AFL Autopsy RND 19: Essington Rides Again

[Yoda_]

The goal now needs to shift. Tsatas, Davey, Baldwin all need to be in for at least a game before year ends.
Snelling and guelf need to be transitioned out of the side asap. They are good depth, but they cannot be best 22 if we want to improve.

With recent results, it should be about what stock we have in reserve.

 

[eth-dog]

Was listening to the radio in the car for the second half (picking my sister up from the airport) and the commentators were scathing of our midfield. Nobody ran defensively, we didn't lock down the stoppage at all.

 

[raskolnikov]

listen we tried, and failed miserably, the lesson here is to never try.

Did we though? Seemed there were a lot of players out there who didn't.

 

[MightyDon]

Hep.
It's time to start laying the groundwork for retirement game. Was constantly caught between contests tonight and was a real liability. He's there for his leadership and if that's the case he's also to blame for the poor direction of just chipping it around the backline. He isn't awful, but I'd rather be planning for the future and I don't want him playing out his career with poor form. Give him the runway so he can mentally prepare himself and give us a good final few games.

not sure if 2021 or 2022?

 

[Dons4days]

And that much was obvious to us laypersons which is a worry.

We simply must find a way to lay more tables

 

[frodos gardener]

We simply must find a way to lay more tables

Like kitchen tables or excel tables? If the latter, yep I reckon you’re onto something

 

[outersanctum]

That was worse than the Geelong effort. Absolutely disappointed in the effort they put up.

Again we go back to our drafting and recruitment. Cox is a bust. Still looks just as useless as he did before he was dropped last year. Reid and Jones can't get on the park. Our only #1 draft pick is an average back pocket that is prone to at least two turnovers a game that lead directly to goals. We have zero quality small forwards that can apply pressure. We have no ruck depth.

I've said it before but Duds has to go. We are losing before we even get on the park some weeks and starts with the overall list.

The specifics of why we lost tonight are many and varied. Let's start with the s**t cracker that is our forward line. Stringer is out of form, out of gas and should be dropped. Snelling legit does very little and refuses to apply pressure. Langford exceeding expectations. Wright is OK but nowhere near his form of last year and misses at least 5-6 easy marks every game. Needs to look at tape from last year and adjust.

Our midfield was pantsed. Not a single player won their individual battle.. including merrett. Just soundly beaten once Dogs made the adjustments at quarter time. Perkins is scratchy and Caldwell has gone missing after his best game for the club a few weeks back. Hobbs got very very very very very unlucky with umpires. Parish and Merrett were serviceable but gave their opponents too much space. The amount of times Bont was just literally wandering around free was vomit inducing. One of the best players in the comp and we appeared allergic to being within 10m of him.

Our backline tries hard and is put in impossible positions. Zerk is not good enough to be a Key Back.. as a 2nd/3rd tall maybe but struggles against quality players. The entire backline struggles to find an effective kick at times and the panic handpasses are just embarrassing. Heppell leads the panic merchants down there. Redman showing why you would be insane to sign him to an over inflated contract.. has done very little when the blowtorch is applied.

Phillips is better than Bryan.. the latter was used badly. Overall the lack of ruck depth after draper went down is disappointing. We got beaten badly once English settled in and the dogs adjusted their stoppage structure.

Absolutely zero positives this week for me.. very very ugly display and makes me think we aren't ready for finals. I suspected we might lose both.. but the manner of our capitulations is worrying. Scott has a lot to adjust and I am keen to see if he is actually going to be able to do it. The rot has set in.. now up to this group to show they are different.

Next week is do or die for this season. We absolutely have to get our structures right and get back to a good mix of attacking and defensive play. We have gone into our shells the last fortnight and paid for it. Hopefully a few small tweaks and it will come back together.

Finally.. the umpires were 100% a factor in this game. Match fixing levels of decision making. The HTB calls were out of this world insane. I would hope the club puts together a tape to send for a please explain from HQ. Made this one an ugly affair to watch.

Now erase the tape and get ready for next week.

 

[Chief Hopper]

Too many passengers tonight.
Just like Geelong we are a team that gets out muscled when up against the bigger physical teams.

 

[MightyDon]

Not a great presser Brad, lack of dangerous forwards and forward 50 pressure have a good hard look at team selection

 

[Hamez]

These are our centre bounce attendances from tonight:


Perkins only had 8 disposals (3k, 5hb), 0 clearances and 1 tackle.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Some of our better players didn't have great games. Our bottom end dished up more of the same.

BZT, Kelly, McGrath, Heppell in defence are not at the level we need. They can pinch hit individually at times but they are all makeshift.

Guys like Martin, Durham, Hobbs, Caldwell still have lots of question marks but are on the right tracks.

Perkins is an interesting one tracking ok but awful tonight. Needs more time like Cox but we've been saying these things forever.

Forward half needs lots of work.

 

[Lore]

There we go. A silver lining.

If you have a week off and get post-bye curse, does having another week off reverse the curse?

 

[Shanghaistu]

Can we still get Harley Reid?

We will help west Coast to secure him by Essington-ing our match against them

 

[bombreys]

Factually innacurate.

But hey, that's your style I suppose

I must apologise! 20 year old Brandon Walker is now the worst. BZT is the second worst.

Congratulations on your style

 

[Beerfish]

If you have a week off and get post-bye curse, does having another week off reverse the curse?

depends if it was us or not

 

[Seb78]

Seems to me like there was a bit of bath water drinking going on at EFC over the past couple months. Nowhere near it I'm afraid.

Stringer - Clearly carrying something, either groin or some other ailment. Shaddow of his earlier games. Just get him right. Try Voss in that role, season is just about done anyway.

Snelling - Menzie should be in the side before him. Other than a few tackles this bloke doesn't offer much.

Cox - Stuck in no man's land. Is he a forward, back, wing?? Who the * knows. Not sure he even knows. Looked lost.

Our lack of big, strong bodied midfielders was ever so clearly evident tonight. We were mauled in there. Pushed off the ball ever so easily. No defensive pressure!!

Teams are working out this possession kick to kick football we play. Taking 50 uncontested marks is great when teams don't pile on the pressure. From second qtr onwards, in comes the dog's pressure no plan B.

Perkins - Needs to be settled in a position and kept there. Either persist with him as a big bodied mid (whilst setters is out) or he plays deeper forward. This high half forward role isn't working for him. (It is a tough position to play, I'll admit).

Last 2 weeks have been very dissapointing, probably a mixture of younger bodies getting tired, teams working us out, getting teams at the wrong time. Have seen us play some really good footy this year's which makes the last 2 weeks all the more dissapointing. Yes we are young, yes we've had our injury issues, but I'm not one for settling for mediocrity. We need to do better!

 

[Shanghaistu]

Its just the same old s**t week in week out.

• Ball lives in our backline
• We kick the ball around going nowhere
• Long kick forward that gets turned over
• Giving up easy goals
• Outnumbered all over the ground
• Players that lack instinct when the ball is in dispute
• No spread from the contest and getting burnt badly when other teams do
• Stuffing around with the ball taking forever to get it forward

I was just going to post ‘soft and putrid’, but your post is more satisfying

 

[fairbump_playon]

Cox must be played in front of the ball as a tall, or behind it. After finding his feet across 90 games maybe he becomes Blicavs and gets back between the arcs.

 

[Dons4days]

Like kitchen tables or excel tables? If the latter, yep I reckon you’re onto something

Kitchen tables to build their fitness

 

[bombreys]

Was listening to the radio in the car for the second half (picking my sister up from the airport) and the commentators were scathing of our midfield. Nobody ran defensively, we didn't lock down the stoppage at all.

A bit over simplified - nobody ran in the midfield, but the backline was also really poor. Ridley was good all night, Mason was good early. We’d have been better if McGrath and Heppell stayed home

 

[supportyourteam]

After the boasting about the Adelaide game, we have been worked out. Still good at possessing in the rear half. Not able to get a run on forward of centre. Something like that. Plus how many games did it take last year to recover from a Geelong thumping. Definitely lacked spark. Martin has been a bit off his normal high standard for a couple of weeks. Few others the same. Worth being there to watch Bont. Go Dons next week.

 

[TheGrizz]

I must apologise! 20 year old Brandon Walker is now the worst. BZT is the second worst.

Congratulations on your style

He isnt in the bottom 10, actually.

 

[Keystone agony]

Gee that JUH kid is a star in the making

N.Cox on a wing

Actually thought outside of the usual Ridley that Lavede was pretty good tonight aswell

Parish laying alot of tackles

 

[MiguelM]

One positive moving forward is the Dogs last game is Cats at the Cattery!

 

[Nicholas61]

The opposition when running with the ball routinely seem to make a slight change in direction and lose our guy. We don't seem to be able to do it to the same effect.