The Good, The Bad, The Atkins

[Mismatched]

I think there were two things that really stood out for me last night and unfortunately there’s no easy fix.
- Our ability to move the ball out of defence is woeful, barely any of our defenders are good kicks and none have that line breaking ability.
- We then lack keyforwards who can lead up at the footy and take a contested grab.

Essendon had both of these things, we’re still far too reliant on slingshot football, but unfortunately I don’t think our squad is suited to this anymore and think clubs have worked it out. We’re essentially back to the Sando days where if we didn’t get an effective centreclearance we were stuffed. There is no ability to work the ball up the ground slowly and teams are awake to our fast break from turnover stuff and set up to stop this.

 

[Big Crow]

Mackay was fine, had a fair game. Actually provided some run and a bit of line breaking, which was rare for us last night.

 

[Ramify]

I love how this board scream for playing the kids and/or player rotation, then as soon as it happens and the structures go to shit, the newbees look fumbly or unfit and our usual gameplan doesnt gel, we want them all dropped.

CEY- always been a confidence player with average disposal.First game back after ACL.
Drop him now and it was a waste of time picking him to begin with. Doesnt stop trying = tick. Provides something in and a round the ball that we have sorely missed I.e Size and strength. Tick.

Murphy- Plays nothing like Cameron so temper yoir expectations. Saw him twice sprint past virtually stationery senior players to chase an exiting backman. In the side for forward pressure and to be at the fall of the ball which he nearly had 2 goals through doing.Did his job under trying circumstances. Tick.

Fogarty- Big lad but you can see that he is still mainly puppy fat and that his adult strength hasnt kicked in yet. Competitive beast with awesome skill and was probably our smartest forward last night. Jenkins should watch what he does when he hasnt got the ball.Needs a year or so to learn how to run at AFL level by playing at AFL level.

Dude- Cap noted that he is a like for like with Kelly. Couldnt agree more. He wont ever have the size/reach to play key post like Lever eventually will, but he showed last night how well he reads the game and after a nervous start prooved that he can more than mix it at this level. Impressed with his disposal and looked far cooler and executed far better under pressure than any of his more experienced fellow backmen besides Laird.
Absolutely must persist. Tick

Hampton- the only one Id drop if not for injury.
Plays like he has never recieved any formal coaching and was just recruited from the local park. Has plenty of natural ability in finding space and the ball, but has almost zero abilty to make a sound decision with ball in hand to the point where he is a complete liability. He doesnt just make bad decisions, hes made an art out of making the worst decision possible. I cant find a position for him in my mind and dont think we can afford to cover both his and CEYs brainfarts in the same side. CROSS.

Anyway thats my take.

 

[Big Crow]

I love how this board scream for playing the kids and/or player rotation, then as soon as it happens and the structures go to shit, the newbees look fumbly or unfit and our usual gameplan doesnt gel, we want them all dropped.

CEY- always been a confidence player with average disposal.First game back after ACL.
Drop him now and it was a waste of time picking him to begin with. Doesnt stop trying = tick. Provides something in and a round the ball that we have sorely missed I.e Size and strength. Tick.

Murphy- Plays nothing like Cameron so temper yoir expectations. Saw him twice sprint past virtually stationery senior players to chase an exiting backman. In the side for forward pressure and to be at the fall of the ball which he nearly had 2 goals through doing.Did his job under trying circumstances. Tick.

Fogarty- Big lad but you can see that he is still mainly puppy fat and that his adult strength hasnt kicked in yet. Competitive beast with awesome skill and was probably our smartest forward last night. Jenkins should watch what he does when he hasnt got the ball.Needs a year or so to learn how to run at AFL level by playing at AFL level.

Dude- Cap noted that he is a like for like with Kelly. Couldnt agree more. He wont ever have the size/reach to play key post like Lever eventually will, but he showed last night how well he reads the game and after a nervous start prooved that he can more than mix it at this level. Impressed with his disposal and looked far cooler and executed far better under pressure than any of his more experienced fellow backmen besides Laird.
Absolutely must persist. Tick

Hampton- the only one Id drop if not for injury.
Plays like he has never recieved any formal coaching and was just recruited from the local park. Has plenty of natural ability in finding space and the ball, but has almost zero abilty to make a sound decision with ball in hand to the point where he is a complete liability. He doesnt just make bad decisions, hes made an art out of making the worst decision possible. I cant find a position for him in my mind and dont think we can afford to cover both his and CEYs brainfarts in the same side. CROSS.

Anyway thats my take.

Good post. Agree with all your points here.

Hampton I’m still holding out hope that we can find a role that suits his strengths, but it could be blind optimism at this point.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Glad I got my tip right at least. Soon as I saw Hampton, CEY and Seedsman all selected in the same team I knew we would lose.

Good post. Agree with all your points here.

Hampton I’m still holding out hope that we can find a role that suits his strengths, but it could be blind optimism at this point.

The club needs to accept that Hampton isn't a midfielder. I know Don wants versatility but not every player can deliver that.

 

[Elite Crow]

I think there were two things that really stood out for me last night and unfortunately there’s no easy fix.
- Our ability to move the ball out of defence is woeful, barely any of our defenders are good kicks and none have that line breaking ability.
- We then lack keyforwards who can lead up at the footy and take a contested grab.

Essendon had both of these things, we’re still far too reliant on slingshot football, but unfortunately I don’t think our squad is suited to this anymore and think clubs have worked it out. We’re essentially back to the Sando days where if we didn’t get an effective centreclearance we were stuffed. There is no ability to work the ball up the ground slowly and teams are awake to our fast break from turnover stuff and set up to stop this.

The loss of Smith is massive. We really need Milera in defence.

Gov and Fog could play that contested marking role.

 

[Mike Smyth]

LOL so much over reaction in this thread. Sit the **** down, it's only round 1

Yeah sit the ****down it was only a GF.

 

[Ramify]

Yeah sit the ****down it was only a GF.

The only similarities between this and the GF is that we lost in Melbourne to a team we were tipped to beat.

 

[haydo]

Yeah sit the ****down it was only a GF.

Grand Final was 6 months ago champ. New season started 2 days ago, keep your kickers straight.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

 

[Wood_Duck]

The loss of Smith is massive. We really need Milera in defence.

Gov and Fog could play that contested marking role.

Lynch is often the marking option for that first kick out of defensive 50 also. No Smith and Lynch is a doomsday scenario.

 

[Elite Crow]

OMG

 

[WaynesWorld19]

The loss of Smith is massive. We really need Milera in defence.

Gov and Fog could play that contested marking role.

 

[CrowCro]

GOOD - Matt Crouch , Rory Laird , Rory Sloane , Bryce Gibbs

BAD - Our back line continues to be killed in isolation

UGLY - Atkins , Mackay , Hartigan , Douglas , Talia , Pannell , Chamberlain

Mackay was in our best you clowns. Seriously I'm sick of this shit from armchair critics. He was one of few that gave us any run. In top 3 for me

Looked liked a GF replay.. every kick we had was a desperate, blind hack forward under intense pressure while Essendon were able to find loose players and hit targets.

Teams have figured out a clear blueprint for beating us and we don't have an answer.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

I'm all for playing our youngsters this year and restocking our list this year

 

[Big Crow]

To be fair that photo is ****ing funny.

 

[Ramify]

Oh jeezuz.
Thought it looked bad from the other angle.

Pyke should blow this up and put on the changeroom wall.

Need to start calling him JOSHY JAZZ HANDS!

 

[1970crow]

Mentally and physically soft - we will not make the top 4 until Pyke starts drawing a line through the consistent failures.

JJ and Mackay are rolled gold downhill skiers. Lynch, didn't play, is at about 90% certain and Betts not far behind. One thing is certain, as a group, our forward line is incapable of turning a tussle into a win. If you're looking for a crew to hammer home an advantage when shit is easy, then that's us. They'll pile on the goals. But they're entirely impotent when they're not getting silver service. Too many are enamoured with our high scoring attack, they're shit when the chips are down. But our club has always highly regarded form lines when we win by big margins. Losses are an aberration and glossed over.

 

[Rotayjay]

Giving up a lead like that was so Sanderson-like it wasn't funny.

Don't want to jump the gun too early, but food for thought: Damien Hardwick was on the edge of getting sacked at the end of 2016. Richmond replaced all the assistants around him and he won a flag. David Teague and James Podsiadly helped get us into a grand final (as favourites) in the forward and defensive coaching roles respectively. Now both are gone.

 

[mistylake]

I love how this board scream for playing the kids and/or player rotation, then as soon as it happens and the structures go to shit, the newbees look fumbly or unfit and our usual gameplan doesnt gel, we want them all dropped.

CEY- always been a confidence player with average disposal.First game back after ACL.
Drop him now and it was a waste of time picking him to begin with. Doesnt stop trying = tick. Provides something in and a round the ball that we have sorely missed I.e Size and strength. Tick.

Murphy- Plays nothing like Cameron so temper yoir expectations. Saw him twice sprint past virtually stationery senior players to chase an exiting backman. In the side for forward pressure and to be at the fall of the ball which he nearly had 2 goals through doing.Did his job under trying circumstances. Tick.

Fogarty- Big lad but you can see that he is still mainly puppy fat and that his adult strength hasnt kicked in yet. Competitive beast with awesome skill and was probably our smartest forward last night. Jenkins should watch what he does when he hasnt got the ball.Needs a year or so to learn how to run at AFL level by playing at AFL level.

Dude- Cap noted that he is a like for like with Kelly. Couldnt agree more. He wont ever have the size/reach to play key post like Lever eventually will, but he showed last night how well he reads the game and after a nervous start prooved that he can more than mix it at this level. Impressed with his disposal and looked far cooler and executed far better under pressure than any of his more experienced fellow backmen besides Laird.
Absolutely must persist. Tick

Hampton- the only one Id drop if not for injury.
Plays like he has never recieved any formal coaching and was just recruited from the local park. Has plenty of natural ability in finding space and the ball, but has almost zero abilty to make a sound decision with ball in hand to the point where he is a complete liability. He doesnt just make bad decisions, hes made an art out of making the worst decision possible. I cant find a position for him in my mind and dont think we can afford to cover both his and CEYs brainfarts in the same side. CROSS.

Anyway thats my take.

Agree with all of that. I think we’re in for a long year.
So many injuries. ****ed if I know how we can be so unfit, if Richmond are up and firing. They were partying like it’s 1999 for half of the off season and we look like a complete rabble. Ffs we somehow injured a guy who has played every game in the ****ing warmup.
Whoever is looking after our fitness etc needs the boot, unless we didn’t stop hard training yet and it’s all some grand plan, but it’s looking like we again have settled for mediocrity.

 

[1970crow]

If I know Drugs Are Bad Mackay? , and I think I do, he'd be saying that if you're going to go with flair and wear different coloured boots, then you've got to back it up with game day performance. He'd delist JJ based on boots alone.

 

[haydo]

Agree with all of that. I think we’re in for a long year.
So many injuries. ****** if I know how we can be so unfit, if Richmond are up and firing. They were partying like it’s 1999 for half of the off season and we look like a complete rabble. Ffs we somehow injured a guy who has played every game in the ******* warmup.
Whoever is looking after our fitness etc needs the boot, unless we didn’t stop hard training yet and it’s all some grand plan, but it’s looking like we again have settled for mediocrity.

Wow, after 1 game.... seriously?

 

[GreyCrow]

Geez only a troll would use this picture as their avater

Thats Ugly

 

[WheresGroomgone]

I’ve put a line through him.

He’s competitive, gets himself in the right spots, but his decision making is putrid. If he hasn’t learnt this by now I can’t see him fixing it.

I think CEY is overawed when playing real games - his brain goes foggy and he panics - he has had multiple chances I think he is done.

 

[BRL121]

Yep, took him and Fogarty out of the play, ball fell to McGoverns direct opponent and in seconds Essendon were kicking for goal. Felt like a turning point at the time and sadly it was.

While on McGovern, did you notice how activated and effective he was in the third? I reckon Pykey gave him a real rocket at half time, by the look of it!

 

[Elite Crow]

Good post. Agree with all your points here.

Hampton I’m still holding out hope that we can find a role that suits his strengths, but it could be blind optimism at this point.

There is no role that dumb footballers excel at.

He just doesn’t have a footy brain.