Just now, Hellfish said:

Well that was nothing short of disgusting. The umpiring in general has been atrosious. 

Mcdonald and garland need to decide who is playing on Daniher and actually stay on him. Half his contests were against Jetta or bugg.

need a big lift and some actual structure next half.

both will end up at casey

 

1 minute ago, DSP said:

Garlett.

Rest have been putrid.

Pedersen has been OK, Matt Jones, Bernie Vince. But drops away after that. So much for selection headaches, for a few of them will be pretty straightforward next week.

 

We are lucky not to be 4-5 goals down.

 

I was expecting a close loss but I think it could blow out to 6+ goal Essendon win.

 

Theyre slicing us apart from half back and winning all the contested ball through the middle.

tom is [censored] in the head,the mistakes he made ,good grief

Ffs...our little leaguers have more idea

2 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

Why shouldn't we think we would smash them? Every other team will - what constantly makes us so negative that we even give them a sniff?

And yes, people on here are defeatist. Same thing last week, and look what happened then.

We are playing disgracefully and are only 9 points down. Pull our fingers out a bit and we'll be fine.

OK, I get your point. I understand your frustration.

The thing to me is that against good teams (not the great teams, but good teams), we play and coach "smart".

Against poor teams, we always play & coach "dumb". And it's always the same "dumb". It always plays into the opponents' hands. And we always think that continuing to play the same "dumb" is going to work.

The same thing happens, every time we play a poor team. It's predictable, but we fall for it again and again.

That's my frustration.

3 minutes ago, leucopogon said:

Hogan needs to lead, i'm sick of him hanging in the goal square having a sook if he doesn't get it. Lumumba can go and rot in Casey for the rest of his career as far as I'm concerned. Only players out there that look like they're switched on are Kennedy and .......

put Hogan to CHB....    TMac onto Daniher..... Garland to CHF..... Watts & Pedo deep,,,,  with Watts moving about.   Garlett deeper to Pedo's feet,  & push the other forwards high.

9 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

They are absolutely slicing us up in traffic.

What's the go with the zone or this caralling of players, it's clearly not working.

4 minutes ago, leucopogon said:

Hogan needs to lead, i'm sick of him hanging in the goal square having a sook if he doesn't get it. Lumumba can go and rot in Casey for the rest of his career as far as I'm concerned. Only players out there that look like they're switched on are Kennedy and .......

Problem is he's in the wrong goal square. Hogan is lost at full back and gets in the way 

Am expecting a much better Melb in second half. Hope they arrive in time 

#complacent101

Hold your nerve guys. 

We're not that far off it. It's a bit like last week, when it clicks we'll be off and away

So far we have played into their hands

Meanwhile ....

Jack Trengove has brought his own footy today, he's up to 13 possessions already, and has added a goal, 21 minutes into Q1. @melbournefc

I can't see us winning from here. False dawn last week.

1 minute ago, Akum said:

OK, I get your point. I understand your frustration.

The thing to me is that against good teams (not the great teams, but good teams), we play and coach "smart".

Against poor teams, we always play & coach "dumb". And it's always the same "dumb". It always plays into the opponents' hands. And we always think that continuing to play the same "dumb" is going to work.

The same thing happens, every time we play a poor team. It's predictable, but we fall for it again and again.

That's my frustration.

Yep, completely agree. This is why we lose so often to teams like this - we just have NFI and if we stopped playing into their hands we'd be fine.

I'm frustrated too, don't worry. There's no way they should be within 8 goals of us.

My blood pressure has gone through the roof.

It's not over yet though. Obviously any idea of a thrashing can be dashed, but hopefully we can turn up the intensity a whisker or two and win. I haven't given up.

7 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

At the moment we are playing right into their hands.  When we get the ball across half back they are just waiting for us to bomb it long inside 50.  As soon as it hits the deck, or they mark it uncontested, they are off and running.  We are allowing them easy footy through the middle of the ground and that is making us look slow and lazy.

If we can use the ball better, get some of our players involved like Watts, Kent, Harmes, Hogan etc and cut off their easy run through the middle, then we'll be okay.

Absolutely nailed it. This is our default game plan and it never works!

Just now, 3Dee said:

#complacent101

No doubt it's complacency. We should be toweling them up but we're allowing blokes with 2 games experience get space and driving inside entries.

It's actually interesting how much space they have, and how bad our skills us. If anything it shows where we're at. Our worst is still probably the worst in the league.

1 minute ago, leucopogon said:

I can't see us winning from here. False dawn last week.

I can. Essendon are useless and we are making them look like millionaires.

1 minute ago, Ted Fidge said:

Hold your nerve guys. 

We're not that far off it. It's a bit like last week, when it clicks we'll be off and away

So far we have played into their hands

It's not that we are "not that far off it" 

Its the fact that we do this each and every bloody time. It's like ground hog day. 

1 minute ago, Ted Fidge said:

Hold your nerve guys. 

We're not that far off it. It's a bit like last week, when it clicks we'll be off and away

So far we have played into their hands

very much like our recent form.  it'll take a bit of time to get offence right.  especially with Hogan distracted.

1 minute ago, leucopogon said:

I can't see us winning from here. False dawn last week.

I can. Essendon are useless and we are making them look like millionaires.

I think it's a lot like last week, we're haven't yet fully nailed this ball movement in game, we do it in patches and kick 4-5 goals in quarters but then can't do it for periods as well, positive is we are still well and truely in the game and more than capable of getitng our game up and running and putting them away

Even IF we scrape a win from here it will only show that any thoughts of finals are totally illusory.  We have a very long way to go.

Haven't ever reached Roos' first KPI of being able to defend.  

Edited April 2, 20169 yr by monoccular

1 minute ago, Ted Fidge said:

Hold your nerve guys. 

We're not that far off it. It's a bit like last week, when it clicks we'll be off and away

So far we have played into their hands

very much like our recent form.  it'll take a bit of time to get offence right.  especially with Hogan distracted.