Review Round 11, 2022 vs Essendon

[Us against the rest]

If your `record debt' comment is correct, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, then it has to beg the question as to what the hell has the so called finance guru brought to the table apart from what appears to me to be an attempt to turn the club into a mere facsimile of what it once was.

It does make you wonder, we pay the head coach at least $800,000, we don't replace Voss or Schofield and reported debt of 12 million.
If member numbers drop away next season, we could be in all sorts of trouble.
We sound like a local footy club that is broke with a poor playing list but we pay some hero huge money to save us.

If it were not for membership numbers being good, this club would have gone full circle back to 2012. Remember that there are people and some on here that have reduced their membership, so although the numbers look good the actual income from membership is more than likely less than previous years.

 

[philthy05]

What a disappointing clusterheck that was. We were running rings around them then we come out at half time looking like we’re geriatric polio survivors just come out of a 30yr coma.

And the sheer ******* predictable-ness of it. heck me. We all called it. And to be smashed at clearances like that was worrying. If the dons didn’t kick like men who lost both legs in the war and had sacks of wheat sewn onto the stumps we would have been murdered. Absolutely murdered.

Anyway, i like to write these reports cause it makes me think about the players, examine their performance and listen to other ideas if people disagree (and also vent) but this weeks will be a bit hard as I paid a little less attention than I normally do after halftime due to just plain giving in to the inevitability of our capitulation.

Rozee - thought he was quite good with ball in hand, found a bit of it , but where the heck was he in the middle? Only 1 clearance? To be honest I don’t think I saw him at anywhere near as many centre bounces? Thought last week his centre bounces attendance was down as well? Anyone have the stats for that the last two weeks and the weeks before? Did we unearth a clearance mid, then pack that idea away after a few weeks where it worked really well? We really rely on him to get a few clearances now.

Butters - got involved and loved his endeavour. Still not back to 100% in my view

Houston - we’ve moved him back to half back and I’m ******* loving it. Yeah maybe he isn’t getting 25+ touches back there but his intercept marking, chopping off plays in the air is outstanding from a 185cm guy. Him and burton really really carry the workload for our key defenders. They would be ****ed, beyond ****ed if these two weren’t protecting them.

Wines - look he got 29d and was more than decent, but he’s still not at his best and this entire year his clearance work has been well down. Only 3 clearances last night. He’s averaging the lowest clearances since his first year in the league. He’s closer to Brad ebert

7

Brad Ebert

Age

34

Ht

189cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.9

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

8.5

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

5.2

5star

G

0.5

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

9.8

4star

HB

4.9

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

3.8

4star

G

0.6

4star

D

12.0

3star

K

8.2

4star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.2

3star

type gut running mid type than an inside in and under mid at the moment, which is leaving us massively short on inside mids and heavily reliant on boak. We’ve either got to get him to find a better mix of inside in and under and spread work or get better inside work from our other players not named boak.

Boak - decent game but I think much of this year he’s been a bit down and I think this is the beginning of the end of his career sadly (as in he’s still good but it will be a downward slope from now) Was our leading clearance winner by so far he doubled the next guy. Wines and boak both went to sleep in the 3rd and are probably who I would say are 2 of the biggest culprits to us getting rolled there.

Drew - thought he was pretty decent without being more than that. In a night we were getting thumped in clearances we needed more from him than his robin to everyone’s Batman routine.

Marshall - I thought he was excellent in the first half and did what he could in a second half where we gave him heck all. To get 8 marks on a night like last night is very good. Was also the leading contested marker with 3.

Amon - thought he was pretty damn good. His start was particularly impressive. He really came out the blocks and was one of the reasons we had a good start. To get 25d and 4 clearances was a good effort. Particularly I don’t remember him in the centre a lot so I believe he got those clearances at stoppages around the ground. Great workrate and good ball use. Had a s**t 3rd Qtr like most our team so is guilty there.

Spp - fun and impactful game from Spp. Wasteful at goals.

Dumont - decent game from Trent, just lacked the polish to finish it off at times but some workrate and good hands in there

Burton - didn’t notice him that much

Dbj - usual Dbj fare. High effort, dumb slam it on foot ball use.

Motlop - kicked a very nice goal but as usual he’s a passenger for 98% of the game and we might as well be playing 17 men. He’s gotten away with this for so long now it’s outrageous. He’s on his way to 80 games for us now and he’s deserved less than a 3rd of them. Does he have like 50 kids or something and we’re adamant we’re going to get him to f/s eligibility? He makes me so ******* angry. Please for hecks sake recruit some forwards, give Williams a chance in his spot. Do something.

Finlayson- decent game. It’s ******* annoying that he gives us less in the ruck than Spp does though.

Alir - serviceable but we expect much more from him then that. On a night dons couldn’t hit the side of a barn and their kfs didn’t look dangerous Alir should have eaten them alive.

Bonner - ok return without being much more. Wasn’t really rusty, or bad, but can do better.

Gray - meh. Has been on a decent run of form but last night despite getting involved a bit didn’t really do any damage with the ball that I can remember. Forgettable game.

Dixon - decent return. That 1 handed lazy ducking crap he does returning 5 mins into the game really pissed me off. It’s the thing I would drag him and give him an earful for. And he did it just minutes after Marshall, a ******* kid half his size managed to hold off a defender in the exact same position and still get 2 hands to the ball and mark it. Anyway, Dixon went on to nab a couple of goals. Thought he’s hands were a bit rusty in general ground play where Dixon is normally pretty good but not worried about that, it will come good. Also, let’s just heck right off with protecting Dixon now. We’ve got 3 ready to go kfs after him, and another one who’s arguably ready to be tested at afl level in lord. if we’re going to pick Dixon to play afl he’s going to have to play 2nd ruck.

Jonas - he’s been in poor form this year and last night he was an absolute waste of a spot. We would have been better off parking a traffic cone in his spot and telling him to take a hike. On a night when dons kicked like s**t, their kfs weren’t that threatening and were being stood by other key defenders anyway it’s outrageous that Jonas wasn’t just waltzing around doing as he pleases. He should have had the easiest game of his life, and should have resembled when I play my kid nephews in basketball but instead he was invisible.

5d (3 of the worst hack kicks you’ll ever see)
3 marks (1 contested)
1 tackle (what the actual heck)
1 rebound 50 (you’ve got to be ******* kidding)
66m gained

That is just horrific for a seasoned defender. Ladies and gentlemen, our ******* captain. Ffs.

Clurey - thought he was good. Stood wright for most of the night and despite giving up a billion cms in height gave him nothing. Really didn’t offer much intercepting but I don’t care if he’s holding the teams only dangerous kf.

Hayes - thought he was decent against a good 2 pronged ruck team that really went out on the attack but was probably a little down on other weeks and what we know he can do. Liked that there was an obvious effort by him to address other areas of his game. Only played 66% of TOG which is the lowest I think we’ve played him so I think they’re likely concerned about burning him out and wanted to rest him a bit. To get 21 hitouts in 2/3rds of a game is a pretty good return.

Farrell - struggled to get involved and almost looked to be playing a slightly different role to other weeks. Saw him much more in contests and up forward than out on the wings and in space around half forward

 

[Marmozet]

The Essendon board are happy with their effort, meanwhile we’re disappointed over here.

 

[davesnothere]

He's also not being picked ahead of Finlayson, who is a known quantity as a C grader but probably offers more in the short term in the coach's desperate attempt to save his career.

I've got Finlayson in front of Dixon.

 

[philthy05]

Poor performing clubs get the terrible time slots, it's the way the AFL do it. We are a bottom 8 side so as Ken says, "You Get What You Deserve". Poor attendances.

That’s simply not true.

We don’t get better timeslots when we’re performing well, and the teams getting good timeslots aren’t getting them when they’re good, and getting s**t ones when they’re bad.

Look at pies essendon Richmond Carlton’s last decade for example and try to find any causality and relation between time slot allocation and performance.

 

[Us against the rest]

That’s simply not true.

We don’t get better timeslots when we’re performing well, and the teams getting good timeslots aren’t getting them when they’re good, and getting s**t ones when they’re bad.

Look at pies essendon Richmond Carlton’s last decade for example and try to find any causality and relation between time slot allocation and performance.

Fair call. Yep I agree that some Vic clubs get good time slots even when they are s**t.

My point is if we stop being pretenders, we will be looked at more seriously and eventually the AFL and their programing will have to take notice.

Port Adelaide are irrelevant across the border, there is only one way to make them take notice so that we get a fair go and that's win a flag now and then.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Jones, Bergman and Sinn all out of our current side is telling. Three consecutive first round picks. All talented but none contributing to our 2022 performances in a meaningfully positive way.

To be fair, Sinn is injured, Bergman has been injured then ill and Jones is a victim of his versatility. He's played everywhere and settles nowhere. He could play in DBJ's spot and we would lose nothing.

They will all be handy pieces for the new coach to put into place.

 

[Marmozet]

 

[Us against the rest]

To be fair, Sinn is injured, Bergman has been injured then ill and Jones is a victim of his versatility. He's played everywhere and settles nowhere. He could play in DBJ's spot and we would lose nothing.

They will all be handy pieces for the new coach to put into place.

DBJ has had a bad season so far, he needs to lift the eyes before kicking and that would make a big difference.

 

[Festerz]

For all the negativity about that last half there were many moments of desperate individual brilliance in that dour rain sodden last quarter. Being at the game give you a much better perspective of that than a TV broadcast.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

DBJ has had a bad season so far, he needs to lift the eyes before kicking and that would make a big difference.

He drove me crazy last night (short trip granted) almost every time he went near the ball. Fumbles, blind kicks, dropped marks. I have no idea what position he's playing. He bobbed up all over the place making me cry.

 

[Festerz]

He drove me crazy last night (short trip granted) almost every time he went near the ball. Fumbles, blind kicks, dropped marks. I have no idea what position he's playing. He bobbed up all over the place making me cry.

Yep. There was one point in that last quarter where he was caught in no-man's land in defence - several metres off his man and he made the dumb decision to leave his man to run towards a player with the ball who was already covered resulting in the ball being kicked over his head to his opponent taking a mark 35 metres out from goal.

Luckily it did not result in a goal but was just tactically stupid. For someone of DBJ's experience it was unexplainable.

 

[malcheski]

there were many moments of desperate individual brilliance

This quote right here is the Hinkley game plan. We win or lose based off of individual performance, seldom as a collective. When we do play as one, Hinkley has no idea why or how and we revert to type the following week. He has siphoned millions from the club based off having his arse saved by players in the individual.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Andre]

We've got ourselves in a position where the head coach needs to scrape into finals to get the final year of his contract (reportedly), the board, dealing with record debt and low revenue projections, have to back him in until that is impossible to achieve, regardless of the stunted development our young brigade are getting.

It's a total balls up of mismanagement across the entire club.

Watching yesterday's game at a friend's house, I was blown away by how little our team looks like a contender.

This is the bit shitting me. It's a recurring theme amongst the Hinkley years. The 'not good enough for finals / scrape into finals', but also don't play youth so we're more chance in following years. If our admin had any balls I'd say at least it means Ken doesn't have any excuses, as he's been allowed to play his preferred sides, rather than look to the future.

They don't though, so I expect they'll still wheel out 'I don't want to mention our 75 injuries, as all our injuries aren't an excuse. What? Injuries, no not mentioning the injuries to x, y and z. I mean yeah, that injury to <player> really threw our team out and we were the injuriest injury team that ever injured, but nope not mentioning them. Ken's great! See you at the footy in 2023!!'.

 

[Capital Power]

I don't understand why Finlayson wasn't pinged for dissent. He raised his arms and swore directly at an umpire. If that resulted in a 50m penalty and goal to Essendon we'd be singling him out more post game.

I'm in two minds over that one - yeah giving up a goal would have been plain dumb, but one of our players actually giving a **** and getting riled up was good to see (and especially from the new boy).

 

[Us against the rest]

He drove me crazy last night (short trip granted) almost every time he went near the ball. Fumbles, blind kicks, dropped marks. I have no idea what position he's playing. He bobbed up all over the place making me cry.

Yeah not sure what's up with DBJ, I used to love the way he played, so Port like but he's lost his mojo.

 

[Andre]

Yeah not sure what's up with DBJ, I used to love the way he played, so Port like but he's lost his mojo.

Yeah. DBJ is never going to be a star, but he's symbolic of our club at present. Just completely lost form and confidence and in desperate need of a new coach. Now guys like Jonas, Motlop, Gray it should be their last year due to their age, but I really want to see players like DBJ thrive under a new coach and get their mojo back.

 

[Capital Power]

1.8 in the second half, 2.2 in the second half last week. This is more than just a few 'not quite ready' players returning from injury/illness.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

No there are no other words. I was commenting specifically on the spurious narrative that when Dixon comes into the team all we do is kick long to Charlie.

From the outset, we were picking out alternative targets and hitting them up. Rozee in particular used his forward 50 entries intelligently as did Butters.

In terms of the actual game, which I did describe as horrible and needing a break from, at about halfway through the second quarter we lost control of the game around the middle, especially at clearances which were a problem all game. When the weather turned to s**t at half time Essendon adapted much better and won too much contested ball.

We controlled most of the last quarter but as usual couldn't convert gettable shots on goal.

But where does that leave us? We're not good enough for long enough. We won't play finals and we struggle against top teams.

Nobody is realistically sugar coating where this season is heading.

Id be really interested to see CBA 3rd v 4th quarters.

I have a feeling we had the younger, smaller guys in there in the 3rd and then in the 4th went back to Boak, Ollie and Drew.

 

[240volt]

Ken burns another list.

Boak was about our best player yesterday that tells you just how weak this list is.

 

[Windy Cindy]

I went to the supermarket during the game and did a reasonable sized shop. Didn't check the scores. I ended up watching about half the game. Marshall and Rozee were good. Wanganeen was poor. Afl in winter is going to be a hard slog.

wangas played for too many frees

gee he moves like the old man, went for a chest mark and looked exactly like dad

 

[Enviable Tradition]

One of the highlights of the night.

Amazing chase and tackle.

 

[Windy Cindy]

He drove me crazy last night (short trip granted) almost every time he went near the ball. Fumbles, blind kicks, dropped marks. I have no idea what position he's playing. He bobbed up all over the place making me cry.

his one wood is his throw it on the boot hack out on the full. he would surely would lead the afl in out on the full kicks

Play jones in his spot, jones can play small and tall and surely cant kick any worse than DBJ

 

[Enviable Tradition]

his one wood is his throw it on the boot hack out on the full. he would surely would lead the afl in out on the full kicks

Play jones in his spot, jones can play small and tall and surely cant kick any worse than DBJ

Probably between DBJ and Jonas.

 

[Windy Cindy]

What a disappointing clusterduck that was. We were running rings around them then we come out at half time looking like we’re geriatric polio survivors just come out of a 30yr coma.

And the sheer ******* predictable-ness of it. duck me. We all called it. And to be smashed at clearances like that was worrying. If the dons didn’t kick like men who lost both legs in the war and had sacks of wheat sewn onto the stumps we would have been murdered. Absolutely murdered.

Anyway, i like to write these reports cause it makes me think about the players, examine their performance and listen to other ideas if people disagree (and also vent) but this weeks will be a bit hard as I paid a little less attention than I normally do after halftime due to just plain giving in to the inevitability of our capitulation.

Rozee - thought he was quite good with ball in hand, found a bit of it , but where the duck was he in the middle? Only 1 clearance? To be honest I don’t think I saw him at anywhere near as many centre bounces? Thought last week his centre bounces attendance was down as well? Anyone have the stats for that the last two weeks and the weeks before? Did we unearth a clearance mid, then pack that idea away after a few weeks where it worked really well? We really rely on him to get a few clearances now.

Butters - got involved and loved his endeavour. Still not back to 100% in my view

Houston - we’ve moved him back to half back and I’m ******* loving it. Yeah maybe he isn’t getting 25+ touches back there but his intercept marking, chopping off plays in the air is outstanding from a 185cm guy. Him and burton really really carry the workload for our key defenders. They would be ducked, beyond ducked if these two weren’t protecting them.

Wines - look he got 29d and was more than decent, but he’s still not at his best and this entire year his clearance work has been well down. Only 3 clearances last night. He’s averaging the lowest clearances since his first year in the league. He’s closer to Brad ebert type gut running mid type than an inside in and under mid at the moment, which is leaving us massively short on inside mids and heavily reliant on boak. We’ve either got to get him to find a better mix of inside in and under and spread work or get better inside work from our other players not named boak.

Boak - decent game but I think much of this year he’s been a bit down and I think this is the beginning of the end of his career sadly (as in he’s still good but it will be a downward slope from now) Was our leading clearance winner by so far he doubled the next guy. Wines and boak both went to sleep in the 3rd and are probably who I would say are 2 of the biggest culprits to us getting rolled there.

Drew - thought he was pretty decent without being more than that. In a night we were getting thumped in clearances we needed more from him than his robin to everyone’s Batman routine.

Marshall - I thought he was excellent in the first half and did what he could in a second half where we gave him duck all. To get 8 marks on a night like last night is very good. Was also the leading contested marker with 3.

Amon - thought he was pretty damn good. His start was particularly impressive. He really came out the blocks and was one of the reasons we had a good start. To get 25d and 4 clearances was a good effort. Particularly I don’t remember him in the centre a lot so I believe he got those clearances at stoppages around the ground. Great workrate and good ball use. Had a s**t 3rd Qtr like most our team so is guilty there.

Spp - fun and impactful game from Spp. Wasteful at goals.

Dumont - decent game from Trent, just lacked the polish to finish it off at times but some workrate and good hands in there

Burton - didn’t notice him that much

Dbj - usual Dbj fare. High effort, dumb slam it on foot ball use.

Motlop - kicked a very nice goal but as usual he’s a passenger for 98% of the game and we might as well be playing 17 men. He’s gotten away with this for so long now it’s outrageous. He’s on his way to 80 games for us now and he’s deserved less than a 3rd of them. Does he have like 50 kids or something and we’re adamant we’re going to get him to f/s eligibility? He makes me so ******* angry. Please for ducks sake recruit some forwards, give Williams a chance in his spot. Do something.

Finlayson- decent game. It’s ******* annoying that he gives us less in the ruck than Spp does though.

Alir - serviceable but we expect much more from him then that. On a night dons couldn’t hit the side of a barn and their kfs didn’t look dangerous Alir should have eaten them alive.

Bonner - ok return without being much more. Wasn’t really rusty, or bad, but can do better.

Gray - meh. Has been on a decent run of form but last night despite getting involved a bit didn’t really do any damage with the ball that I can remember. Forgettable game.

Dixon - decent return. That 1 handed lazy ducking crap he does returning 5 mins into the game really pissed me off. It’s the thing I would drag him and give him an earful for. And he did it just minutes after Marshall, a ******* kid half his size managed to hold off a defender in the exact same position and still get 2 hands to the ball and mark it. Anyway, Dixon went on to nab a couple of goals. Thought he’s hands were a bit rusty in general ground play where Dixon is normally pretty good but not worried about that, it will come good. Also, let’s just duck right off with protecting Dixon now. We’ve got 3 ready to go kfs after him, and another one who’s arguably ready to be tested at afl level in lord. if we’re going to pick Dixon to play afl he’s going to have to play 2nd ruck.

Jonas - he’s been in poor form this year and last night he was an absolute waste of a spot. We would have been better off parking a traffic cone in his spot and telling him to take a hike. On a night when dons kicked like s**t, their kfs weren’t that threatening and were being stood by other key defenders anyway it’s outrageous that Jonas wasn’t just waltzing around doing as he pleases. He should have had the easiest game of his life, and should have resembled when I play my kid nephews in basketball but instead he was invisible.

5d (3 of the worst hack kicks you’ll ever see)
3 marks (1 contested)
1 tackle (what the actual duck)
1 rebound 50 (you’ve got to be ******* kidding)
66m gained

That is just horrific for a seasoned defender. Ladies and gentlemen, our ******* captain. Ffs.

Clurey - thought he was good. Stood wright for most of the night and despite giving up a billion cms in height gave him nothing. Really didn’t offer much intercepting but I don’t care if he’s holding the teams only dangerous kf.

Hayes - thought he was decent against a good 2 pronged ruck team that really went out on the attack but was probably a little down on other weeks and what we know he can do. Liked that there was an obvious effort by him to address other areas of his game. Only played 66% of TOG which is the lowest I think we’ve played him so I think they’re likely concerned about burning him out and wanted to rest him a bit. To get 21 hitouts in 2/3rds of a game is a pretty good return.

Farrell - struggled to get involved and almost looked to be playing a slightly different role to other weeks. Saw him much more in contests and up forward than out on the wings and in space around half forward

i think you are harsh on jonas, at least you know one thing with jonas he bangs and crashes opponents and helps out 3rd man up

Reckon rozee and houston were our best, both just so clean below their knees.

Rozee is probably our only real one grabber bar for robbie gray

we need butters to look at parishs tape, we need to get butters getting those numbers, needs to be consistently above 30p

i reckon 50% of wines kicks were around the corner hacks where he ends up on the ground