Round 1 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[WaynesWorld19]

I was going to start a thread on him. An 18 year old making their debut, weighing in at only 66kg’s and you can already tell he will be a gun.

He is incredibly evasive and seems to be able to sidestep anyone; he is lightning quick and has good foot skills. Boy did we miss a gem there.

Yep .....looked as though it was his 50th game ....had so much time to make decisions and that's always a sign of a good player


And the use of his "frail" body in the 2nd half to take a chest mark ...superb stuff young man.

 

[Alex99]

Thankyou WW. Seems we're the only two though.

How can people possible say Douglas was a positive today? The only impression I got from today is that he’s not yet ready for AFL football. He looked lost out there.

But what I can't understand is that he seemed to be on more than VB did who was one of our best when on.

99% of kids drafted into the AFL are not ready to play straight away; Bryce Gibbs is not ready to play today, Richard Douglas is not ready but if he is given an opportunity to find his feet at that level he will adapt pretty quickly.

It’s about adapting to the environment that they play in and finding the best way to cope. If a player cannot find a way of coping with the pressure they would never have regardless of how many second tier games they play. Chuck the player in there and make then sink or swim, if they have talent they will swim if not they will get found out.

 

[Crows_Chick]

UGLY - Getting home in time to be able to watch a FULL replay of the ordinary display on channel 7.

Needless to say i'll be tuning in elsewhere - Thank god you're here on 10 couldn't be more aptly named given the viewing choices at the moment!

 

[n4sir]

Me 3

Then again I didnt think he was as much a negative as he wasnt a positive. Seemed to fumble and not make the right choices a lot

And I'll add a fourth vote to that - Douglas looked completely out of his depth under pressure, but he was far from alone. I was just as unimpressed by Knights, whose disposal was absolutely shocking at the first sniff of any real heat.

The ruck was beaten in the first half, but seemed to break even in the second. The midfield looked slow and was beaten to the ball more often than not, and lacked the leadership to step up when it really counted.

The forward line lacked structure and didn't seem to know what the hell was going on; many leads were in the same direction and quite often ignored. There's been a lot of sniping here at individual players, but I get the feeling they're either being played out of position or the basic game plan they're trying to execute just doesn't suit them. They lack a quality crumber too which doesn't help - I'd abandon tha idea of resting a midfielder up forward in a heartbeat if they had a permanent crumber who can kick goals.

Whether it was by design or Essendon manned-up the Crows didn't have the usual loose man in defence today either, and while it didn't haemorrage it didn't have anywhere the same level of rebound we've seen in the last couple of years.

That's the bad and the ugly, and frankly I didn't see too much that's good out there to bother talking about. At times what I saw was lazy, selfish, arrogant and incompetent. It may be only round one but there were a lot of bad signs out there today that have to be addressed if this team wants to be a serious finals contender. That's tough, but so's the AFL.

 

[King Elvis]

Knights was pretty good.

Sure, his disposal could have been better, but on a day when almost all of our experienced, quality midfielders went missing, he was alright.

 

[Markthirtytwo]

The Good

The boys looked great when they ran out onto the field in their new jumpers;

The Bad

Goody going down.
The shockingly loud new PA system and the ads from the big screen are twice as loud as a talking head;
The bloody new siren that sounds more like a steam locomotive's horn. WTF?

The Ugly

The lack of atmostpher by the crowd.
And where were the no shows only 43000*.

They should have their tickets stamped never to return to Footy Park, if they miss more than three games in a season. Pyss poor.

 

[Drummond]

The Good

The boys looked great when they ran out onto the field in their new jumpers;

The Bad

Goody going down.
The shockingly loud new PA system and the ads from the big screen are twice as loud as a talking head;
The bloody new siren that sounds more like a steam locomotive's horn. WTF?

The Ugly

The lack of atmostpher by the crowd.
And where were the no shows only 43000*.

They should have their tickets stamped never to return to Footy Park, if they miss more than three games in a season. Pyss poor.

From one extreme to the other. I agree it was ridiculously loud, however at least it can be fixed. If enough people complain I’m sure they’ll turn it down a tad.

I can't believe a sold out game only results in 43 thousand. Perfect day, season opener, just disgraceful.

 

[n4sir]

The Good

The boys looked great when they ran out onto the field in their new jumpers;

The Bad

Goody going down.
The shockingly loud new PA system and the ads from the big screen are twice as loud as a talking head;
The bloody new siren that sounds more like a steam locomotive's horn. WTF?

The Ugly

The lack of atmostpher by the crowd.
And where were the no shows only 43000*.

They should have their tickets stamped never to return to Footy Park, if they miss more than three games in a season. Pyss poor.

Yeah, I thought that myself, especially as the hangover was kicking in. Can you get any paracetamol at any of the new facilities there?

 

[monty1104]

Gotta correct the handball problem. IMO, that has been Essendon's downfall for the past two years.

Lloyd did well today to drag Rutten out of his comfort zone. He might have onlt kicked 2 goals, but he has 17 touches I think. He played almost on the wing in the second half, which incidently was the spot he was named on in his first AFL match, so he is not totally adverse to playing that spot.

Don't be to disheartened by Lucas kicking 7 goals. He is the most underated forward in the league, and could win another B&F this year.

Goodwin and Roo's absence was noticeable since you had very little experience in the midfield. Adelaide needs these guys back, and also you need the spine to function properly if you have any chance of making the finals this year.

 

[thesouthernend]

Von Berlo, Von Berlo, Von Berlo, he will be a star. Send Scott Stevens back to the Magpies. Shoot Perrie.

 

[n4sir]

Gotta correct the handball problem. IMO, that has been Essendon's downfall for the past two years.

Lloyd did well today to drag Rutten out of his comfort zone. He might have onlt kicked 2 goals, but he has 17 touches I think. He played almost on the wing in the second half, which incidently was the spot he was named on in his first AFL match, so he is not totally adverse to playing that spot.

Don't be to disheartened by Lucas kicking 7 goals. He is the most underated forward in the league, and could win another B&F this year.

Goodwin and Roo's absence was noticeable since you had very little experience in the midfield. Adelaide needs these guys back, and also you need the spine to function properly if you have any chance of making the finals this year.

I'm (kind of) glad someone else noticed.

 

[Mad Dog]

Huddo - great to see him back...

Griff - will be a star

The Great van Berlo - great first qtr but just chased backside for the rest of the day and had lots of mates..

Edwards - the pace of the game is catching up with him......continues to try to evade tackles like he did 5 or 6 years ago.....needs to go back to basics.

Thommo, Stiffy, and Reilly - very good games

Perrie - I'm done......

Welsh - no excuses today - on that performance the only thing that will kepp him in the side is injuries to other players.

Our midfield in general - what is the love affair with handball ?.........the problem seems to be that Craig has created this "run the ball from the back" gameplan because we have no dominant forwards.

Mattner - I like Mattner but another one that runs himself into trouble.

Rutten and Bass were beaten - Stevens was smashed.....

Bock - best of the forwards

Macca - most productive half of football I've seen from him in a while....



a fair bit of work to do

 

[jo172]

The Good

Griffen - Will be a good AFL player, needs to back himself a little more. At times he followed Hille instead of backing his own instincts. Reminds me of Sean Rehn.

Van Berlo's First Quarter - For the first quarter it looked like VB had become one of the elite players of the AFL, wonder what happened?

Bock - Will be a good forward

Knights and Mattner before he disposes the ball

The Bad

Goody getting injured

Burton needs to play a larger role this year.

Expected more out of Huddo

Stevens played like a girl

Craigy

The Ugly

Goalkicking and disposal under pressure.

 

[noddy]

The good. = the siren still works.

The bad, = slow, slow & slow

Ugly. = slower, slower & slower.

The disgusting. = the slowest in the league.


Not too much to get enthusiastic about in todays performance but at least we can only get better.

& Huddo got through the game.

 

[monty1104]

The Good

Griffen - Will be a good AFL player, needs to back himself a little more. At times he followed Hille instead of backing his own instincts. Reminds me of Sean Rehn.

Van Berlo's First Quarter - For the first quarter it looked like VB had become one of the elite players of the AFL, wonder what happened?

Bock - Will be a good forward

Knights and Mattner before he disposes the ball

The Bad

Goody getting injured

Burton needs to play a larger role this year.

Expected more out of Huddo

Stevens played like a girl

Craigy

The Ugly

Goalkicking and disposal under pressure.

Huge rap there. I reckon you would be happy if he turned out to be half the player that Rehn was in his prime.

 

[bus24]

The bad, = slow, slow & slow

Ugly. = slower, slower & slower.

The disgusting. = the slowest in the league.

IMO we haven't recruited enough young indigenous lads. We're just so slow, we need/needed someone with spark and pace.

We haven't got anyone with any real pace and its hurting us badly. As well as having no forwardline.

 

[crowsarethebest]

IMO we haven't recruited enough young indigenous lads. We're just so slow, we need/needed someone with spark and pace.

We haven't got anyone with any real pace and its hurting us badly. As well as having no forwardline.

Agreed. This years draft- stock up on lightly built excitement machines please.

 

[Vader]

Agreed. This years draft- stock up on lightly built excitement machines please.

And tall KPPs who can actually play the game and kick straight.

 

[Stiffy_18]

And tall KPPs who can actually play the game and kick straight.

We have a few but they are either injured or still too young to be consistent contributors.

I think we potentially have Hentschel, Sellar, Tippett and Rutten that fit that bill. And when you think about it, thats pretty much our spine going forward.

 

[Cap]

IMO we haven't recruited enough young indigenous lads. We're just so slow, we need/needed someone with spark and pace.

We haven't got anyone with any real pace and its hurting us badly. As well as having no forwardline.

I don't mean to sound racist but you don't go into a draft with an idea to pick up indifenous lads simply because you want pace, its like saying we haven't got enough Anglo Saxons because we are short of tall KPP ???


Surely to god you can pick up capable footballers with a bias towards speed ????

 

[Damp Squarie]

We have a few but they are either injured or still too young to be consistent contributors.

I think we potentially have Hentschel, Sellar, Tippett and Rutten that fit that bill. And when you think about it, thats pretty much our spine going forward.

Wasnt Scotty Lucas up for grabs a couple of seasons ago?

 

[Vader]

We have a few but they are either injured or still too young to be consistent contributors.

I think we potentially have Hentschel, Sellar, Tippett and Rutten that fit that bill. And when you think about it, thats pretty much our spine going forward.

Hentschel may never play again. I hope he will, but it has to be significantly in doubt.

Excluding rucks, that leaves us with three KPPs aged 25 or under. Total. Two of whom have yet to debut.

I think we will have two priorities at the draft table this year:

• Quick midfielders - and I mean quick.
• KPPs.

Both equally important.

 

[Markthirtytwo]

The lack of perpheral vision was non-existant also.

Time and time again there was someone on their own that demanded the ball and the ball carrier simply either didn't see them or ignored them.

 

[- PC -]

The lack of perpheral vision was non-existant also.

Time and time again there was someone on their own that demanded the ball and the ball carrier simply either didn't see them or ignored them.

I could name a hundred but 3rd quarter? Burton takes the mark on the wing and the man was running past then 10m ahead and full of running... Burton stops looks around and kicks to a contest.

If he gave off to the man, that player would have broken the line and the ball would have been sent deep or centred

Minor thing but symptomatic

 

[AJ_No.4]

The Good:

21 rounds to go

Thompson - hopefully set for a big year
Reilly - same as Thommo
VB - cracking first quarter
Griffatron - he'll make a very handy ruckmen

The Bad:

The overuse of the handball
Decision making


The Ugly:

Our gameplan
Our leg speed