AFL Toast RND 22: Win against Norf

[ant555]

Agree
When the season was there for the taking we just havent stepped up.
Cartons response to the challenge of a season on the cliff has been a stark polar opposite to ours.
Hard to pinpoint whats happened, but our midfield just hasnt been there with the others.

We are in year one with Scott. Carlton in year one with Voss fumbled their finals chance.

 

[ant555]

Merrett played the tag smartly, kept his man away from where he could impact anything else which allowed guys like Martin and Parish to impact the game instead.

Criticism of parish is odd for this one, was reliable and worked hard all game.

Agree on both fronts. I will pick off Parish if I see something but he was good. Can not pot the bloke for not being stronger than Cunnington a few times.

 

[citizen-erased]

We are in year one with Scott. Carlton in year one with Voss fumbled their finals chance.

True but they also had a brand going that looked finals worthy. Even if it did fall just short.

So far this has been a decent season.

There's something in not smashing a team when you need to smash them that irks me. We needed 4pts and %, but also we needed to show that level of commitment, competitiveness and, to put it bluntly, professionalism to do that.

Any semi decent side (christ, see freo last night) will do that.

 

[Vindicater]

Agree
When the season was there for the taking we just havent stepped up.
Cartons response to the challenge of a season on the cliff has been a stark polar opposite to ours.
Hard to pinpoint whats happened, but our midfield just hasnt been there with the others.

Are you really comparing our list build and where it is at with Carlton?

The same Carlton that lots of people were picking to be top 4 pre-season?

 

[dank420_]

The commentary must have been spectacularly favourable for Parish.

Standard junk performance with 3 or 4 good moments one of which, the assist to Martin, followed another i50 miss under no pressure.

You need to shout yourself to a day spa or something. Just miserable campaigner stuff at this point.

 

[mcgrath_truther]

It is easy to be disappointed in our results over the last two weeks.. but there are huge positives there. Last week and this week we were the 'younger' side and the more 'inexperienced' side. We are not putting out a premiership hardened team and struggling to beat the worst.. we are putting out a young, inexperienced side that has, in my opinion, hit the physical wall in the back half of the season and they have managed to find a way to win.

I was keen to watch this game in comparison to WCE and see if last week was just the anomaly.. but nope we looked flat again. That is three weeks in a row that it just looks like some of the young blokes are running under water. I think some of them are legit cooked for the season. That is not excuse, but just the reality that we are sending a lot players out who have only been through 1-3 preseasons.

We are two games away from the end of the season and we can still make finals. That is a lot better than I expected at the start of the season. I expect us to lose the next two but you never know.

The positives were Hobbs, Martin and Tsats.. you can see the future clearly there. I thought Merrett did a lot of team things despite struggling with a hard tag. Parish is very good and for those wanting to get rid of him.. check yourself and the tape first. Langford is having a career defining season and continues to be a step above. I like the work of Byran and I think he has a future. Baldwin did some really nice things and I think should stay in the team for the next two weeks.

The negatives were pretty standard.. but disposals, kicking skills. Peter Wright has got concrete hands right now. We missed Ridley and whilst Zerk has improved 100%.. he is not good enough to be KPD #1. McGrath had one of his better games but still leaves me feeling meh. Do not like our team defence right now but I suspect that is a fitness issue rather than structure.

All up..we got the win.. the matildas got the win.. and life is pretty good. I'll be hoping we can get the upset against GWS and set up a cracker final round against the Pies for a chance at September glory.

i felt more anxious watching the penalties than i did watching the final few minutes of our game, good to see them doing amazingly though

 

[Squeaky]

Agree
When the season was there for the taking we just havent stepped up.
Cartons response to the challenge of a season on the cliff has been a stark polar opposite to ours.
Hard to pinpoint whats happened, but our midfield just hasnt been there with the others.

I think we are trying to play a brand of footy that we aren't up to. We invite pressure but cannot deal with pressure. Our skills fall off a cliff at the slightest application of it... short handballs in particular.
We apply very little pressure too...
Oppo walk through our tackles. Frustrating!

 

[Hazardinho]

You need to shout yourself to a day spa or something. Just miserable campaigner stuff at this point.

Maybe he has a point you melt

 

[dank420_]

I am melt

 

[citizen-erased]

Are you really comparing our list build and where it is at with Carlton?

The same Carlton that lots of people were picking to be top 4 pre-season?

Not really my point.
Their season was cooked, and they've responded.
Our season was on the up and we've fallen away.

They've beaten port, pies, dees and saints, and when the time came they smashed the eagles

They've turned an F season into a solid A and theyre in fine form for a flag.
We've taken an A season and dropped away to a C+

I guess i wanted to see us take one more step this year and bank a couple of comfy wins against the bottom 2 sides.

To have a cumulative 17pt advantage from 3 games against the bottom 2 is underwhelming to say the least.

 

[BuffDog]

Parish was decent yesterday but you look at that heavily contested, finals like Carlton v Melbourne game and I just don’t think a midfield of Parish, Merrett, Hobbs and Caldwell has the size to compete with that.

Maybe a midfield of Merrett, Hobbs, Tsatas, Setterfield might improve size wise but idk

 

[citizen-erased]

Parish was decent yesterday but you look at that heavily contested, finals like Carlton v Melbourne game and I just don’t think a midfield of Parish, Merrett, Hobbs and Caldwell has the size to compete with that.

Maybe a midfield of Merrett, Hobbs, Tsatas, Setterfield might improve size wise but idk

We're still a piece down. Watching that game, it was oliver and cripps' ability to influence the ball under pressure that is whats missing.

Setterfield is more about blocking and space. That coal face presence is lacking
We could train it into perkins as he has the strength, height and athleticism for it. Has some gaps to be elite but hes also 21.

Think about what stringer gave us in '21. We need to find that player. I don't see it on the list atm.

 

[Vindicater]

Not really my point.
Their season was cooked, and they've responded.
Our season was on the up and we've fallen away.

They've beaten port, pies, dees and saints, and when the time came they smashed the eagles

They've turned an F season into a solid A and theyre in fine form for a flag.
We've taken an A season and dropped away to a C+

I guess i wanted to see us take one more step this year and bank a couple of comfy wins against the bottom 2 sides.

To have a cumulative 17pt advantage from 3 games against the bottom 2 is underwhelming to say the least.

So a team playing well below itself has finally risen to the level and a team playing well above itself has fallen down.

Colour me shocked.

 

[owen87]

We're still a piece down. Watching that game, it was oliver and cripps' ability to influence the ball under pressure that is whats missing.

Setterfield is more about blocking and space. That coal face presence is lacking
We could train it into perkins as he has the strength, height and athleticism for it. Has some gaps to be elite but hes also 21.

Think about what stringer gave us in '21. We need to find that player. I don't see it on the list atm.

A player bringing Stringer’s best every week would be the best player in the comp. So yes, I agree we need to find the best player in the comp.

 

[ant555]

Not really my point.
Their season was cooked, and they've responded.
Our season was on the up and we've fallen away.

They've beaten port, pies, dees and saints, and when the time came they smashed the eagles

They've turned an F season into a solid A and theyre in fine form for a flag.
We've taken an A season and dropped away to a C+

I guess i wanted to see us take one more step this year and bank a couple of comfy wins against the bottom 2 sides.

To have a cumulative 17pt advantage from 3 games against the bottom 2 is underwhelming to say the least.

At least we won them. How many times have we dropped those games in the past. We are limping to the line while playing a few young blokes who are learning on the job.

 

[Yoda_]

Ive been hyper critical of the list and the players we have but when you dig deeper into who is where, we are an exceptionally young side.

Bryan (22, 13 games), Hobbs (19, 33), Tsatas (18, 2), Perkins (21, 60), Martin (22, 41), Durham (22, 47) and even stretching to BZT (25, 49) and we are reliant on kids to run the show when the senior guys are not there. That is a lot of dependancy on youth. Take it further when senior guys like Merret and 2MP are down and the reliance on the kids to lead the side and make the best decision when senior guys are down in form is much more glaring.

Im disappointed we didn't blow away either of the bottom 2 sides but we did what we needed to do and got the 8 points. Beat GWS and the gettable Collingwood in round 23 is much, MUCH more achievable.

Head into the first week of finals against a rampaging Carlton and knock them off in front of 98,000 would be nothing short of glorious. Lose to GWS and we are done for the year imho


EDIT: I should have added further that the "older" guys are not actually running the show. Phillips (32 y.o), Heppel (31), Hind (29), Kelly (28) were bit part and role players whilst Merret at (almost) 28 was well held. We need some of these 25 and under to start jumping off the list for us to take us further otherwise the endless cycle will continue. Is up to Scott and the rest of the development coaches to do there bit.

 

[Beerfish]

Head into the first week of finals against a rampaging Carlton and knock them off in front of 98,000 would be nothing short of glorious.

The next time Carlton meet Essendon in a final the afl will ******* explode such will be the interest and excitement.

 

[Squeaky]

The next time Carlton meet Essendon in a final the afl will ******* explode such will be the interest and excitement.

We can all agree on that.
When we next meet Carlton in a final i hope we are better equipped than we are now, because in my opinion it would be a slaughter like last time we met in Sept.

 

[Yoda_]

We can all agree on that.
When we next meet Carlton in a final i hope we are better equipped than we are now, because in my opinion it would be a slaughter like last time we met in Sept.

fun fact; our average losing margin in finals since our last win is 54.5 points

We'll be fine. Have hope

 

[eth-dog]

Carlton are one of the oldest and most experienced lists in the AFL. They should be playing and winning finals. We are one of the youngest and least experienced. The total opposite.

 

[Don_Gia]

To be honest I do also find myself comparing with Carlton this year…but then I look at all the quality picks they’ve had the past 8 or so years and I’m like yeah about time they did something…we didn’t really bottom out like they have other than 2016 and that wasn’t by choice…

We chose not (maybe saga induced as well) to go through the short term pain and just linger around 7-12 on the ladder for the past 8 years instead…

I’m fairly comfortable saga put us back a bit…someone said on here a very long time ago it would put us back 10 years and I was like “no f***n way”…but it’s looking like that now…

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

To be honest I do also find myself comparing with Carlton this year…but then I look at all the quality picks they’ve had the past 8 or so years and I’m like yeah about time they did something…we didn’t really bottom out like they have other than 2016 and that wasn’t by choice…

We chose not (maybe saga induced as well) to go through the short term pain and just linger around 7-12 on the ladder for the past 8 years instead…

I’m fairly comfortable saga put us back a bit…someone said on here a very long time ago it would put us back 10 years and I was like “no f***n way”…but it’s looking like that now…

The saga was always going to set us back. Just how long that lasted was up to us and Simon Madden’s comments earlier this year on SEN highlighted precisely the mindset that has ensured the crippling effect has been so long lasting.
This bloke speaks and Essendon lickspittles far and wide listen intently and obviously he occupied a position on the board for the entire period referenced. Madden supported the 2022 internal review of club, was satisfied with the state and direction of the club and was in favour of retaining Rutten and his ol’ china the Dodo:

“After the saga: We had to make sure we were secure financially first of all”

“After the saga: we had to go slowly with players to keep them. But now (10 years later) it’s a good time to start training them hard again”

Clarification that Essendon had not been “training them hard” in order to “keep them” would have been both fascinating and harrowing listening had Watson or Lyon had the minerals to follow up the statement in the SEN interview.

 

[Hazardinho]

33 disposals
16 contested
2 goal assists
9 clearances
10 inside 50’s
22 pressure acts.

Of course he has his negatives,
6 turnovers
Only 70% efficiency
And zero intercepts.

But gee to call it a standard junk performance. He’s so harshly critiqued sometimes. Always so quick to point out his flaws and totally ignore the good stuff. You do you but.
I personally don’t want to let him go.

Talk now

 

[Hazardinho]

People simply don't understand how even the comp is. It makes me laugh some of the emo s**t that goes on after winning a two horse race

The comp is very even isn’t it mate!