AFL Toast RND 8: 3 Point win against the Crows

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,988
AFL Club
Essendon
By the way, would have been good to see how Phillips would have gone against O'Brien.

Bellchambers was awful. Absolute bullshit that he's moving well. The reason for the early comment about his physicality is that he threw himself at O'Brien when there was a dead ball and O'Brien was sitting outside the contest.

He could hardly move.

We've been running Phillips, a group 3 horse, in group 1 races and Bellchambers, a group 3 horse in group 3 races. They get the same results and we penalize Phillips for it.
 

Halftimehero

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 26, 2012
11,951
10,901
AFL Club
Essendon
After all said and done, we are once again playing with a bits and pieces forward line, if we and Stringer and Daniher out there today that match would have been done and dusted at half time, simple as that, we just don’t have enough quality back up forwards.
 
After all said and done, we are once again playing with a bits and pieces forward line, if we and Stringer and Daniher out there today that match would have been done and dusted at half time, simple as that, we just don’t have enough quality back up forwards.
Yeah, pretty much. Even one of them and it's over at HT.
 
Absolute URGHHHHHHH

ROB towelled TBC around the ground (20 touches to 10) and had more hitouts and pressure than the useless glacier lummox.

they were down 2 and we were down 1 for pretty much the whole second half and they outran us but couldn't kick straight.

Irish deserves to be dropped for that ******* airy - RULE 1 pick up the ball

UGLY UGLY forward line structure - and why didnt we tag B. Crouch when M.Crouch was done and cactus

OUT Ham, Irish (suspended or for being a doofus), Laverde (injured)
IN The Shield, The Clarke, The Stewart
 
Last edited:
Absolute URGHHHHHHH

ROB towelled TBC around the ground (20 touches to 10) and had more hitouts and pressure than the useless glacier lummox.

they were down 2 and we were down 1 for pretty much the whole second half and they outran us but couldn't kick straight.

Irish deserves to be dropped for that ******* airy - RULE 1 pick up the ball

UGLY UGLY forward line structure - and why didnt we tag B. Crouch when M.Crouch was done and cactus

OUT Ham, Irish (suspended or for being a doofus), Laverde (injured)
IN The Shield, The Clarke, The Stewart
O'Brien was going to dominate around the ground either way. Bellchambers and McKernan combined for 25 hit outs, 11 to advantage (7/4). O'Brien and Himmelberg combined for 27 hitouts, 6 to advantage (5/1). We basically dominated at the coal face (+8 in total clearances, +5 in centre clearances, +3 around the ground) largely due to the effectiveness of our ruck combination of hitting it to our midfielders advantage. Bellchambers had the same amount of clearances, more tackles, less clangers, more effective disposals*, the same amount of marks, the same amount of contested marks, same amount of score involvements, same amount of "pressure acts"* and same amount of 1%ers as O'Brien. So O'Brien got more touches, but were less effective with them, had more hitouts, but put them to a teammates advantage on fewer occassions, and was equal at best defensively, but had fewer tackles.

The "useless glacier lummox" had fewer disposals but otherwise went head to head with one of the form rucks in the league and broke even or won in most of the important statistics. Not bad.

*I don't believe in the accuracy of these particular stats but they're pertinent to the discussion.
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,145
26,092
AFL Club
Essendon
After all said and done, we are once again playing with a bits and pieces forward line, if we and Stringer and Daniher out there today that match would have been done and dusted at half time, simple as that, we just don’t have enough quality back up forwards.
It is almost as if we had Stewart available to play. It was actually very obvious that we needed another tall. Woosha even debated it throughout the week. We elected not to play another tall.
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,145
26,092
AFL Club
Essendon
Absolute URGHHHHHHH

ROB towelled TBC around the ground (20 touches to 10) and had more hitouts and pressure than the useless glacier lummox.

they were down 2 and we were down 1 for pretty much the whole second half and they outran us but couldn't kick straight.

Irish deserves to be dropped for that ******* airy - RULE 1 pick up the ball

UGLY UGLY forward line structure - and why didnt we tag B. Crouch when M.Crouch was done and cactus

OUT Ham, Irish (suspended or for being a doofus), Laverde (injured)
IN The Shield, The Clarke, The Stewart
I thought TBC was pretty decent for the first 3 quarters. Tackled, smothered, contributed to some clearances and tapped it to our midfielders. ROB is known for his work around the grounds so he was always going to dominate TBC (and likely Phillips). Returned to his horrible slipping in the last quarter though. Frustrating, but I guess that's what we have to go with until Draper is ready.
 

Halftimehero

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 26, 2012
11,951
10,901
AFL Club
Essendon
It is almost as if we had Stewart available to play. It was actually very obvious that we needed another tall. Woosha even debated it throughout the week. We elected not to play another tall.

There is a fine line between needing him to play and being ready to play I guess. He’s coming off a long term injury then spent 2 weeks in quarantine and is unable to play any full matches at full intensity.
 

DapperJong

Cancelled
30k Posts 10k Posts SFA Good Friday Appeal Spooderman Meme Medal Pantskyle BeanCoiNFT Investor
Feb 11, 2015
42,844
82,918
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Juventus
If we are going to go handball heavy we need to improve our bloody skills. The amount of dropped balls and off target hand passes just stuffs it as a game plan

This was my biggest gripe. We have the ball 60/70m our and we have players free in the 50, yet we insisted on handballing a few more times. So frustrating.

By the way, would have been good to see how Phillips would have gone against O'Brien.

Bellchambers was awful. Absolute bullshit that he's moving well. The reason for the early comment about his physicality is that he threw himself at O'Brien when there was a dead ball and O'Brien was sitting outside the contest.

He could hardly move.

We've been running Phillips, a group 3 horse, in group 1 races and Bellchambers, a group 3 horse in group 3 races. They get the same results and we penalize Phillips for it.

I think he had a great first half but you just knew he’d be totally gassed at some point. Basically a carbon copy of round 1. Both times lucky it hasn’t resulted in a loss.
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,145
26,092
AFL Club
Essendon
There is a fine line between needing him to play and being ready to play I guess. He’s coming off a long term injury then spent 2 weeks in quarantine and is unable to play any full matches at full intensity.
He was almost ready before quarantining. He was also named on the extended bench. He was ready to play.
 
May 6, 2007
39,093
22,782
South East Suburbs
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspurs, Melbourne Vixen
Just a little aside; we all know I love my SuperCoach scores. Our bottom few were

(Worst) 1. Gleeson - 37
McKenna - 38
Ham - 39
Laverde - 40
Cahill - 44
Smith & Towmsend 49

Put into perspective, our top 3 were Merrett 135, McGrath 124 and Ridley 114.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Apr 23, 2016
30,510
42,669
AFL Club
Essendon
Thought Snelling was ok, he's one of those guys that is only a bad game from being dropped, yet keeps doing enough each week to stay in the side.

Amazingly, playing Hibberd in an inside midfield role saw him play his best game for us.

Wasn't a great game, but one we would have often found a way to lose (and we really did try to find a way at times) so take the 4 points and reload for Brisbane with Shiel available.
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,145
26,092
AFL Club
Essendon
Thought Snelling was ok, he's one of those guys that is only a bad game from being dropped, yet keeps doing enough each week to stay in the side.

Amazingly, playing Hibberd in an inside midfield role saw him play his best game for us.

Wasn't a great game, but one we would have often found a way to lose (and we really did try to find a way at times) so take the 4 points and reload for Brisbane with Shiel available.
Lol Adelaide are Owen8 and were Owen7 before they played us. I found that funny.
 

Squeaky

Club Legend
Oct 4, 2005
1,859
1,823
Up north
AFL Club
Essendon
Absolute URGHHHHHHH

ROB towelled TBC around the ground (20 touches to 10) and had more hitouts and pressure than the useless glacier lummox.

they were down 2 and we were down 1 for pretty much the whole second half and they outran us but couldn't kick straight.

Irish deserves to be dropped for that ******* airy - RULE 1 pick up the ball

UGLY UGLY forward line structure - and why didnt we tag B. Crouch when M.Crouch was done and cactus

I agree - this playing Russian Roulette in the backline is nowhere good enough!!
We can do without that s**t giving up goals because our forward line is an absolute shemozzle and we can't get them back that easily.

I don't understand at all - the best he was going to do was bang it over the line on the full... or deliberate, anyway.
 
Sep 29, 2016
9,668
16,213
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern Munich
Had a night to digest it. I stand completely by my previous comment (our inability to defend handball chains were really bad and that brain fade by McKenna was near-diabolical).
However:

Grinding out the win with 6 best 22 players missing (Heppell, Hooker, Shiel, Stringer, Daniher and Ambrose) and with current travel measures meaning they likely got up at 4:30odd to catch their flight (which would mess with sleep) is a good effort.

Especially when you see Port get rolled by St Kilda and Melbourne almost getting over the top of Brisbane. Teams are dropping games left and right so to grind out the win is a positive. The fact we have won as many games as we have with our forwardline is a good effort.

Zerrett back in form, Parish building and McGrath was super. Ridley is fast becoming our most important player.
 
Last edited:
Had a night to digest it. I stand completely by my precious comment (our inability to defend handball chains were really bad and that brain fade by McKenna was near-diabolical).
However:

Grinding out the win with 6 best 22 players missing (Heppell, Hooker, Shiel, Stringer, Daniher and Ambrose) and with current travel measures meaning they likely got up at 4:30odd to catch their flight (which would mess with sleep) is a good effort.

Especially when you see Port get rolled by St Kilda and Melbourne almost getting over the top of Brisbane. Teams are dropping games left and right so to grind out the win is a positive. The fact we have won as many games as we have with our forwardline is a good effort.

Zerrett back in form, Parish building and McGrath was super. Ridley is fast becoming our most important player.

Just a nitpick, but is Ambrose really best 22 anymore? I guess you could argue Hooker forward and Ambrose takes Gleeson’s spot, but if Daniher and Stringer are in, do we really play Hooker forward?
 
Clearly, it wasn't our best 22, we lost Laverde mid-match, and it was against the bottom side. Nevertheless, we managed to generate good pressure, mostly control midfield, and get the win.

However, let's not forget that:
- Adelaide lost two useful players mid-match;
- Adelaide are in a form trough;
- Adelaide generated more scoring shots; and
- Adelaide could have sealed a win in the final minute, if they hadn't rushed the opportunity.

Whilst we were handicapped in some ways, there is no real excuse for us not putting the game away sooner (or at all) in the actual circumstances of the match. Whether it's down to performance, personnel or strategy, we need to be better. And after almost two decades of mediocrity, it is not unreasonable to desire and expect that the Club and players actively drive this betterment.

Hopefully, the energy of guys like McGrath, Parish, Ridley will take us into a more rewarding era.
 
Back