AFL Autopsy RND 16: Pussy Whipped

[ghostdog]

How’s the pile on Heppell, playing his 2nd match back off a 4 day break and is clearly underdone, have a look at Stringer he’s exactly the same, have a look at Smiths whole season or Daniher last week, ease up legends, the game isn’t that easy to play

Has not Smith been among the best on in our last few games?

 

[Milanista28]

I was already starting to come off Worsfold last season but this season I've lost all respect for him, (I know he wouldn't care what I think anyway) He's no doubt in my mind given up and I'd argue he gave up in the 1st 4 rounds of the season, he said all the right things in regards to the hand over but deep down I'm sure he isn't happy about it, so he decided to take the paycheck and just check out entirely.

 

[BrunoV]

I was already starting to come off Worsfold last season but this season I've lost all respect for him, (I know he wouldn't care what I think anyway) He's no doubt in my mind given up and I'd argue he gave up in the 1st 4 rounds of the season, he said all the right things in regards to the hand over but deep down I'm sure he isn't happy about it, so he decided to take the paycheck and just check out entirely.

I'm starting to respect the contempt he has had for the role this year.

 

[Milanista28]

I'm starting to respect the contempt he has had for the role this year.

Probably the only thing he's been passionate about tbf

 

[HirdsTheWord]

pretty bad stuff.

 

[carloss]

Watson outlines frustrations with Essendon and John Worsfold

The Bombers were embarrassed by Geelong on Sunday afternoon.

www.sen.com.au

 

[Halftimehero]

Has not Smith been among the best on in our last few games?

How long did it take him to reach those performances though?

 

[carloss]

 

[I Remember Bluey]

Essendon may be the first club to self fold from the afl, through the players not wanting to be there.
Why would Stringer, Joe or any other class arse footballer want to stay with us.

So they can come in here and read your posts, and be amazed at my PhotoShoop skills

 

[mike14]

Watson outlines frustrations with Essendon and John Worsfold

The Bombers were embarrassed by Geelong on Sunday afternoon.

www.sen.com.au

Pretty much sums everything up:

“What I’m most surprised about is Essendon’s lack of personality. I thought what you would get in essence when he became coach was, because we saw the way that he played, that there would be some aggression and an uncompromising unit.
“Yes, they would play attacking football, but Essendon would be hard to play against.
“They’ve been anything but hard to play against over that period of time.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

If your mental health is seriously affected by following a team sport then you should step away but it's just a game. Try not to attach so much importance to it. You're not alone. We're all in this together as supporters. If your livliehood depended on it then yes, it should be stressful. It should be stressful for the players and the coaches and the recruiters etc not for the supporters. It's just sport.

You’re not enough of a supporter then if you don’t bleed red and black, don the sash and do whatever it takes to support the club. If you’re not there rain, hail, shine or pandemic with your wallet open and asking no questions, buying merchandise and being patient, you’re just not as much of a supporter.

You need to go and have a good hard look at yourself and your perspective then ask yourself, what more can I do for the club?

 

[Arctic fox]

This was the huddle just before the 3rd quarter apparently

I'd like to hear from Heppell what the joke was. Xavier won't be laughing when the membership next year falls to 50 thousand.

 

[jmoo wan]

they are literally stealing everything from Richmond:

Richmond’s Jack Higgins reveals what had his Tiger teammates in stitches at halftime v Sydney

Snags’ gags: Inside Tiger’s hilarious halftime comedy routine

www.foxsports.com.au

except for the winning, obviously

 

[yodellinhank]

I'd like to hear from Heppell what the joke was. Xavier won't be laughing when the membership next year falls to 50 thousand.

 

[ghostdog]

This was the huddle just before the 3rd quarter apparently

It's clearly Hepp speaking. Did we win the last quarter?
That it's being treated as a bit of a joke speaks to the quality of the captaincy. It's one thing to acknowledge Geelong is f****** us, but surely you go into the huddle reminding the team about the things that need to be done and focusing on the wins around the ground that need to happen to win the quarter. I know one photo doesn't capture the zeitgeist, but that moment speaks volumes for the attitude yesterday.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Let me sum up the experience of supporting Essendon at the moment..

The best feeling of the week is when you hear Rohan Connolly, Tim Watson or Matthew Lloyd let fly at how bad the team is - and you find it satisfyingly accurate.

Or when you watch We are Essington and it confirms ... wow, we WERE as bad as I thought.

That's as good as it gets.

 

[andleanback]

I'd like to hear from Heppell what the joke was. Xavier won't be laughing when the membership next year falls to 50 thousand.

Maybe that’s what it’ll take for a clean out. I hope membership falls by 20,000 next year and they realize they are running a football not a business.

 

[Shane Heard]

How’s the pile on Heppell, playing his 2nd match back off a 4 day break and is clearly underdone, have a look at Stringer he’s exactly the same, have a look at Smiths whole season or Daniher last week, ease up legends, the game isn’t that easy to play

just hollow excuses

Geelong , Richmond and WC seemed to be handling this brutal fixture

we have an excuse ...we’re a fracture unit of a playing group confused by 2 coaches at the same time

They are shot now mentally as a group

awaiting next year ...

 

[Shane Heard]

Has not Smith been among the best on in our last few games?

no

 

[TheFrenchCut]

they are literally stealing everything from Richmond:

Richmond’s Jack Higgins reveals what had his Tiger teammates in stitches at halftime v Sydney

Snags’ gags: Inside Tiger’s hilarious halftime comedy routine

www.foxsports.com.au

except for the winning, obviously

I heard even the joke itself was stolen

 

[Shane Heard]

Game highlighted the same issues.
Can not defend outside the backline.
Real issues with the captain. Too slow. Where does he play ?
Our midfield is made up of B grade players.
No variety in size. Cats showed what having some tall midfielders can do marking wise.
If Stringer is not in form he can be a defensive liability.
The list needs turning over.

yep...no one seems to mentioned we get out marked in the mid and half forward line time and time again.

unless we have a fast breakaway handball fest to deliver the ball deep into the F50...we get chopped off by strong marks and the opposition controls the ball to deliver their own ball to our under pressure backline with an out off sorts Gleeson, a slow Hooker and Hurley, an undersized Guelfi ...Ridley good...BZT very young and skinny and inexperienced ..Redman learning and Saad doesn’t mark strongly.

Putting Smith at halfback is a waste of time.

Hence the opposition goals pile on.

 

[Halftimehero]

just hollow excuses

Geelong , Richmond and WC seemed to be handling this brutal fixture

we have an excuse ...we’re a fracture unit of a playing group confused by 2 coaches at the same time

They are shot now mentally as a group

awaiting next year ...

Whats the brutal fixture got to do with Heppell, Richmond, West Coast and Geelong?

All I said was the pile on he’s receiving is fairly harsh, he missed a large chunk of footy and was second up off a 4 day break, he was always going to struggle yesterday.

 

[Kakkle]

I love that he just copy and pasted and accidentally refers to himself in 3rd person as 'RoCo' as a result.

 

[ant555]

Pretty much sums everything up:

“What I’m most surprised about is Essendon’s lack of personality. I thought what you would get in essence when he became coach was, because we saw the way that he played, that there would be some aggression and an uncompromising unit.
“Yes, they would play attacking football, but Essendon would be hard to play against.
“They’ve been anything but hard to play against over that period of time.

Not that i disagree with Tim on this but because we have a record going back 18 years of failure it can be very easy to level it at one coach because we have to stay the path. We have lacked the base line for 15 years under several coaches. Say what you will about Woosha and his learnings and the fact he does not get mad or give you anything but he has not been afforded the luxury that Hardwicke got at Richmond or that Bucks has had at Collingwood or even what Bomber got at Geelong.
I agree with Tim about he aggression side of things but that is the side he got handed. One with poor leadership depth and a list of nice guys not renown for playing hard footy. This is really his fourth year given 30 players got rubbed out in 2016.

Hardwicke. took over a rabble and got improvement in year 4 but took another 4 seasons to finally get to top 4.
2010 - 6-16
2011 - 8-1-13
2012 - 10-1-11
2013 - 15-7
2014 - 12-10
2015 - 15-7
2016 - 8 -14
2017 - 15-7
Buckley. Took over a top 4 side that went backwards every year in his first 5 years before being top 4 in the last two but struggling this year.
2012 16-6
2013 14-8
2014 11-11
2015 10-12
2016 8-14
2017 9-1-12
2018 15-7
Bomber Thompson had a decent record but it still took 6 seasons before he took them to genuine contender.
Clarkson and Beverige had the quickest rise after taking over with Beverige going finals and GF while Clarkson was finals third year and GF fourth year. Of course Clarko was helped by already having Buddy , Hodge ,Lewis , Mitchell, Roughy , Sewel , Crawford etc already on the list. Bevo also had most of the pieces on the list he took over.
Worsfold got a list of aging or retiring stars and some good young players added along the way and a club that had just been through the biggest turmoil and * up in the history of the game.
The list was devoid of genuine leaders and genuine A grade champions and the one he did have broke down after 1 season.
I personally think it did not matter who was coach. The list had issues. I also feel that the continual rebuilds over years while we have changed coaches and the promise of a challenge or a 5 year plan wears a bit thin with the supporter base so 4 years is deemed too long to wait for improvement top top 4.

We are a victim of the Saga which we brought onto ourselves. We have landed in no mans land and felt the brunt of the injury stick to not only key players but players we needed to develop under them.

 

[Cold Sober]

Frustrating to watch, our best is good enough but our bad is very ordinary.
It has obviously been a hard season for all players so let's hope our last two games show improvement.