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From the Book of Woosha Chapter 2, Round 10
And as the maggot issued forth with a dodgy decision to give Essendon a goal, Woosha said: '**** THAT!!! You have ****ing got to be ****ing kidding, you ****ed up piece of ****ing ****head maggot!!!'
And Suma, who was sitting next to Woosha heard this, and said- 'Did you not say that we should take the good umpiring with the bad?' And Woosha heard this, and looked at Sumich. And Sumich sat still for some time and said 'I shall just shut up now, shall I?'
The Good:
Oddly enough, given the final result, our big name midfielders had an okay day. Cousins and Kerr were good, the latter particularly outstanding in the first half before rolling an ankle, whilst Cousins did everything you could possibly ask of a captain in the final quarter. Fletcher and Judd also came to the party, whilst Wirrpunda had an okay day, and Chick did some good things. It seems a bit of a conundrum as to how we could have lost with that sort of spread, see 'the bad' for what I reckon.
Up forward, Haynes was very good indeed in the first half. He took some outstanding marks, kicked okay, and continued to show good signs. 2.2 is an okay return for a FF, but there was another side to his game- see below. Embley had another impressive outing, presenting well and kicking truly. He also definitely came to play in the final quarter. Gardiner enjoyed an interesting cameo up forward, but seemed under the weather, meaning Cox shouldered the bulk of the rucking, which he managed serviceably.
In defence, Glass did a creditable job at CHB against good opposition.
If you're reading this, hopefully you'll agree that all of the above is relatively well balanced and realistic. Maybe you should do both of us a favor by not reading any further, because there's a lot of pent up bitterness behind this keyboard, which will no doubt start to find its way out about now.
The Bad: Still with me? Maybe its just because this nipped a promising winning streak in the bud, but I am livid at this loss. We were a good enough team to win, we should have won, there are just no bloody excuses. At the risk of sounding like Lleyton Hewitt, we were up against a second rate side not exactly overflowing with talent, we just didn't do enough to deserve to win. The Bombers found an awful lot of guts at the right time and made us pay. There were a few people who simply did not show up when the going got tough. Time for some changes.
For a couple of weeks now, I've been saying that our midfield is being spoilt by dominant ruckwork. Put simply, we've been getting such good service from Gardie and co. that the midfield unit is happy to let the opposition run free. When the opposition breaks even in the ruck, we get ripped to shreds on the rebound, and that was what happened for extended periods today. When Cousins and Co. got their hands on it they were still doing good things, but when it went the other way Essendon had a paddock to work in, as evidenced by the uncontested marks tally. Basically, our ruck failed to dominate, and because of that we got pantsed. On top of that, outside the 'big name' brigade, we got absolutely nothing
from the backups. Braun, Humm and Munro did absolutely nothing of note. Up until the final quarter, I was confident that our fresh legs would see us home, but we got nothing from them when the chips were down. The 'front runner' tag is hovering- its very easy to get 15 touches in a winning side.
Up forward, Rowan Jones had a poor game. He found a few touches, but completely failed to convert, missing some bad ones. Sampi showed what happens when Fido isn't there to take the best small defender, and had absolutely no impact on the game. Jakovich was humbled at CHF, completely failing to provide a focal point, and getting burnt on the rebound time after time. Haynes' otherwise decent game was marred by a truly monumental choke late in the game. Essendon by 9 points, 7 minutes to play, and poor David dropped an uncontested mark 30m out in front. If he had have taken that... but I digress. We also had a chance to kick away in the third quarter, and missed a number of opportunities.
In defence,much as it pains me to say so, McIntosh was totally and utterly humiliated by Lloyd. What upset me about this contest was that our coaching staff failed to react to this- as far as I'm concerned, once an opposition forward hits the 4 goal mark before the main break, its time to make a change. Glass, Hunter, even Chick would have been worth a go on Lloyd, because they'd at least be able to stay with him on the lead. Time after time Milli was well led to the ball, and more than any other matchup, this cost us the game. Green and Banfield had okay outings but also got a bad case of the fumbles on occasions.
So in summary, the following players can go home with their heads held high: Cousins, Kerr, Fletcher, Wirrpunda, Embley, Haynes, Judd, Chick, Cox, Gardiner, Glass. The rest need to do a bit of soul searching.
The Ugly: *deep breath* About that umpiring. ****ty ****ty bounces, and a large number of just plain wrong decisions. Lowlights were the utterly ridiculous holding the ball decision given against Cox which resulted in a goal, and Cousins' getting pinged for ball late in the game, despite the replay clearly showing Cupido had him over the shoulder. We certainly got a few bloody wrong decisions go our way down the stretch, but basically, there was a 2-3 goal swing in favor of the dons. Call it home town umpiring, call it plain incompetence, some heads really need to roll from the Umpiring Association. Naturally I'm more bitter about this because of the final result, but there is not a team in the league which hasn't got the wrong end of the stick at one point or another. The fact is, probably every game this year that has been decided by 5 goals or less, you could make a case for it having gone the other way but for bad decisions.
Yes, so, um, anyway. Telstra dome is still as much of a dustbowl as ever. Check the number of times players slipped when not under pressure. Late in the final quarter it almost became a comedy of errors, with an Essendon player slipping and dropping a mark, Carroll going into gather and falling on his ass, Hunter trying to clean up and also going over... and so on. Not Good.
All things considered, this is a bit of a reality check for us, and a relatively painless one given that we hold our spot on the ladder. Any team which shows up and plays with the degree of vigor and determination that Essendon did will be be difficult to beat. Drop your guard, and we're gone. The biggest positive coming out of this game is that we're going back to Subiace sitting in second, with the entire playing group having the mental equivalant of a red hot poker jammed up their asses. I don't think we'll be taking the Dogs lightly after this.
And as the maggot issued forth with a dodgy decision to give Essendon a goal, Woosha said: '**** THAT!!! You have ****ing got to be ****ing kidding, you ****ed up piece of ****ing ****head maggot!!!'
And Suma, who was sitting next to Woosha heard this, and said- 'Did you not say that we should take the good umpiring with the bad?' And Woosha heard this, and looked at Sumich. And Sumich sat still for some time and said 'I shall just shut up now, shall I?'
The Good:
Oddly enough, given the final result, our big name midfielders had an okay day. Cousins and Kerr were good, the latter particularly outstanding in the first half before rolling an ankle, whilst Cousins did everything you could possibly ask of a captain in the final quarter. Fletcher and Judd also came to the party, whilst Wirrpunda had an okay day, and Chick did some good things. It seems a bit of a conundrum as to how we could have lost with that sort of spread, see 'the bad' for what I reckon.
Up forward, Haynes was very good indeed in the first half. He took some outstanding marks, kicked okay, and continued to show good signs. 2.2 is an okay return for a FF, but there was another side to his game- see below. Embley had another impressive outing, presenting well and kicking truly. He also definitely came to play in the final quarter. Gardiner enjoyed an interesting cameo up forward, but seemed under the weather, meaning Cox shouldered the bulk of the rucking, which he managed serviceably.
In defence, Glass did a creditable job at CHB against good opposition.
If you're reading this, hopefully you'll agree that all of the above is relatively well balanced and realistic. Maybe you should do both of us a favor by not reading any further, because there's a lot of pent up bitterness behind this keyboard, which will no doubt start to find its way out about now.
The Bad: Still with me? Maybe its just because this nipped a promising winning streak in the bud, but I am livid at this loss. We were a good enough team to win, we should have won, there are just no bloody excuses. At the risk of sounding like Lleyton Hewitt, we were up against a second rate side not exactly overflowing with talent, we just didn't do enough to deserve to win. The Bombers found an awful lot of guts at the right time and made us pay. There were a few people who simply did not show up when the going got tough. Time for some changes.
For a couple of weeks now, I've been saying that our midfield is being spoilt by dominant ruckwork. Put simply, we've been getting such good service from Gardie and co. that the midfield unit is happy to let the opposition run free. When the opposition breaks even in the ruck, we get ripped to shreds on the rebound, and that was what happened for extended periods today. When Cousins and Co. got their hands on it they were still doing good things, but when it went the other way Essendon had a paddock to work in, as evidenced by the uncontested marks tally. Basically, our ruck failed to dominate, and because of that we got pantsed. On top of that, outside the 'big name' brigade, we got absolutely nothing
from the backups. Braun, Humm and Munro did absolutely nothing of note. Up until the final quarter, I was confident that our fresh legs would see us home, but we got nothing from them when the chips were down. The 'front runner' tag is hovering- its very easy to get 15 touches in a winning side.
Up forward, Rowan Jones had a poor game. He found a few touches, but completely failed to convert, missing some bad ones. Sampi showed what happens when Fido isn't there to take the best small defender, and had absolutely no impact on the game. Jakovich was humbled at CHF, completely failing to provide a focal point, and getting burnt on the rebound time after time. Haynes' otherwise decent game was marred by a truly monumental choke late in the game. Essendon by 9 points, 7 minutes to play, and poor David dropped an uncontested mark 30m out in front. If he had have taken that... but I digress. We also had a chance to kick away in the third quarter, and missed a number of opportunities.
In defence,much as it pains me to say so, McIntosh was totally and utterly humiliated by Lloyd. What upset me about this contest was that our coaching staff failed to react to this- as far as I'm concerned, once an opposition forward hits the 4 goal mark before the main break, its time to make a change. Glass, Hunter, even Chick would have been worth a go on Lloyd, because they'd at least be able to stay with him on the lead. Time after time Milli was well led to the ball, and more than any other matchup, this cost us the game. Green and Banfield had okay outings but also got a bad case of the fumbles on occasions.
So in summary, the following players can go home with their heads held high: Cousins, Kerr, Fletcher, Wirrpunda, Embley, Haynes, Judd, Chick, Cox, Gardiner, Glass. The rest need to do a bit of soul searching.
The Ugly: *deep breath* About that umpiring. ****ty ****ty bounces, and a large number of just plain wrong decisions. Lowlights were the utterly ridiculous holding the ball decision given against Cox which resulted in a goal, and Cousins' getting pinged for ball late in the game, despite the replay clearly showing Cupido had him over the shoulder. We certainly got a few bloody wrong decisions go our way down the stretch, but basically, there was a 2-3 goal swing in favor of the dons. Call it home town umpiring, call it plain incompetence, some heads really need to roll from the Umpiring Association. Naturally I'm more bitter about this because of the final result, but there is not a team in the league which hasn't got the wrong end of the stick at one point or another. The fact is, probably every game this year that has been decided by 5 goals or less, you could make a case for it having gone the other way but for bad decisions.
Yes, so, um, anyway. Telstra dome is still as much of a dustbowl as ever. Check the number of times players slipped when not under pressure. Late in the final quarter it almost became a comedy of errors, with an Essendon player slipping and dropping a mark, Carroll going into gather and falling on his ass, Hunter trying to clean up and also going over... and so on. Not Good.
All things considered, this is a bit of a reality check for us, and a relatively painless one given that we hold our spot on the ladder. Any team which shows up and plays with the degree of vigor and determination that Essendon did will be be difficult to beat. Drop your guard, and we're gone. The biggest positive coming out of this game is that we're going back to Subiace sitting in second, with the entire playing group having the mental equivalant of a red hot poker jammed up their asses. I don't think we'll be taking the Dogs lightly after this.
