"There’s no excuse for failing to roll back and help the defence, and there’s no excuse for being flat footed leaving your teammate to be the only one trying to rebound.

There’s no excuse for ignoring the state of the senior players and their lack of fight when it doesnt go their way.

We are down hill skiers. We are more Melbourne than Melbourne"

 

I just took the above off Bomberblitz. I started to think about it but it spun me out.

FMD! 

12 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

I was thinking that......not sure if carrying an injury actually, even b4 he went down with the ankle.

Did notice him a bit propy coming to the bench before the ankle injury was wondering if he was carrying something

7 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

"There’s no excuse for failing to roll back and help the defence, and there’s no excuse for being flat footed leaving your teammate to be the only one trying to rebound.

There’s no excuse for ignoring the state of the senior players and their lack of fight when it doesnt go their way.

We are down hill skiers. We are more Melbourne than Melbourne"

 

I just took the above off Bomberblitz. I started to think about it but it spun me out.

FMD! 

Its always a shock reading Bomberblitz. The gameday thread is worth reading especially around the 3rd quarter.

35 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

This one says it all really....there is a footy god:

 

Essendon Football Club– Coaching List

John Worsfold - Senior Coach

Mark Neeld - Game Performance Coach

Rob Harding - Game Intelligence & Opposition Strategy Coach

Mark Harvey - Performance Coach, Backs

Hayden Skipworth - Performance Coach, Midfield

Paul Corrigan - Performance Coach, Forwards

Dan Jordan - VFL Head Coach

Mark Corrigan - Performance Coach

James Kelly - Performance Coach

Adriano Leti - Football Analyst

Richard Little - Football Analyst

Mark Jamar - Ruck Coach

Fun fact: Rob Harding was a passionate Demon supporter and used to be a prominent Demonland poster a long time ago. Good to see him moving up in the footy world - he has worked his way up from being a rank amateur supporter like the rest of us.

Surprised about no mention of Lever, only saw the last half, but was impressed, two serviceable games in a row, starting to find his feet, backline beginning to gel. 

51 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

Forget Garlett - did SFA for Casey.

Don’t judge him on one Casey game.

Best 22 any day of the week .

Elite pressure player and now we have our balance right will be a regular goal sneak again.

Edited April 29, 20186 yr by DeeZee

Oscar was super impressive again today. 

I was also a fan of our press this week. Only our mids and forwards pressed and our defence sagged back to protect and sweep. We almost always had a sweeper or anchor too.

We play Etihad so well.

8 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Don’t judge him on one Casey game.

Best 22 any day of the week .

Elite pressure player and now we have our balance right will be a regular goal sneak again.

Young Spargo has made it very, very hard for Jeffy to get back in...

2 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

Young Spargo has made it very, very hard for Jeffy to get back in...

Jeffy for Harmes or ANB every day of the week.

3 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

Young Spargo has made it very, very hard for Jeffy to get back in...

Thought we were one tall too many today anyway with Weideman. 

Tom Mc seemed to run, jump and turn quite freely which was good to see.  Hopefully, he pulls up well. 

It looks like he played just 69% of the game so that is a good run first up and not overdo it.

He picked up game tempo fairly quickly so all in all a good selection. 

Edited April 29, 20186 yr by Lucifer's Hero

Hrm... everyone seems to be saying Salem had a good game   I thought it was scrappy myself  interesting how perception can be different

2 hours ago, Jaded said:

Amazing what happens when players play in their natural position. Still hate Tyson on the wing. He is a pathetic user of the footy. 

 

what does Tyson bring to the side? cause I think he has no strengths 

12 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Thought we were one tall too many today anyway with Weideman. 

Weid is getting better and better.  He has such a good marking technique (takes the ball with arms out stretched over head, taking the ball at his highest point) that it was only time until he started clunking them at AFL level.  Hopefully this is the start of that form, as he finds his feet. 

 

I think wee need to persist with him. He complements Hogan so well. 

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

One change, Dr Doolitle,  dog handler extraordinaire for either ANB or Harmes take your pick!

It must be extraordinarily difficult for you going through life believing you are right and constantly being confounded by the facts. You do appear to be a Dees supporter so that probably says something.

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Had Gawn BOG and Dee's by 37 in the opening game day thread, I'm claiming that.

Also had Melksham for 2 goals and Hibberd for 25 disposals @10:1 unfortunately can't claim that, missed by 1 disposal

Hibberd back to his old form and helped secure quite a few wins last year.

Welcome back.

Fritsch is a class act.

5 minutes ago, deanox said:

Weid is getting better and better.  He has such a good marking technique (takes the ball with arms out stretched over head, taking the ball at his highest point) that it was only time until he started clunking them at AFL level.  

10 out of 10 Deanox - I mean for saying 'his' highest point' rather than 'its highest point' which all the idiotic commentators always say even if the ball almost hit the roof of Etihad.

47 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Fun fact: Rob Harding was a passionate Demon supporter and used to be a prominent Demonland poster a long time ago. Good to see him moving up in the footy world - he has worked his way up from being a rank amateur supporter like the rest of us.

What was his username?

 

As others have said it was almost identical to 2017. Not only that, but we're on the same W/L ratio after six rounds, with a worse percentage but much smaller injury list. I was probably more optimistic about finals this time 12 months ago, but the season is far from shot.

We've really made good use of our second round picks in the past few years. Melksham and Hibberd (trade) and Spargo and Fritsch (draft) were among the best on the park today. 

I thought games like today would be where we'd miss the skills of Jack Watts the most. But Melksham (field kicking) and Fritsch (set shots) have filled the void. I'm actually struggling to remember why everyone was against getting Melksham in the first place. He has been excellent.

Still not convinced about the Lever trade working out for us but it was good to see some of his friends down back find form today. Even Lever himself was better after half time.

I liked seeing Gawn tap it straight down the throat of brayshaw a few times at the centre bounces. 

Hopefully that will improve and increase the more they play with each other. 

We beat a side playing bottom 4 footy with the umpires giving us a massive leg up. 

But regardless, there were a heap of positives to take from this.

We fixed up some structural issues and flipped the game on its head after HT. Gawn dominated yet again, but this time with much greater effect (16-4 centre clearances is an utter demolition and we didn't have VIney or Petracca). Hibberd and Lever are improving each week. OMac is now an actual, genuine, FB.

Hannan's best game in a long time. When he plays like that, with pace but with aggression and hits the scoreboard, he's a real asset to our forwardline. Fritsch's cleanliness and marking are important too. And great debut from Spargo, excited to see what he can do.

When you see how those three play, and then you look at Harmes (who does little other than tackle) and ANB (nothing other than run), you have to query why we keep piling games into those limited NQR players when at the least we have others on our list with more expansive skill sets who can play roles but hit the scoreboard.

Weideman's not going to be dropped for Pedersen or Smith or any other tall - he's doing his job just fine, and his marking is getting really good. He might, though, make way if we need to shorten the side.

We need to attack each of the next three games like we attacked the third quarter today. 

24 minutes ago, Elegt said:

what does Tyson bring to the side? cause I think he has no strengths 

I thought Tyson was ok. He had a lot of score involvements. Maybe someone that attended the game can shed some more but it looked like he was switched to wing/half back when Gus went in the middle in the second half. Credited with only one turnover ( not sure what counts as one as Salem had 9). He’s a tad slow but does get in the right spots more often than not.

Edited April 29, 20186 yr by Dee Zephyr

We’re at an interesting stage as a side, seem to be able to handle the weaker sides pretty comfortably now, but struggle when a more experienced side really brings the pressure and tackling. Signs of maturity at least we can put away teams we are meant to beat (finally!)

We looked powerful after half time even though I acknowledge Essendon were bad. St Kilda will be more challenging as they have bigger bodies in the midfield to go up against our guys: the Bombers are very light on in this area.

Re Hogan's attitude - sorry, should have been more specific. I mean, when things aren't going his way, he just gets can-do and doesn't look like it's all falling apart (might have been a reflection of his last year though ).

 

fritsch can play footy, once he puts some bulk on ....

Awesome for spargo - what little I saw , he looked class .

1 hour ago, red and blue forever said:

The first half was a close fought contest and was not that bad except the last 15 of the second quarter when both side played ugly footy   then the second half we just started getting the rub of the green  and took advantage...

 

 

28 minutes ago, red and blue forever said:

Hrm... everyone seems to be saying Salem had a good game   I thought it was scrappy myself  interesting how perception can be different