A real exhibition of fast paced, exhilarating football. The skills of both teams sublime. Essendon just looking slightly sharper. Joe Daniher is a star.

Really looking forward to backing it up in the second half. Just a great game of football.

Honorable mention to the umpires. The best umpired games are the ones where you don't notice them.

1 minute ago, jane02 said:

I went to the Collingwood/ Essendon game a few weeks ago and thought that was one of the worst games I had ever been to. This is up there with it.

The one 5 days ago?

horrendously bad game of footy. can't even get into it when trac finally kicks our goal. over it already 

1 minute ago, Petraccattack said:

Essendon played in the wet on Tuesday.

 Any other team in the comp would come out and blow them away in the 2nd half - if we dont win this we deserve to finish in the bottom 4.

We playing in the wet on Monday night. It is barely an advantage. 

Vince should not be in defence.

Jones, Viney and Tyson need to lift their games.

Salem, ANB, JKH, Garlett have given 0 today. Hannan not much better. 

Melksham should be looking on his phone at half time to see who Casey play next week. 

Pathetic half of football. 

Hogan out really hurts us. Forward line has little/no structure. I would almost have played Weideman, just to get some shape in there. Hurley doing what he wants.

Tap-outs

Ess 20 Melb 10

Clean Clearances

Melb 10  Ess 6

The AFL site has the clearances at Ess 16 vs Melb 14 but a lot of those clearances are not really clearances at all.  Many of the clearances awarded result in neutral outcomes. 

 

Both these sides should be taken out and shot.

The most disgraceful game I have seen.

I don't even know what to make of this game.  We honestly look lost going forward.  No Gawn, or even Spencer, means we will never take a pack mark coming out of the backline and we haven't moved the ball quick enough to take advantage of when we do get our hands on the ball.  Hurley took 4 intercept marks that quarter alone as we just bombed it long and he zoned off and took the mark.

Positives are the fact we are still in it and I feel as though our backline has been okay.  Their mosquito fleet have had little impact and our pressure around the ground as been good.  There is little else to be happy with, though.

Not sure what to say. Just glad I stayed home.

3 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Essendon played in the wet on Tuesday.

 Any other team in the comp would come out and blow them away in the 2nd half - if we dont win this we deserve to finish in the bottom 4.

We will finish bottom 4 this year. 

1 minute ago, Gorgoroth said:

Vince should not be in defence.

Jones, Viney and Tyson need to lift their games.

Salem, ANB, JKH, Garlett have given 0 today. Hannan not much better. 

Melksham should be looking on his phone at half time to see who Casey play next week. 

Pathetic half of football. 

If Melksham ever plays for Casey I'll get his face tattooed over my face. 

The force is strong in Mark Neeld.

We are playing under a roof. Should be no excuses for bad kicking.  Have we missed easy goals? Also daniher 6 behinds. Let's hope his confidence is down. Is tommy on him?

2 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Hogan out really hurts us. Forward line has little/no structure. I would almost have played Weideman, just to get some shape in there. Hurley doing what he wants.

This.  It really can't be understated.  Missing Hogan impacts someone like Watts as they swamp him all the time.  Our small forwards need to up their pressure a little more in the second half.

Oliver up forward is a good move.

Alex neal bullen with only 2 disposal for the whole 1st half.. 

Also are we the most dumbest football sides going around? We've gone in with a short forward line yet we continue to bomb it into Hurley head who is cleaning up everything.

 

Is it also just me but is Brad Johnson looking more and more like Ted Whitten as he gets older?

1 minute ago, dees189227 said:

We are playing under a roof. Should be no excuses for bad kicking.  Have we missed easy goals? Also daniher 6 behinds. Let's hope his confidence is down. Is tommy on him?

Daniher will end up kicking 4 to 6. 

We will get rolled in second half. 

2 minutes ago, Mr. White said:

We will finish bottom 4 this year. 

We won't finish bottom four. But if we don't win the next two, we can kiss any remote chance of finals football goodbye.

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

This.  It really can't be understated.  Missing Hogan impacts someone like Watts as they swamp him all the time.  Our small forwards need to up their pressure a little more in the second half.

It's impacting what's going on up the ground - the mids don't automatically know who to look for, and the indecision leads to poor decisions.

Big second half coming up for a few players.  ANB has had 2 touches, JKH has had zero influence.  Hannan has gotten his hands on it but turned it over a little.  There are plenty of others who could lift their games, but for someone like JKH, this could be his last chance.  Kennedy and Kent, even with his average form, are waiting in the wings and he may not get another look in.

ANB stunk it up last week and didn't think it was possible but has been even worse this week 

1 minute ago, Luther said:

We won't finish bottom four. But if we don't win the next two, we can kiss any remote chance of finals football goodbye.

Bottom 4 are playing much better football than this [censored]. 

Kent at least presents and runs.

JKH and Hannan are plodders, nothing more.