Essendon vs Pies Review

[kelvin_sheedy]

Put up your reviews folks. First game of the year for me so I got to see a few things that I've missed.

The first thing I noticed was Collingwood's game style. I have dubbed it the cherry picking swarm game plan. They seem to swarm to a contest then cherry pick any mistakes or spillages. They have the best bunch of cherry pickers and pick pocketers in the comp.

Ryder looked stuffed in the ruck and could barely provide a contest. I hope we aren't running him into the ground and I'd like to see his minutes reduced.

We lack movement at half forward and need one more guy with athleticism that can mark. Harry O, Shaw and Maxwell were smart enough to chop out anything that came their way.

I'm really starting to like Hocking. His hardness and strength around the ball is fantastic. I think he's got a huge upside and I wouldn't be surprised to see him overtake everyone bar McVeigh and Watson for a starting spot in the middle.

I'm really excited about Dempsey also. His ability to get to places and win the contest is fantastic. Great composure in traffic also.

We lost the game in the middle. Add Watson and McVeigh to our side last night and the story might have been different.

 

[Strike Swiftly]

The main area we struggled last night was in the crumbs. Everytime the ball fell from a marking contest, Collingwood had someone waiting for it and we didn't. On far too many occasions did this happen, and it basically comes down to our players lacking accountability.

 

[Santoz]

I thought that for the first 15 minutes of the game we controlled the corridor and after that the Pies did. I seemed to find myself thinking that we were always being pushed wide and we didn't really get the ball back into the middle of the ground all that often, especially when entering the forward line. When we did, the kicks were usually to a 2 on 1, 3 on 2 etc.

I would have liked to see us try to isolate Lucas more as it was obvious he was winning his battle with Brown. Also, some of our decision making & disposal when entering the forward 50 was poor.

How many times did we try and snap goals over our shoulders, only for the ball to miss by a fair margin? A handball should have been given to someone facing the goals and if there was noone there then the players around the contest weren't working hard enough.

Our backline wasn't too bad considering the pressure it was under for 2 1/2 quarters. Pears was the exception. I know he played well in when things were going well last week but last night he was horrible. Why on earth would you run straight back into Anthony, giving him the opportunity to protect the fall of the ball with his hands instead of turning (and facing the ball) and forcing Anthony to use his body rather than giving him the easy marking option. He then made this same mistake again. Another thing I don't like about Pears, as I didn't like about Ryder when he was a backmen, is that he gives his opponent a couple of metres start on a lead and he isn't quick enough to recover the lost ground. Slattery might not be the greatest small defender we've ever had but at least you know with him that he won't give his opponent an inch.

Our midfield wasn't too bad considering our ruckmen didn't get their hands on the ball all night. Prismall was good, as was Hocking's grunt work. Lonergan was never really in the game, as was Winderlich. Dyson was ok. Welsh was down.

Not the best of games but if you play a free flowing, run at all costs type of game plan then skill errors must be kept to a minimum. Everyone knows this. Collingwood gave us a lesson in ball use and were quite efficient in turning our mistakes into scores. Lets hope we use the pill better next week

 

[Ben the Gooner]

We lost this game because of our footskills.

Our entries into the 50 were sub-AFL standard, and Collingwood was always going to punish that.

Bellchambers needs to come in this week. Ryder is stuffed and Hooker isn't a ruckman.

Reimers seems to have lost all confidence in his kicking skills, and looks an average player because of it.

Wtf was Welsh doing?

NLM played an incredibly selfish game. Bring in Hurley, and throw McPhee forward.

GO'D said at 3/4 time he didn't know who Maxwell's man was. Not good enough from everyone involved.

Gee Prismall's a player.

The twin towers were probably the best they've been as a team last night. Imagine if the rest of the team gave them the service they deserved.

Changes:

OUT: Reimers, NLM, Hooker
IN: Watson, Hurley, Bellchambers

McVeigh would want to have an absolute blinder for Bendigo, because we really needed him last night.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Put up your reviews folks. First game of the year for me so I got to see a few things that I've missed.

The first thing I noticed was Collingwood's game style. I have dubbed it the cherry picking swarm game plan. They seem to swarm to a contest then cherry pick any mistakes or spillages. They have the best bunch of cherry pickers and pick pocketers in the comp.

They are the All-Blacks of the AFL. They do not construct goals so much as kick goals from turnovers.

 

[Darealrath]

Our defence of kicks ins was hopeless. We either had no idea how to defend or just didn't work hard enough. I think it was both. Collingwood ran harder and had more numbers at contests most of the night.

We should have been 4 goals up at quarter time. When collingwood were on top in the 2nd quarter they put it on the scoreboard and that was the key difference - we butchered our chances and they didn't.

I felt like we had a lot of passengers last tonight, not many won their position.

 

[Skeeta Olly]

1.10 from shots outside 40 and 2 out on the full.

7 goal to 1 second quarter.

Out worked us in second quarter.

Hooker/Ryder 50/50 ruck time up to half-time.

Monfries - tightness.

Think Dempsey will be fine.


That's from Knights after the game.

 

[marcuz]

Again when a team zoned back and blocked up space we couldn't think our way through it. Collingwood many times played 18 men behind the centre and forced us to either pin point passes through the congestion or kick it long to a contest. It stopped our run and flow and our attack suffered for it as we turned it over and collingwood scored many times running back into space in their forward 50.

They flat out worked harder than us in transition, Dane swan is a ****ing endurance animal and he gave Prismall a lesson in hard running on a couple of occasions. When teams leave so much space for the team to work in you cant ****ing trail your opponant by 20-30 metres.

Decision making was terrible, I love how we think Alwyn Davey is wayne Carey. Kicking high balls to a bloke 171cms while he is on a bloke 6 inches taller doesnt make a lot of sense. On one occasion Davey had to beat 2 opponents.

Ryder looked stuffed/disinterested he might have us well have grabbed the spare seat next to me and watched on. So many times he could have impacted contests last night but never got out of first gear.

Overuse of handball was a concern, in the first quater we used handball to free a runner into space. After quarter time we used it to pad stats and sell team mates into trouble. Mcphee was a prime example, clean until quarter time and creative. After that he continually made bad decisions and created pressure by selling team mates into trouble with poor handballs to guys in no position to get clear.

 

[lemon chicken]

Just cant help but think Ryder is carrying something. Hooker was left to ruck for far too long at key times. Man on Man from the kick ins has been exposed far too many times this year, time to give it away. Reimers twice in the first qtr ignored the first option to be a hero and turned it over and then gave away a pointless 50, would need to be best on if he plays next week. Hurley in to play CHF, Alwyn needs a chop out.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Our entries into the 50 were sub-AFL standard, and Collingwood was always going to punish that.

Agree with the most part but I thought there were about 4 or 5 occasions where we kicked it in to our forwards advantage but they couldn't beat their opponent and grab hold of it. I think all forwards were guilty of this at some stage.

Anthony, Cloke and one or two others pretty much held their marks when it was kicked to their advantage.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Agree with the most part but I thought there were about 4 or 5 occasions where we kicked it in to our forwards advantage but they couldn't beat their opponent and grab hold of it. I think all forwards were guilty of this at some stage.

Anthony, Cloke and one or two others pretty much held their marks when it was kicked to their advantage.

I think a lot of that was to do with the delivery though.

How many times did our players get in front of their man, only to have the ball come sailing over their heads, or to be kicked to an aerial contest, rather than to the space in front.

 

[danzan22]

Wasted some real good opportunities early and punished for it.

Skills were below par, especially going inside 50 and rebounding from 50.

Quick question, from memory was every Cloke goal from pretty much the goal square? poor defensive effort to let him get so many opportunities so close.

 

[Johnny619]

Did Dempsey come back on feild after the eye injury? I am pretty sure I saw him.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Did Dempsey come back on feild after the eye injury? I am pretty sure I saw him.

Yeah, I think so.

 

[Pevers-Legend]

Again when a team zoned back and blocked up space we couldn't think our way through it. Collingwood many times played 18 men behind the centre and forced us to either pin point passes through the congestion or kick it long to a contest. It stopped our run and flow and our attack suffered for it as we turned it over and collingwood scored many times running back into space in their forward 50.

They flat out worked harder than us in transition, Dane swan is a ****ing endurance animal and he gave Prismall a lesson in hard running on a couple of occasions. When teams leave so much space for the team to work in you cant ****ing trail your opponant by 20-30 metres.

Decision making was terrible, I love how we think Alwyn Davey is wayne Carey. Kicking high balls to a bloke 171cms while he is on a bloke 6 inches taller doesnt make a lot of sense. On one occasion Davey had to beat 2 opponents.

Ryder looked stuffed/disinterested he might have us well have grabbed the spare seat next to me and watched on. So many times he could have impacted contests last night but never got out of first gear.

Overuse of handball was a concern, in the first quater we used handball to free a runner into space. After quarter time we used it to pad stats and sell team mates into trouble. Mcphee was a prime example, clean until quarter time and creative. After that he continually made bad decisions and created pressure by selling team mates into trouble with poor handballs to guys in no position to get clear.

Surely Ryder is carrying something else how pathetic was he at the contest? He had a week off 2 weeks ago and is now tired again?

Had no idea what Knights was doing last night. Did he even tryanything different wrt tagging Swan and Didak? Try Lonergan on the ball? Even throw Dempsey on the ball -just try and make things happen.

And was that Lovetts worst game ever for disposal? He is easily our best ueser of the ball but turned it over so many times.

There's always next week. Unfortunatley it is away from cuddley Melbourne.

 

[ant555]

Out coached.
Everyone knows the pies like to play the wings. Our set up fell into their hands. They blocked the middle and put more tackling pressure on than Anzac Day and it allowed them space out wide to exicute their game plan.

What i could not under stand is why we let them run loose players down the boundry when they where coming out of defence. We did it all night and got burnt. On the kick ins they went short to Shaw in the back pocket most times and he was able to play on and find players leading into space on towards the boundry 90% of the time.

We simply let them dictate the terms of the game.

The other issue was being pantsed in the ruck and clearances.