AFL Autopsy Round 3: 21 point loss to Bulldogs

[Doss]

You should get into the corporate speaking sector with skills like that.

No doubt. It’s all about getting corporately accreditised with conduants eh, Lord Nicholson.

 

[Liberator]

I reckon the biggest thing that Essendon is lacking is playing as one cohesive team. Bulldogs achieved this on Sunday. They played with a single disciplined mindset. Each player was given a role and they played it to the best of their ability. One team! I have no idea why Essendon will not man up or tag... keep getting told that this is the game plan. Surely this cant be true. It is ridiculous.

Bulldogs played the Teddy Whitten address pre game. Guys on here said it would never work in this politically correct "day and age". It did work for the Bulldogs. Maybe it works less on individuals that think they are bigger than the team. If there are guys at Essendon's that believe they are bigger than the team, I reckon they need to pull their heads in. A good team will always beat a team of individuals.

Cohesion and effort often overlap, the lack of the former diminishing the presence of the latter. Physically and mentally, the interruption and occilation of effort is demotivating.
If you've ever had a s**t partner in a three-legged race you'll know what I mean!

 

[Mercurial89]

Im curious as to whether a few clubs got caught playing last years football and have been shown up. Im thinking of us and saints.

We play Adelaide first round, a team that we share many similarities with though we lack the power that they have our game plan matches up well in that we dont get stopped from playing our game. They normally just play it better. We take full advantage of a weakened side and a home ground advantage to run over the top of them.

We then come up against freo a team that suffocates us with a strong press. We make a late charge when their team defense was slowing up but we were comprehensively outplayed all night.

We then play doggies and though i didnt watch the game it sounds familair to the richmond game early last year. Horrendous skill errors and an inability to cope with pressure. Only reason its close is the shocking kicking for goal by the opposition. Again we get a run on late when the opposition zone breaks down and pressure drops.

Then you look at some of the lesser teams your north melbournes, brisbane and a team people thought would drop further in Hawks.

North and Brisbane are playing some incredibly strong footy for their list profile on the back of good coaching. North with their ground setup and blue collar mids and brisbane seem to be able to pick their way through zones very well. I believe Hodge would be helping with this.
Hawks have a brilliant coach who has them pressing very strong and their ball skill is back to being some of the best in the comp. They are hard to get through and conversly they can kick through a zone easily.

Pies who started with a taller team have now been forced to play small and their midfield which has always been strong is now able to bang it into the forwardline that is a lot more mobile.

I think unless we change up the way we play we arent making finals this year. We dont have the midfield capable of playing the footy we want to so it will either be a development year to get people ready or if we change it up we might be able to snag a finals appearance.

I dont feel there is an answer for our form currently so it will just be paitience. The pressing of current footy is hurting our ball movement from the back half because our midfield is not good enough to setup or win the ball.

Id make the following changes from a team balance point of view.
Hooker back for his leadership down back on how to setup the zone and to shorten our forwardline. I dont think he would be the same player he was but he still has that knowledge and while i like what he brings forward i dont want him there and i dont want him dropped.

Stringer forward taking hookers spot. Langford into the side for 70-30 mid forward. Switching with stringer for bursts. This develops both players in their midfield craft moving forward.

Stewart and Joe as main forwards. Joe playing deep. Hold him back inside 50 to pull a man out of their zones and to give us a target when attacking from the back 50 to go fast. Picture what happened with Danger last year and the rise of the big keys early this year. Hanging back and minimising the intercept markers. Its why some intercept marking players are down and they keys are kicking some massive bags.
This then hopefully stops the times we are going forward with only green to kick to. If teams start to counter it or Joe is drifting out of the game too much switch him and stewart. Use Joes long field kicking to break out of the zone or provide a target put of the back 50.


We are playing some shocking footy at the moment with last quarter glimpses only because of the other teams tactics falling down. Its a gamestyle issue and if the game is being played a certain way we might not do very well this year even if we have the talent and names on the park.

 

[Dave]

I don't think adding an inside bull like Oliver or Cripps will have any improvement because they're likely to be just as exasperated by the complete lack of hard running that's been a consistent problem of our midfield for as long as I care to remember. No point having pacey players when they're not using their gift and instead just watching the ball move.

Yep, didn't run both ways hard enough.

 

[hurlygurdy]

Im curious as to whether a few clubs got caught playing last years football and have been shown up. Im thinking of us and saints.

We play Adelaide first round, a team that we share many similarities with though we lack the power that they have our game plan matches up well in that we dont get stopped from playing our game. They normally just play it better. We take full advantage of a weakened side and a home ground advantage to run over the top of them.

We then come up against freo a team that suffocates us with a strong press. We make a late charge when their team defense was slowing up but we were comprehensively outplayed all night.

We then play doggies and though i didnt watch the game it sounds familair to the richmond game early last year. Horrendous skill errors and an inability to cope with pressure. Only reason its close is the shocking kicking for goal by the opposition. Again we get a run on late when the opposition zone breaks down and pressure drops.

Then you look at some of the lesser teams your north melbournes, brisbane and a team people thought would drop further in Hawks.

North and Brisbane are playing some incredibly strong footy for their list profile on the back of good coaching. North with their ground setup and blue collar mids and brisbane seem to be able to pick their way through zones very well. I believe Hodge would be helping with this.
Hawks have a brilliant coach who has them pressing very strong and their ball skill is back to being some of the best in the comp. They are hard to get through and conversly they can kick through a zone easily.

Pies who started with a taller team have now been forced to play small and their midfield which has always been strong is now able to bang it into the forwardline that is a lot more mobile.

I think unless we change up the way we play we arent making finals this year. We dont have the midfield capable of playing the footy we want to so it will either be a development year to get people ready or if we change it up we might be able to snag a finals appearance.

I dont feel there is an answer for our form currently so it will just be paitience. The pressing of current footy is hurting our ball movement from the back half because our midfield is not good enough to setup or win the ball.

Id make the following changes from a team balance point of view.
Hooker back for his leadership down back on how to setup the zone and to shorten our forwardline. I dont think he would be the same player he was but he still has that knowledge and while i like what he brings forward i dont want him there and i dont want him dropped.

Stringer forward taking hookers spot. Langford into the side for 70-30 mid forward. Switching with stringer for bursts. This develops both players in their midfield craft moving forward.

Stewart and Joe as main forwards. Joe playing deep. Hold him back inside 50 to pull a man out of their zones and to give us a target when attacking from the back 50 to go fast. Picture what happened with Danger last year and the rise of the big keys early this year. Hanging back and minimising the intercept markers. Its why some intercept marking players are down and they keys are kicking some massive bags.
This then hopefully stops the times we are going forward with only green to kick to. If teams start to counter it or Joe is drifting out of the game too much switch him and stewart. Use Joes long field kicking to break out of the zone or provide a target put of the back 50.


We are playing some shocking footy at the moment with last quarter glimpses only because of the other teams tactics falling down. Its a gamestyle issue and if the game is being played a certain way we might not do very well this year even if we have the talent and names on the park.

Said it before say it again, this is not a game style issue. Our skills were simply horrible and no game plan can save you from that. Targets were there to be hit and if we had hit them with normal frequency we would have won the game.

 

[Mercurial89]

Said it before say it again, this is not a game style issue. Our skills were simply horrible and no game plan can save you from that. Targets were there to be hit and if we had hit them with normal frequency we would have won the game.

Yep happy to wait and see. Im just going on what ive seen and read in first 3 weeks.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

I reckon the biggest thing that Essendon is lacking is playing as one cohesive team. Bulldogs achieved this on Sunday. They played with a single disciplined mindset. Each player was given a role and they played it to the best of their ability. One team! I have no idea why Essendon will not man up or tag... keep getting told that this is the game plan. Surely this cant be true. It is ridiculous.

Bulldogs played the Teddy Whitten address pre game. Guys on here said it would never work in this politically correct "day and age". It did work for the Bulldogs. Maybe it works less on individuals that think they are bigger than the team. If there are guys at Essendon's that believe they are bigger than the team, I reckon they need to pull their heads in. A good team will always beat a team of individuals.

I guarantee there is no direct causation between hearing an emotional wind up full of archaic platitudes and executing a focused, structured, composed performance. Correlation not causation.

 

[MarkG]

Said it before say it again, this is not a game style issue. Our skills were simply horrible and no game plan can save you from that. Targets were there to be hit and if we had hit them with normal frequency we would have won the game.

How do you explain the Round 1 skills being fine when we beat Adelaide? It is the skills when under pressure. Noticed the bulldogs know where each other are when the heavy pressure is applied. They know if their outlet hand pass is in a particular direction., e.g. behind, there will be a Bulldog waiting there.

The Bulldogs were a complete wake up to our game plan and the pressure built from there. We continually short passed from the full back line (30-35 meters out) and there was a Bulldog player standing there to intercept. This was exactly the same as last year which is incredibly disappointing.

And we have absolutely no idea of their game plan. It is as though we have zero respect for the opposition and we believe that our players and our game plan is so superior that we don't need to analyse the opposition. Nor do we need to tag them or man them up. Reality is that there is only a marginal difference between first and last on the ladder. Every side can trouble another on its day, e.g. Brisbane vs Port.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Said it before say it again, this is not a game style issue. Our skills were simply horrible and no game plan can save you from that. Targets were there to be hit and if we had hit them with normal frequency we would have won the game.

Skills are poor because style isn’t conducive to good execution. We kept biting off more than we could chew because the basic and correct options weren’t presenting themselves.

 

[Lord Nicholson]

And mateship.

Did you see Duopolo get his head pulled off (almost). In a true demonstration of Aussie mateship, Hawks raced in from all angles sticking up for one of them. Rioli was the most angry.

If Green, Merrett or Fantasia had similar occur to them, what would our players do. Based on the Merrett incidents, most likely nothing.

I kept wondering at the time why someone like Parish didn't go and bite off Dickson's toe while McKenna had him by the neck. That didn't happen is proof positive that we've got a pack of self-absorbed individuals on the deck.

Another example: Green elected NOT to wear a massive badge saying "I'm a complete tosser" after Joey's handball. Missed opportunity to deflect attention from Joey's stupidity.

Fortunately there's was an example of Exemplary Matehesiveness throughout the game - Goddard kicked it like a busted date and played like a headless chook and then everyone followed suit.

 

[MarkG]

I kept wondering at the time why someone like Parish didn't go and bite off Dickson's toe while McKenna had him by the neck. That didn't happen is proof positive that we've got a pack of self-absorbed individuals on the deck.

Another example: Green elected NOT to wear a massive badge saying "I'm a complete tosser" after Joey's handball. Missed opportunity to deflect attention from Joey's stupidity.

Fortunately there's was an example of Exemplary Matehesiveness throughout the game - Goddard kicked it like a busted date and played like a headless chook and then everyone followed suit.

Dale came running to Dickson's aid. There was no Bomber helping out..... if there was, perhaps it wouldn't have come to biting which is most likely through sheer frustration and is out of character for the Irishman. Is this a directive.... i.e. don't help your mates, because if it is, they are getting 100% for it.

 

[Beerfish]

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I still can't believe the Dogs are being praised. We were disgustingly bad and save for one Daniher brain fart, we'd probably have beaten them.

The Dogs are very average.

 

[Beerfish]

I still can't believe the Dogs are being praised. We were disgustingly bad and save for one Daniher brain fart, we'd probably have beaten them.

The Dogs are very average.

No way man. The 2016 premiers are back!!1

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

I still can't believe the Dogs are being praised. We were disgustingly bad and save for one Daniher brain fart, we'd probably have beaten them.

The Dogs are very average.

They play Syndey next watch them go back to being thier shitful best.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

No way man. The 2016 premiers are back!!1

An example of how seriously you should take Robbo - in his usual spit-interrupted rant last night he was saying how good the Dogs were. They're back! You could see it from the first bounce! They were playing hard, skilful footy!

I'm thinking "what *in game were you watching? They're shithouse."

 

[Beerfish]

An example of how seriously you should take Robbo - in his usual spit-interrupted rant last night he was saying how good the Dogs were. They're back! You could see it from the first bounce! They were playing hard, skilful footy!

I'm thinking "what ****in game were you watching? They're shithouse."

That's just him taking the opportunity to sink the boots into Essendon because the last thing he wants is to be seen to be an Essendon supporter which explains the over the top praise of Footscray.

 

[TheBrightSide]

They play Syndey next watch them go back to being thier shitful best.

Sydney will slaughter them. Buddy will probably outscore them on his own.

 

[bombreys]

I still can't believe the Dogs are being praised. We were disgustingly bad and save for one Daniher brain fart, we'd probably have beaten them.

The Dogs are very average.

They pretty much just looked like they wanted it more.

The score line probably did flatter us a little.

I suppose that is one very small positive to take out of it - as sh**ful as we were, we were somehow still in a (albeit a small) position to win with 5 minutes to go.

 

[Bombermania]

Even though we should have finished them off after getting on the last quarter roll but for the first half they were clearly the better side and really could have iced the game by HT had they kicked straight as some of their first half misses were nearly as bad as that bloody handball.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

One thing is for sure the Swans won’t be giving space to the Doggies like the Bombers did

 

[Lore]

For anyone who hasn't seen this, typically they're emailed to members privately but this week they've posted it to the club website:

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/video/2018-04-09/btv-rd-3-from-the-coach

It's Woosha and the line coaches reflecting on what went well and what didn't against the Dogs.

 

[owen87]

The Hird commentary in his podcast was good I thought.

Especially liked the section where they discussed Hodge’s comments about starting the game off taking the simple, easy options. Get the confidence up early and play it safe while the opposition defensive press is at it’s strongest.

As players fatigue and the game starts to open up, that’s when you go for those high risk kicks.

Hird also said that he told Watson years ago to take the safe option early, don’t go looking for the miracle kicks when the game’s at it’s hottest and stuff your confidence when you miss a few in a row. Once you’re in the game, once the fatigue starts to set in, that’s when you have that extra half a metre of space to take the high risk option.

We’re seeing it in the way we play, we try to take the high risk option all game, but it’s completely failing until the last quarter when the opposition is flagging.

If we could play it safe early and keep ourselves in the game, get the confidence and basic skill execution working, get our defensive pressure up, then those high kick risks and free running just blows the game wide open when the space begins to open late in quarters.

We’ve shown we have the ability to score rapidly and run out games well, what we need to do now is actually be in the game at 3QT so it’s not always a chase for a miraculous comeback.

 

[hurlygurdy]

How do you explain the Round 1 skills being fine when we beat Adelaide? It is the skills when under pressure. Noticed the bulldogs know where each other are when the heavy pressure is applied. They know if their outlet hand pass is in a particular direction., e.g. behind, there will be a Bulldog waiting there.

The Bulldogs were a complete wake up to our game plan and the pressure built from there. We continually short passed from the full back line (30-35 meters out) and there was a Bulldog player standing there to intercept. This was exactly the same as last year which is incredibly disappointing.

And we have absolutely no idea of their game plan. It is as though we have zero respect for the opposition and we believe that our players and our game plan is so superior that we don't need to analyse the opposition. Nor do we need to tag them or man them up. Reality is that there is only a marginal difference between first and last on the ladder. Every side can trouble another on its day, e.g. Brisbane vs Port.

Yeah because we felt no pressure playing Adelaide
Seriously, most of the clangers i saw were skewed off the side of the boot falling flat on your face style. We would be in the clear running forward and then stop and handball back into the congestion. It was seriously demented s**t and had nothing i repeat nothing to do with the WB

 

[owen87]

Yeah because we felt no pressure playing Adelaide
Seriously, most of the clangers i saw were skewed off the side of the boot falling flat on your face style. We would be in the clear running forward and then stop and handball back into the congestion. It was seriously demented s**t and had nothing i repeat nothing to do with the WB

Match fixing investigation time!