Autopsy Round 5 vs Essendon

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As an outside observer why isn’t Ziebell playing in the midfield more? To me your midfield didn’t look balanced at all, Higgins is now too much of an outside player and if you have added Hall and Polec he needs to improve his contested side and start tackling more. Hall, Polec and Higgins is too many pure outside types for my liking and Scott can only play on the outside with his frame aswell and when Cunnington only has 1 tackle for a game your always going to struggle through the middle of the ground for pressure.

Some talented players took the field against us but the overall balance of the team I don’t think was right.

Ziebell is too slow so once his opponent gets past arm reach he can basically jog into the forward 50 and have a shot on goal. Not only is he too slow, he doesn't have the tank to run all day, we got away with it when we could bench him every 2 minutes but now there are rotation caps and he would be a liability in the middle. He has improved on his endurance over time, but not enough to matter.

We already have this problem with Cunnington, you can't put multiple dinosaur paced players in the midfield. Even if he wins the clearances, he is just going to hack it forward without looking up and it will most likely go to the opposition.

We generally don't have Hall, Polec and Higgins in the middle at the same time, however, rotations and the like might end up seeing it that way from time to time.

Our major problem this year has been the lack of Jacobs and Anderson has only recently returned from injury and he missed the pre-season so he is still underdone and has only been able to play about 66%ish of games. He had 28 pressure acts and 10 tackles in 66% ToG so he was doing his bit despite the amount of time he was on the field.. The problem is Cunnington 14 PAs and 1 tackle in 80% ToG. Higgins 14 and 2 in 82%, Dumont 17 and 2 in 87%, etc. You can't have only one guy doing the defensive part of the game well and everyone else slacking off.

Most sides that have injected multiple new mature players into their side have usually gone backwards in the first year, when we combine adding a few inexperienced mids into the mix and being generally poorly coached in general it just creates a scenario where we aren't that competitive. I think it will improve as the mature players gel in year 2+ and if we can get our core inside group of Cunnington, Jacobs and Anderon on the park and fit, but almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this year and it is more or less a write off. I think things will get better, however, the season is shot, our skills are pretty pathetic atm and our kicking for goal is very poor, once you lose that confidence you look hopeless.

What we can't afford is to go nowhere when we do get the ball.

Anderson had 19 disposals for 65 meters gained, Cunnington 29 for 81 meters gained, Simpkin 11 disposals for -13m gained, most of the guys who made some distance were pretty ordinary by foot, Polec 481m 53.3% kicking efficiency, LDU 417m 44.4%, Higgins 414m 53.3%.

We can't be bad at so many aspects of the game and hope to be competitive. When we do the basics well or even good, we can beat anyone, we just aren't well coached enough to execute consistently enough.
 

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arden station

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Scott said after the game that he knew we had to stop Essendon's easy D-50 exits and run off half back prior to the game. Not surprising as they killed us that way last year.

So why then did he play a forward line with 5 guys above 188cm? Our resting ruckman - Zurhaar- looked most likely to win the ball at ground level or make a tackle. He would probably say they were the best 22 and none of the small forwards on the list deserved selection. Not good enough - you knew this was a weakness last year and you haven't addressed it through list additions or a change in strategy.
 
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Wouldn't have happened. We had pick 11 and Thomas was bid on at pick 8.

We slaughtered the trade/draft period.

Polec, Pittard, Thomas, Scott, Taylor and Crocker for picks 11, 28, 39, 53 and 64 was a monumental steal. I can't see how you can see it any other way.

We just need to clean out head office and the coaching department.

I have a feeling in 5 years time we will look back and think s**t, look at all these guys we could have got with pick 10. I think we payed waaay overs for TT
 
I'm glad I got full enjoyment out of their struggles.

I have to say, even a true Essendon hater like me felt a bit when Daniher kicked his long goal.
 

djgk53

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Had mates ask me where we'd finish this year at the start of the season and I said 4th to 14th. Agreed, not really leaving much open there but this year is even worse than I thought.

It's everything - skill, game plan and intensity.

The intensity is there when they haven't dropped their heads. The skills and decision making have been disappointing throughout the year. This isn't a different team to last year though where the skill and intensity was a lot better.

It's just not clear what we're trying to achieve out there. We start the game with a plan and play ok in the first term (or at least competitively). It seems though as soon as the opposition make a simple change, were doomed

- Hawthorn played off our defenders and we successfully marked and kicked forward. As soon as they pressed the defenders there was no answer.
- We took the game on by attacking the middle last night, as soon as they plonked an opponent in the middle outside our back 50, there was no answer.

From there I can't see what the plan is? My best guess is trying to get the ball through handball to someone that can kick.

However what has always seemed to be our biggest issue and one that we exacerbated this year is running two ways. Most of last night I was wondering where our midfield was. Usually running back in packs of three with no opponent, with the ball about 50m away. I can cop that on a turnover but not when they've transitioned through us. Guys like Polec and Hall don't offer that. Turner does and why he's probably going to be picked first every week.
 
I have a feeling in 5 years time we will look back and think s**t, look at all these guys we could have got with pick 10. I think we payed waaay overs for TT

Naaaaah. We've got to stop Scott ruining him, but TT has enormous upside.
 
Scott said after the game that he knew we had to stop Essendon's easy D-50 exits and run off half back prior to the game. Not surprising as they killed us that way last year.

So why then did he play a forward line with 5 guys above 188cm? Our resting ruckman - Zurhaar- looked most likely to win the ball at ground level or make a tackle. He would probably say they were the best 22 and none of the small forwards on the list deserved selection. Not good enough - you knew this was a weakness last year and you haven't addressed it through list additions or a change in strategy.
The biggest issue for mine was looking at our forward set up when there was a stoppage in our defensive half.
I saw Brown, Wood, Ziebell as the deepest forwards with Turner.
On the other hand if the roles were reversed I saw M.Brown, Fantasia and AMW.
Tell me which forward line is more likely to score and appears dynamic? It’s a joke and highlights how slow and ineffectial we are.
What makes it worse is Scott, Ahern and LDU we’re across the half forward line. They aren’t ******* half forwards.
It’s an absolute s**t show
 

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Thewlis Dish

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Last week at one stage we were 2.10
Yesterday 2.7

So 21 scoring shots and we kick 4 given the odd rushed behind

Amazimg.

It's not like we're getting clear shots on goal though. We have to work incredibly hard for our scoring opportunities.
 

Thewlis Dish

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Apart from the set shots 35m out?

How many though? We put so much pressure on ourselves to convert the easier ones because they don't come around that often with our current ball movement and set-up. On the other hand, I reckon both Adelaide (first half at least) and * looked like marking the ball every time it went inside their 50.

Let's not pretend conversion is the issue here.
 
Last week at one stage we were 2.10
Yesterday 2.7

So 21 scoring shots and we kick 4 given the odd rushed behind

My maths any good a conversion rate of 19.04%

Amazimg.

That doesn't include all the shots that didn't make the distance or went out on the full.
 
Mar 14, 2002
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If you go to the club website there’s a new thing where you can select the team ahead of round 6. It’s good to know they have realised they have NFI and are throwing it out to the public.

Do I win a seat in Level 2 Premiership Club for the Carlstink game?
 

Smoocher

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I have a feeling in 5 years time we will look back and think s**t, look at all these guys we could have got with pick 10. I think we payed waaay overs for TT

Time will tell on TT.

I’m still getting over Will Walker at such a high pick when all the experts believed he was a fourth or fifth rounder if lucky.

We love reaching with our picks.

Durdin, Nielson McKay just to name a few more.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

amaz199

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A year that was full of promise and finals aspirations has been transformed into yet another survival season. Just about everything that had to go right, went horribly wrong. There is no individual blame, it is a collective system that isn't working (as others have said repeatedly).

Hard to see any light unfortunately giantroo
 
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