AFL Autopsy RND 6: Loss to the Pies

[Ati Tude]

I am going to go off topic slightly. Anzac Day is such a great day and it is incredibly awesome that Ess is involved in this game. Other teams and supporters could only be jealous of today. Can't imagine it ever being taken off Ess and Coll. 95,000 people through the gates. Biggest crowd to a H&A game since 1958 (Melb vs Coll at 99k). Great game for the punters to watch in pubs and at home on TV.

Now, time to get a bit political. It occurred to me that one way to fix the Australia Day issue is to move it to 26 April. Or 24 April for that matter but seems to be the right thing to do to have the remembrance part first and then the party part. And obviously retains some connection (which many wont like) by having it on 26th of a month. Would give people a double public holiday to recognise/remember and celebrate the country. Just a thought that came to me today looking at 95,000 people not making a sound for a minute. And AFL would love it, they can do two of these games on consecutive days plus eve games.

 

[MightyDon]

I am going to go off topic slightly. Anzac Day is such a great day and it is incredibly awesome that Ess is involved in this game. Other teams and supporters could only be jealous of today. Can't imagine it ever being taken off Ess and Coll. 95,000 people through the gates. Biggest crowd to a H&A game since 1958 (Melb vs Coll at 99k). Great game for the punters to watch in pubs and at home on TV.

Now, time to get a bit political. It occurred to me that one way to fix the Australia Day issue is to move it to 26 April. Or 24 April for that matter but seems to be the right thing to do to have the remembrance part first and then the party part. And obviously retains some connection (which many wont like) by having it on 26th of a month. Would give people a double public holiday to recognise/remember and celebrate the country. Just a thought that came to me today looking at 95,000 people not making a sound for a minute. And AFL would love it, they can do two of these games on consecutive days plus eve games.

Australia needs to become a republic and that will be a national day worth celebrating

 

[Ati Tude]

Australia needs to become a republic and that will be a national day worth celebrating

Do it on the 26th of April then.

 

[sameolds33]

caldwell did well in patches today, one of the good players imo

He seemed to go into his shell a bit after the Daicos punch. But he could have been tired - he worked hard.

 

[MightyDon]

Do it on the 26th of April then.

I’ll try get it sorted for next year

 

[Megabattimus]

Looking back, I think Durham collecting Pendles in the eye was a major turning point. If he collects the ball or hits him below the head, it ends up as a ball-in on the wing that either is close to or in our forward half. Then we can move it forward and lock it in our half of the ground for a bit, which gets us more looks at goal or at the very least takes time off the clock. Either would've been good for us as to that point we'd only conceded the Frampton goal and had the Weideman set shot miss the other way. They were starting to come hard, but we'd punched the first shot they'd had after the Frampton goal over the goal line and we were working it back up the ground before the Durham/Pendles contest.

Unfortunately, said contest ends in a free kick (after they stop play to bring Pendles off the ground) and they take it forward again. We rush the next shot (Redman killed it on the line both times), but then we turn it over to Johnson and he slots it. After that the dam wall starts to well and truly break, with Daicos and Ginnivan cutting the margin to three points. Menzie misses the next chance we get, then they take it back up the other end and Daicos puts them in front with his second. Draper misses the chance to put us back in front and that's pretty much all she wrote.

Obviously Laverde going down in the third was massive, as he definitely stops Frampton marking that ball in the 50 (and obviously the umpire should've paid the blocking free against Mihocek anyway) and is able to help repel their entries in general. Also, we then don't have to move Setterfield and Langford around to cover the obvious hole in our backline. Which then gives us a better chance to kick away from them.

But even with him going down, we still could've finished off the work if things work out differently for us. Which does sting, obviously. However, it is a good learning experience and proves that we're getting better. Even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

I'll take a loss like this over that Richmond 2021 loss we had any day of the week, where we spent all our petrol just getting in front...only to end up losing by like thirty or something ridiculous like that. Just remembering that game gives me 'Nam style flashbacks.

 

[fairbump_playon]

This is the autopsy thread, not delusional pearlers.

Shiel had a great first half but fumbled a number of half chances in the last when we needed our most experienced leaders to make something happen at the clearance.

Caldwell was easily our superior midfielder across 4 quarters. Setterfield ok. Parish was MIA.

 

[Cup_o_Jobe]

I spent the first 10 of the last quarter thinking "we only need one here to puncture the balloon, otherwise we're f***ed". One proved too many for our blokes. Psychological more than physical, as tired as they looked. I think too many knew the reputation of the Pies in last quarters and the moment Frampton snuck that first one half our blokes went "uh oh" and froze like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

Losing Laverde really hurt our structure, more than I'd have anticipated. Will be interesting to see how we cover next week given how raw (and unconditioned) both Reid and Hayes are. Maybe Montgomerie? Or Langford back more likely.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Harsh with Laverde going down. Can't predict that. But drefinitely s**t the bed with the Hobbs call, Scott caved into the populist opinion.

13 points in the end. I guess it just feels bigger than that because of how much we were up by. That's where the disappointment lies because if the score was 50 - 50 until 10 minutes left and it ended as 50 - 63, you'd be hard pressed to not see that as just a better team getting over the line and chalking it up as a fair loss. But it wasn't, we felt like the game should've been ours even though they're the top 4 contenders.

You just hope it's one of those losses that the players can look at and see the glaringly obvious mistakes that caused it and learn from it so as to not repeat it again. You'd think it's better they learn it from that game rather than learning it from a final.

Hope we bring more intensity V Geelong and we start selecting more tactically/crucially.

 

[ghostdog]

Because the games are too long. The Olympic games are for fitness tests. The footy should be more about a balance of fitness and skill, its to skewed into fitness.

Yes, it should be about fitness and skill for the four quarters as it currently is.

 

[BomberTime]

Whilst disappointing, can’t be too flat about that.

We are a young developing team and we didn’t let them play the way they wanted to play for three quarters of that match. Their pressure went up in the last and we run out of gas too.

Another 12 months of experience and added fitness. We are on our way.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I used to feel good about losses like this one.

Thanks for sharing

 

[Call Me Cake]

Most people were hoping we didn't get smashed so I guess it probably was a win in some ways.

 

[windyhill]

Glass half full : 2 shithouse quarters from being 6-0.
Glass half empty : Yet again going down in a huge match. Two decades of pain in big games. The indigenous game has become an annual shambles.
Do we s**t the bed yet again against a team we used to ridicule in a fixture where we haven’t shown up in over a decade ?

 

[ant555]

Not in the last quarter though. Weideman nails that set shot, it steadies us and we can probably get it going our way more. But he missed and then we didn't get another good shot until Draper, who also missed.

It happens, especially against a great team like Collingwood.

Sounds like groundhog day. Nail a set shot. Win the game .Seen this movie before.

 

[ant555]

I am going to go off topic slightly. Anzac Day is such a great day and it is incredibly awesome that Ess is involved in this game. Other teams and supporters could only be jealous of today. Can't imagine it ever being taken off Ess and Coll. 95,000 people through the gates. Biggest crowd to a H&A game since 1958 (Melb vs Coll at 99k). Great game for the punters to watch in pubs and at home on TV.

Now, time to get a bit political. It occurred to me that one way to fix the Australia Day issue is to move it to 26 April. Or 24 April for that matter but seems to be the right thing to do to have the remembrance part first and then the party part. And obviously retains some connection (which many wont like) by having it on 26th of a month. Would give people a double public holiday to recognise/remember and celebrate the country. Just a thought that came to me today looking at 95,000 people not making a sound for a minute. And AFL would love it, they can do two of these games on consecutive days plus eve games.

Would work.

 

[ant555]

There are a few small areas we can be better at.
One is we gave up a couple of goals on the back of two blokes trying to man the mark and allowing a free Pies player to run forward. They need to think quicker than that. The most obvious one was Martin who let Josh Daicos

7

Josh Daicos

Age

25

Ht

178cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.6

4star

K

8.3

3star

HB

7.3

5star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.6

5star

CL

1.3

3star

D

16.2

4star

K

9.2

4star

HB

7.0

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.5

4star

CL

1.5

4star

D

13.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

4.2

5star

CL

1.2

4star

go and ran up behind Flipper. Just let the ruck take the mark.

 

[ant555]

Seems to be some here who take my critique of Parish as meaning I hate the bloke and he is the root of all our issues.
Yesterday I though he was a bit ordinary early but he was one of a few that had a bit of run left in the last and fought it out to the end.
His defense effort was solid again which is a tick. He does not have to be in the top 100 defensive action players in the comp. He just has to keep up his end of the deal and be in the spots he has to be when we do not have the footy and not stand around ball watching. So far this year he has shown he is working on it.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Judging by the first couple of pages I take it no one was at the ground? It may not have been evident on the screen but us completely stopping was not at all a surprise. If I’m honest we are probably fortunate it wasn’t a 5-6 goal defeat, such was the extent we were completely out on our feet by 5 minutes into the last.

Pies finished the game running ontop of the ground and the game finished accordingly. The talent gap between these two sides is negligible but the fitness gap may as well be the Grand Canyon.

I will say that it was a genuine arm wrestle all day, neither side could really, truly say they got the game on their terms for any length of time and both sides defended the corridor exceptionally well.

Bloody good standard of footy, ripping game to watch, we played a brand that is clearly capable of standing up on a bigger stage, we just didn’t come out on the right end of it on the day.

Yep it was absolutely stark at the ground the running power gap. There were some signs in the last minutes of the third quarter also that left me feeling like the game was a 50/50.

I felt it was a mistake at the time to put Setterfield back and still think that. I’d rather try to conserve energy by winning it out of the middle and holding territory. But outside of that and being a little too slow to put Stringer back in the middle I thought the plan was good. All day we gave them the wide half back kick to push them wide, stayed back and prevented the overlap run through the middle. We kept our structure behind the ball and had great overlap run and switching to defend.

There really was a lot to like but the main weakness won’t be addressed without another pre-season sadly. The positive is that there are clear signs of a sustainable positive trend.

 

[Zach Package]

Yep it was absolutely stark at the ground the running power gap. There were some signs in the last minutes of the third quarter also that left me feeling like the game was a 50/50.

I felt it was a mistake at the time to put Setterfield back and still think that. I’d rather try to conserve energy by winning it out of the middle and holding territory. But outside of that and being a little too slow to put Stringer back in the middle I thought the plan was good. All day we gave them the wide half back kick to push them wide, stayed back and prevented the overlap run through the middle. We kept our structure behind the ball and had great overlap run and switching to defend.

There really was a lot to like but the main weakness won’t be addressed without another pre-season sadly. The positive is that there are clear signs of a sustainable positive trend.

100%. The margin probably flattered us at 3 quarter time but yesterday was as much a legit test as last week was and despite not winning the game I think we get a pass mark.

It was unfortunate to sit there and watch it unfold though, we didn’t have a win condition and there was nothing that could be done to stop the tidal wave.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

I spent the first 10 of the last quarter thinking "we only need one here to puncture the balloon, otherwise we're f***ed". One proved too many for our blokes. Psychological more than physical, as tired as they looked. I think too many knew the reputation of the Pies in last quarters and the moment Frampton snuck that first one half our blokes went "uh oh" and froze like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

Losing Laverde really hurt our structure, more than I'd have anticipated. Will be interesting to see how we cover next week given how raw (and unconditioned) both Reid and Hayes are. Maybe Montgomerie? Or Langford back more likely.

i said the same thing to myself at 3QTR time. I knew a disaster was waiting for us.

As soon as collingwood got the forst 2 goals it was confirmed.

 

[Eleven 38]

Yes, it should be about fitness and skill for the four quarters as it currently is.

Yeah it's probably just me, haha, but I only watch essendon games, I was ready to turn it off at 3/4 time l, because it just drags on too long. (Probably should have)

I would watch a lot more if the games were shorter.

 

[ant555]

100%. The margin probably flattered us at 3 quarter time but yesterday was as much a legit test as last week was and despite not winning the game I think we get a pass mark.

It was unfortunate to sit there and watch it unfold though, we didn’t have a win condition and there was nothing that could be done to stop the tidal wave.

I do not really think the margin flattered us at 3/4 time. Modern footy seems to produce a run of goals both ways and we did really out work them in the third quarter. We where right with them all game. They missed a few easy goals as did we at stages. Agree with the fact we there was plenty of decent stuff to take out of it.

 

[outersanctum]

Pies have built a list that runs all day and then play the game at a frantic pace to take advantage of it. We do not have the same fitness base. The fantastic part was that we played their frantic style for 3 quarters and got almost 5 goals up. The flip side was that we used all our fuel tickets to do it.

It has been evident for years and still clear that we lack good overhead markers of the ball and our fitness is not up to scratch.

Scott has only had one draft, and he came in very very late to that, and one preseason.

If we are still be overrun in 2 years then it will be a bigger issue.

I still think our recruiting needs a big look, Duds has had 20 years and I still do not see a list that is dominant in one area. We have holes all over the ground. I know it won't be addressed but I'd start there. We are still crying out for more big bodied/aggressive midfielders, need more pace around the ball, need more overhead marking, need more endurance runners, need more craft forwards, need better disposers of the ball..

Still happy about our effort yesterday.. we lost by a couple of goals after a dreadful 30 minutes to finish the game against one of the best teams in the competition that pride themselves on running over the top of teams. I think we played a good game considering.

 

[Loonerty]

The problem is we brought in Hobbs like he was a 100 gamer or something. What we needed as a sub was someone with a mature head, someone who's been around the park long enough to know to use their energy to advantage and settle the bleeding. This was where we lost it.

And to bring him in as a sub in his first game in the AFL, on Anzac Day? Scott must have been smoking it up this morning.

Blind Freddy could see it was not the occasion or time and place for it.

This is silly.