AFL Toast Rnd 11: 16 Point win against West Coast

[citizen-erased]

I honestly can't fathom the "wish we weren't doing so well, better to finish bottom 4 and get that top draft pick" mentality. Just club-destroying stuff.

If you said to Jackets (or any list manager in the comp for that matter): "We'll trade you a 5 pick downgrade (say from 5 to 10), in exchange for you keeping Zach Merrett (who is now a top 5 player in the comp) and getting to pump finals experience into Perkins, Cox, Jones, McMerrish, Redman, Francis and Ridley" Jackets wouldn't even pause to give you that trademark twinkle in the eye he'd seize the fax machine and get the papers over to AFL House before you changed your mind.

There is just no comparison between the two scenarios here.

agree.

In a year where it's a waste, perhaps. But this is a year of positive growth.
Even if it gets everyone overexcited on twitter with another loss, the season's experience will be huge for the kids.

Last, 9th, lowly finals place - i really don't care where we finish.
Just keep this week on week momentum building.

 

[doug85]

I just ran a quick ladder predictor. Gave us a loss to Richmond but two wins at home to the NSW teams. Had us sneak into 8th.

 

[citizen-erased]

I just ran a quick ladder predictor. Gave us a loss to Richmond but two wins at home to the NSW teams. Had us sneak into 8th.

ive got us 9th at best, 2 games out of the 8.

2 upset wins v tigers, dogs & Dees a bridge too far imo.
Or relying on WCE to drop a couple. but they're the team to watch.

 

[Don Won]

I just ran a quick ladder predictor. Gave us a loss to Richmond but two wins at home to the NSW teams. Had us sneak into 8th.

I got us to 5th... but I had to work really hard. Good news was it was still enough to secure the premiership (with a couple of things going our way).

 

[AJ_2000]

I just ran a quick ladder predictor. Gave us a loss to Richmond but two wins at home to the NSW teams. Had us sneak into 8th.

Plus if Melbourne loses out we'll edge them too

A touch early at the halfway mark for ladder predictors. There is 19683 possible combinations for a single round (not even looking at percentage) and I can barely tip 6 a week (can you tell I'm not a fan of ladder predictors ).

I do think that the media are a little bullish on us maintaining this form and pushing the 8.

Success for me would be a few (not all of the following):

Beat Richmond (while they are a touch vulnerable - been ages since that last happened) - would be great for the future belief
No more huge beltings by top 4 teams
Another 3+ game winning streak
Merritt & Parish resign
Development continues for the younger core

Also personally - being able to see us play in person back in Melbourne (I'm getting a little worried we may be away for awhile)

 

[doug85]

ive got us 9th at best, 2 games out of the 8.

2 upset wins v tigers, dogs & Dees a bridge too far imo.
Or relying on WCE to drop a couple. but they're the team to watch.

I didn’t have us winning a single one of those games.

 

[Blind Turn]

Ummm, Cox and Perkins were taken at picks 8 and 9. The difference in probability in picking up a gun with pick 5 vs pick 10 is real but small and it's only one player out of a team of 22 - it would make no discernible difference to the amount of games you'll win in upcoming seasons.

The difference a good system makes is worth at least 5 or 6 games a season.

The difference a winning culture makes would be 2 to 3 games a season.

It should also be remembered we don't have a second round pick this year so the benefit of a low finish is smaller than usual.

It would also be nice if we could use a pick 9 instead of pick 4 to nab a want-away Dunkley from the Dogs as he enters the final year of his contract. I don’t think we necessarily need a ‘Judd’ (a ‘Tambling’?) in the draft. If we keep Merrett based on our improvement and can somehow still get a Dunkley then we have the age-group to push for success next year.

 

[pazza]

Proud. Still so proud.

 

[mitch-wa]

Had a look around but could find but can someone tell me how many times we’ve played Eagles (and/or Dockers for that matter) over here vs back in Melb over the last 10ish years or so? I remember reading it’s heavily skewed to Perth but can’t remember where and I cbf going through the last dozen(ish) fixtures. Thanks gang

 

[Dave]

Had a look around but could find but can someone tell me how many times we’ve played Eagles (and/or Dockers for that matter) over here vs back in Melb over the last 10ish years or so? I remember reading it’s heavily skewed to Perth but can’t remember where and I cbf going through the last dozen(ish) fixtures. Thanks gang

AFL Tables - Essendon All Games - By Team

vs Freo

AFL Tables - Essendon All Games - By Team

vs Meth Coke.

 

[Doss]

Had a look around but could find but can someone tell me how many times we’ve played Eagles (and/or Dockers for that matter) over here vs back in Melb over the last 10ish years or so? I remember reading it’s heavily skewed to Perth but can’t remember where and I cbf going through the last dozen(ish) fixtures. Thanks gang

Not once since 2017. Before 2017 it was 2014.

Up to and including 2014 we'd played them in Melbourne in every season from 2006, bar 2009.

It used to be Freo who we could never get a game against in Melbourne. They've swapped places with WC now.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I just ran a quick ladder predictor. Gave us a loss to Richmond but two wins at home to the NSW teams. Had us sneak into 8th.

I did one three weeks ago and had us beating Melbourne in the GF and that was with us losing to the Eagles.



I might need to reassess the margin we win the GF by.

 

[Runk]

There’s a moment in this game with around 10 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter that sums up this ‘new’ Essendon for mine.

Kennedy had just kicked a goal to put the Eagles up by 25 and up to that point that quarter had been all West Coast. This is the moment where games in the past would simply drift away from us, but not here.

From that point on it was all Essendon.

McDonald Tipungwuti was everywhere up forward. Perkins, Cox and Jones got heavily involved. Merrett seemed to be on the end of every sequential handball that became the kick that went into our 50. Guelfi beat his opponent consistently and tracked well defensively as well as attacking. To name a few.

The other thing that stands out to me is the intelligence of our backline. We know Ridley is a smart ball user but we never knew how smart Laverde was with it. Nor Stewart in that sense either. We seem to have a calmness and real direction in our defensive set up.
Heppell’s return to the backline along with McGrath going deep when required is working a treat and this type of set up is something we’ve lacked for well over a decade.

It is truly wonderful to see Essendon play football with a legitimate gameplan everyone seems to understand. A game plan that shows that even when 4-5 goals down it is not game over.

Runk out