contests well, and he doesn't provide much attacking defensive pressure, yet too often today he was sitting in the forward fifty taking up space and not really posing a forward threat. He needs to be the guy delivering the ball. At stoppages, he is far too passive and doesn't attack the ball with the urgency of someone wanting to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

I love Daniel Rich, and maybe it's just me placing his ceiling too high, but I genuinely believe he has the ability to be a top-10 player in the comp. I want to see him be ruthless at the contest. I want to see him win the ball. I want to see him throw his body around and be a clearance machine. I want him to improve his fitness and go looking for short chips, because the ball belongs in his hands. I want him to get angry. I want him to give the umps a spray every now and then. Get angry Richy! I want opposition teams to think geez Daniel Rich is dangerous, and his left foot isn't bad either. I want his left foot to be the cream, not the cake. And I want him to stand up each and every week as if the game and this team belong to him. He looks like a lion, I want him to play like one. Is it too much to ask Daniel? Do you have it in you?

Agree with everything, Rich has all the tools required to be dominant yet has so far failed to reach those heights consistantly.

 

[iBeng]

To be fair on Rich, hes come back from two pretty big injuries in a broken shoulder and a snapped ACL. Hes playing in a side where hes a top target for being tagged and those around him are still learning the gameplan and each other.

 

[Monterronaldo]

A real Jeykll and Hyde performance this week where the positives and negatives can divided into the first and second halves.

We missed Reddo today, he was starting to really increase his tackling pressure over the past few weeks and we couldnt replace him.

Just a few things I noticed personally:

Lester had a cracker of a first quarter. He is starting to string together better performances on a more consistent basis and continued his knack of kicking goals. Happy with how he continues to develop

Aish has been significantly below his first season form. But this isnt exsctly shocking for a second year player. Seems to Still be be some momentum.

Our lack of big bodies at either end killed us today. We have been unlucky as injuries have plundered us of options in this area. Short of a free agency signing this area will only be improved by time.

Nick Robbo continues to improve. He has confidence in his ability to break/evade tackles and it shows. Also starting to make his tackles stick more often as he gets stronger which is just great to watch. His disposal has always been the area which needs he has needed the most work but I saw evidence that he has been working on it today - slotted that set shot like he had done it 100 times. Glad he finally got his first senior goal and got the monkey off his back.

Liam Dawson had a good debut. Worked hard early and always was giving himself a chance to impact the game. Was rewarded with a great goal.

No need to hit the panic button yet. I think the players will only continue to learn and improve from here including the experienced ones.

 

[Lockie]

Was at the game. First half saw lots of things to be happy about and to build on. Alas in the second half we just went missing. Backline is very inexperienced. Second half when we bombed it into the forward line was easily marked by bomber talls and no opportunities for the crumbers to pick up the ball. Turns over costly and handballs missing targets. Positives seeing Dawson kick his first goal when he looked like a lamb to the slaughter. Players supporting Aish after that clanger...thought that showed positives within the team. Many Lions supporters around me did not share this this sympathetic approach....almost sent one Lion supporter over the rails of the 3rd level.

 

[Balony_pony16]

Stray thoughts:

- Completely outclassed in the air, due to a range of reasons. Players not making it to contests, poor/ inexperienced body work, horrendous disposal, poor reading of the game etc.

- Lethargic of mind and languid by foot, particularly in the second half. Last week we started the second half with a chain of mark, play-on, mark, play-on... just wasn't there today. Slow to recover the ball from free kicks, slow to push off the mark, slow to spread defensively, too many bail out kicks to the wing and minimal desire to take the game on from half back. I think part of that was the effect an end to end, very open and free-wheeling first half had on our guys after last week. Still, we weren't up to it.

- Too passive around the contest. To sum up the difference in the two sides when the ball was in dispute: Essendon; "Must win ball", us; "Must not let Essendon break away with ball". The difference is when Essendon didn't win it, they were on our hammer with some serious tackling pressure, whereas we were often in the vicinity but always second to the ball. That's why we lost both contested possessions and the tackle count. Mostly between the ears.

- Daniel Rich needs to change (imo). I feel bad dishing Richy some criticism because he played somewhat of a lone hand in the first 5 rounds. But. I'm over games like today. You think of Rich, you think left foot. Right now he is thought of as potentially that mercurial player who can take the game away from the opposition in a 15 minute patch of brilliance. I don't want that anymore, I want his left peg to be a bonus.

He appeared to be a touch lost out there today. At one stage he went to man the mark for a kick-in, but was beaten to it, so he peeled off, jogging back towards the arc. An Essendon player absolutely took off from one wing to the the other to provide an option, about 15-20m away from Rich, who was the closest player. And Rich just watched it unfold. He continued to jog straight down the corridor, meaning a Lions player had to leave their man, allowing for an easy chip over the top, followed by same again, same again, with Rich just jogging alongside (it was the play where Essendon went down the wing uncontested forcing a mismatch between Bellchambers and Adcock and only a poor delivery meant an uncontested mark in our defensive 50). If Richy had of taken off in that first instance, he could have at least stood the mark allowing us to be man on man down the wing.

In attack, he doesn't explode into a lead, he doesn't crumb marking contests well, and he doesn't provide much attacking defensive pressure, yet too often today he was sitting in the forward fifty taking up space and not really posing a forward threat. He needs to be the guy delivering the ball. At stoppages, he is far too passive and doesn't attack the ball with the urgency of someone wanting to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

I love Daniel Rich, and maybe it's just me placing his ceiling too high, but I genuinely believe he has the ability to be a top-10 player in the comp. I want to see him be ruthless at the contest. I want to see him win the ball. I want to see him throw his body around and be a clearance machine. I want him to improve his fitness and go looking for short chips, because the ball belongs in his hands. I want him to get angry. I want him to give the umps a spray every now and then. Get angry Richy! I want opposition teams to think geez Daniel Rich is dangerous, and his left foot isn't bad either. I want his left foot to be the cream, not the cake. And I want him to stand up each and every week as if the game and this team belong to him. He looks like a lion, I want him to play like one. Is it too much to ask Daniel? Do you have it in you?

Rich should be in the midfield... I like him down back where he can man up and play offensively when he feels... with Mid cameos. In the middle he is unaccountable and is always walking/standing at contests.

 

[John_Proctor]

Just home. Only got to game 10 minutes before half time - bummer.

Couple of things I noted.
- we barely stuck a tackle
- we completely ran out of legs (when gardiner turned it over for a Goddard goal with about 5 mins left we had a 3 on 2 on the wing but none of the 3 moved and gardiner was forced to kick to the only olayer who did move , unfortunately he missed the target terribly but just didn't have a target)
- Daniher was just too tall for clarke, every time he was able to get his hands above clarke and not allow a spoil.
- clear comparison in talls - Daniher, Carlisle, hooker, Hurley compared to andrews, clarke, mcstay and leuenberger was chalk and cheese. Hurley to big for mcstay, Daniher too tall for Clarke, leuenberger just cannot take a mark 'making a contest' is nice but only if you also take a few marks from time to time.
- Zorko is so out of form it's not funny

Finally and most importantly some posts have talked about the defenders being too far off their opponents (eg. The Carlisle goal where it was 4 bombers v taylor inside 50). I do not believe the players would be playing the sort of 'zone' press we play when the ball is in our forward half without being coached to do so, and if they aren't being coached to do so then one might expect they'd be dragged, dropped, have the runner sen out to them etc. Which I did not see. SOOOO many of their goals came from just carving up our zone press and finding free men all over their forward half through the game. Their were multiple occasions when free men were spotted up and there were other free targets inside 50. (2nd last goal of first half, a Chappy goal in the 3rd, the Carlisle goal debacle.) the zone lress also meant that in many occasions the defenders ended up on the wrong player giving away serious height, pace etc. To their direct opponent in a play or simply just being confused or out of position when a turnover Happened and making it easy for essendon. Need to really work on this and get systems in place to stop the 4 on 2's (and worse) that happened today and the match up mistakes.

We were woeful when they had the ball today.

 

[BigEasyPeasy]

To be fair on Rich, hes come back from two pretty big injuries in a broken shoulder and a snapped ACL. Hes playing in a side where hes a top target for being tagged and those around him are still learning the gameplan and each other.

Yep, but his time has come. I want to see him lift. He certainly wasn't tagged closely today; there were ball ups in the first quarter where he was by himself.

 

[POBT]

I don't think Rich has confidence to really kick through the footy. He's hitting with long irons rather than the driver. That works some of the time but sometimes the occasion calls for him to hit it loooong and flat and he hasn't.

 

[SizeMatters]

Stray thoughts:

- Completely outclassed in the air, due to a range of reasons. Players not making it to contests, poor/ inexperienced body work, horrendous disposal, poor reading of the game etc.

- Lethargic of mind and languid by foot, particularly in the second half. Last week we started the second half with a chain of mark, play-on, mark, play-on... just wasn't there today. Slow to recover the ball from free kicks, slow to push off the mark, slow to spread defensively, too many bail out kicks to the wing and minimal desire to take the game on from half back. I think part of that was the effect an end to end, very open and free-wheeling first half had on our guys after last week. Still, we weren't up to it.

- Too passive around the contest. To sum up the difference in the two sides when the ball was in dispute: Essendon; "Must win ball", us; "Must not let Essendon break away with ball". The difference is when Essendon didn't win it, they were on our hammer with some serious tackling pressure, whereas we were often in the vicinity but always second to the ball. That's why we lost both contested possessions and the tackle count. Mostly between the ears.

- Daniel Rich needs to change (imo). I feel bad dishing Richy some criticism because he played somewhat of a lone hand in the first 5 rounds. But. I'm over games like today. You think of Rich, you think left foot. Right now he is thought of as potentially that mercurial player who can take the game away from the opposition in a 15 minute patch of brilliance. I don't want that anymore, I want his left peg to be a bonus.

He appeared to be a touch lost out there today. At one stage he went to man the mark for a kick-in, but was beaten to it, so he peeled off, jogging back towards the arc. An Essendon player absolutely took off from one wing to the the other to provide an option, about 15-20m away from Rich, who was the closest player. And Rich just watched it unfold. He continued to jog straight down the corridor, meaning a Lions player had to leave their man, allowing for an easy chip over the top, followed by same again, same again, with Rich just jogging alongside (it was the play where Essendon went down the wing uncontested forcing a mismatch between Bellchambers and Adcock and only a poor delivery meant an uncontested mark in our defensive 50). If Richy had of taken off in that first instance, he could have at least stood the mark allowing us to be man on man down the wing.

In attack, he doesn't explode into a lead, he doesn't crumb marking contests well, and he doesn't provide much attacking defensive pressure, yet too often today he was sitting in the forward fifty taking up space and not really posing a forward threat. He needs to be the guy delivering the ball. At stoppages, he is far too passive and doesn't attack the ball with the urgency of someone wanting to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

I love Daniel Rich, and maybe it's just me placing his ceiling too high, but I genuinely believe he has the ability to be a top-10 player in the comp. I want to see him be ruthless at the contest. I want to see him win the ball. I want to see him throw his body around and be a clearance machine. I want him to improve his fitness and go looking for short chips, because the ball belongs in his hands. I want him to get angry. I want him to give the umps a spray every now and then. Get angry Richy! I want opposition teams to think geez Daniel Rich is dangerous, and his left foot isn't bad either. I want his left foot to be the cream, not the cake. And I want him to stand up each and every week as if the game and this team belong to him. He looks like a lion, I want him to play like one. Is it too much to ask Daniel? Do you have it in you?

Agree 100%. Also another thing I have noticed from him for a while now is that he seems to want to handball first and foremost. He is too indecisive and all it takes is holding the footy a second too long and options up the field are closed off. Richy needs to use his body more effectively as well... arguable one of the strongest core muscles at the club yet I have never seen him break a tackle. He grabs the ball and feels for contact just bracing for it... would like to see him have a bit more movement in a contest instead of standing still.

 

[BigEasyPeasy]

I don't think Rich has confidence to really kick through the footy. He's hitting with long irons rather than the driver. That works some of the time but sometimes the occasion calls for him to hit it loooong and flat and he hasn't.

Have thought exactly the same thing. Deliberately trying to convince myself otherwise. Time will tell I suppose.

 

[POBT]

Can't think of a single player who'd be satisfied with their performance today. Rocky and Beams tried hard but weren't at their best. Martin was ok without being the dominant presence he can be. Gardiner was ok'ish.

But no-one played anything approaching their best footy.

After two steps forward, we've had one step back. That's frustrating but not unexpected.