What we can learn from Essendon

TigerTank

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Thread starter #1
Essendon is proof you can polish a poo.
Ordinary list but first-rate fitness, and a bunch of players that stick to their task and play within their limitations.
The Bombers play at their best for much longer in a game than we do generally. They still don't kick particularly well, but their run means they don't have to.
Compared with Essendon, we have far fewer players who gut-run. We have fewer who keep running to create space to give some of our less than sterling kickers an easy out.
Gut-running, I think, is something that can be developed. Obviously it isn't an easy fix or Essendon would not spend as much money on its fitness, conditioning and coaching as it does.
But Essendon does show you what you can do.
Our only bloke who is particularly good at this is Grigg. We really need two or three blokes to step up in this area and develop a decent tank. In fact, a couple of our kids should really be nominated as projects to do this.
 

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1980GFVideo

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#2
Do people really believe we were shown up in general play tonight.

We had chances to kick goals that we couldnt take. We also gave up a start to them which we were able to reel back in.

For me the problem is kicking under big game pressure. My biggest fear over the years is that we have not been exposed to these type of games often enough and that we are going to lose these games when we get there due to lack of experience in them.

Essendon did well to go after a conditioning coach that has got them physically ready to go but I was impressed with the way that we came back at them and didnt see too much in our fitness or gut running that was completely shown up.
 

MKS70

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#3
Essendon came out firing but i felt the Tiges did well to stay just a couple of goals behind. Tiges could have won the match if not for all the missed goal opportunities. I really thought the Tiges did well but the kicking and some handling errors let them down and broke some of the momentum.. Also thought (as usual) that the Tiges were unfairly treated by Refs again. :mad:
 
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#4
Do people really believe we were shown up in general play tonight.

We had chances to kick goals that we couldnt take. We also gave up a start to them which we were able to reel back in.

For me the problem is kicking under big game pressure. My biggest fear over the years is that we have not been exposed to these type of games often enough and that we are going to lose these games when we get there due to lack of experience in them.

Essendon did well to go after a conditioning coach that has got them physically ready to go but I was impressed with the way that we came back at them and didnt see too much in our fitness or gut running that was completely shown up.
We were the better side , we should have won . Self belief and polish and poise under pressure is what we lack

Its between the ears . We had our foot on their jugular and we took it off .

Hird and Thompson have got an outfit that was coming from further back in the pack than us believeing in themselves , playing to a plan and winning games ... that may or may not peter out but they are no better than us.

This is why i get sooo frustrated ... its about the now . Many of the so called "top ranked" sides are not travelling well and have some serious cracks in thier foundations ... there is a core of 4-6 teams that are just plain shithouse ... right "NOW"... there is an opportunity to make some inraods and make the finals this year ...

... but most on this forum tow the company line of developing etc. ... BS

We are on the verge of missing a real opportunity to gain some real self belief . Right now , we could have won quite a few games of footy but as has been the case historically with our football club , just missing opportunities that we realistically could have taken ... last night is just another example .

Part of development for mine is grabbing the "NOW" instead of eternally banking on the "morrow";)
 

CoggaRules

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#5
Learn from Essendon? Nothing, they are taking over from us and will wallow in the seas of mediocrity around 9th, 8th or 7th forever, with that side. ;)
 

Rodney Dangerfield

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#6
The only thing I would take from Essendon is how to keep your forward line open.
We were too predictable,too easy to jam up but geez you need to be fit to play the way they do.
Wasn't surprised one little bit that we made a big run at them.Better sides than us will steamroll Essendon late in games and quarters as the year progresses.
 

SumTingWong

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#7
Essendon is proof you can polish a poo.
Ordinary list but first-rate fitness, and a bunch of players that stick to their task and play within their limitations.
The Bombers play at their best for much longer in a game than we do generally. They still don't kick particularly well, but their run means they don't have to.
Compared with Essendon, we have far fewer players who gut-run. We have fewer who keep running to create space to give some of our less than sterling kickers an easy out.
Gut-running, I think, is something that can be developed. Obviously it isn't an easy fix or Essendon would not spend as much money on its fitness, conditioning and coaching as it does.
But Essendon does show you what you can do.
Our only bloke who is particularly good at this is Grigg. We really need two or three blokes to step up in this area and develop a decent tank. In fact, a couple of our kids should really be nominated as projects to do this.
Absolute bullshit!!!
It's amazing how someone can watch something but not actually SEE what is happening. Essendon DO NOT GUT RUN. They play ahead of the ball and it looks like thay are gut running. Who was on the end of the forward thrusts usually....Davey/Jetta. They sit outside ahead of the ball and use their pace (which they have because they only run one way) to outrun our defenders who have been running two ways the whole match. These guys rely solely on a few others getting the ball forward. How bad/slow did they look from midway through the 2nd quarter because we were smashing them in the middle? Now we need to look/trade for 1 or 2 small forwards e.g. Danyle Pierce anyone? to reward the work of our midfielders
 

Rodney Dangerfield

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#8
Absolute bullshit!!!
It's amazing how someone can watch something but not actually SEE what is happening. Essendon DO NOT GUT RUN. They play ahead of the ball and it looks like thay are gut running. Who was on the end of the forward thrusts usually....Davey/Jetta. They sit outside ahead of the ball and use their pace (which they have because they only run one way) to outrun our defenders who have been running two ways the whole match. These guys rely solely on a few others getting the ball forward. How bad/slow did they look from midway through the 2nd quarter because we were smashing them in the middle? Now we need to look/trade for 1 or 2 small forwards e.g. Danyle Pierce anyone? to reward the work of our midfielders
Yep. They're cheating they're teammates. So much running is dependant on their ball winners that they blow up and start getting chopped up whilst these blokes just loaf.
I swear they kicked goals from hiding behind the goalposts.
 

TOOs_Finest

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#9
We were the better side , we should have won . Self belief and polish and poise under pressure is what we lack

Its between the ears . We had our foot on their jugular and we took it off .

Hird and Thompson have got an outfit that was coming from further back in the pack than us believeing in themselves , playing to a plan and winning games ... that may or may not peter out but they are no better than us.

This is why i get sooo frustrated ... its about the now . Many of the so called "top ranked" sides are not travelling well and have some serious cracks in thier foundations ... there is a core of 4-6 teams that are just plain shithouse ... right "NOW"... there is an opportunity to make some inraods and make the finals this year ...

... but most on this forum tow the company line of developing etc. ... BS

We are on the verge of missing a real opportunity to gain some real self belief . Right now , we could have won quite a few games of footy but as has been the case historically with our football club , just missing opportunities that we realistically could have taken ... last night is just another example .

Part of development for mine is grabbing the "NOW" instead of eternally banking on the "morrow";)
Great post iddy, except for the historical reference ;)
 

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#11
We were the better side , we should have won . Self belief and polish and poise under pressure is what we lack

Its between the ears . We had our foot on their jugular and we took it off .

Hird and Thompson have got an outfit that was coming from further back in the pack than us believeing in themselves , playing to a plan and winning games ... that may or may not peter out but they are no better than us.

This is why i get sooo frustrated ... its about the now . Many of the so called "top ranked" sides are not travelling well and have some serious cracks in thier foundations ... there is a core of 4-6 teams that are just plain shithouse ... right "NOW"... there is an opportunity to make some inraods and make the finals this year ...

... but most on this forum tow the company line of developing etc. ... BS

We are on the verge of missing a real opportunity to gain some real self belief . Right now , we could have won quite a few games of footy but as has been the case historically with our football club , just missing opportunities that we realistically could have taken ... last night is just another example .

Part of development for mine is grabbing the "NOW" instead of eternally banking on the "morrow";)
Interesting how you look at it as we're on the verge of missing our chance, where as I view it as we're on the verge of doing something special.

Last night we were 7 goals down a couple of minutes into the 3rd quarter, in years gone by we would have been 12 goals down by 3/4 time and well on our way to a 100 point loss. The fact that we were able to dig deep and actually get back in front is something we should be proud of, the next step for us is to learn how to win those types of games.

Lets not forget that by round 10 we would have played every finals side from last year, after that our draw gets a lot easier.
 

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Neen

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#12
The only improvement we can learn from Essendon is how to kick straight in front of goal. That's it. Even without 3 potent forwards, we still had them on toast.

We were the better side, and we lost because we were inaccurate.
 

The Rusty Trombone

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#14
We were the better side , we should have won . Self belief and polish and poise under pressure is what we lack

Its between the ears . We had our foot on their jugular and we took it off .

Hird and Thompson have got an outfit that was coming from further back in the pack than us believeing in themselves , playing to a plan and winning games ... that may or may not peter out but they are no better than us.

This is why i get sooo frustrated ... its about the now . Many of the so called "top ranked" sides are not travelling well and have some serious cracks in thier foundations ... there is a core of 4-6 teams that are just plain shithouse ... right "NOW"... there is an opportunity to make some inraods and make the finals this year ...

... but most on this forum tow the company line of developing etc. ... BS

We are on the verge of missing a real opportunity to gain some real self belief . Right now , we could have won quite a few games of footy but as has been the case historically with our football club , just missing opportunities that we realistically could have taken ... last night is just another example .

Part of development for mine is grabbing the "NOW" instead of eternally banking on the "morrow";)

I agree with all of this except that I believe Essendon are 2-3 years ahead of us in their development . They started when Knights took over us when Hardwick took over. They have backed and developed their list as we are doing ours.

In this sense our future is so bright we gotta wear shades but I don't believe they are coming from along way behind us.


I don't see any of our midfielders other than lids and Tuck with around 100-150 games and I don't see any 350 game veterans in our backline rallying the boys.

The extra experience their backline has learnt playing with Fletcher is invaluable and I'm sure we all noticed the difference last night when Fletcher was subbed off.

They are and deserve to be ahead of us but there is a change on the way. They also have way better depth than us by about 6-8 players. Some injured some not. This will probably keep them fresh as these players regain fitness or play themselves into form through out the year.

They are the real deal and we had them on toast.

Gutted !
 

CoggaRules

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#16
Interesting how you look at it as we're on the verge of missing our chance, where as I view it as we're on the verge of doing something special.

Last night we were 7 goals down a couple of minutes into the 3rd quarter, in years gone by we would have been 12 goals down by 3/4 time and well on our way to a 100 point loss. The fact that we were able to dig deep and actually get back in front is something we should be proud of, the next step for us is to learn how to win those types of games.

Lets not forget that by round 10 we would have played every finals side from last year, after that our draw gets a lot easier.

all good RT, but switch it up and look at this from another angle. In years gone by we would have been 7 goals down in the 3rd quarter and this year we were 7 goals down in the third quarter..;)
 

smasha

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#17
I reckon if I was the umpire I would be able to find 7 frees to Richmond and just ignore the Essendon ones by calling play on or letting them go like the umpires did to us last night.
And I reckon we would have had the 4 extra goals from those frees.


The rules are getting so grey I could get away with what the umpires got away with TOO.


That's what I learnt about last night.

How you can cheat the rulebook.

Richmond were brilliant also.
 

CoggaRules

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#19
Op needs to take the beer goggles off....Ess forward line s pretty good

Hurley
Crameri
Ryder
Jetta
Davey

Bloody sight more dangerous than ours is
Oh come on FFS BJ, that bummer FL is at best b grade if not C grade and the only reason you can suggest more dangerous that ours is that ours is not even an F at best..
Lets put it this way, their big deal win was against the eagles. They will not beat the eagles again this year and moreso will get their arses ripped open when they meet them when it ****ing counts and not when they "need to have that loss they were due for". ;)
 
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#20
all good RT, but switch it up and look at this from another angle. In years gone by we would have been 7 goals down in the 3rd quarter and this year we were 7 goals down in the third quarter..;)
Getting sick of this party line too. No wonder we fall at the final hurdle against these so called top 4 teams. It's as if we don't expect to win and so don't.

Sick of the same party line "we've played all the top teams." Blah, blah, blah.

All of them are ripe for the picking. You beat them by believing you are better than them and proving it. That's how you make finals. Not planning to win most of the games in the second half of the year. Injuries will take a toll by then.

The teams that make the finals are the teams that are not intimidating by the teams above them on the ladder. This is a cultural issue. It needs to be addressed.

Richmond still act surprised when opposition sides come back at them.
 

deliberate!!

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#21
Maric is the 'smartest' ruckman Richmond has had for longer than I can remember (going back past 1980)

Jackson should never be allowed in the back half of the ground because his first reaction EVERY TIME is to look and hope to pass backwards. Jackson has all the hallmarks of being influenced by the Joel Bowden era of backline play.

Our mids push forward hard, but refuse to push back hard.

When we don't spread hard to space we can smacked in any quarter and any game.

We don't meet the incoming ball to mark it. We stand flat-footed and allow opposition players to cut off the incoming ball while we wait for it.

We are still too short as a team and the next intake of players to the club need to be TALLER hard running players. No excuses. Find them!

We are a better team without the slow Tyrone Vickery.

We have no serious back up for Ivan Maric. None at all.

Martin could now dispose of the ball earlier as he is one of the few now getting pinged with the ball.

Foley looks like the old Axel we knew and loved.

Jack will become a forward dinosaur unless he takes more contested marks.

We are at least another year or two from constantly beating Essendon.

When Jobe Watson is taking contested marks we know we aren't applying enough pressure.

Essendon liked to suck us upfield and kick over the top to hard running little men.

Dylan Grimes will be sadly missed.

Edwards needs to iron out his consistency to stay in the team.

Morris or Ellis? Ellis or Morris?

If you are in the forward 50 or a Richmond player selected to play in the forward 50, YOUR JOB is to KICK THE GOAL. You are not paid to stupidly give it off.

If a Coach or President is said to maybe having 'a conflict of interest' when commentating, then how the heck does an ex-Essendon player get to umpire an Essendon game?
 
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#22
We were the better side , we should have won . Self belief and polish and poise under pressure is what we lack

Its between the ears . We had our foot on their jugular and we took it off .

Hird and Thompson have got an outfit that was coming from further back in the pack than us believeing in themselves , playing to a plan and winning games ... that may or may not peter out but they are no better than us.

This is why i get sooo frustrated ... its about the now . Many of the so called "top ranked" sides are not travelling well and have some serious cracks in thier foundations ... there is a core of 4-6 teams that are just plain shithouse ... right "NOW"... there is an opportunity to make some inraods and make the finals this year ...

... but most on this forum tow the company line of developing etc. ... BS

We are on the verge of missing a real opportunity to gain some real self belief . Right now , we could have won quite a few games of footy but as has been the case historically with our football club , just missing opportunities that we realistically could have taken ... last night is just another example .

Part of development for mine is grabbing the "NOW" instead of eternally banking on the "morrow";)

The better side?

We flogged you in the first half and should have been further in front. When you made your admirable come-back we went to the next gear and won comfortably. Sorry mate, in no world were you "the better side".

The better side won. I'll always acknowledge that in our losses and find it distasteful when people pull out that rubbish.

Good, thoughtful OP and mostly good posts ITT, along with some disappointing lack of respect for a worthy opponent who is obviously a good side going places. The Tiges will get there too, and I'd be disappointed if people didn't rate them when they start putting the results on the board.
 

CoggaRules

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#23
The better side?

We flogged you in the first half and should have been further in front. When you made your admirable come-back we went to the next gear and won comfortably. Sorry mate, in no world were you "the better side".

The better side won. I'll always acknowledge that in our losses and find it distasteful when people pull out that rubbish.
LMAO...ok dude. You went into the next gear...LMAO...sheeeeeeeeesh. How the foolish get fooled and continue to believe..you will understand when you understand....right now you have NFI about what to understand..it will dawn on you and you will be back to the future and wondering why. Why you are still that side that promises so much but fails with the same candidates at the wheel, i.e the Stantons(i even heard bummer fans calling him Brownlow...Bwaahaaahaaa), Monfries, Lovett_Murrays etc...the scepter of reality will descend on you and once again you will look to your hero Hirdy for the next excuse..Go and ask Hirdy why he had to plead for another year from a guy nearing 40...and what happened when he had to go off..ahh the fools from Windy Hill, clinging onto a dream of still thinking they are contenders..poor buggers...;)
 
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