Defenders

[Feva]

DEFENCE IS NOT OUR MAJOR PROBLEM!!!

8 out of Essendon's 23 goals on the weekend were kicked by their forwards. Two were from frees that shouldn't have been paid/were missed and one resulted from a shocking Russel turnover. That isn't a bad effort by our defenders. 3 goals were kicked by their defenders and 12 by their midfield and ruckmen.

1. We are turning the ball over too easily and being caught on the counter. Impossible for defenders to do anything about that.
2. We are lacking a repelling/attacking defender as Scotland is badly out of form. Neew AW back asap.
3. Our midfielders need to be more accountable and apply more pressure.
4. I still think we lack discipline at times and our tackles arent sticking

 

[barnesy_78]

Why is our defence so crap? I wont take experience as an excuse because you look at collingwoods defence and they are all so very young and rarely concede 100 points and they are winning much more games then us. It really annoys me to see that every week we finish off the game with an 100 points scored against us. Our disposal of the footy is shocking and our fitness is a worry aswell. Carlton has only got an attacking side to it and no defence. And do we have a defence coach??

Its simple most of them are very average players! When was the last time we saw a really courageous play i.e.; running back into the pack, huge spoils over the boundary line etc., from any of our back men?

Our backline will always be carved up when we have pea-hearts like Houlihan in the backline!!! I reckon he still sleeps with the lights-on. Why does he keep bobbing up in the backline every game?

 

[Beloved]

I think we need a big bodies defender, a 100kg+ player to hold down CHB so that we could use Waite's versatility to take the ball outof defence on one back flank while Bower is doing the same on the other.

 

[Blue Dimension]

Guys...

Can't you all see how vastly improved our tall defenders have been this year? It's not because of our tall defenders that we are conceeding, its because we allow teams to get easy access through the middle and allow them to run it through the midfield with ease.

The rest of the team have to be more defensive in the way they go about their games - especially the mids!

Take a look at Darren Glass for example. AA full back last year and to start off the season he's had the 3rd most goals kicked on him in the AFL. You can have the best backman in the world but if the rest of the team isn't putting in the defensive effort then we're going to get nowhere. Ratten would know this and i'm sure they'll be looking at how to improve this part of the game they play.

 

[Faz 2000]

It's been flogged to death, but I'll add my voice to chorus laying the blame fairly and squarely on the midfield. There is very little any defence could do against the delivery coming in against us so far this year.

Our "gun" midfield is made up of:
Juddy - 80% fit, wins the footy, jogs backwards watching when we don't have it
Stevo - 80% fit, ultimate link man/deliverer, averages less than 2 tackles over his career
Murph - creative, skilled, brave, weak in the tackle
Carrots - ball magnet that's slightly off the boil, not quick
Hadley - physical midfielder, showed up against Dons, not quick
Gibbs - playing in the backline, piles up the clearances when he's in the middle, not lightning quick.

There is nobody there that's putting defensive pressure on the opposition. We can have 3 guys getting 30 touches, but the opposition will still waltz from their half back line to ours unmolested, and deliver time and time again inside 50. The All-Australian backline can't do much against that kinda of training drill delivery, let alone our relatively young/new/B-grade setup.

 

[gbatman]

Tall Defenders
The holes in the backline are slowly being plugged. Thornton, Jamison, Wait and bower are quality although not at their best yet but when they are will be stars. The opposition are getting a lot of goals from small/medium forwards an midfielders.

Smaller Defenders
Our smaller defenders aren't very good, in fact i feel sorry for the bullants if we drop them. There are good ones in the reserves, Browne and Anderson will be very important to us and hopefully Benjamin and maby Armfield. They're probably a little raw but those will be the players who will step in and fix some big problems in this team.

Lets face it, we are carrying a lot of baggage like Houlihan (concedes more than he gives), Russell and Banister. These players aren't any good, you have to think to yourself, would they get a game for Hawthorn or Geelong? Definitely not!

Midfield
Sure the midfield has a big say in it, winning the clearances are most important and that area is improving, perhaps getting a few more numbers back from the midfield could be a good option at times. Bringing in the names I've mentioned will help resolve midfield pressure as players with speed (Like Eddie Betts) are the players who can put on the pressure and make it easier for defence.

Ratten needs to finish "the clean out" back his young defenders and just be patient.

 

[wdgann]

I think the answer is that it is a combination of the 2 i.e a) midfielders (in particular Stevens, carazzo and simpson) are unaccountable b) our defence is crap. It is always chasing and caught out and our so called good defenders such as thornton cannot rebound in a damaging way

 

[TorresIsGod]

Yeah, Hadley's 10 tackles on Sat night shows the fact that he has no defensive pressure from the midfield...

 

[The Coach]

I think we need a big bodies defender, a 100kg+ player to hold down CHB so that we could use Waite's versatility to take the ball outof defence on one back flank while Bower is doing the same on the other.

Hope you are on the money with Bower but Waite is a loper and not clean enuf to receive running past (at 25 still green) - see below

what we need is a jason gram type defender long left footers quick out of defense all sides have one someone that can break the lines we have lacked for years since ang christou we look to slow coming out of defense .

Spot on

that would be one mr A. Walker

Spot on plus Bower? and what is Gibbsy's posn/role going to be?

 

[Silvagnis]

what we need is a jason gram type defender long left footers quick out of defense all sides have one someone that can break the lines we have lacked for years since ang christou we look to slow coming out of defense .

Shaun Grigg is a south paw and would be the man to play that role if he develops.

People want Gram, but Kade Simpson is a gun and a great ball carrier out of defence.

 

[The Coach]

As people have pointed out, would like to see the stats for Inside 50's against us as an average across the league, I would imagine we wouldn't be faring so well. This leads to a lot of space in the opposition F50 and a lot of one on one contests.

Lord knows with the current rules, I wouldn't want to be a defender exposed to a large number of one on one contests these days. I think Jamo needs to be complimented....for a bloke who came through the VFL ranks and started off looking as a third tall option, he has bulked up without losing any speed....his closing speed is very good and he is good at judging the right amount of body pressure without giving away too many free kicks.

Also as we know, a specialist small defender with some grunt, pace and pr*ck in them a-la Jake King wouldn't go astray. Walker has also been a huge loss, while people sometimes put the blinkers on and worry about his disposal (which is improving), he is disciplined and will worry about beating his man before running off and creating.

When coaching used to take stats on 'run pasts' (utilized or not) to instil in the backline their dual role - would love to compare our run pasts to other teams

 

[thylacine60]

When coaching used to take stats on 'run pasts' (utilized or not) to instil in the backline their dual role - would love to compare our run pasts to other teams

And our runaways.

 

[Faz 2000]

Yeah, Hadley's 10 tackles on Sat night shows the fact that he has no defensive pressure from the midfield...

We gave up 150 points to an average-to-below-average team. I'd say that's not much defensive pressure.

I don't think many opposition coaches are up late worrying about how to get around Richard Hadley ahead of games against Carlton.

 

[Beloved]

What interests me is the fact that a lot of Carlton supporters have jumped off of the Setanta bandwagon since last year...

 

[Salaryman]

When coaching used to take stats on 'run pasts' (utilized or not) to instil in the backline their dual role - would love to compare our run pasts to other teams

Can't imagine it would be favourable.

 

[Faz 2000]

I think Setant is well worth continuing to invest in... he hasn't been fit yet this year, so we've got nothing to go on when deciding whether he's progressed or not.

 

[Feva]

DEFENCE IS NOT OUR MAJOR PROBLEM!!!

8 out of Essendon's 23 goals on the weekend were kicked by their forwards. Two were from frees that shouldn't have been paid/were missed and one resulted from a shocking Russel turnover. That isn't a bad effort by our defenders. 3 goals were kicked by their defenders and 12 by their midfield and ruckmen.

1. We are turning the ball over too easily and being caught on the counter. Impossible for defenders to do anything about that.
2. We are lacking a repelling/attacking defender as Scotland is badly out of form. Neew AW back asap.
3. Our midfielders need to be more accountable and apply more pressure.
4. I still think we lack discipline at times and our tackles arent sticking

We rectified all 4 points above and look what happened.

Told you our defence isnt that bad!!