Analysis What happened after the Adelaide game?

[Nicholas61]

I think Durham embodies the drop off to me. He was so good in the first half of the year, played tough with his head over the ball. Now he's nowhere to be seen except shirking contests. Bizarre change in a single season

Oh no they have gotten to him too

 

[Keystone agony]

A young and inexperienced list runs out of puff in the second half of the year. Shocking.

In all seriousness though, we lack a physical presence around the ball

Why isnt a young Hawks and Freo running out of puff? But we apparently are

 

[naraku]

A young and inexperienced list runs out of puff in the second half of the year. Shocking.

In all seriousness though, we lack a physical presence around the ball

I have mentioned before that I feel a lot of our drop off coincides with the absence of W. Setterfield.

As highlighted, we suddenly had a lack of physicality around the ball. No one was able to open space for us.
Obviously not the sole reason, but I think it's massive how much our midfield missed once Setters went out and why I hope we try to throw a large bone to the Suns for Hollands.
We can't have just one big bodied mid.

 

[windyhill]

Drank own bath water.

 

[Kong]

 

[owen87]

Our tall forwards can’t take a mark to save themselves (other than Langford), our midfielders are mostly poor overhead, our best kicking and marking defender is out long term, we’re relying on a lot of young inexperienced guys to do heavy lifting late in the season, and we’re also not very good even with a fully fit list.

Result: this.

 

[Lore]

A young and inexperienced list runs out of puff in the second half of the year. Shocking.

In all seriousness though, we lack a physical presence around the ball

Physical and mental maturity.

We lack list balance which we've talked about all along, but that was exposed with, for example, no Setterfield and no Stringer (big bodied mid), or no Draper, Weideman, Jones (marking tall forward).

We need different types of players that can consistently play a role to a high level, week in and week out, and if they get injured, an understudy or two who can also fill that role sufficiently that we are not getting blown out of the water.

These are role players that don't necessarily get BOG every week or finish top 10 in the Coleman, and they don't have to be expensive free agents – they can be Setterfield, they don't have to be Stringer – but just consistent impact in a role, know what they're supposed to be doing, run the patterns they're supposed to run, apply the pressure they're supposed to apply. Capable, reliable, and physically mature.

That's the cake. Doesn't matter how much x-factor icing sugar you put on top, if you have an eggless flourless (chickpea-free and almond-free) cake it's not gonna work.

And right now we have half a cake, as soon as someone gets injured we are back to an eggless or flourless situation.

 

[Nifft]

The performance against West Coast was the equivalent of a 100 point loss, which is what the Eagles are losing by every second week.

The one point win against West Coast doesn't look quite so bad now...

 

[DallasCrane316]

Why isnt a young Hawks and Freo running out of puff? But we apparently are

Not only that, it’s our more experienced players that really have looked lethargic.

McGrath, Redman, Parish, even Merrett have all looked tired.

 

[MiguelM]

Our tall forwards can’t take a mark to save themselves (other than Langford), our midfielders are mostly poor overhead, our best kicking and marking defender is out long term, we’re relying on a lot of young inexperienced guys to do heavy lifting late in the season, and we’re also not very good even with a fully fit list.

Result: this.

Even West coast could take plenty of marks everywhere today, including mids & smalls.

It is almost like we don't train marking anymore.

 

[Vindicater]

You’d cop it if we just came out and said we have absolutely flogged them like they’ve never been flogged before and they’ve simply run out of steam. Looks like even the more senior players are limping to the line.

This is my exact thought. They look like they are dead on their feet half the time.

 

[Shanghaistu]

The one point win against West Coast doesn't look quite so bad now...

is their percentage after the bye actually better than ours?

 

[Nifft]

is their percentage after the bye actually better than ours?

Could very well be after yesterday's game

 

[Squeaky]

Physical and mental maturity.

We lack list balance which we've talked about all along, but that was exposed with, for example, no Setterfield and no Stringer (big bodied mid), or no Draper, Weideman, Jones (marking tall forward).

We need different types of players that can consistently play a role to a high level, week in and week out, and if they get injured, an understudy or two who can also fill that role sufficiently that we are not getting blown out of the water.

These are role players that don't necessarily get BOG every week or finish top 10 in the Coleman, and they don't have to be expensive free agents – they can be Setterfield, they don't have to be Stringer – but just consistent impact in a role, know what they're supposed to be doing, run the patterns they're supposed to run, apply the pressure they're supposed to apply. Capable, reliable, and physically mature.

That's the cake. Doesn't matter how much x-factor icing sugar you put on top, if you have an eggless flourless (chickpea-free and almond-free) cake it's not gonna work.

And right now we have half a cake, as soon as someone gets injured we are back to an eggless or flourless situation.

Now I'm hangry!

 

[Keystone agony]

Not only that, it’s our more experienced players that really have looked lethargic.

McGrath, Redman, Parish, even Merrett have all looked tired.

Why are our senior player looking tired and the rest of the comps arent?

 

[Old Campaigner]

Why are our senior player looking tired and the rest of the comps arent?

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm sure Scott has said in a press conference they haven't reduced their loads towards the end of the season because they're still trying to do a heap of development work.

 

[Keystone agony]

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm sure Scott has said in a press conference they haven't reduced their loads towards the end of the season because they're still trying to do a heap of development work.

And other clubs have?

 

[DallasCrane316]

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm sure Scott has said in a press conference they haven't reduced their loads towards the end of the season because they're still trying to do a heap of development work.

At the start of the year, King did say that Essendon went very hard during the preseason and he was expecting a drop off at the backend.

That being said, if that were the case, the club could have built that into the messaging recently. Rather than everyone thinking “WTF happened?”.

I said it before the Eagles game, we looked tired during the warm up. Likewise for the North game.

 

[ant555]

To add to my early post.
We started the year with the short kicking game so we could control the footy because the marking game was weak. We did not want to be going down the line to contests. So they found space in the opposition zone . As the year went on sides just closed the noose on us to the point that they strangled us enough to just kick down the line .

Think the increased training loads may be taking their toll as well .

 

[ant555]

Why are our senior player looking tired and the rest of the comps arent?

Why don’t you just give us the answer ?

 

[Shanghaistu]

Is it also possible that since the “Saga”, we have actually become the ‘control group’ to show what happens to a club when (a) player welfare is the number one focus (ie, don’t train them too hard) and (b) absolutely no use of any supplements at all, even low-risk ones, just-to-be-on-the-safe-side… And (c) overall, just be a ‘nice’ and not anti-social football team / club rather than agitate the football community in any way again….?

 

[BomberManU]

Is it also possible that since the “Saga”, we have actually become the ‘control group’ to show what happens to a club when (a) player welfare is the number one focus (ie, don’t train them too hard) and (b) absolutely no use of any supplements at all, even low-risk ones, just-to-be-on-the-safe-side… And (c) overall, just be a ‘nice’ and not anti-social football team / club rather than agitate the football community in any way again….?

We were told, by everyone with an opinion, that it would take 10 years to recover from the 'saga' and here we are.

 

[Milanista28]

I personally think we need to strip the list back massively, I'd full send on the midfield, bring in meat and potatoe mids like Dev Robertson, Elijah Hollands and James Jordan and move on Merrett, Parish and McGrath for what ever we can get use the draft picks we get in to draft class, speed and size.

Adding to the senior players we already have is not going to work, they are too small and they get abused all year and that's likely why they're tired now.

Does anyone here think Tom Green

12

Tom Green

Age

23

Ht

192cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

4star

CL

2.8

4star

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

3star

CL

2.8

4star

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

4star

CL

2.8

5star

feels any pressure when he's confronted with Merrett and Parish?

Fwiw, those midfield changes are not to win games of football next season necessarily it's to force the kids we spend high draft picks on take the spot off these blokes, no kid we draft will ever take Parish or Merretts spot, maybe they can take James Jordans.

So many of our best 22 are safe from omission and this holds us back.

I know we'd never do this and instead we will 'back our boyz' to 'go to work' and turn it around, yay.

That loss on Saturday wasn't the 'Essendon way', 'we don't stand for that' - Blow it up.

/rant

 

[Zach Package]

We were told, by everyone with an opinion, that it would take 10 years to recover from the 'saga' and here we are.

We still have a player on the list who was involved, so we haven’t had true generational change yet. We don’t get there until Heppell retires and we get true closure on that chapter.

 

[Mercurial89]

Football seasons always have this, happens every year. The high flying team in the front half hits a wall and drops off.
The teams that start slow "catch fire" (see Carlton).
The good teams still hit that same wall, but they have established fitness loads over a number of seasons and you can manage it, they don't redline themselves every week so recovery is easier.

Think about it this way.
You have to do 300 squats, 300 push ups and 300 crunches. You work your way through them in sequential order, you try and break up how many you can do into sets.
The inexperienced and not as fit person tries to do as many squats as they can in one go, they burn out, take a break and try and go again, they can't get near the amount they did, they have to recover longer, and it snowballs. They may not be able to get the work done.
The experienced person knows their level and only gives an 80% effort, they could do blocks of 40, instead they do blocks of 30. They recover closer to their max, they can work for longer.

We have a young team, we have a team that does not know how to win, does not know how to play within their limits. We redline every week because this team overall isnt at the level required, it takes everything we have.

Remember that Adelaide game? We went absolutely ballistic, some of the highest pressure we have had. The port game? Same standard.
Both games we dropped right off, total witches hats in the final quarter. By the time we got to Geelong we were cooked, they thumped us and we have never gotten back to those levels. Every week we get worse and worse.
The fact that the senior guys are struggling is evidence that the club has never been good enough.

It's why I give Scott an out with selection. He knows we aren't "fit" enough. They keep doing the development work during the week, he keeps the same players in the squad having to back up every single week.
This is what he means when he talks about not sacrificing the long term for the short term.
This group needs to learn the standard you need to be at, in recovery, in your overall fitness capacity and how you use it in games.