AFL Autopsy RND 18: Essington crapped on by the Cats

[jdstorm]

Oh, and don't even tell me we need a big bodied key defender. just watch 3 goals from small dinky kicks to a leading Tom Hawkins that not even Stephen Silvagni and Dustin Fletcher would struggle defending.

Midfield pressure looks to be atrocious. Pathetic

There was pretty good pressure most of the game for me. The issue was being in position to make a tackle and being physically capable of making the tackle aren’t the same thing.

Geelong would break the tackle or get a turnover from a rushed kick then create a 2 on 1 and just work their way through the outnumber into a scoring position.

The times Essendon did get the ball
In a similar position they tried to use the width of the ground and anything they could to avoid contact and that created indecision and bad spacing.

 

[Yoda_]

The only good thing I can say is Bryan played okay and got 80% plus game time.
The rest . Just shows that Scott will need to make a few changes to the list over the next few years for us to be a genuine contender to the top 4.

this comes down to the big red fire engine and making some tough list calls he has struggled to make in recent years

 

[Chief Hopper]

Happens too often against the bigger sides. We need 2 big bodied midfielders IMO to rotate with Merrett, Parish and co. I don't thin Perkins is the answer. Setterfield was doing ok until he disappeared off the face of the earth.

Yep spot on. I was thinking the exact same thing.
Also the long aerial kick just plays straight into Geelongs team strengths. Their players just bump or wrestle the ball and our younger, shorter and weaker players just can't compete constantly enough.
Maybe if we played a running, handball through congestion game, we could have evened the is a little.

 

[ant555]

With the amount of collateral we have spent on a key defender, I am keen to see what they have to offer before writing off and moving for an established one.

The rest I agree with and have pointed out

Who gives a * about collateral ? seriously. You can not build the list based on what positions you have ****ed up.
How long do we wait ? It is a flawed argument to say you do not look at FB because you have one rookie conversion and two who can not get on the park.
The priority is getting good players. Get good players and then fix the final spots. Which one comes first short term is not the issue.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Well done to those who sat through that s**t show.
I couldn't. Not again after the truly awful first quarter.
So utterly predictable to be put away in 20 minutes again.
Where was the EFC from last week (1st half)? So far away...

yeah i pissed off to the home office 5 minutes in, as soon as redman handballed it straight to miers, and than missed the tackle - a belting was on the cards early on.

anyone who sat through that, and further to that anyone that actually went to the game and stayed deserves 3 votes.

 

[ant555]

this comes down to the big red fire engine and making some tough list calls he has struggled to make in recent years

Scott been with us a few years ? Not saying he will make the right calls but the coach will be a bit more involved in the actual list calls compared to previous years. And by actual list calls I mean the players on our list. Not that a lot will change this year as we have limited spaces to make many moves.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

At the same time Merrett gets tagged out of games too easily. Happens too often against the bigger sides. We need 2 big bodied midfielders IMO to rotate with Merrett, Parish and co. I don't thin Perkins is the answer. Setterfield was doing ok until he disappeared off the face of the earth.

I so wish we threw everything at DeGoey when he was a chance of leaving!

setters got injured, didn't exactly disappear?

 

[Beerfish]

I do wonder about the people who perpetually think the sky is falling. I wonder if these are the same people who absolutely refuse to take any joy out of a singular win because we haven't won a final in whatever and therefore feel the losses so much more acutely? Games like last night are the reason you need to smell the roses when they do happen to come by otherwise you may as well not even bother.

 

[srobbo]

Last 3 1st qtrs Geelong vs Essendon…

20-13-133. 4-2-26

Beaten before we run out.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Not sure that is where we need to be going. This has been a bit of our issue since the saga. We get in touch with the finals and start thinking about what we can add before we have developed any sort of steady identity or game plan .

As for Merrett , the issue is not he gets tagged out of games too easily. The issue is two or three others do not step up to take the load and no one shows any physical presence towards the player tagging him.

Merrett has been amazing this year whilst tagged.

Merrett had nothing to work off, it was less about him getting tagged out of the game and more so the entire team got obliterated.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

I do wonder about the people who perpetually think the sky is falling. I wonder if these are the same people who absolutely refuse to take any joy out of a singular win because we haven't won a final in whatever and therefore feel the losses so much more acutely? Games like last night are the reason you need to smell the roses when they do happen to come by otherwise you may as well not even bother.

yeah beer but it gets to a point where you get sick of smelling roses though lol

there aint alot of patience left in this supporter base, and when that s**t gets served up its hard to swallow.

 

[Beerfish]

yeah beer but it gets to a point where you get sick of smelling roses though lol

there aint alot of patience left in this supporter base, and when that s**t gets served up its hard to swallow.

Smelling the roses that do come along now and then is better than perpetual misery.

I take your point though. I wonder if the less patient amongst us are more or less likely to have seen any Essendon success in their lifetimes?

 

[Nicholas61]

Hope they had an icy dip in the bay!

As others have said, mentally and physically trounced. There wasn't even a whimper.

We had mentally left the game after 5 minutes. Hobbs the only player that came close physically. Braydon Maynard has more hardness in his little finger than this whole club.

You have to look at recruiting, watershed moment for Scott.

Spot on. Often our guys just moved out of the way when their players came charging through for the ball, that was probably the worst part to watch last night - we didn't want body contact.

 

[Dave]

Hello darkness my old friend…..

 

[eth-dog]

Oh, and don't even tell me we need a big bodied key defender. just watch 3 goals from small dinky kicks to a leading Tom Hawkins that not even Stephen Silvagni and Dustin Fletcher would struggle defending.

Midfield pressure looks to be atrocious. Pathetic

You know the two concepts aren't mutually exclusive?

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

That was one for anyone who thinks Essendon footy club is anything but rubbish still at this point. Mental fragility is our trademark as much as lack of defence. This team is never more vulnerable than when they feel weight of expectation. Put simply, we remain in the ol’ redemption cycle still. I think we’re on the right track but welcome back to earth.
We’re still short a big bodied defender, two *viable tall marking forwards and a ruckman. So if we can cobble together a spine both literally and metaphorically, we may be a chance of hauling ourselves out of the deep hole we’ve spent 20 years digging. We’ve got a long way to go.

 

[ant555]

yeah beer but it gets to a point where you get sick of smelling roses though lol

there aint alot of patience left in this supporter base, and when that s**t gets served up its hard to swallow.

I agree with what you say but there is the element bundling up years of frustration into one box and not actually looking at where the forks in the road have been. I get it. Supporters do not want to know this is the next 5 year plan after sitting through 5 previous 5 year plans but there are forks in the road and there are clear points when things change direction . Right now we are still at an early stage of a list rebuild which was a clear direction change at the end of 2020. It got further complicated by the fact that we had the wrong coach for the wrong time so the first two years of that build did not have the foundations. We now have a new coach in year one and Basically a new board leadership. That is the simple fact. It may not work again but it is year 1 in another direction. That is what it is.

 

[ant555]

Jake Stringer

25

Jake Stringer

Age

30

Ht

192cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.9

3star

K

8.5

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.5

4star

G

1.8

5star

D

8.5

2star

K

7.0

3star

HB

1.5

1star

M

2.8

3star

T

3.8

4star

G

2.5

5star

D

7.2

2star

K

4.8

2star

HB

2.4

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.4

5star

is a bit of an issue as well. He is working hard and doing a lot of team stuff but we are not getting much of his best stuff offensively when we need a lift.

 

[MiguelM]

setters got injured, didn't exactly disappear?

I know, but it feels like it!!

 

[ghostdog]

Last 3 1st qtrs Geelong vs Essendon…

20-13-133. 4-2-26

Beaten before we run out.

That's similar to my post-to-like ratio. LIFT PEOPLE!

 

[jdstorm]

I think good list management begins with an honest look at where you are at.

The positive is Geelong are the reigning premiers and we got there best effort both games this year so it’s an accurate away to see how we stack up against the best teams in the comp.

They did this to the Swans in the grand final. This is the level you need to be at to compete and win games in September.

Whining about wanting success because We’ve been so unsuccessful for so long isn’t a path to success. Success has to be earned. It’s not like being wealthy where that’s just given to you based on the past success of others.

They aren’t as bad as they showed last night and they aren’t where they need to be are both true statements.

There’s lessons to be learned from this and if they are it will make this team much better moving forward.

 

[ghostdog]

The other way around. Cat poo is literally toxic.

You mistake me for someone who cares about the actual toxicity of different types of poo. Read the room dude.

 

[srobbo]

I do wonder about the people who perpetually think the sky is falling. I wonder if these are the same people who absolutely refuse to take any joy out of a singular win because we haven't won a final in whatever and therefore feel the losses so much more acutely? Games like last night are the reason you need to smell the roses when they do happen to come by otherwise you may as well not even bother.

Oh come off it. What roses are we smelling? That’s as a lame a comment as our effort last night. So as a supporter base we should just cop these sort of losses on the chin because we should be used to it by now? Are we not entitled to develop some sort of expectations with how we should be playing?

There comes a time where the playing group have to show some maturity & deal with expectation, especially when they confront the mob with the blue & white hoops who continually crush us like a bug for fun.

 

[Beerfish]

Oh come off it. What roses are we smelling? That’s as a lame a comment as our effort last night. So as a supporter base we should just cop these sort of losses on the chin because we should be used to it by now? Are we not entitled to develop some sort of expectations with how we should be playing?

There comes a time where the playing group have to show some maturity & deal with expectation, especially when they confront the mob with the blue & white hoops who continually crush us like a bug for fun.

I don't think you really understood what I meant and there's no ******* way that comment was as lame as our performance last night.

We should cop losses like last night because that's where we are as a team. Just because we get flogged by the reigning premiers who are a bogey club for us over the last 20 years to boot doesn't mean we should burn the club to the ground nor enjoy any win that we do have in between.

 

[ant555]

Oh come off it. What roses are we smelling? That’s as a lame a comment as our effort last night. So as a supporter base we should just cop these sort of losses on the chin because we should be used to it by now? Are we not entitled to develop some sort of expectations with how we should be playing?

There comes a time where the playing group have to show some maturity & deal with expectation, especially when they confront the mob with the blue & white hoops who continually crush us like a bug for fun.

I am not even sure you have understood the context of the post.