AFL Autopsy JLT1: Essendon vs Richmond, Wangaratta, Saturday 24/02/18 @ 4:35 PM

[ezard15]

Comments about the game plan were clearly a deflection. You can understand the game plan inside out and it doesn't mean s**t if you can't bring intensity.

Seems to me that we probably leaked the gastro thing before the game so that the commentary and fans did the heavy lifting.

Unless I have missed something there is nothing resembling an excuse that has come from the club.

Those leaks definitely came from the rear ends of the players.

appease the fans, sure. But it's still a major factor right? So is it appeasing the fans or informing them?

I mean, I know that as soon as I heard pretty much everyone at the club had been laid out by gastro in the week leading up to the game I mentally prepared myself for a flogging and wasn't remotely surprised.

Is it wrong to proffer an excuse under any circumstances anyway? Even if, for example, pretty much everyone in a professional team was affected by a debilitating condition in the lead up to a first-up game that was then played in arduous conditions?

I see so many people saying "no excuses!" when it seems to me to be one of those occasions where it was a perfectly valid excuse. Like I said earlier, you'd think anyone saying this has never had gastro. ****, when I'm recovering from gastro I can't even face the prospect of a gentle jog. I am obviously far from a honed athlete but I think if there's one certainty you can have it's that gastro recovery is going to fairly substantially affect your physical performance for a period, particularly relative to an opponent that isn't recovering from gastro...

I've only had it twice and haven't had it for years and yet I still use it as an excuse for being a lazy campaigner.

Jokes aside it's a pretty blood reasonable excuse as excuses go.

Surely though it would have made more sense not to play anyone that was either sick or still recovering though?

At least that way we don't look like we are hopeless (i.e. everyone knows we played a VFL team) etc.

That performance on the weekend made us look really shite and I just hope it doesn't impact our confidence levels.

 

[Laverde2Smack]

Like I said, Richmond had no focus on the scoreboard. That’s why they celebrated goals with high-fives and practiced cultivating their normal team behaviours for a real match.

I think after half time, the Essendon players dropped their heads because of the scoreboard. If the score was 0-0 they would have behaved differently. Therefore, Essendon was too preoccupied with the outcome (scoreboard) whereas Richmond was all process.

I know this comes across as condescending but I’m distilling what I’ve read about the club’s operating processes from last year, so this post is actually pretty on the money.

It’s a preseason game.

It’s the 3rd quarter.

Your team had an opportunity to improve before Round 1, but due to the scoreboard, some of your players broke away from the game plan, lost concentration, deviated from the process - whatever you want to call it.

That doesn’t happen as much at Richmond under the new culture. It’s the biggest cultural change I’ve observed over the past 18 months. And I can clearly see that Essendon is a bit more old-fashioned, and I believe that will hold them back. The recruitment of Stringer is a reflection of the club’s underlying thoughts about how success is achieved... and those thoughts are too old-fashioned.

Essendon needs a minor cultural upheaval before they’ll win more flags, but I think one of the benefits of the saga was that everyone has banded together in unity very tightly... and this probably makes it harder to turn on yourselves in such a way to really create change. There’s a lot of traditionalists and old pride running the place from my point of view. Yes, I got all that from a preseason game.

Rofl


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[Lance Uppercut]

Yes. So what you are saying is everyone who played was suffering from gastro ?

Well Im not saying it, but that was pretty well the case according to those that were saying it. Are you claiming they weren't roll eyes?

 

[DapperJong]

Is Ant Jenny?

 

[Mercurial89]

Saw a post on BB that I thought might be of some interest -

"I’ll attempt to describe an example of player confusion / over correcting that occurred on multiple occasions and frustrated the heck out of me on Saturday.

Loose ball is rolling Richmond’s way, with a pack of mids chasing it.
Our backman has done the right thing, is ahead of his man and looks likely to be first to the ball, albeit with his opponent hot on his hammer.
What happens -
BOTH our mids stream past the actual contest and assume defensive positions behind the contest.
So our back, if he takes clean possession is confronted by two Richmond mids in his face, and no one to give the ball to, and under pressure from behind.
If he even just stops the ball going forward he has no options. - he’s in a three on one contest for a ground ball.

What should have happened, and what Richmond’s system let them do repeatedly, was for only one mid at most to run defensively, the other ( if not both) to spread wider and level with the back.
This gives him options to handball / knock the ball sideways ro a teammate in more space, and set up a counter attack / possession chain under less .pressure.

We’ve been drilled supposedly in greater defensive efforts.
The problem & confusion is when no ones sure who is in the best spot to do it so they all do it, and no ones at the contest or providing options."

 

[Lore]

Saw a post on BB that I thought might be of some interest -

"I’ll attempt to describe an example of player confusion / over correcting that occurred on multiple occasions and frustrated the heck out of me on Saturday.

Loose ball is rolling Richmond’s way, with a pack of mids chasing it.
Our backman has done the right thing, is ahead of his man and looks likely to be first to the ball, albeit with his opponent hot on his hammer.
What happens -
BOTH our mids stream past the actual contest and assume defensive positions behind the contest.
So our back, if he takes clean possession is confronted by two Richmond mids in his face, and no one to give the ball to, and under pressure from behind.
If he even just stops the ball going forward he has no options. - he’s in a three on one contest for a ground ball.

What should have happened, and what Richmond’s system let them do repeatedly, was for only one mid at most to run defensively, the other ( if not both) to spread wider and level with the back.
This gives him options to handball / knock the ball sideways ro a teammate in more space, and set up a counter attack / possession chain under less .pressure.

We’ve been drilled supposedly in greater defensive efforts.
The problem & confusion is when no ones sure who is in the best spot to do it so they all do it, and no ones at the contest or providing options."

So basically... ultra defensive mindset has resulted in coughing up the ball at the contest. Ironic. Also easily fixed.

I still haven't watched a replay..

 

[yodellinhank]

I must've missed the contest where our back actually won the footy.

 

[Lore]

The Bombers returned to the track on Friday after their scheduled CBA break ahead of the side’s second JLT Community Series clash next weekend.

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2018-03-02/dons-training-gallery

Why did they have time off? Because they have to according to the new CBA. I wish they'd said so sooner...

 

[ghostdog]

Looking forward to some Jordan Houlahan