ajmart
Debutant
While I was disappointed at the way we finished season 2003, I've had time to calm down and think more clearly.
1. I think the 2 finals this week were almost decided by the weather conditions. I'm not saying this was the only reason but Essendon are so used to playing in the pristine conditions of Telstra Dome that the weather and state of the ground last night favoured Port considerably. I think you will find that Essendon's form this year has not been great in less than perfect outdoor conditions. As well, Essendon were coming back from Subiaco
2. Similarly, the 35 degree heat and whatever humidity gave Brisbane a huge advantage. It takes time to adjust to this type of Brisbane weather but all our players could do from the time they landed was to spend time in their airconditioned hotel rooms due to the heat. I would be interested to hear how supporters who travelled to Qld found the adjustment as we went to Qld a few years ago, left Adelaide at 10 degrees and arrived in Brisbane at 33 degrees, and could hardly function for a few days.
3. No interstate team has won a final at the Gabba and last year we were absolutely creamed by about 12 goals but the difference was that we had a second chance. This year we lost by 7 goals although I thought our early attitude left a bit to be desired. The one venue I didn't want to play at in the finals was the Gabba.
4. Despite the doom and gloom about our team, we have finished 5th despite a dreadful run of injuries which hardly gave us a stable team to work with, 2 games in Perth within 4 weeks, decimated by a viral infection which was in the club for 3 weeks and we still finished above 11 other teams.
5. Had just one result of the St Kilda, Collingwood, Hawthorn or Freo games been different, we may well have been playing in a preliminary final next week and depending on the Draw for next year ( surely it couldn't get much worse than this year ) I think we can still be in the top 6 teams.
6. Having said all that we still have problems.
a. I don't think we will ever win a premiership while Gary Ayres is coach as he doesn't have the coaching smarts in close matches nor important games which require the coach to react to adverse situations.
b. Our players need to work more on their skills, especially handball which seemed to get us into more trouble rather than getting us out of a tight situation or setting up play.
c. I think this year some of our second tier players went backwards eg Bode, Stenglein, Doughty, Ladhams and it's up to the coaching staff to work through this as they should all be excellent players
d. We don't appear to have physically strong players who can take contested marks etc, we seem to be bumped off the ball too easily. It seems our coaches have decided to have more aerobic players but we have to mould ourselves on Brisbane's program which has strong but quick and mobile players.
e. We need to bite the bullet and give the likes of Reilly, Schuback, Bock, Parker a reasonable trial to see what they're made of. We don't seem to bring the young players through at all. When is the last time we has a Rising Star nomination? However, don't compare us to St Kilda who have been given an armchair ride to reward their club's incompetence.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to put some of my thoughts on paper to help get over our loss on Friday
Cheers,
a.j.
1. I think the 2 finals this week were almost decided by the weather conditions. I'm not saying this was the only reason but Essendon are so used to playing in the pristine conditions of Telstra Dome that the weather and state of the ground last night favoured Port considerably. I think you will find that Essendon's form this year has not been great in less than perfect outdoor conditions. As well, Essendon were coming back from Subiaco
2. Similarly, the 35 degree heat and whatever humidity gave Brisbane a huge advantage. It takes time to adjust to this type of Brisbane weather but all our players could do from the time they landed was to spend time in their airconditioned hotel rooms due to the heat. I would be interested to hear how supporters who travelled to Qld found the adjustment as we went to Qld a few years ago, left Adelaide at 10 degrees and arrived in Brisbane at 33 degrees, and could hardly function for a few days.
3. No interstate team has won a final at the Gabba and last year we were absolutely creamed by about 12 goals but the difference was that we had a second chance. This year we lost by 7 goals although I thought our early attitude left a bit to be desired. The one venue I didn't want to play at in the finals was the Gabba.
4. Despite the doom and gloom about our team, we have finished 5th despite a dreadful run of injuries which hardly gave us a stable team to work with, 2 games in Perth within 4 weeks, decimated by a viral infection which was in the club for 3 weeks and we still finished above 11 other teams.
5. Had just one result of the St Kilda, Collingwood, Hawthorn or Freo games been different, we may well have been playing in a preliminary final next week and depending on the Draw for next year ( surely it couldn't get much worse than this year ) I think we can still be in the top 6 teams.
6. Having said all that we still have problems.
a. I don't think we will ever win a premiership while Gary Ayres is coach as he doesn't have the coaching smarts in close matches nor important games which require the coach to react to adverse situations.
b. Our players need to work more on their skills, especially handball which seemed to get us into more trouble rather than getting us out of a tight situation or setting up play.
c. I think this year some of our second tier players went backwards eg Bode, Stenglein, Doughty, Ladhams and it's up to the coaching staff to work through this as they should all be excellent players
d. We don't appear to have physically strong players who can take contested marks etc, we seem to be bumped off the ball too easily. It seems our coaches have decided to have more aerobic players but we have to mould ourselves on Brisbane's program which has strong but quick and mobile players.
e. We need to bite the bullet and give the likes of Reilly, Schuback, Bock, Parker a reasonable trial to see what they're made of. We don't seem to bring the young players through at all. When is the last time we has a Rising Star nomination? However, don't compare us to St Kilda who have been given an armchair ride to reward their club's incompetence.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to put some of my thoughts on paper to help get over our loss on Friday
Cheers,
a.j.
