AFL Autopsy Round 2: Essendon 16 point defeat to Fremantle

[Eleven 38]

Pros: Chocolate for breakfast tomorrow

Easter eggs on hot cross buns in the oven.

 

[Sockeye]

Dewy night game. Went in too tall and too slow.

Game plan seemed to be overuse the ball in the midfield to use our 'extra' at the contest, then bomb it to an outnumbered key forward and expect him to somehow win it, or at least hold it in. The game plan didn't suit the conditions, didn't suit our named team and didn't take in to account the opposition team or the way they play.

Brown and Langford not up to it. Happy to try some youngsters in these positions.
Woosha left Langford on Fyfe to show him the level he needs to get to. He is still a fair way off. Back to the VFL.

At least Dea is hard at it.

When Stringer is at the stoppage, we generally get the clearance. This is only going to get better but when he is not in the midfield (which is most of the time) how do we fit Hooker, Daniher, Stewart and Jake into a forward line in the modern game? The ball just waltzes back out and puts everyone else under pressure. Walla spends 90 percent of his time chasing ass to cover for the slow blokes. It is affecting his game.

Every team gets constantly scragged in Perth for 0 free kicks. Good tough teams overcome this. We didn't.

Smith, Saad and Bellchambers our best.

 

[windyhill]

Essendons defence, Hartley, dea, brown, McKenna
House.

 

[Sockeye]

Have we ever won a game in our red strip?

 

[Goat Hird]

Worsfold is a coach that is only as good as his players. I knew ross would get his guys to suffocate us and that worsfold would have no answer. When you have an inferior side, you have to be more aggressive and that's exactly what freo were. Don't expect much from our coach when we get into sticky situations like tonight. We have a good list though and being it is only round 2, our skills will only get sharper. There's talent all over the park but at back we are lacking a clean mark of the ball like hooker. Offcourse it's not that simple as you need structure as well which comes from coaching and good player IQ. Freo were functioning like a well oiled machine at the back.

 

[essendon]

Brown isn't AFL standard, with Hartley no far behind....

Game plan if there is one...too predictable....

Daniher was dumb and embarrassed himself tonight......next Buddy.....gotta be jokin.....for a start ....can't kick, and stages for free kicks

Last time Freo kick 100 points was against us last year....so nothin has improved with our defence....

 

[DallasCrane316]

Worsfold is a coach that is only as good as his players. I knew ross would get his guys to suffocate us and that worsfold would have no answer. When you have an inferior side, you have to be more aggressive and that's exactly what freo were. Don't expect much from our coach when we get into sticky situations like tonight. We have a good list though and being it is only round 2, our skills will only get sharper. There's talent all over the park but at back we are lacking a clean mark of the ball like hooker. Offcourse it's not that simple as you need structure as well which comes from coaching and good player IQ. Freo were functioning like a well oiled machine at the back.

Think Woosha explained it very well in his press conference.

"The message to the players was that if we go that fast every time, Fremantle always have a couple of players back," Worsfold said.

"They don't follow their men up and if we don't give our forwards time to get back and set up we're kicking into an extra number, at least one. That's just players learning.

"Conor McKenna takes off every time even when the message is out that we've got loose numbers around the ball, let's use them and let the forwards get back.

"So it's about us just maturing as a group."

Makes sense. Probably something that we’ll get better at managing and something our leadership group should be enforcing on the field.

Richmond do the same thing to us. Here’s hoping we’ve worked it out by the time we face them this season.

 

[chrisdon16]

Those are the games we just have to win if we're serious. Although they played really well, Freo are a rebuilding team full of kids. That was a really bad effort from most of the boys, lots of passengers. I thought we were a top 6 team going into this sessea, hopefully tonight was a stutter step because if we dish out that performance we'll get beat by anyone. Move on, work hard on the track and be relentless against the dogs next week.

PS is stringer for real? He's had 2 absolute stinkers. Had high hopes for a bounce back season with the fresh start etc. Old mate wouldn't get a game in the U17s the way he's going about it.

 

[justlookingaround]

Well, last year we lost to Freo in Perth by 37... this year by 16. So we're a 21 point better side.... right?.. right?? Positives guys!!

 

[Bombermania]

I stole this from the Blitz

Its QPR fans singing "we never win away", sounds like Essendon has a sister club in English Football.

 

[Bombers36]

Wasn’t ever confident about this game - hopeful but not confident. All said and done 16 points isn’t that bad given our shocking interstate record. Thankfully we play our next 7 games at home. Stringer a worry - hasn’t kicked multiple goals in a game since May 2017 - hopefully we can rectify that against his old club or it might be back to the twos until he can start having more impact...He’s not alone though - Joe and Tippa need to lift - I reckon we have really missed Fantasia in our forward mix...


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[yaco55]

How tf does Taberner always have a field day against us

Taberner's s game was over-rated - 2 goals were ground balls, one was a free kick down field and one was from a contested mark - Taberner played much better against us in 2017.

 

[yaco55]

I don't like the move in not having JD relieve in the ruck - Despite natural improvement this added to his forward game in the last two years - Believe JD gets lazy when playing as a full time forward.

 

[Knighta21]

Terrible performance.
Freo pressured well and we couldn't handle it. Fumbled all night and couldn't take a mark!

Brown was useless out there, I reckon I could have done a better job.

I would have said looking at the fixture we would be 1-1, Not great to lose like that as it shows we still can't win away
Hopefully we bring a better game to the bulldogs next week!

 

[doug85]

Those are the games we just have to win if we're serious. Although they played really well, Freo are a rebuilding team full of kids. That was a really bad effort from most of the boys, lots of passengers. I thought we were a top 6 team going into this sessea, hopefully tonight was a stutter step because if we dish out that performance we'll get beat by anyone. Move on, work hard on the track and be relentless against the dogs next week.

PS is stringer for real? He's had 2 absolute stinkers. Had high hopes for a bounce back season with the fresh start etc. Old mate wouldn't get a game in the U17s the way he's going about it.

Stringer was OK last week. You’re blowing things out of proportion.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

They had four kids with two games between them. Need Myers in as quickly as possible and really miss Raz’s class.

 

[MarkG]

Fremantle started the season like a house on fire last season but fell away due to injuries. They beat Richmond at the MCG. Fyfe came back from serious injury last year and is much better this year.

They have lots of players that have played a Grand Final. They have a coach that is a master at closing down an opposition and they obviously put a lot of work in working out Essendon's game plan.

So can't underestimate them when they are pumped in front of 50,000+ supporters in their home town.

Reckon the Bombers wanted to play on at all costs and Fremantle knew where they were going with their passes. It was like taking candy from a baby. Essendon continually passed directly to a Fremantle player.

Essendon doesn't like it tough. Give Joe a biff behind the ear and he will head duck all game long, play for frees and kick out of bounce on the full. Exactly what happened. Other Dons similarly like it nice and fair. And get rattled and if it is not. Swans and Tigers also exploit this weakness.

Smith made the rest of our players look second rate. He was attacked by 2-3 Dockers trying to rough him up and thrived on it. He laid 13 tackles and busted his guts running trying to get us back into the game. He didn't fumble the ball at all. It is a disgrace to the rest of the team that one player puts in such a huge effort and others are basically bludging on him.

Reckon there would be 10-12 Essendon players that know that they only put in 50% efforts. That is not good enough if we want to play finals.

 

[JayJ20]

Look I'm not mad or even annoyed because I accept that this is just who we are. I'll just take the good with the bad.

We will never downhill ski. It's just not within us to do that. But it means we can have wins like we do against Adelaide that downhill skiers can't have. We'll smash someone, but we just don't know who or when. Doesn't that make it more exciting?

#Positivevibes

 

[mike14]

Can't comment too much on last night as I only watched 2 and a bit quarters, but the thing that stuck out for m both last week and last night is that we look like a 'dull' team. We don't really have the run off halfback that we tried last season (and you could see them trying it, even when they stuffed it up), but it doesn't look like we've developed some other game plan to compensate for this. Add in generally poor skills and our 'kick in hope' forward entries and I'm not convinced at all that we'll be a fun team to watch, even when winning.

Really like the look of Smith though, excellent pickup

 

[Dons4days]

Our backline needs work.

I think it’s time to give Ridley & maybe Redman a crack if they’re both fit. Brown & Dea are liabilities. Brown fumbles it every time he gets the ball & Dea actually has quite good hands but terrifies me when he has the ball in his possession.

Bring a couple of those young guys in and get a feel for what they can offer while there’s a few spots up for grabs with Ambrose & Gleeson out.

Redman in particular is really at an age where he should be getting a crack.

 

[Macca18]

Some of the clubs that are currently 1-1:
Adelaide
Richmond
Melbourne
One of Sydney/Port Adelaide after today
One of Geelong/Hawthorn after tomorrow
Essendon

Could be worse. Need to rebound strongly next week... hopefully our players who were underwhelming last night respond in a big way against the Dogs. I’m sure Stringer will have something to prove against them.

 

[TheGrizz]

There are some serious melts on here.
We got beat for sure, but we have never travelled well to perth, long befre woosha

The defence was ok from what i saw. The ball was coming in with no pressure througj the middle way too often. Not much you can do as a defender. The dropped marks were a worry but other than that i think Hartley and dea stood up well.

The glaring issue from this game was our lack of bona fide clearance midfielders. Fyfe, Mundy, Blakely and 1st year guys like Cerra and Brayshaw looked like seasoned vets against us. That needs to be the priority from this week.

Oh that and maybe applying a little bit of defensive pressure through the midfield....you know... if you dont mind?

 

[foj1]

My take.
We are a middle of the road team. No more no less.
We have not one a grade midfielder.
Not one.
Zach and Dyson are b grade at best for mine. Both try incredibly hard but are only ok kicks, very left sided and not strong in the contest.
We spent 1.5 million dollars on a small back- fair enough, a small mid who can play but not really what we need and a streaky forward who plays a similar role to stewart but doesn't kick goals. Hawthorn targeting Tom Mitchell is enough to make me cry.
Dea, Brown, Hartley and Langford look out of their depth.
McGrath, Walla, Zaka, BJ and Joey just had poor games.
Bellchambers our best by the straight. Green was also very good.
Myers is one of our most important players as we do not have any other big bodied midfielders who don't get bullied. It must be what the club hoped Langford would become.
Can Dylan Clarke play? It would be nice to find out. Once Laverde is fit he needs to play MIDFIELD.
I would say the same for Redman and Mutch getting some games.
Remember our team has some real flaws which we have done nothing to fix over the summer.

 

[Summer Nights]

Meddling with our developing midfield would be a mistake. It wasn’t really the problem last night. The issue was bombing it into 2-on-1s before our forwards could set up properly. It was a maturity and discipline issue.

 

[foj1]

Meddling with our developing midfield would be a mistake. It wasn’t really the problem last night. The issue was bombing it into 2-on-1s before our forwards could set up properly. It was a maturity and discipline issue.

Developing midfield? Okay I have a bridge to sell you mate