AFL Autopsy Round 2: Essendon 16 point defeat to Fremantle

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DapperDon said:
We won't be a threat until we get inside grunt. Sadly Langford doesn't look up to it. Happy to keep trying him as 1 poor game shouldn't be a career call but he needs to lift.

Bring back Myers and Raz and it will help but not enough to fill the massive hole in the middle. Hopefully we give Begley a shot in the guts.
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Not just midfield grunt but an elite midfielder. Geelong will have three or four out there tomorrow. Hawthorn will have a couple. High hopes for Mcgrath. Merret is a beauty, Heppel seems to have lifted, and Smith is impressive but we have no Fyfe, Ablett, or Mitchell. Also need a tall back who can mark above his head.
 

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Sockeye said:
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.
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You raise good points.
But Brown was really good last week so like with so many others i would give him a pass this time.
Hooker was coming too far from goal from what i heard on the radio, that would have upset the structure. Without seeing it i can't even fathom where JD was at those times.
 
If players are failing to run back to goal fast enough when we attack would it not be reasonable to have one of Stewart, JD or Hooker be the stay at home forward?

It would have messed with Freo's structure imo
 
People have short memories, Langford & Stringer were good in the last qtr last week. We were beaten by a good midfield and smashed on the outside by the Hills. Freo did their homework and we played into their hands. Numbers back killed us. We never really got going at all

Not many side would have beaten Freo last night, they were on.

Positives for us is their best only just beat our worst.


btw Smith is elite
 
MiguelM said:
People have short memories, Langford & Stringer were good in the last qtr last week. We were beaten by a good midfield and smashed on the outside by the Hills. Freo did their homework and we played into their hands. Numbers back killed us. We never really got going at all

Not many side would have beaten Freo last night, they were on.

Positives for us is their best only just beat our worst.


btw Smith is elite
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I agree with every point here.
 
We are lacking pace thru the middle, ala 'Forrest Gump v The Road Runner.
We are a long way short of the Kellys, Martins and Fyfes of this world. We have a 'B' grade centre set up only we alone continue to rate.
 
sameolds33 said:
our defence was pretty solid when you consider how many inside 50 entries they had. In previous years we'd have gone to pieces and the score would have blown out. It was our forward line that didn't get going, apart from Green. Stewart and a patchy Hooker threatened in parts but on the whole, Freo's defence was outstanding - even if the holding and scragging that never gets penalised over there is taken into account.
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I take your point re the i50s but our defence was extra fumbly and looked flatfooted on more than one occasion.
At the end of the day 14 goals is practically considered a winning score now days so really scoring wasnt the main issue for us.
But in what planet does a Fremantle side kick 106 points? Thats gotta say something for our defensive pressure all over the ground not just back 50.
 
A couple of things:
- Kyle Langford, a 33-game player who has before last season never played as a midfielder before at any level, struggled against Nat Fyfe. I don't quite understand why anyone might be surprised. The main thing as maybe Yaco mentioned is whether he's picked anything up from the experience that he can now use, then bounce back against the Dogs
- Jake Stringer: see above for similar
- Saad is bloody good one-on-one imo
- There might not be a KPD trio in the comp that is less confident taking an overhead mark in a semi-contested situation than our current one. Brown generally avoids non-chest mark attempts like the plague, Hurley is of course normally alright but often needs a second take to hold on, and Hartley is... well there's a reason why he used to persist with constant spoils
- That disposal out of the backhalf :think:
Can't remember Merrett, Heppell and even Goddard at times being so reckless with the pill in tight situations
- Agree that bringing Joe back into the play via the ruck on occasion would be a good idea... maybe there's a reason we don't know why they're avoiding it
- I honestly don't get why we don't try Begley at stoppages more. It's almost like they look at his physique and say, "If only we had a midfielder who looked like that. Oh well".
 
Another frustrating game and just showed how far we are from the top 4 or 5 sides. but with players like Brown,Dea and Hartley etc in the team we will never get better also until we learn to play as a team defensively we will continue to have peformances like we produced against Fremantle...!!!
 
You are going to have losses, it is inevitable in this league.
However the most annoying thing is that we seem to make the same mistakes and have the same shortcomings every year.
Turnovers kill us.
Skills kill us.
Midfield depth.
Bombing into the forward line.

But the one that I hate the most is that other teams do not fear us, and are of the belief that we can be easily beaten with a simple pressure game.

Would have thought that these are the things we would address in the offseason, but they never seem to happen.
 
I still don't know how we only lost by 16 points. An Easter miracle.
 

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Reckon the biggest issue was our forward line and inability to stop rebounds out of it. Don't know why Brown, Hartley and Dea are copping it so badly.

Our half forward line was hopeless. Daniher and Hooker continually dropping marks with the former ducking his head and playing for frees. His kicking is back to its worst with multiple out on the full and hooks going off in all directions.

Hooker wants to play forward but is so down in confidence with his goal kicking that he handballs backwards to Hurley on 55 metres from a set shot from 45m. Hooker was marking as though the ball was made of wet soap while at the other end, the less credentialed Freo forwards marked with ease.

Freo first gamers were intercepting at will and playing like seasoned veterans. They would not have achieved that against any other AFL side.

We won centre clearances 17 to 11. But couldn't capitalise.

If Begley was unable to mark and got his hands on the ball, he panicked and hand balled anywhere, more often than not, directly to a docker. At least he is a good set shot.

Tippa was largely unsighted apart from the occasional cameo appearance.

Stringer did not appear to be playing up forward at all. If he was there, he never threatened and was rarely sighted.

Green and Stewart played well and didn't fumble.

Our tackling was ok but if you extract Smith who made 19% of all our tackles (not to mention the gut busting chasing), Zaka 13% and Heppell 10%, there were a real lot of passengers. Particularly around the stoppage clearances, which Freo won 21 to 13.
 
TheFrenchCut said:
A couple of things:
- Kyle Langford, a 33-game player who has before last season never played as a midfielder before at any level, struggled against Nat Fyfe. I don't quite understand why anyone might be surprised. The main thing as maybe Yaco mentioned is whether he's picked anything up from the experience that he can now use, then bounce back against the Dogs
- Jake Stringer: see above for similar
- Saad is bloody good one-on-one imo
- There might not be a KPD trio in the comp that is less confident taking an overhead mark in a semi-contested situation than our current one. Brown generally avoids non-chest mark attempts like the plague, Hurley is of course normally alright but often needs a second take to hold on, and Hartley is... well there's a reason why he used to persist with constant spoils
- That disposal out of the backhalf :think:
Can't remember Merrett, Heppell and even Goddard at times being so reckless with the pill in tight situations
- Agree that bringing Joe back into the play via the ruck on occasion would be a good idea... maybe there's a reason we don't know why they're avoiding it
- I honestly don't get why we don't try Begley at stoppages more. It's almost like they look at his physique and say, "If only we had a midfielder who looked like that. Oh well".
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i agree on Langford, we just need to keep playing him, give him 10 to 12 games and see how he goes. he was half decent last week and hopefully has has learnt a few things against Fyfe.

our midfield is lacking depth as it is, no pint throwing somebody else out. we pretty much only have Myers who can come straight in anyway
 
Our midfield remains a serious issue. Reality is we have 1 A grader, which is Zerrett, and he even had a quiet game. Heppell hasn't hit the heights of pre ban times, McGrath will become A grade but isn't there yet, Zaharakis is a solid B, Parish a long way off, Langford nowhere near it and so on. When was the last year we won stats like clearances and contested possession? Expect it will be a long time ago. Very frustrating performance on the weekend. Never got into our style of play, which brings me to my second point.

Worsfold was massively out coached. I like the guy and has done a good job given position just after he took over, but he doesn't seem to have a plan B when things aren't going his way. He just keeps at the same things that aren't working. need to do something different eg put Brown in forward line, isolate Stringer, put a loose man somewhere and so on. For Freeo to outplay us so comprehensively with such a young side was really disappointing for us. Only mitigating thing I will take from it was that it was their first game at new ground and were fired up for it. Has Hird joined Freeo yet? would be some solace if he has but I assume not.
 
THOMO_31 said:
i agree on Langford, we just need to keep playing him, give him 10 to 12 games and see how he goes. he was half decent last week and hopefully has has learnt a few things against Fyfe.

our midfield is lacking depth as it is, no pint throwing somebody else out. we pretty much only have Myers who can come straight in anyway
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Can’t afford to just give a guy 10-12 games if he’s not earning it. I’m not saying he deserves to be dropped just yet as he was ok against Crows, but another game like the Freo one and he’s out surely.
 
The more I think about the final losing margin the more I don't really mind. We should have lost by 10 goals and lost by less than 3.

Still, our interstate form is somewhat... concerning.
 
NAB777 said:
Anyone else notice that Sandilands should give away a free kick at every single centre bounce he contests?

Steps over the middle line & blocks his opponent.
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Yep. He parks under the ball, and tries to prevent his opponent jumping over him to get to the ball. He borderline shepherds every time. He got called once and it was to Stewart.
 
The final margin was flattering; we were woeful.

We just played 3 minutes of decent (not good) football at the end to shut down the margin once the game was already over.

We definitely lack an intercept mark down back with Gleeson out; Ridley and Francis as younger players both would be an option if they’re match ready, and Francis can certainly take a contested intercept.

Brown and Dea did ok I felt, but neither are in our best-22 defense. Hartley is a negator, it would be nice if he could mark more but I wouldn’t say he was terrible - I wouldn’t say any of our defenders were particularly bad given how bad our midfield and forwards were.

Too many basic skill errors killed us - dropped marks, missed targets, handballs straight to a Freo player, fumbles, lack of tackling from all but 3 or 4 players.

I can’t think of a single player that was anywhere near the level they’ve shown they’re capable of - maybe Josh Green actually, he was decent. Smith tried his heart out but can’t produce 18 players worth of defensive pressure no matter how hard he tries.

Not sure what to make of it, were we just having a terrible night where pretty much every key player was woeful all at once, or is it a symptom of not being able to handle pressure in a game?

Definitely looking forward to Myers, Fantasia, Ambrose, Laverde, McNeice and
Gleeson all being available and putting pressure on players to hold their spots.

Ridley, Clark, Mutch and Guelfi all might get a game if we have another performance like that one.
 
quotemokc said:
Anyone know where I can download the entire match so I can make a kick in compilation video?

This site doesn't seem to be updated yet this year http://efc.16mb.com/
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The backdoor that that site relies on has been closed... I'm pretty sure every replay site relied on the same backdoor.
 
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