We gave away many frustration frees in the last quarter, mainly due to the fact that the umpiring was FAAARKKEDDD!!!!! 2nd game of the NAB, and i already hate them.

God this place is about to go to the pack.

Just remember guys. NAB cup

Over yet?

I tuned out - i'm sick of hearing Lloyd say (with hand over mouth) that Green is soft.

Somebody is stuck in.... 2000.

Not sure why McKenzie never gets mentioned when talking of our missing players. We could have used his hardness and tackling pressure around the stoppages.

We at least know now that M.Warnock is not up to it, and is clearly a depth player going forward.

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

On the train coming home from the game. Duh!

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

Here - why do you ask?

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

I'm happy to say that I'm a Bailey supporter. After he managed to get us up and running last season with a marked improvement in the sides performances, I am not prepared to write him off after a NAB cup game.

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

Right Here Sunshine.

AFL website is saying the free kicks are something like 50-14 bombers favour.... that's wrong.. i hope?

Then again, the last 20 minutes i've been listening we've lost the plot

That sounds spot on to me.

The umpiring was actually funny in the end

they gave up in that last quarter, wouldn't be too worried we'll beat them when there are points on the line.. positives were good times grimes & trengove, quite a few players didn't turn up, no legs, the rookies just aren't ready.

also - bailey got rid of the wrong mcdonald!

We lacked intensity and it showed most clearly in the tackle count.

A good wake up call after far too much hype about us in the media.

Better now than round 1.

That was awful towards the end.

Liked: Jurrah, Maric and some of Trengoves work. Joel Mac and Bartram hard at it.

Disliked: Warnock, Watts, Martin and Jamar's shaky game and the constant deep backward kicking when the switch was NEVER ON. We're not that good yet boys.

Everyone was a little off tonight. Bombers went harder. Umpires didn't help. Not going to read too much else into it.

God I hate Essendon. Lets see them try and do that at the MCG.

Time to hibernate until Round 1. Got a lot of work to do and for those that said top 4 four us, not gonna happen. Got our work cut out to mark top 8 in my opinion,

Good call, Wait for the "it's only the NAB cup" calls to come out. Very poor performance tonight. Sylvia, Green, Davey (well tagged tonight), Jones, Moloney. All the aenior players out done by a inexperienced Bombers side.

Watts Pathetic.

Bennell playing in defence, WTF?

Maric, the only shining light.

Trengove, will be a star again this year. Played well, just a few mistakes which is OK for a second year. Actually was pretty good tonight.

Jurrah, played ok in second half. A few nervous fumbles.

Grimes, well done son, stood up out of backline.

Bartram, Warnock and Macdonald, ARE YOU EVER GOING TO F@#KING LEARN!

Jones and Moloney, not good enough!

Sylvia, Shoulda been more responsive. We would have won if Green and Sylvia had of fired.

Jamar had the majority of tap outs with no support. Spencer makes me nervous.

Strauss, no spot in this side.

Dunn, Ok but lacked support.

Maybe we will scrape into top eight with Pettard, Frawley and Morton back.

Oh, but it's just NAB cup.

Gee it didn't take long for the old MFCSS to kick in.

Boy am I sick of this comment whenever someone is negative. We were terrible tonight and there was plenty of evidence, nab cup or not, that we aren't as good as many believe. I don't have a problem with people expressing that.

It may be just the NAB cup, but this game was important - just look at the Bomber's reaction - where are the Bailey supporters now?

Horrible post. The bombers reaction? The team that went ape droppings after drawing a round 1 NAB cup match?

Horrible, horrible post.

Not interested in umpiring or free kicks - 'if it is going to be, it is up to thee' - (with apologies to the original).

at least we don't have Mark Williams, what a shithead!

Boy am I sick of this comment whenever someone is negative. We were terrible tonight and there was plenty of evidence, nab cup or not, that we aren't as good as many believe. I don't have a problem with people expressing that.

Couldn't give a toss really... I don't mind negativity, but when people start writing off the season (which was the impression the post I was responding to gave) on the basis of a poor NAB cup showing, then that is the right time to wheel that comment out as far as I'm concerned.

That sounds spot on to me.

The umpiring was actually funny in the end

I'm not a smart man but I had no idea about some of the umpiring decisions tonight, none whatsoever...

..... because Essendon are not that good (or was M Knights a Garbage Coach?)

Yep

It's the NAB Cup, but all our loses highlight the same things over and over. It must be very frustrating for our coaches.

Minor Concerns

Lack of tall forwards - not overly concerned about this as we've got to be patient with Watts and Cook. In the mean time we have to be smarter using the ball into the forward 50. The MCG will help. Jurrah/Green/Petterd firing will as well.

Back up ruck - Again we've got Fitzy, Gawn, McDonald in the pipeline and I think Martin showed enough to be reasonable but they can't come quick enough. I'd rest Jamar for next week to let Martin and Spencer have 50% of the game.

Use of the ball from the back half - Frawley helps here (so much better than Warnock). Garland was off tonight. Playing at the G helps. Strauss needs more games and FFS play him on the dud forward so he can get into the game! Let him play to his strengths.

The umpiring - my god they are [censored].

Speed - we need to play a fast squad. Where is Blease? He needs to be out there. Same with Wona if he's anywhere near fitness.

Major Concerns

Lack of forward pressure. We need to get this right if we are going to win games. Watts needs to give up corralling (sp?) and switch to tackling only. I don't care if he gives away frees for holding the man. All our forwards need to avoid getting sucked to the contest. Bate!!! Jurrah needs to lift his work rate. If that means he has more spells on the bench then so be it. I believe its a major reason why we leak inside 50's (and as a result get put under pressure in our back half).

Linking up in close with handball. Was shocking tonight. Even from a centre clearance, if a mid gets it they have to get it out. Our wingman always seemed second to the contest.

Tackling - Along way below par tonight.

All in all I think our biggest problem is we leave too much to too few. We are a team of brilliant individuals more than a brilliant team at the moment. Jamar has to ruck long periods. Frawley/Garland/Rivers/Grimes have to be our backline. We need Petterd and Wona for forward pressure. We need Davey to clear the backline. We need Moloney/Sylvia/McKenzie to win a clearance. We need McKenzie or Sylvia to lay a proper tackle. We need Jurrah and Green to kick bags. Scully is vital to the pace of our midfield. Bennell has to generate run. Bate has to get involved at half forward.

It's a feeling I've had for much of last year and I will continue to have for this season. It seems whenever too many parts of the chain break we start having fatal error. Every player has strengths and weaknesses but at the moment its seems so dependent on who's got the footy and who they are giving it too. I want to see us play as a unit.

Just got home left a bit early it was a terrible effort tonight we were woeful.

Warnock is not up to it I have always liked the way he tries but I think his lack of ability was covered up by other players like Frawley. Grimes is one of my favourite players but he made some dreadful mistakes tonight and passing back to Warnock was one of them Joel Mac, I thought it was one of his worst games and on par with the one against North last year in fact I think that Grimes and Joel just can't play Etihad.

All in all it was woeful and a very disappointing start to the year, no pressure and we were comprehensively beaten. Jack, well he was just terrible. Jones I love the guy but he continually sells himself and his team mates in to trouble.

Maric was good tonight considering he had limited opportunities as was LJ. Bate just can't seem to get in to position and is always just a bit away from where he should be. Martin was very ordinary and continues to disappoint. This may be a long year.

We have to learn how to play Etihad or we might as well mark all games there as a loss. I can't see us winning more than one game there this year and we play there 4 times.

Some good points here from 'the master' - might help if some people got out of computerland and watched some other teams train and play - we have good players, but they need good coaching - there is a long way to go to have a good 'team'.

Boy am I sick of this comment whenever someone is negative. We were terrible tonight and there was plenty of evidence, nab cup or not, that we aren't as good as many believe. I don't have a problem with people expressing that.

Nor me, but equally, it's about keeping things in perserpective. Difficult to see how we could have been much worse than we were tonight.

Jones was rusty as all hell, Warnock and Strauss shouldn't have been out there, but both were left on to see what they could (or couldn't) do, we badly missed McKenzie and Scully even moreso than Frawley, and plenty of the players that should be firing weren't - Green and Watts for example. On top of that, Essendon played with intensity and determination, while it just felt like we were still somewhat in "warm-up game" mode.

In spite of all that, except for a couple of dodgy umpiring decisions that cost us a goals, we were well into it until the last quarter. So, plenty of work to do, and as has been posted elsewhere, better now than in a couple of months.

One slight positive (if you'll allow ...) is that we might get some sort of NAB challenge game at Casey (if the ground is useable). Otherwise .. it's off to the bush.