Autopsy Round 3, 2021: Essendon v St.Kilda *STEELE 100TH* *CLARK 50TH* *CROUCH DEBUT*

Wow sinking the boots into Hill tonight. Can someone explain why he was worse than Sinclair, Ross, Jones, Lonie, Butler? - and the list goes on

Because we paid him a shitload, and gave up some decent draft picks for his "elite ball use " and he ain't got it.
 

Jade Buddha

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Because he gets a hell of a lot more money and has had 3 out of 3 poor games.
Don’t give a s**t about the money. Money is irrelevant. He had a bad game against Melbourne. Other games he was as good as the majority. Think this is an emotional supporter rantstorm. Remove any emotion and expectation and he’s just as bad as the others only the sheep on this forum are playing follow the leaderfest.
 

Tyrian Lonestar

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Because we paid him a shitload, and gave up some decent draft picks for his "elite ball use " and he ain't got it.
Oh I have no doubt Hill has got the goods. He has a proven track record before coming to the Saints. We just aint getting it out of him but he was by no means on his own through the last 2 weeks.
Wondering if the playing group has the shits about something.
 
Don’t give a sh*t about the money. Money is irrelevant. He had a bad game against Melbourne. Other games he was as good as the majority. Think this is an emotional supporter rantstorm. Remove any emotion and expectation and he’s just as bad as the others only the sheep on this forum are playing follow the leaderfest.
Thats not right mate
He was poor last year and he been poor the 1 st 3 games this year
Not in the top 10 for last years B&F
 

Jade Buddha

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Thats not right mate
He was poor last year and he been poor the 1 st 3 games this year
Not in the top 10 for last years B&F
Yep he hasn’t hit the highs but you have to look at it without emotion. His skills are elite there is no question there. Why isn’t he performing?
The talent is there so what’s wrong?
 
Jan 10, 2011
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Don’t give a sh*t about the money. Money is irrelevant. He had a bad game against Melbourne. Other games he was as good as the majority. Think this is an emotional supporter rantstorm. Remove any emotion and expectation and he’s just as bad as the others only the sheep on this forum are playing follow the leaderfest.
He was terrible last week as well and no good against gws on top of last year. Out of all the players you mentioned he has been the worst. Don’t worry though he will get another chance and I’m happy with that.
 
Wow sinking the boots into Hill tonight. Can someone explain why he was worse than Sinclair, Ross, Jones, Lonie, Butler? - and the list goes on


$900,000pa and a s**t load of draft picks worth of expectation.
 

lewdogs

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Having been to both games, I thought the skills killed us against the Dees, we also really struggled to move it out of defence in that game and the same issue, we looked outnumbered at many contests and didn't work as hard as Melbourne.

That just got worse in the Essendon game.

I suspect the players thought they could just rock up and beat the Bombers, given their injuries. We were outplayed against Melbourne and our heads dropped, but we just thought we would beat Essendon. Whether or not it's a wake up call I don't know, it's very disappointing that it came to that in the space of a fortnight after a stirring win against GWS.
 
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There are a lot of good points being made through the week, but I just can't buy that after two rounds and the club being 1 win and 1 loss we would have such little faith in a game plan that we would just not put in anywhere near the effort needed at that level as some kind of signal to the coaching staff.

I agree we clearly have some work to do on the way we defend in particular, but I think the effort has a lot more to do with the fact that we came in against what we thought was a weak side, decimated by injuries, fielding the youngest 22 they have in over 10 years.

The lack of effort was there from the first bounce when the ball made it's way out to the wing and Essendons mids streamed forward while ours were still standing in the centre square.
 

lewdogs

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Just on McKernan, watching him against Essendon early when he was able to pluck it out of the ruck and get his hands on it at ground level a bit at the ruck contests, I really thought 'jeez he could get on top here' which he actually kind of did in the last quarter against GWS. But he just doesn't seem to know how to use the skills and size that he has, seems like an incredibly dumb footballer shown most of all by the number of free kicks he gives away in the ruck.
 
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I feel the need to share this.

This morning I caught up with someone directly involved on match day - I won’t say however whether it is player, coach or admin.

There is a lot of embarrassment and pain right now. There is frustration at themselves. The club knows what is coming it’s way in the media, they know how big the challenges will be in the next 3 weeks.

What I took away from this chat?

Something isn’t clicking or isn’t working - and it has been made clear that there will be changes.

I also walked away this morning of the understanding that there will be a difference that should be visible next week to us the supporters.

Do I personally feel better as a supporter? No

Do I feel like after that coffee that I believe there will be a visible difference? Yes, I think so.

The Essendon review has been completed. It was in-depth. It wasn’t glossed over in comparison to the Melbourne one - of which there was belief that we didn’t turn up not that our structures and game plans didn’t work.

I’m pretty sure, there will be TWEAKS to those this week.

I didn’t feel the need to lambast or show aggression. But I felt like I conveyed the message that there would be 10s of thousands feeling anger and frustration right now and I was assured that’s been communicated from top to bottom and across each individual.

Make of it what you will.

Proof will be in the pudding I guess.
 

Roddy Grant

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I find the structures/game plan v effort debate on here really interesting.

Hypothetically, if it comes down to a lack of effort isn’t that more worrying? That means that our form is down to 2 things:

1) our team isn’t as fit as the others.
2) our player’s are choosing not to apply themselves

Both of those options are not quick fixes.

Are the suggestions on lack of effort down to one of those options or is there a third I am missing?

I’m not saying it’s simple and if it falls under option 2 above then there are a myriad of reasons that can lead to this (discontent in the group, lack of belief in the game plan etc...)

I am just really struggling to accept that the players don’t care enough after last year.

I think we need Ryder and/or Marshall back ASAP. I know that you can still win games without an elite ruck but I think these guys give the team more than that with their presence on field.

I played semi pro soccer back in the UK and one of the teams I played with had this guy in the centre of the park. He was good, not the best player but he was great defensively and tough as nails. He was one of the older guys in the team that we all looked up to and was intimidating to the opposition too. We could hardly win a game without him even though there were better skilled footballers on the bench.

Psychologically Saints may be massively missing one or both of these blokes. We might also be underestimating the psychological impact that losing some key players from last year to injury (like Paton) is having on the group overall.
 
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Jade Buddha

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Yes but that doesn’t stop a well paid or poorly paid player being dropped. Obviously a lesser paid player you expect from just like a younger player you expect less from.
I don’t think Hill is in a position not to be dropped I just don’t think the alternatives will be trying to give you more. As you’ve said effort.
I think he’s in a form slump not an effort slump
 
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