Review Adelaide v Essendon - Rd 18

[WaynesWorld19]

You could tell 5minutes in that we were using this as a learning experience, went for ball control just to give the players experience in a game style that might add an extra bow the quiver in the future.

We've done it a few times this year where we wont play our main gameplan as we're looking to the future rather than winning on the day.

In the end, I cbf sitting through half time, so I put on some Star Trek Voyager and I missed the 2nd half.

But from what I saw in the first half

1 - Keays is out of form
2 - Rowe and Murphy are close to being AFL standard, but just aren't
3 - Pedlar, Berry and Schoenberg are smart footballers. All have a future ahead of them
4 - Doedee is captains material. Give it to him no later than 2023
5 - Tilthorpe needs to work on his upper body strength. He was found out vs Carlton and Essendon exploited this too (I missed Brisbane game, so things may have been the same then)
6 - McDonald-Tipungwuti gets away with a lot. In just the first half he blocked opposition players getting near the contest 4 times. Resulting in 1.2 directly, and with the ensuring contest another goal. Problem being, media dont call out bad umpiring worrying theyll lose their accreditation. So he isn't put under the microscope

Great assessment ......last night ended up being a list assessment exercise, players thrown around into different roles

Rowe has one more season to get his body right and add some speed ......we badly need some zip from a small fwd, in the mould of MELB's Kozi .....Rowe's role can be done by 3-4 other players, so he's not an essential need

Both Pedlar and Berry were disappointing .....but to be fair, Pedlar found the pace too quick in his 2nd game .....and all the young players would have been thrown a curve ball by such a big change in gameplan ......that's a learning experience for young players in adaptability

Now onto ROB ......all season I've been on his back ...the number of times he lost his footing last night was embarrassing.
He was beaten by a novice ruckman, still has no idea how to use his body in Ruck contests .....and not for the first time this year, was not switched on mentally to a game of AFL

 

[WaynesWorld19]

How did Tipungwuti survive till the rookie draft anyway?

Fat and Lazy ......you do know he'll be 29 early next season

 

[Moonwatcher]

Fat and Lazy ......you do know he'll be 29 early next season

The anti Mackay if you will (except the age)

 

[CrowBloke]

There's no shame in being beaten by the best

View attachment 1174168

" Adelaide only managed 31 forward 50 entries for the match " !!!
is all that Nicks needs to know that his structure/set-ups and personnel at Centre bounces and throw-ins are up sh1te creek.
Time is well overdue (and many posters have said this) for Nicks/VB to make changes and put fewer minutes into the Sloane/Laird/Keays combo. It's not working.

 

[70lethal]

This was a danger game that could have cost a top 3 pick.

To keep Frampton and McKay in was wise.
To replace a tall with a small in the forward line against good interceptors genius.
To play injured players in the middle and leave kids lamenting in the forward line very considerate.

Why else would you change a game plan with a young side against a side out of the 8 unless your experimenting in the disguise of tanking.

5 wins says we have improved and keeps the natives quiet.

 

[Moonwatcher]

That TT goal against St Kilda may have really changed the makeup of our side 5 years from now.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

" Adelaide only managed 31 forward 50 entries for the match " !!!
is all that Nicks needs to know that his structure/set-ups and personnel at Centre bounces and throw-ins are up sh1te creek.
Time is well overdue (and many posters have said this) for Nicks/VB to make changes and put fewer minutes into the Sloane/Laird/Keays combo. It's not working.

Almost all of those entries were garbage too. And then the forwards got slaughtered and the ball walked straight back out.

We were fortunate the defence held up as it did. Otherwise would have been a 20 goal loss.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Nicks was good in the presser he said "We embarrassed ourselves".

That is as harsh as it gets. Well done Nicks. Lets see an improvement.

That's undeniable ....particularly on Friday Night primetime

 

[CrowBloke]

We also just play plain dumb at times and still have that bad habit, with guys like Laird again due to a lack of high quality skills, just bombing it. That was the one reason they tried to control the ball in the first half was to prevent the Bombers intercept markers in our forward half having a field day on us, but we were plenty guilty of kicking high balls to smalls who had taller defenders on them.

Really good post.
A better game plan would have been to use chaos-ball, ie kick the ball forward low, even bouncy, into space and give our blokes a 50-50 chance at ground level --- blokes like McHenry don't lead anyway and the Bombadier approach hasn't worked all season.

 

[StonesThrow]

Jones has a decent leg. Not a bad person to have distributing the ball. Got a bit lost defensively. Needs to work on that.

 

[Murray2503]

Nope. Not alone. Dumb football. Utterly pointless effort which sees our best back out for a week.

A decent, small pressure forward would be handy, but so would a small forward that actually knows how to find the goals.

Yeah I don't wanna see Doedee do that ever again on a football field. There's courage and then there's stupid courage. What Doedeee did was up there with Jonathan Brown stupidly going back with a ball and asking to be knocked out. Was impacting one contest worth 2 weeks or a broken jaw broken for 8? Players need to always weigh up the benefit against the risk. What Doedeee did last night was ridiculously brave but also selfish in that he was a key component of our team who blindly went into a contest when there was only one outcome. He will learn from it I hope and realise he is needed on the field.

 

[Mutineer]

That's undeniable ....particularly on Friday Night primetime

I hope he meant the coaching panel in that "We embarrassed ourselves" because that gameplan we opened with from the bounce down was all kinds of sheizzen houssen.

 

[Murray2503]

Great assessment ......last night ended up being a list assessment exercise, players thrown around into different roles

Rowe has one more season to get his body right and add some speed ......we badly need some zip from a small fwd, in the mould of MELB's Kozi .....Rowe's role can be done by 3-4 other players, so he's not an essential need

Both Pedlar and Berry were disappointing .....but to be fair, Pedlar found the pace too quick in his 2nd game .....and all the young players would have been thrown a curve ball by such a big change in gameplan ......that's a learning experience for young players in adaptability

Now onto ROB ......all season I've been on his back ...the number of times he lost his footing last night was embarrassing.
He was beaten by a novice ruckman, still has no idea how to use his body in Ruck contests .....and not for the first time this year, was not switched on mentally to a game of AFL

Berry has been good all year. Not concerned with him at all. ROB is a major concern. Pedlar is not fit but he had his eyes opened up to what he needs to get to. Rowe's speed wont improve regardless of fitness. He is a very short term prospect.

 

[Doctor B]

Our team selection and list management over the last few years is biting us now. We are relying on the kids to come on fast.

Essendon have 21 players with over 50 games experience we have 15.
Our 15 are, MacKay, Walker, Sloane, Talia, Smith, Brown, Laird, Lynch, Seedsman, Crouch, Kelly, Keays, Milera, Murphy, O'Brien.

How many would be best 22 at a top 4 club?

 

[Dudersaurus]

Good. Steve Hocking is gone. Doedee would have gone to tribunal for hurting himself.

 

[hey shorty]

Good. Steve Hocking is gone. Doedee would have gone to tribunal for hurting himself.

If you listen to many Essendon and Port nuffies he should be suspended.

Hilarious.

 

[70lethal]

Our team selection and list management over the last few years is biting us now. We are relying on the kids to come on fast.

Essendon have 21 players with over 50 games experience we have 15.
Our 15 are, MacKay, Walker, Sloane, Talia, Smith, Brown, Laird, Lynch, Seedsman, Crouch, Kelly, Keays, Milera, Murphy, O'Brien.

How many would be best 22 at a top 4 club?

Not much polished or poise in that lot.

 

[Murray2503]

Our team selection and list management over the last few years is biting us now. We are relying on the kids to come on fast.

Essendon have 21 players with over 50 games experience we have 15.
Our 15 are, MacKay, Walker, Sloane, Talia, Smith, Brown, Laird, Lynch, Seedsman, Crouch, Kelly, Keays, Milera, Murphy, O'Brien.

How many would be best 22 at a top 4 club?

Seedsman, Laird, Walker(on this year's form)

 

[MRB37]

Really good post.
A better game plan would have been to use chaos-ball, ie kick the ball forward low, even bouncy, into space and give our blokes a 50-50 chance at ground level --- blokes like McHenry don't lead anyway and the Bombadier approach hasn't worked all season.

Like the Keays one to McHenry I think it was in the 2nd. Kicked it high to him and he had a guy with 20cm height on him. Was an open forward line, put it in low and quick 5 metres ahead of the contest and McHenry probably would have gotten their first for a shot at goal.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I hope he meant the coaching panel in that "We embarrassed ourselves" because that gameplan we opened with from the bounce down was all kinds of sheizzen houssen.

Yes, it appeared the game was over, even B4 we ran onto the ground .....1st bounce was an accurate reflection of the rest of the night

If ROB can't throw his bulk around, aand set an example ......WTF is he playing, it's certainly not on his skills

Number of times he looked intently at making sure his boot connected with the ball (says a lot too) .....in total obliviance to where he was kicking the thing

Just was not AFL standard .....and if Nicks is serious, he'd drop ROB .....because the penny aint dropping with ROB ATM

 

[Milo Cyrus]

Last nights performance reminds me of this.

 

[Mutineer]

Yes, it appeared the game was over, even B4 we ran onto the ground .....1st bounce was an accurate reflection of the rest of the night

If ROB can't throw his bulk around, aand set an example ......WTF is he playing, it's certainly not on his skills

Number of times he looked intently at making sure his boot connected with the ball (says a lot too) .....in total obliviance to where he was kicking the thing

Just was not AFL standard .....and if Nicks is serious, he'd drop ROB .....because the penny aint dropping with ROB ATM

Draper was on top of him early sure but O'Brien had his measure in the 2nd half.

Strachan ain't the answer long term either....Toby Conway might be.

 

[hey shorty]

Draper was on top of him early sure but O'Brien had his measure in the 2nd half.

Strachan ain't the answer long term either....Toby Conway might be.

Strachan deserves a few games to find out. He's played well enough in the 2s and ROB isn't setting the world alight

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Draper was on top of him early sure but O'Brien had his measure in the 2nd half.

Strachan ain't the answer long term either....Toby Conway might be.

Yes agree ...someone gave ROB a rocket at HT ....but still around the ground, ROB kept losing his footing, and cost us at least 3 goals directly

I haven't a high opinion of Draper .....but he's far better than ROB

Have you seen the dramatic improvement in GWS's Flynn this year .....twice the player ROB is, can't believe we think ROB could take us as our Ruck to a Flag

 

[subaru]

Essendon had us beat all over the ground in height

so yeah
High kicks was always going to work …..

Tired
Looked tired

and short