AFL Autopsy Round 1, 2019: Flogging from GWS

[Stopher]

Shiel looks so unbelievably disappointed.

Poor bloke doesn’t deserve that.

Us, as supporters, don’t deserve that.

To be fair, he and Smith had the ball in the clear 4 times inside 30m...for a total of 1 point.

All the coaching in the world can't help that finishing.

 

[Mootsy]

We sucked, Carlton will finish higher

 

[MightyDon]

Shiel was as bad as any of them, he deserves it as much as any of them do for serving up that rubbish

 

[ghostdog]

Crow.

Wasn't Worsfold a tough campaigner back in his playing days?

I'm not laying this at Worsfold's feet yet. For all the ridicule he gets, I can't help but wonder if the PA hardness has Voss written on it. We need some of that.

 

[TheBrightSide]

 

[sameolds33]

Rules shouldn’t effect our ability to play fast footy.

Personnel isn’t that different.

Sack Rutten.

I expect the game plan is still to play fast footy if that's what you mean. I meant that the new rules, bringing in Shiel/Rutten and losing BJ and Hooker from the defence meant the game plan would be changed to accommodate those changes. Riewoldt did say that it wasn't a personnel issue on the field today - nothing wrong with the players on paper.

 

[Fear Boner]

 

[sameolds33]

Makes me wonder what have they been doing for six months.

I know some people pick on the skill level shown in the AFLW but the girls never seem to stop chasing and tackling with few coast to coast goals but at times this side plays a local level standard of footy.

and also why Heppell counselled patience!

 

[Howard Moon]

I watch on Friday night , Geelong have an electronic board on the sideline, it changes colours to tell the players whst point of the quarter they are in, they are true pros.

I see us today, have a crappy board with slide in plastic numbers you buy from Bunnings.

It's not much but it's our entire problem in a nutshell, no wonder we haven't won a finsl in so long, we are no longer innovators, we are bog average stock standard followers, we follow other teams plans, we wait for others to do things then follow.

Teams like Geelong keep staying relevant because they innovative, little things like making the best of the new rules and thinking outside the square.

Maybe our one big attempt at innovation resulted in a 5 year saga and we will be gun shy for the next generation, who knows.

Thank god we have STK next, a chance to redeem. Quick go to dick Smith and get an electronic board ;p

 

[puntingdude22]

Do we have too many slow players?

 

[Turnover]

Nick Riewoldt on Foxtel ascribed our performance to structural issues (coaching plan) and lack of effort (players/conditioning).

Foxtel needs more St Kilda (runners up) players on its books handing out advice.

 

[Bombermania]

Over at the Blitz there has been mention of talk in November of internal issues, does anyone here know anything about that?

 

[Fear Boner]

Foxtel needs more St Kilda (runners up) players on its books handing out advice.

He’s achieved more in the last 15 years than any Essendon players have

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

He’s achieved more in the last 15 years than any Essendon players have

And he's not wrong either.

 

[Stopher]

Is the sack Rutten call earlier in the thread legit? As in, really?

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Do we have too many slow players?

There is a difference between slow players and players that can’t cover ground easily. We have a slack of the latter.

 

[Call Me Cake]

 

[Shane Heard]

Time to admit that Heppell taking over as leader of this club after Jobe just isn’t working.

His comments just before the start of play being briefly interviewed gave me a cold chill of foreboding doom.

I just can’t see him inspiring this side to lift with his “ we just gotta crack in and have a go” rubbish.

Time to admit that maybe Worsfold isn’t the super coach I thought he was.

All I ever hear from Hawthorn players is about how they are drilled into the role they play in the team. The structure, the mindset, the discipline to focus on the fundamentals..the basic stuff like harassing, tackling and pressure.

Do we have any of that? Doesn’t appear so.

Sure we had some really good games in the 2nd half of last year. But hey, so did a lot of other sides.

Zaharakis is a prime example of where we are at. Half paced and slow to react when tackled. He always gets shut down in close qrts and can’t shrug a tackle.

Langford adds nothing. Soft seagull ball watcher who pops in and out with a cameo appearance. He’s played enough games now to know this is what he is and not much will change.

Myers..just not league standard. Let’s be honest ffs. He’s cooked in more ways than one.

There’s just a whole bunch of players out there who create holes for the opposition to punch through and run past us.

The lack of desperation today ...totally devoid of aggression and 2nd/3rd efforts ...killed us early and the rot set in.

Players know it. Everyone drops there heads and down the rabbit hole we go mentally.

And Worsfold doesn’t seem to be able to lift them out of it when it happens. Maybe no one takes him seriously with that nice guy approach.

Where is that manic desperation and effort from that rd 9 Geelong game last year?

Floated away that’s where. No confidence in their teammates and lost out on the ground with no leadership to guide them..to set an example.

Let’s face it people. We haven’t recovered from the ban year. This should’ve been the time to completely define what we stand for. And by that weak as #### effort today...and the past few weeks ...it looks like there’s nothing substantial happening mentally.
Those wins last year put down to adrenaline and momentum.

It all starts with relentless 1% ers. I don’t care how talented your list is...at the end of the day if you haven’t got that foundation of grinding pressure and you’re unwilling to chase when the other mob have the ball..you’re going to get beaten by a tougher side every time.

We’re not a well drilled, structured side.

We play on instinct and emotion.

It’s not good enough in this modern game.

We have not one classy permanent forward. Out back 6 gets shuffled around like a deck of cards and never looks settled and organised. It’s panic moments over and over again.

And other teams know this. They see our weaknesses in all parts of the ground and exploit it to their advantage.

We’re in big trouble folks. Big mother ####ing trouble.

 

[DapperDon]

I was unhappy with Zaharakis being used at centre bounces but he was still one of our better players not that it’s saying much.

He's excellent at running one direction.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

We weren’t the slightest bit prepared for competitive footy and as soon as the ball was bounced, we folded like cards. They kinda kept us in it for a while with poor conversion.

And then we showed zero will to get back into it.

Soft around the ball. Slaughtered out of the centre. Absolutely destroyed in the contested possessions. Out-tackled despite them having far more disposals than us overall.

Our skills were appalling. We are seriously short of touch. Plenty looked like they hadn’t picked up a footy since last season.

The forward line was a complete shemozzle. Efficiency of 35%!! (18 shots from 52 I50s). 5 goals. Five!! I think McKernan just had a bit of a dirty day, Stringer is dangerous but not really a true target, and Brown can only do so much.

Backline meh, not much they can do on a day like this. They’re just the ones at the end of the sewerage pipe forced to eat the shit.

We are better than this and we will be (at least sometimes) this year, but that’s never really been is doubt, has it? It’s this group’s lack of mental application across a season, their ability to just rock up to an AFL game not even slightly switched on and put in performances like that. They’ve been doing it for years. Sometimes it lasts a quarter or a half, sometimes it lasts 4 weeks. They just don’t have the mental application and it would appear that hasn’t changed in 2019.

 

[sameolds33]

Foxtel needs more St Kilda (runners up) players on its books handing out advice.

It was actually a really measured discussion (Riewoldt, Jack Riewoldt and Jordan Lewis). It was mentioned that both WCE and Collingwood lost their first games last year. Certainly, no one said that it was just a blip (and Riewoldt did say that Ess had carried their terrible JLT form into round 1) but it doesn't mean that the season is lost.

It's a question of how the team (in particular the captain, the leadership group and the coaches) respond to the issues underlying the heavy loss.

 

[Seb78]

Saints almost deserve to go in as favorites next week.

Speechless

 

[sameolds33]

There is a difference between slow players and players that can’t cover ground easily. We have a slack of the latter.

Jordan Lewis said on Foxtel, that this is not a personnel problem but structural. He said that sometimes it's just a question of being on the right (correct) side of your opponent which means that the angles work to your benefit and you don't have to run 100m to defend the ball. The player analysis was that the problems they saw could have a relatively easy fix (depending on how they are taken up by the players). Jack R spoke about Rutten's coaching. It was, as I said, quite heartening. Certainly there are problems but hopefully not fatal ones.

 

[MiguelM]

It is our intensity that worries me the most.

Where are the DeGoey types in our team?

 

[Donakebab]

the "all the goals" vid on efc website is gonna be very short.

Nah the video editing team will just take their love of super slow mo to a whole new level.