AFL Toast RND 9: Win Against the Swans

[DERO]

What's more sobering is we've beaten 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th.

Yeah, but we'd normally lose against the shit teams!

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Just gonna say this now so we're clear - I'm gonna straight up ban anyone who dares to start a rUn tO tHE fINaLS thread this year

 

[Happyskeret]

Yeah, but we'd normally lose against the shit teams!

We can only beat who’s in front of us. Tbo this group has exceeded my expectations m.

 

[boncer34]

We can only beat who’s in front of us. Tbo this group has exceeded my expectations m.

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

 

[Happyskeret]

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

I predicted us to finish 12th so my expectations aren’t exactly high. We can only beat teams at the best of times and rarely ever win by big margins so your math sounds pretty sound to me.

I said we can only beat who is in front of us from the point of view that we haven’t lost yet to someone I thought we should beat!

Yes we are in the middle again we are a mediocre team. I thought we would have dropped a game to a lesser opponent at this stage but it hasn’t happened yet. So on that basis my expectations have been exceeded.

 

[Happyskeret]

I don’t just think we are in a state of flux either. My prediction was we would finish low this year was too many young players in key positions. 1st and 2nd year players.

 

[The Airing of Grievances]

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

No doubt I'm breaking the rule that we should just take one week at a time, but methinks the next 5 weeks should give a truer picture of our place in the pecking order - Doggies, Tiges, Lions at the Gabba(ouch), Carlton and cats at Kardinya Pk ( double ouch). Every chance we go 1-4, though getting the Dogs off their trip to the Territory helps. By seasons end think we're battling with Melbourne, Freo and Saints for 13,14 and 15 and given we hold Melbourne's first anyway don't think the narrow last 3 wins hurts us as much re end of year draft as last years win vs Freo did. So I'm happy to lap up beating those Sydney MoFos . As said by others, getting a few cheapies from the whistleblowers sweetens the deal.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Some sort of election on in Thailand. All beer banned at 6pm sharp. Luckily I had 25 watching us win.. go dons!!! rub of the green, was out game to lose and we won. Suck a big fat one swans. I hate yas

 

[cAsEy_18]

The sort of game you need to analyse without looking at the stats. For instance, there is no way I would have McGrath in my top 5 Essendon players on the night - but the stats would absolutely say otherwise.

That might be the easiest game any backline will ever have in an AFL season.
I refuse to say “poor” Sydney because I’m happy for them to cop the next 20 years of bad injury luck, but they’re not running out there an AFL standard forward line. Combine that with terrible, long aimless ball use going forward, and genuinely zero forward pressure, and you can see why our backline stat padded all day.
Doesn’t mean you can’t take certain things out of it (eg) Reid continues to look very good.
But hold your horses on the McGrath, even redman and McKay praise just yet. Wait to see how they go in 7 days time against a side that will put on manic forward pressure. If they stand up to that, I’ll be impressed.

 

[Chief Hopper]

Nice win.
Great signs by multiple young players.

Reading the swans board, what a bunch of cry babys. Maybe when they realise they were beat by one of the youngest and least experienced side this loss is going to sting a bit less.

 

[MiguelM]

not a fan of playing a spare in defence start of the 4th quarter. far too much time to be playing not to lose

Was the start of the comeback. Was driving me nuts that we stopped being attacking.

We need to back ourselves in to bury a side. Maybe that will come but our % won't be great if we keep playing slow.

We still look below par fitness wise IMO, teams are over running us.

 

[gillon]

We have been pretty good against bad teams for years now, this isn’t much of a surprise. I’m just thankful we have Melbournes first rounder so when we inevitably finish ~11th, we may still have access to the best talent.

 

[Happyskeret]

This is the best game I seen haawlie, Roberto, Hayes, Reid, Kako, Caddy, Perkins Hobbs play together I’ve ever seen. Damn that’s 8 players. Not their fault we’ve been shit the last 20 years

edit: day wicks number 9

 

[jmoo wan]

What's more sobering is we've beaten 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th.

we didn’t lose to 16th did we?

bloody hell

 

[windyhill]

Goldy. God love him.

 

[MiguelM]

Goldy. God love him.

I thought Grundy got them back into the game but Goldy had more than a few moments where he just used all his experience. Those knock ons, handballs to create space were telling.

 

[blitzer]

Really good performance - I didn't really expect to walk away with a win with our named side being so young and inexperienced. Our defense is really starting to gel as a whole, able to stand up even against many inside 50s.

A few thoughts on specific players:
Reid - he's looking like he could be a serious player. Imagine Ridley comes back and he's our second best defender. I dare to dream.
McGrath - I thought he was fantastic. He cops it plenty when he plays poorly but I thought he was very good both offensively and defensively. I wouldn't have trusted many of our other defenders to not lose those contests vs Heeney. Also used it well for nearly all of the game. Yes he did have that dodgy passage of play with the handballs that Roberts cleaned up but being fair the guy had 35 touches so you're going to have a few poor ones in that.
Martin - Great to see him back to some of his best form. My favourite part was when he was pretty much 1 on 3 against Sydney players but managed to force the ball forward - despite being behind some of them to start with and then he bobbed up soon after to nab a goal.
Roberts - Maybe not his most eye catching performance but he continues to be really reliable and great decision maker week to week. Playing far beyond his years.
Caddy - Excellent competitiveness and workrate. The only thing that let him down just a little bit was some of his kicks inside forward 50. I don't have any concerns about him for the long term. He's going to be a star.
Caddy - Thought he tried hard but looked quite rusty. Hopefully he's back to his best next week.
Durham - Had some big moments but wasn't consistent throughout the game.
Setterfield - Been loving just how reliable he is. He actually showed a lot of this 2 years ago but injuries have held him back.
McKay - Very good game. If he played like this every week he would silence his doubters pretty quickly.
Goldstein - I thought he was good vs Grundy. I for one am very glad we picked him up. Been such a selfless player for us. Was willingly playing VFL without complaint before the unfortunate injuries to Bryan and Draper. I also think he's been pretty important for their development as well as that of Vigo.

I'm not getting too excited about us making the 8 or anything. Our injuries are too deep and we are about to reach the tougher portion of our draw. But at least we are showing signs and playing the kids. So there's hope for the future.

 

[Yoda_]

Wow, what a first half!
We haven’t had it over the Swans like that since Lloyddy was was throwing grass in the air.
Wish we kept on thrashing them in the second half. I had a joke ready to go that the Swans must have thought it was a Grand Final.

A first half like that gives me belief we are on the right track.

Only McGrath, McKay of the older, wiser heads were helping steer the bus. The rest was by the kids. Reid, Hayes, Roberts, Saad, Caddy etc.

 

[Yoda_]

What's more sobering is we've beaten 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th.

what's the saying ?

a wins a win my friend...

 

[Yoda_]

Lack of polish still really hurts us. Missed handballs that halt momentum or kicks that go over players heads at critical stages. The effort has generally been there. Just need to be able to convert more of the 50/50 chances and nail a few more in close handballs.
Second half we kicked down the line too much when we were set up too far up the ground. Work rate dropped off a bit and we had no run.
Goldstien deserves a tick in the last 10 minutes. Made some smart choices with his disposal and did not lose his head.

is this being a young team in the second half?

That first half was some of the best football ive seen us play for some time.. Defensively anyway

 

[JayJ20]

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

Yep and we haven't strung together a 4-quarter performance this year. I thought we were decent against Hawthorn and Collingwood though. Adelaide was terrible. The first half was the best football we played this year despite Merrett being tagged. Something we can take for our future.

Dogs will smash us next week to take us out of the 8 though.

 

[Yoda_]

Just gonna say this now so we're clear - I'm gonna straight up ban anyone who dares to start a rUn tO tHE fINaLS thread this year

would be peak essington when we have a death riding Melbourne thread consistently on the first page as well haha

 

[bomberlegend2007]

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

I do feel we as supporters find ways to diminish our good wins.

It was only six months or so ago where Port and Sydney were playing in a Prelim against each other. Right now they are bang average, but Sydney will shoot back up the ladder next year.

We are middle of the road again, but there has been progress with this group. We are a better side than last year.

 

[FootyGuru]

We can only beat in front of us.

And we've beaten 5 of the bottom 6 by an average of 12 points and lost to 3 of the top 5 by an average of 41 points.

We're smack bang in the middle of the table. Again.

Where were Brisbane on the ladder this time last year? What about Essendon this time last year? What about hawthorn?

We are beating these teams with a younger age demographic, and for the most part the youngins are the ones leading the way.

We have many season ending injuries and our young team will tire and fall away, but personally I love watching us win.

The North method you keep advocating for doesn’t work. Giving young guys token games and trying to have honourable losses has not worked for them, even to the point where they changed approach and had to trade for experienced players.

 

[Mercurial89]

That first half was not as good as the scoreline or Scott seemed to suggest.