Complacency

[Eleven 38]

What happened tonight has ZERO relevance on our july-September footy, we got the 4 points thats all that matters.

 

[Redb#]

The Suns did the same thing a month ago, they forced us out of complacency to go up a gear to win the game when the whips were cracking. A great sign of good football team.

They can't all be 10 goal wins like last week.

Overall improvement in the last 3 seasons?

 

[Smokin]

we would have lost that game 12 months ago.

Skills fell away after half time, that and trying to hit near impossible passes which caused a lot of grief. Perhaps we mentally switched off, who knows.

Great resilience to stop a team running ontop of the ground and hitting the lead.

Again, a little like Anzac day, I thought the team did well to win without super standout performances from anyone - Watson and Stants got a bit of it but not as usual damaging (especially Watson), Crameri very good but the rest had cameos at different times.

Building a very good 'team'.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

MWNN owning this thread.

What he says.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

We should have killed the game in the 3rd quarter.

No disrespect to Richmond as they are an improving side but I think the coaches were trying to many things in the 3rd and we lost control of the game.

We needed to hold on to the ball and kill the game for 5 minutes so as to stop their momentum. At no time did we try and do this.

This is something we need to learn. It seemed like everyone was happy to play a shootout.

 

[SirJimi05]

We win to go top of the table in round 8 for the first time since...a long time and what do we do to acknowledge our players and club? Start this thread. Maybe we should just take a deep breath, reflect on the way the boys fought, and be bloody proud of their efforts.

 

[zackah]

Lol. 7-1 and (currently) top of the table and we find a way to complain. I like it

 

[laxation]

When Richmond got within 10 points I was saying "we'll lose this by 5 goals". That's maybe what I'm used to a bit. There seemed to be only one side on the ground. But Richmond gave us a chance to get back into it, and we took it.

I was thinking the same thing. Its great that we can pull out a win, wouldn't have happened in prev years

 

[Childish Gambino]

We were on the canvas when Richmond hit the front. For the last six years Essendon lose that game. We found something like Gold Coast and Port Adelaide games to get us over the line.

There is a strong belief at this club in the coaching staff and the players finally believe we are going somewhere.

Complacent is harsh on Richmond. They gave it their absolute all and fell short against a better side

 

[Fin ice Smuggler]

i'd say we looked complacent but there are a number of reasons for that illusion, the first being a few of our players are apparently playing sore, that took its toll.

The next being we werent playing well all night really, the stats say Richmond probably outplayed us for most the night, we were just more effective when coverting goals.

Tigers smashed sydney and probably should have beaten west coast and Geelong. They're a decent side.

 

[The Dustbin]

Nathan Brown just did a brilliant analysis on Essendon's centre bounce structure.

The first two quarters we easily won the centre clearances when we were man-on-man, third quarter we lost the centre clearances when we were 'loose' providing Richmond time and space (around the ball and forward of the ball).

The last quarter we went back to the original structure (man-on-man), and won the centre clearences. When the panel quizzed Lonergan, he said they lost their structure/s, and they did get ahead of themselves.

No doubt this will be addressed Monday.

 

[beev]

Nathan Brown just did a brilliant analysis on Essendon's centre bounce structure.

The first two quarters we easily won the centre clearances when we were man-on-man, third quarter we lost the centre clearances when we were 'loose' providing Richmond time and space (around the ball and forward of the ball).

The last quarter we went back to the original structure (man-on-man), and won the centre clearences. When the panel quizzed Lonergan, he said they lost their structure/s, and they did get ahead of themselves.

No doubt this will be addressed Monday.

I just watched that too. Brown is a coach in waiting.

I was very frustrated with the 3rd quarter but pleased we worked hard to get the win. As previously said we would've lost the game in seasons past.

 

[BrunoV]

This thread is really bringing the best out of some posters. Richmond looked dangerous all night. We were clinical and got ahead by quite a bit but they peppered their forward line all night. The scoreboard was not a reflection of the flow of the game which was very even.

What happened after half time is that the Richmond midfield completely wrestled the ascendancy from us and ran all over us. To say that we got complacent is simplistic and as has been pointed out utterly disrespectful to Richmond.

As for Fletcher: how on earth did Fletcher going off affect our structure? Do you guys have any idea what a structure actually is and the impact it has on the day? He played as a 3rd tall key defender and was replaced by Hardingham in the same role - I'd say that Hardingham killed the contest last night as well as Fletcher ever has (which is a compliment to both players). Hooker and Carlisle also continued to destroy their direct opponents. The defence continued to perform extermely well under intense pressure even though Fletcher was not on the ground.

At kick ins Fletcher was no better than Dyson. It seems that many of our players (particularly Hurley) do not present as options for the guy kicking the ball in (they just stand aroudn with their hands in the air). Ricmond locked the ball in all night. The one advantage Feltcher has is that he can bomb the ball 70m if he needs to.

Going to the games really highlights the extreme amount of bullsh1t that Essendon fans come out with when it comes to the great man. The fact that he is 100 years old is completely irrelevant. He plays well but this should be an expectation not viewed as some sort of privilege that he bestows on the club.

 

[Jesse Custer]

For some reason in the second half we went away from one on one footy in the centre square and that's when the Tigers and Deledio started to get on top. Last 10 minutes of the game we go back to one on one footy and win the game. Go figure.

 

[Zacka11]

My fear is that that little passage gives us an indication of what life after Fletcher will be like (in the short term at least).

Hopefully Mid week, Fletch can teach them what they did wrong on the tape

 

[ManWithNoName]

Why is everyone talking about the fact they got on top when Fletch went off? We fought back, stood tall down back in the last quarter and won the game in the last quarter. All without Fletch.

 

[yaco55]

FIS hit the nail on the head - Richmond are a decent side - Think the supporters under-rated Richmond's level - probably cause they haven't watched much of Richmond.

In saying that I was surprised how Richmond dominated the midfield in the second half.

 

[Kong]

I don't see how it's disrespectful to Richmond to point out that our effort could've been greater in patches, and that this may have helped us further.

Spot on.

Yes, Richmond were good, that doesn't mean we weren't lazy.

Again, I was saying it when we were dominating. Our defensive running was appalling, and our decision making was average in parts.

 

[The Prosecutor]

Calling it complacency smacks of disrespect for the opposition. They played well in the second half and stopped us playing the way we wanted. But for all that hard work and impressive footy from Richmond, we still won by 3 goals. Very pleasing.

We were complacent, however Richmond capitalised on our complacency and took their chance.

Luckily for us after Richmond hit the front, it clicked in our players that they actually had to do something to win.

Richmond had me thoroughly shitting myself in that third and fourth quarter though.

It truly was a game of two halves.