12 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I swear we couldcopy and past posts from this time last year.

Massive lapses where teams kick 5 to 7 goals against us in a row.

Ball getting over the back of the press.

We seemed to have learnt nothing

The game is played completely differently to last year though.

Its an outside running game now. Our players are not up to it. They are slow and not even winning 1 v 1s in a lot of cases

The structures last night to continually leave open men inside our defensive 50 is a joke a really bad joke 

1 hour ago, 3Dee said:

We traded away our first round pick this year didn't we?

Nah we will get pick 1 this year.

 

9 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Simple Roos implemented defending & working both ways...Goodwin is attack & down hill skiers

I admire Goody has a plan and he’s implementing ruthlessly.

I didn’t like Goodwin at first. But his commitment to his vision is winning me over, even though I don’t understand it.

Compared to the rest of the competition we appear to have gone backwards at a horrendous rate. Last seasons wobbly sides like GC, Freo, Lions, Saints and even Carlton look like they can now mop the floor with us.  Port and Dons already have. 

Edited April 5, 20196 yr by america de cali

Personally, I am not buying into any of the rubbish on this thread about our players not being good enough or trying hard enough. I do think the amount of surgery that went on after last season has hampered our start. Logic suggests the following:

• they are the pretty much the same players who got us to a semi-final last year- the only ones missing last night were; Lewis, Tyson, Vandenberg, Hannam and Spargo. Vandenberg, Hannam and Lewis may have made a bit of difference. But not substantial, as Hunt, J Wagner and  Fritsch (new to the team) played well  last night

So what has changed since September 2018?

• well - the rules. I think, the most significant change in the last 10 years; 6/6/6, kick out from goal square and the willingness of umpire to play free kicks for infringements that were not paid last year

So what has the coaching staff done about this?

• well - not much. As we sit 0/3 and likely to be 0/6 in a few weeks logic suggests to me that  the coaches have totally failed to adapt to the new rules, and the players are simply executing a failed game plan- these are pretty much the same players that were a game away from a grand final

So what to do?

• anyone that knows anything about coaching young people (in business or sport) knows that piling on criticism and anger tends to make them withdraw, lose confidence and perform worse. Coaches must take responsibility, admit their plan is wrong, learn from the likes of Geelong who have clearly adapted to the "New Way" and change their model- quickly. As my old friend Darwin said:

umpires lost it for us. definition of corruption. commentators were constantly saying how weak and pathetic their calls were. i can't believe how idiotic they are.

the same problems remain and no one is doing anything about it, Troy Chaplin needs to go, he couldn't coordinate the backline of an under 10 side. 

i'm tired of the false hope, this club is pure disappointment, no chance of making finals after this insipid start. if anyone can remain optimistic fair play to you. 

getting rid of the membership. 

on the plus side, at least i got my tip for essendon 

6 minutes ago, Unleash Hell said:

I don't actually blame the players for this disaster it's very much a combination of things.

For a start thank you Gil you [censored] for continually changing how the game is played. It is now a soft outside game.

In saying that we as a club are terrible at it. And our structures and execution are all terrible.

I have no doubt in saying we are now the worst club in the league because our ability to execute in open play is non existent.

After you all get over the fact the we are terrible at this new game style the real question is - is it time to rebuild??

There are some very senior players at the moment who are underperforming either due to possible injury or bad form. They are all slow and struggle to impact the game in this new format.

Tough time for Goody and co. Leaking 20 goals to a basket case side is not good

It does seem a combination of so many things... the team looks at sea.

The game is now perfectly suited to our former No1s - Watts and Hogan

16 minutes ago, No10 said:

It does seem a combination of so many things... the team looks at sea.

The game is now perfectly suited to our former No1s - Watts and Hogan

Agree No10

We have gone the contested ball winning beast route and guess what there isn't a lot of now... stoppages.

We get slaughtered in open play and the past 3 weeks is evidence of that. Also apart from Oliver and a cameo from Brayshaw and Harmes our mids are one paced slow and have terrible decision making and execution.

We know they can win the ball but continually butcher it in open play.... Our efficiency is last and so are we...

Back to your point, the powers that be have changed the game style and our club has committed its strategy to the latter game style of 2018.

If we can't fix the defensive structures and find some outside run quicly it's going to be a long 12 months. 

Forget about finals we aren't even competitive at the moment.

 

I watched the first ten minutes. First clearance via Jones, long bomb...

Next clearance via Jones, a pass which was nowhere on target. Ball spent 9 of those minutes in Melbourne's forward half, one goal. Essendon attacked twice, two goals.

We miss Lewis, Vandenberg, May and Lever.

Things are crook in Tallarook

Or, Oi Friggin Weh..

 

I’m not going to try and establish the root cause of our current malaise - I worked out a long time ago that the view from TV (or the stands, sorry guys) without knowing the strategic context is too narrow to be able to do that. Nor will I pick out scapegoats (be it players or coaches). I understand why people like to single out the likes of ANB - I doubt there’s a more unclean player on our list and that dropped mark gave me flashbacks to the Dan Nicholson era. But he was also in our team last year when we were flying, so the idea that replacing him in the side is magically going to fix everything is fanciful. He’s the sort of player who will always look worse when the team sucks and better when it’s flying. The current problem is deeper and system-wide. 

I will say though that I’m deeply disappointed and hurting over this start to the season. I hate that flat, almost hungover feeling on Saturday/Sunday morning following a disappointing performance. We’re all feeling it and we all thought after last year that this was behind us.

The odds are stacked against us now even for making finals. That’s obvious even to the greatest optimist. I’m still hopeful we will turn it around though. I think we’ve got a leader in Goodwin who can and a playing list who are up to it. It’s just a bloody shame that we’re talking about “turning it around” three weeks in to what was meant to be a promising season. I hate footy.

With the new rules and soft umpiring interpretations, the game has shifted markedly in 2019 towards an outside, skilful, fast, running game and away from contested, numbers-around-the-ball, slower-paced football. Can we adapt? With what looks like a new 2019 game style in the AFL generally, zoning seems less useful than one-on-one, especially after any 6-6-6 re-sets, and we're having trouble with it, especially when defenders like Frost and OMac are so poor one-on-one. We should be winning centre clearances with a dominant ruckman though and we don't seem to be.

The pre-season and surgeries on a dozen or so players haven't helped, despite what Goodwin says, and I don't think our fitness level is adequate. We also have a lot of best-22 players missing.

We're generally a mess everywhere, but our defence is the biggest mess. The players we recruited as a foundation of our defence, Lever and May, are not in the side, so we're relying on second-choice players. The positioning and adaptability is woeful. We also still seem to be adopting a higher forward press that doesn't work with the running and fast breakaway game that other teams are adopting. Opposition forward lines have been wide open and that's why they score easily.

 

 

37 minutes ago, Sargent Shultz said:

Personally, I am not buying into any of the rubbish on this thread about our players not being good enough or trying hard enough. I do think the amount of surgery that went on after last season has hampered our start. Logic suggests the following:

• they are the pretty much the same players who got us to a semi-final last year- the only ones missing last night were; Lewis, Tyson, Vandenberg, Hannam and Spargo. Vandenberg, Hannam and Lewis may have made a bit of difference. But not substantial, as Hunt, J Wagner and  Fritsch (new to the team) played well  last night

So what has changed since September 2018?

• well - the rules. I think, the most significant change in the last 10 years; 6/6/6, kick out from goal square and the willingness of umpire to play free kicks for infringements that were not paid last year

So what has the coaching staff done about this?

• well - not much. As we sit 0/3 and likely to be 0/6 in a few weeks logic suggests to me that  the coaches have totally failed to adapt to the new rules, and the players are simply executing a failed game plan- these are pretty much the same players that were a game away from a grand final

So what to do?

• anyone that knows anything about coaching young people (in business or sport) knows that piling on criticism and anger tends to make them withdraw, lose confidence and perform worse. Coaches must take responsibility, admit their plan is wrong, learn from the likes of Geelong who have clearly adapted to the "New Way" and change their model- quickly. As my old friend Darwin said:

100% agree with you on this. 

Even though i’m concerned that implementing a totally new game plan might be 3 steps back before we take a step forward.. Do we accept that & write the season off? or do we persist & hope that we can tweak a few things to somehow salvage the season ? 

1 hour ago, Demonsone said:

Hawks have rolled the dice with Scully & Omera...only difference they gave late picks.....Whats concerning is Lever is bad luck buy May coming into a new club & presenting himself in poor shape says a lot about him, not sure how recruiters can miss that

Omeara was not a late pick trade. They paid at least one 1st rounder for him, think it was more.

Can you please link a quote from the club or anything close to the club as saying May presented in poor shape? I seem to remember reading the opposite 

This thread is morphing into the fact check thread 

Edit. Omeara cost pick 10 and future 2nd round 

Edited April 6, 20196 yr by Moonshadow

The rule changes seem to have been tailor made for Geelong. Hocking and his Cats cronies on the Competition Committee somehow managed to get the rest and Gil to introduce them.  

Just now, Moonshadow said:

Omeara was not a late pick trade. They paid at least one 1st rounder for him, think it was more.

Can you please link a quote from the club or anything close to the club as saying May presented in poor shape? I seem to remember reading the opposite 

This thread is morphing into the fact check thread 

Also paid plenty for Wingard. 

49 minutes ago, Sargent Shultz said:

Personally, I am not buying into any of the rubbish on this thread about our players not being good enough or trying hard enough. I do think the amount of surgery that went on after last season has hampered our start. Logic suggests the following:

• they are the pretty much the same players who got us to a semi-final last year- the only ones missing last night were; Lewis, Tyson, Vandenberg, Hannam and Spargo. Vandenberg, Hannam and Lewis may have made a bit of difference. But not substantial, as Hunt, J Wagner and  Fritsch (new to the team) played well  last night

So what has changed since September 2018?

• well - the rules. I think, the most significant change in the last 10 years; 6/6/6, kick out from goal square and the willingness of umpire to play free kicks for infringements that were not paid last year

So what has the coaching staff done about this?

• well - not much. As we sit 0/3 and likely to be 0/6 in a few weeks logic suggests to me that  the coaches have totally failed to adapt to the new rules, and the players are simply executing a failed game plan- these are pretty much the same players that were a game away from a grand final

So what to do?

• anyone that knows anything about coaching young people (in business or sport) knows that piling on criticism and anger tends to make them withdraw, lose confidence and perform worse. Coaches must take responsibility, admit their plan is wrong, learn from the likes of Geelong who have clearly adapted to the "New Way" and change their model- quickly. As my old friend Darwin said:

I was flat last night, and I didn't wake up much better, so it was kind of nice to see something positive/real. I think the coaching staff have failed to adapt. We've got a good core, we just need to be honest with ourselves, and start fresh next week with a better gameplan. With some luck and grit, we'll win the games we need in order to stay in the mix, then put it all together when the rest of our boys are back.

I've been trying to find an upside to all of this.

My wife is due to give birth in 2 weeks, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get out to many of the games, at least initially, and had become ok with the prospect that I'd miss some of our romping wins. 

Thanks to the Dees, it looks like I won't miss any of our (romping) wins, and I'll probably be well timed to return to the games when we've turned it around!

I look forward to taking our kid to a game, and being able to tell him/her (we don't know yet) about how much we have our sh*t together.

1 minute ago, Die Hard Demon said:

100% agree with you on this. 

Even though i’m concerned that implementing a totally new game plan might be 3 steps back before we take a step forward.. Do we accept that & write the season off? or do we persist & hope that we can tweak a few things to somehow salvage the season ? 

Unfortunately, I think the sad truth is that we recruited a team based upon congested footy, where a premium was placed on hard nuts who could win a contested ball. The new rules place a premium on players with elite football skills (by hand and foot, with speed in the open spaces. Witness - How many time last night Essendon players were out on their own receiving a perfect foot pass. We may be able to adapt- but I don't think so - at least in the short term- we have after all had 6 months to reset. Waiting for May and Lever to fix things is like waiting for Godot

3 minutes ago, RedButMostlyBlue said:

I've been trying to find an upside to all of this.

My wife is due to give birth in 2 weeks, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get out to many of the games, at least initially, and had become ok with the prospect that I'd miss some of our romping wins. 

Thanks to the Dees, it looks like I won't miss any of our (romping) wins, and I'll probably be well timed to return to the games when we've turned it around!

I look forward to taking our kid to a game, and being able to tell him/her (we don't know yet) about how much we have our sh*t together.

Good luck. Hope all goes well

4 minutes ago, Sargent Shultz said:

Unfortunately, I think the sad truth is that we recruited a team based upon congested footy, where a premium was placed on hard nuts who could win a contested ball. The new rules place a premium on players with elite football skills (by hand and foot, with speed in the open spaces. Witness - How many time last night Essendon players were out on their own receiving a perfect foot pass. We may be able to adapt- but I don't think so - at least in the short term- we have after all had 6 months to reset. Waiting for May and Lever to fix things is like waiting for Godot

ooh- you can add marking skills to the football skills  list - last night 61/84 in favour of Essendon, 50/65 in favour of Geelong, 76/102 in favour of Port Adelaide - 2019 will be the year of "the Atheltic Footballer"  Perhaps the game has moved on from the ability of some of our players?

10 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Good luck. Hope all goes well

Cheers, buddy! Exciting times ?

Just now, RedButMostlyBlue said:

Cheers, buddy! Exciting times ?

First ? 

3 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

First ? 

Yep! So much unknown, but max excitement for the challenges and joy ahead. It's been a long road. I've had the kid's Dees gear ready for a while haha. I've also had to get in early, as my wife is a Pies supporter (sorry) (although to be fair, she's more of quiet Dee nowadays).

You have any little Dees?

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

How's that defence working for you @binman?

30 shots at goal from 54 entries for 20 goals.  Your poster child OMac going to be AA this year?

they can't hide him any more.

No, they can't, but blaming him for what happened last night is short sighted at best.

Was he to blame for the ease with which they often ran the ball off their half back line, or burst away from stoppages, or broke tackles that we should have been sticking?  Our half forward line and midfield needs to work a hell of a lot harder than what it is right now.

Oscar obviously isn't the way forward for us, but he is also not the main cause of the problem.

11 hours ago, A F said:

Wow, mate. You're human. Everyone has a breaking point. And completely agree.

Human?  Let's not get carried away....

And I wouldn't say I hit my breaking point.  I've just had enough of ANB.  I can't put up with it any longer.  Our problems run much deeper than him, and I do feel guilty for singling him out, but it was horrible stuff.