AFL Autopsy ELIMINATION FINAL: Loss to the Dogs

[Hazardinho]

If you’ve taken your time to gather your thoughts, maybe include a full stop occasionally.

TLTR

I don't want to be rude as I've only began using this server as of yesterday as that's when I got given privileges to make comments and i don't know if it's a culture to make short statements but why are you replying to me saying it's too long to read, you don't want to read what I have to say that's fine but when you go into the effort to quote message me, at least give some curtesy as I'm feeling terrible like everyone else and I'm someone who likes to analytically and go into depth with my response, so if that's not what you want to read, please out of respect don't reply.

 

[Bombermania]

I don't want to be rude as I've only began using this server as of yesterday as that's when I got given privileges to make comments and i don't know if it's a culture to make short statements but why are you replying to me saying it's too long to read, you don't want to read what I have to say that's fine but when you go into the effort to quote message me, at least give some curtesy as I'm feeling terrible like everyone else and I'm someone who likes to analytically and go into depth with my response, so if that's not what you want to read, please out of respect don't reply.

There is nothing cultural about length of comments and many around here write lengthy comments but by using full-stops can make it easier to break down paragraph.

 

[Inspecta Gadget]

As demoralising as our finals streak is, I've still seen my club win more premierships, and more recently than 75% of the campaigners who love giving it to us about it.

 

[Hazardinho]

There is nothing cultural about length of comments and many around here write lengthy comments but by using full-stops can make it easier to break down paragraph.

My thing is, cool I understand that writing in a proper grammatical manner is more valid, but why is that the sole reason you're responding at me is for that, why is what I wrote just being dismissed. English isn't my first language, so I'm sorry it's not punctual and politically correct, but however i choose to make a post on this forum shouldn't have me keeping in mind it's too long for people to read cause a couple sentences can be more concise but I'd prefer to say what i need to say in one piece than spacing it out over multiple posts. Look I'll keep in mind next time to not go so deep, but when i make a post that is expressing how i feel, i just didn't receive it well how that guy messages me solely for that purpose.

 

[Bombermania]

My thing is, cool I understand that writing in a proper grammatical manner is more valid, but why is that the sole reason you're responding at me is for that, why is what I wrote just being dismissed. English isn't my first language, so I'm sorry it's not punctual and politically correct, but however i choose to make a post on this forum shouldn't have me keeping in mind it's too long for people to read cause a couple sentences can be more concise but I'd prefer to say what i need to say in one piece than spacing it out over multiple posts. Look I'll keep in mind next time to not go so deep, but when i make a post that is expressing how i feel, i just didn't receive it well how that guy messages me solely for that purpose.

Grammar isn't that important on a footy forum, and this quoted sentence and the one that I quoted before are both good lengths and are good grammatically.

 

[Lore]

Wanted to take my time and gather my thoughts on the game, I stopped watching in the third quarter as i just saw Gleeson and Cutler stinking up the place, and i'm glad i stopped watching cause we just fell away and turned prime Essington.

Disagree really. The second half was played almost entirely on the Dogs’ terms. Everyone looked putrid and we didn’t have the right people or strategies for the conditions once it started pouring rain.

The structures fell apart. The last line of defence was under the pump as a result. The ump wouldn’t put the whistle away. Weightman thought he was the second coming of Selwood.

Pinning it all on two blokes is a bit rough. Win as a team, lose as a team.

Look we've had a great year, defied expectations of every person, including myself, i had us finishing 17th and we finished 8th. But i just can't help but feel the bulldogs where their for the taking, conceding dumb goals in that first quarter, was the signs that were telling me we ain't up for it today and it ended up being the beginning of our downfall this game. I don't know what the contractual situations are of Cutler, Gleeson but these guys are just not the level we need to be, if we're too be serious again.

as above. I agree that they’ve exceeded all expectations but when we can’t kick straight in front of goal in the first half and then lose the plot completely after half time, you can’t blame a couple of halfbacks for that. The ball shouldn’t have been at that end of the ground if the rest had gone to plan.

A new forwards coach has to be the priority this off season, and glad that's being addressed by the club. Clarke being omitted was a very harsh call in hindsight, he would have been someone i would have used to tag Libba, who was extracting the ball for your Macraes, Bont's, Trealor, Etc...

We don’t tag. We will sit on someone for a quarter if they’re getting off the chain but we don’t select our team around the idea of 17 men playing the game plan and one to negate one member of theirs.

Forwards coach has precious little to work with but still got a decent haul out of Hooker, Wright, Jones, Walla, Stringer at various times this year. Would of course help if they’d all played today.

i just felt we played the conditions horribly, we were too passive with the ball movement, we desperately lack a crumbing small forward, Perkins, Snelling, Waterman, Smith just ain't it at the moment.

We certainly need a small forward. Walla should’ve been playing but isn’t for reasons we aren’t fully aware of. Mozzie being on the pine all year and likely to hang up the boots at the end of it isn’t helping either. Will be a priority over the next off-season or two.

Honeslty i thought our defense were gonna be too difficult for the doggies forwards to bully and get set shots on, but again they were poor.

Were they? Almost half their goals came from shrugging and ducking into a free kick 20m out. Nick Hind would’ve been a nice addition to the mix but it wasn’t *that* bad.

Seriously losing by 49 points to the dogs, when we had an in form ruckmen and midfield that were leading the comp in clearances, etc for a number of weeks to being belted today, by a team out of form and down in confidence, i feel Rutten has to be largely responsible for todays defeat, when a few players are out of form or playing bad as a coach you can't account for that, but when half the side are having a terrible game, the coach has to come in question, this performance looked like as if Worsfold was coaching the side, look i see potential with Rutten to be a good coach, and he's not as a bad as worsfold but i'm really not wanting to hear we'll learn from this, we've been learning for the last 17 years, just so angry as i felt this was a very winnable game, the doggies whilst were better than us today, aren't that great as a side if im gonna be honest, yes when they have their squad on song theyre great but i felt we missed a big opportunity this game to have a good run in this final series, i felt we could have made it to the prelim but off course we go out. Idk im so disappointed today, i feel more annoyed than the west coast, sydney and North Melbourne finals.

this is the part that is literally one giant sentence and I don’t quite know what you’re trying to say with it. Like not even going to try since it’s nearly 1am. Very sorry.

In those games i felt we were never gonna win, in this game i fully believed we'd win, and than to dish up that to end a season, when we've been pretty competitive all year in most games.

Yes we are often victims of our own expectations. It sucks ey

Idk guys, when do we next win a finals game, there is is something inherently off abt this club when it faces adversity, it just crumbles and fades away, its like we've been jujed by some hoodoo, in my lifetime to not have even seen one finals win, just seen this club as mediocre, average for a long time, i've seen Carlscum, Collingwood, hawks, NM, dogs, Geelong, melbourne, st kilda, all these victorian clubs win finals, but we can't even.

Last year i fell out love for this team, i hated watching us play, i hate seeing Richmond, Geelong, Hawthorn winning games, grand finals all the time, i've seen teams like Melborune, Brisbane and St Kilda few years back in a much wore state than us, turn it around and go on have success in September, but our club which is the most successful in the afl, can't even finish above 7th, win a final, its like this is our pinnacle of our potential as a club, i'm sorry if i'm sounding negative but i get depression from supporting this team, i always off put my studies just to watch us play, always getting mocked for us losing, and having no hope for change makes me feel horrible, i started supporting Essendon 10 years ago, when we were sitting 2nd along with the Hawks and cats, and we just always were winning, to then tread at the same level for all that time till now, i have no hope we will ever win a final, just not good enough, we're so irrelevant as a club, we will get a harder draw next season, finish 12th, look to the draft and make the odd occasional finals appearance, get slapped then rinse and repeat. I'm over it, if we don't fix up, in the next couple years, adelaide , NM, Carlton are gonna overtake us, then we will be in the same circumstance and asking ourselves when we will become a force again.

Another couple of really long sentences here – on my phone one sentence is two screenfuls of wall of text.

I think we’re all in the same boat - nothing we can control except to trust Truck to keep them headed in the right direction and bind them together as a group.

He has managed to work miracles already so I’m feeling comfortable with that. It’s worth listening to Heppell’s post match interview if you haven’t already.

I like the phrase “jujued the hoodoo”. Not really sure what it means but it’s fun to say

 

[Hazardinho]

Disagree really. The second half was played almost entirely on the Dogs’ terms. Everyone looked putrid and we didn’t have the right people or strategies for the conditions once it started pouring rain. The structures fell apart.

The last line of defence was under the pump as a result. The ump wouldn’t put the whistle away. Weightman thought he was the second coming of Selwood.

Pinning it all on two blokes is a bit rough. Win as a team, lose as a team.

as above. I agree that they’ve exceeded all expectations but when we can’t kick straight in front of goal in the first half and then lose the plot completely after half time, you can’t blame a couple of halfbacks for that. The ball shouldn’t have been at that end of the ground if the rest had gone to plan.


We don’t tag. We will sit on someone for a quarter if they’re getting off the chain but we don’t select our team around the idea of 17 men playing the game plan and one to negate one member of theirs.

Forwards coach has precious little to work with but still got a decent haul out of Hooker, Wright, Jones, Walla, Stringer at various times this year. Would of course help if they’d all played today.


We certainly need a small forward. Walla should’ve been playing but isn’t for reasons we aren’t fully aware of. Mozzie being on the pine all year and likely to hang up the boots at the end of it isn’t helping either. Will be a priority over the next off-season or two.


Were they? Almost half their goals came from shrugging and ducking into a free kick 20m out. Nick Hind would’ve been a nice addition to the mix but it wasn’t *that* bad.

this is the part that is literally one giant sentence and I don’t quite know what you’re trying to say with it. Like not even going to try since it’s nearly 1am. Very sorry.


Yes we are often victims of our own expectations. It sucks ey


Another couple of really long sentences here – on my phone one sentence is two screenfuls of wall of text.

I think we’re all in the same boat - nothing we can control except to trust Truck to keep them headed in the right direction and bind them together as a group.

He has managed to work miracles already so I’m feeling comfortable with that. It’s worth listening to Heppell’s post match interview if you haven’t already.

I like the phrase “jujued the hoodoo”. Not really sure what it means but it’s fun to say

Hey thanks for actually responding to what i said, even though you have a contrasting view, its good sometimes to have different perspectives as I'm not someone whos ignorant and has to be my own way, i'm willing to improve my footy knowledge if someone has more knowledge, which a couple of your points definitely shows you know ball. I didn't really try be specific with anything, otherwise i'm writing a PhD report if i had to be more exemplary with what i tried to say and i'm in an emotional wreck, plus I'm a teenager so don't expect too much from me. I do want to make note to some of your points, but like you said its close to 1, not the best time.

 

[HirdyLannister]

Even though we're all disappointed about the result we have made a huge leap in our first rebuild year with a rookie coach.

Very young and inexperience list, 3rd least games played out of the 18 teams.

An remember it could always be worse, our club could be like Carlton. Worst list and even worst in the off field department, no coach, no direction with no hope.

 

[Stopher]

I can see why Richmond supporters got so unbearable once they came good, after more than 3 decades of being the butt of all footy jokes.

 

[wallis23]

It's been a good year. Simple fact is we were good when it was dry and then average in the wet. We were taller and younger, never going to go well in the wet....The boys did well when it started raining, but after a few of those misses and umpire goals, we were stuffed....the last few goals in junk time were just junk.

Caldwell was on fire early, then when it got wet it showed he hadn't played for 20 rounds. This is why we play in an indoor stadium.....stupid tassie weather and thank god we aren't Carlton or Collingwood

 

[Lore]

‘Killed the game’: Bombers fans FUME at ‘atrocious’ calls as Dog cashes in during final

‘Killed the game’: Bombers fans FUME at ‘atrocious’ calls as Dog cashes in during final

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Duckworth]

Is this our life now? We have to suffer grandstanding twits every time someone on social media posts a negative comment about another player. I wish I knew this was a thing during the drugs saga.

 

[ant555]

Free kicks or no free kicks in the end the Dogs simply showed that right now they are a more advanced side than we are. Their systems where better and they wore is down which they should have given they missed top four by a bees dick and have beaten top four sides during the season.
We had no change up and just kicked down the line whereas they managed to run the ball in most of their attacks from half back.
We also missed a few goals that we should have kicked and they did not.
It’s sucks but it is where we are at.
The thing now will be to improve on that as a team .

 

[TDay]

My fear for us finding our way into the 8 was that we weren’t ready and a smashing might be more harmful than the ‘good’ of getting finals experience. Further to this, I don’t think this was a genuine finals experience anyway. A wet weather slog in front of a relatively small crowd in Tassie (compared to a game in Melbourne) gives us little in the way of finals ‘experience’. How we fair next year will be fascinating on the back of this. The building blocks are there but we have holes in the list and a lot of young blokes who need to realise that they haven’t made it yet.

Very proud of our season but this is not the best way to bow out.

I reckon the experience counts and will be helpful. It was a very different game to round 21.
- much more physical
- higher pressure
- required on the fly tactics adaption (rain, Schache sneaking forward)
- magnified the frustration of unlucky free kicks that the boys will need to cope with. Need to be able to stay calm
- the guys who were on the sidelines are definitely feeling the burn now. Tipp or Hind could've had a real impact.

 

[TheGrizz]

Alright. No more quoting ExRoyboy.

He wont be responding

 

[Dave]

Alright. No more quoting ExRoyboy.

He wont be responding

Good. Sanctimonious munt.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

I can see why Richmond supporters got so unbearable once they came good, after more than 3 decades of being the butt of all footy jokes.

The red sash will be worse and I cannot wait.

 

[Summer Nights]

FFS its a 20 year old kid youre talking about. Settle.

Go away. It’s not serious. This thread for catharsis. You are not welcome here.

 

[scythe]

FFS its a 20 year old kid youre talking about. Settle.

I think that's about enough sanctimony from you people for one season. Jog the * on. He's a big boy, he can take a bit of criticism.

 

[bomberlegend2007]

I don’t buy into “we can’t win finals, we never will” narrative. Melbourne almost lost by 200 points 10 years ago, now look like they are gonna win a flag. Things change. Our time will come.

 

[cAsEy_18]

I don’t buy into “we can’t win finals, we never will” narrative. Melbourne almost lost by 200 points 10 years ago, now look like they are gonna win a flag. Things change. Our time will come.

Agreed.

The reality is that outside of the North one, we were quite clear underdogs in all the other finals.
It just means that we are where we are at present.
In a group with Fremantle, St. Kilda, West Coast, apparently Richmond, and probably GWS. And we finished the 2nd highest of all them, which happened to qualify for the 8.

We've got steps to take and progress to make to become a top 6 team. But in our finals, we're currently playing teams that are better than us.
The blowout nature of a lot of them is obviously disappointing, but we need to improve to the point that we're of equal ability to the teams we're playing in these finals. We're not there yet.

 

[sacka]

Just watching back bits a pieces of that second half, it wasn't the same Essendon from the previous 5 weeks, the pressure/tackling/effort compared to weeks before was non existent, it's no wonder we lost by the margin we did in the end.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Dogs are more built for wet weather football. A drier day and I think we would’ve been more competitive. Been a good year though for progress of many players. We get a top 12ish pick and virtually extra top 10 pick with Reid. Full seasons hopefully from Shiel, Caldwell and McGrath.

 

[citizen-erased]

Gutted for the boys who gave their all today and throughout the season. Just outworked and outclassed in the end by a more experienced side. Dogs had 9 days to work out our game plan - they ended up simply flooding back when the game was on to deny Wright, plus getting on the end of some very dubious frees that let the pressure off majorly. Dogs were top 2 all year and the pressure was on them to survive this week. Think our boys gave them a good scare.

Disappointed with the way the season ended up but just need to say I am so proud of these lads. Their effort all year to get this far with all the injuries, inexperience and interstate games. Can only be positive about this game and this season. Get another 20-30 games into some of these kids and we are on.

Our top three today:
Parish. Claimed his status as a top mid. Deserved AA and multiple-medal winner.
Ridley. Plays like a 250 gamer.
Draper. Speechless. Beast.

Looking forward:
The return of Walla, Jones and Langers to our forward line. Smart, efficient, accurate players that improve our side immensely.
Integrating Reid and Bryan into the team. Teams will envy our talls.
Continuing to develop this Essendon identity and culture under Truck. Think he's done an outstanding job so far.

Onwards and upwards. Love this team.
Go Dons

Add Cox too. When he builds his confidence to do the things you can see he wants to, he will be something special.

Parish was very very good. The best i've seen an Essendon player play the wet since Jobe.
Keen to see how we evolve the midfield mix next year. And hopefully with a bit of luck that sees our best midfield play more than one game together.

End of the day, 5 goals from frees to build that 3 goal buffer gave the dogs the platform to defend the game and took any shot we had away.
Silver lining is we aren't ready but got the experience and the 1st pick stays sharp @ 11

 

[Mercurial89]

Dogs are more built for wet weather football. A drier day and I think we would’ve been more competitive. Been a good year though for progress of many players. We get a top 12ish pick and virtually extra top 10 pick with Reid. Full seasons hopefully from Shiel, Caldwell and McGrath.

I think on a dry day it's a 3 goal win to them.

I think once it became wet it pushed what we all already know. We have a young inexperienced side that talent wise have performed but fitness wise just aren't ready.
I think after you watch the game we had the following-
Perkins - didn't have much left, even first quarter when team was up he wasn't.

Waterman- no tank and also not a great awareness of where to be, was constantly out of the play. Id say that is tank.

Caldwell- no season, thought he was clean handling the ball, disposal was iffy but again no tank.

Shiel- is still underdone from a contact point of view, his turning circle isn't great and wet weather for a guy who has no season and already isn't great disposal wisewas always going to be sloppy.

Durham- kid already couldn't tackle throw in the rain he stood no chance. I think it's all just minutes on the track and gym. Just not AFL standard fitness yet.

Stringer- he wasn't right, wet weather wouldn't have helped, he is explosive so mush and rain would sap his tank quickly. They also targetted him, hanging off him etc made him tire.

That's a big chunk who at their best would be a lot better, huge scope for improvement looking at it From a once off game perspective.

Tactically we have been weak for months at the fall of the ball. Of course when it became wet this was going to be glaring.

Positives.
Parish and Merrett, amazing duo and will perform on the big stage.
Draper will be our X factor. Unreal and showed some good fitness, did a lot of ruck work.
Ridley held Naughton pretty well, can play key defence if needed.


I don't think the team and outlook is much different for us now as it was before finals.
We know where we need to improve and it appears that we may have people in charge that know it too and players that want to address it.
Positive signs if not a heartbreaking way to end a season.