POSTGAME: Rd 03 vs Essendon

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

2 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Once we get our accuracy right, that's when we blow them away Premership 3rd quarter+ style.  Mind you, I don't think our on ball, centre clearance game was quite as on tonight.  Gee that game against the Dogs was one 'out of the box'.

Over the journey, Goodwin has talked about our high level of i50 and playing in our front half.  When we do that, and minimise the opps i50 we win regardless of our goal kicking accuracy. 

He coaches to win not so much for %'age.  

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,768]

4 minutes ago, spalding said:

I just love how we have developed young players with specific roles so they fit seemlessly into the team.

I thought Salem was irreplaceable in 2021 and then along comes Bowey.

JJ now a fully fledged member of the wingers club, who can play in the mid if needed. Allows Brayshaw to go to the “mens department” or possibly into the midfield if clarry or trac weren’t there.

bedford looked ok in Rd1 in the Spargo/ANB/Kozzie role 

weid went ok in the Brown and Tmac role.

Petty covers the key defensive role, and I think could be good enough overhead to play other roles (fwd, or intercept defender if required)

Sparrow has started a bit slow this year (a bit fumbly and second guessing himself) but fits into the Viney/Harmes role.

haven’t even mentioned Dogga, but his development has meant that Max’s relatively slow start (although I thought last night was a step in right direction for Max, I think he thinks he is Stevie J after the 3rd Qtr of the Preliminary final!) is a non issue for us. 

Great post.  I also love how Joel Smith has stepped up and added to our defensive capabilities.  My take is that he's probably our second best key defender in the side so far this year.  Smith playing the Petty one on one lockdown defender type role, but with a bit more flair.  Some of those come from nowhere diving spoils are almost Sean Wight like.

With Lever back, I think it will be Hunt or Tomlinson out on current form.  Will be good to see what Smith can do with Lever around to take off some of the heat and control the troops  bit.

[Jaded No More 68,835]

Anyone who was at the ground yesterday could see how aggressively Essendon was flooding our forward half. Their strategy was clear, stop us scoring so they stay in the game long enough to maybe attack and win the game. 
To their credit it worked, and our pathetic goal kicking certainly helped. 
They opened up the play in the second half and got some good clearances, which coincided with Gawn going into the middle. That helped them isolate Wright 1-1 who is not only hard to stop but who is a very good kick. May was doing really well in the first half when the game was a defensive slog, but when you let opposition waltz out the front of the clearance you can’t stop their big forwards from marking. 
 

Overall you could see we are a class above. We played in small patches and just destroyed them with ball use. If we kick straight the game is done at 1/4 time. But because we are conserving energy we powered ourselves on for small patches to secure the win and take the wind out of their sails just when they thought they had a sniff. 
We are not at our best and clearly nowhere near the same fitness level as this time last year. But professional quality sides make things happen and we keep making wins happen. 

 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,768]

6 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Over the journey, Goodwin has talked about our high level of i50 and playing in our front half.  When we do that, and minimise the opps i50 we win regardless of our goal kicking accuracy. 

He coaches to win not so much for %'age.  

To a certain extent, just winning consistently by the modest, but comfortable 20 - 30 point margins we do builds a healthy %, particularly when we restrict the oppositions scoring to such low levels, but agree it's much more important to be walking away with the 4 points every week and solidifying out spot towards the top of the ladder.

The systematic, almost clinical way we have developed over the last season or so to bank the wins has been somewhat of a revolution for me in my time watching the might Melbourne Demons.

[dee-tox 4,835]

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

They opened up the play in the second half and got some good clearances, which coincided with Gawn going into the middle. That helped them isolate Wright 1-1 who is not only hard to stop but who is a very good kick. May was doing really well in the first half when the game was a defensive slog, but when you let opposition waltz out the front of the clearance you can’t stop their big forwards from marking.

 

This. May had no hope stopping a fast leading Wright when Essendon midfield streamed forward unchallenged. Set leading patterns and a quick guy 200cm is pretty much impossible to stop.

[DeeSpencer 25,365]

29 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Petracca appeared to have an interesting role last night possibly to protect his knee but also to surprise the opposition.  

He had only 2 clearances which suggests he didn't attend many stoppages or the tactics were for him to play a defensive rather than his usual attacking role.  It looked like he was a decoy to lead his tagger (usually McGrath) away from the play/contest and stay out of Ess fwd line.  This allowed Oliver to run amok without anyone on him altho Caldwell tried but to no avail.

And it looked like Bowey took over some of Petracca's work, attending stoppages in our back half and playing higher up the ground when we attacked and to defend in the midfield.  All the while Brayshaw was like the Berlin wall with 20 marks.  Not much got past him.  A very good Lever clone albeit his work was just fwd of the d50 rather than inside the d50 as Lever usually does.

If my hunch is right about Petracca being a decoy to free up other players and reduce Ess attacking capability it was smart coaching and planning.

I'd put most of Petracca's game down to being tagged, sore and playing a lot of the second half forward. But I did notice when it got back to 2 goals the difference he immediately went back on ball and made sure they weren't losing it.

Bowey's just playing that high defender role more to my eyes. But he does like the corridor as good players do and his clean hands through the middle are a weapon.

Gus was probably best on ground but he had only 8 intercept possessions and 1 contested mark. Most of his 20 marks were from uncontested play, filling in clever little gaps in the bombers zone and providing easy options for his team mates. That's good footy, but he was more on clean up duty than the wall. There were some Lever like moments but it was more of a Salem game with composure which was impressive from Gus.

I thought Smith, Bowey and even Hunt all did great jobs winning the ball back across half back along with Gus.

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

I chuckled each time Oliver placed a peck on the temple area of a teammate after they kicked a goal.  At least twice last night. 

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

11 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Why would trac signal he thought it was touched. Just shut up trac. 

That's the character of the man. Compare & contrast with teams who train to throw the ball and play outside the rules.

 

11 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

I agree- didn’t look right.

Which begs the question- why play him - it’s only round 3?

He’s too valuable to risk at this stage of the season!

Reckon it's part of the "resilience" built in to our fitness/training. Not "right" but not "too badly" injured = you play.

 

10 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Only 44k at the game tonight, which was very poor imo. Hoped for more Dees fans at the game, but we had to have 25k (closer to 30) in the crowd .

The Bummers lacked the decency to win their first two games and get their fans on a high of excitement. That would have brought 70K to our home game. God they're scum.

 

9 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

I thought our first half was terrible really let them in the game when we should have been further in front.

Game should have been iced by half time but then it made the second half an entertaining spectacle as the Bummers got so near and yet so far.

[DeeSpencer 25,365]

4 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

This. May had no hope stopping a fast leading Wright when Essendon midfield streamed forward unchallenged. Set leading patterns and a quick guy 200cm is pretty much impossible to stop.

The issue isn't so much that May was beaten but that he completely lost track of Wright and didn't even try to chase him for 3 of his goals. He was out marked in a couple of contests which happens, but many of Wright's marks were with 10+m of separation.

May often lets his opponent go outside 50 and sits back deep, that's the game plan, but there were times last night where Wright's leads were only ever going to take him 30-40 out and there was no reason to cover the back 20 where Hunt or Smith had pretty good match ups.

I don't know if it was physical or mental or both but something went really haywire with May last night. Baffling baffling performance at crucial moments.

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

3 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

I don't know if it was physical or mental or both but something went really haywire with May last night. Baffling baffling performance at crucial moments.

I've been wondering if his hamstring has fully recovered. May might be wondering that too. At his age they can be long healing and prone to re-injury.

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,768]

7 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Gus was probably best on ground but he had only 8 intercept possessions and 1 contested mark. Most of his 20 marks were from uncontested play, filling in clever little gaps in the bombers zone and providing easy options for his team mates.

I've noticed Gus does get most of his possessions in the ways described above.  Makes me wounder why the opposition don't put more effort into manning him up at times.  Though he doesn't gain huge territory with some of the dinky little 20m passes that he chips back and forth almost in a 1-2 get back your own ball type fashion, it does let us walk the ball away from the oppositions dangerous space and towards the wing/forward area for us in a pretty low risk way, which I think relieves pressure for us and helps us control the game on our terms more.

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

9 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

I'd put most of Petracca's game down to being tagged, sore and playing a lot of the second half forward. But I did notice when it got back to 2 goals the difference he immediately went back on ball and made sure they weren't losing it.

Bowey's just playing that high defender role more to my eyes. But he does like the corridor as good players do and his clean hands through the middle are a weapon.

Gus was probably best on ground but he had only 8 intercept possessions and 1 contested mark. Most of his 20 marks were from uncontested play, filling in clever little gaps in the bombers zone and providing easy options for his team mates. That's good footy, but he was more on clean up duty than the wall. There were some Lever like moments but it was more of a Salem game with composure which was impressive from Gus.

I thought Smith, Bowey and even Hunt all did great jobs winning the ball back across half back along with Gus.

Um, I did acknowledged that Petracca's role was in part to protect his knee.

But, this:  "We were able to manipulate a few things with him and get an advantage in certain areas of the ground. His selfless role for the team was outstanding...." taken from Goodwin's press conf, tells me there was more to his role than protecting his knee. 

I would stand by my earlier comments: "...or the tactics were for him to play a defensive rather than his usual attacking role.  It looked like he was a decoy to lead his tagger (usually McGrath) away from the play/contest and stay out of Ess fwd line.  This allowed Oliver to run amok without anyone on him altho Caldwell tried but to no avail.  And it looked like Bowey took over some of Petracca's work, attending stoppages in our back half and playing higher up the ground when we attacked and to defend in the midfield" ... and add that they are more consistent with what Goodwin said than simply being tagged and being sore. 

[titan_uranus 24,963]

54 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

In his press conf Goodwin wasn't too worried about their scoring efficiency:  20 scoring shots (10.10) from 39 i50.

He would have been rapt that we kept them to 39 i50!  39!!  That means the game is being played in our half of the ground.  Tough for any team to win with only 39 i50.  Gus was a huge part of keeping the ball out of their scoring zone.

39 inside 50s is an incredibly low count. 

But you can see the defensive issues we have right there with the 20 scoring shots. That’s a score from 51% of their entries. 

In the first two rounds we conceded the lowest and second lowest number of scores from inside 50s conceded, down in the low 30%s. So the fact it jumped to 51% last night indicates a concern with our backline, but also different sort of game/win (Essendon conceded territory by flooding more than GC or the Dogs did).

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,768]

Just thinking back to some of the comments and claims in the Casey thread last week that "he'll never make it" etc, gee, there must be some really tasty humble pie being eaten this morning regarding the Weid's performance.

Yeah it's only one game, but I thought there were some really positive signs from the Weid last night.  Must admit that I was quite surprised when he got named as an emergency ahead of Mitch Brown, but really glad for the guy that he was able to repay the faith and really turn it on last night.  Thought the way he was moving and marking the ball was really good.

[640MD 3,337]

22 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Anyone who was at the ground yesterday could see how aggressively Essendon was flooding our forward half. Their strategy was clear, stop us scoring so they stay in the game long enough to maybe attack and win the game. 
To their credit it worked, and our pathetic goal kicking certainly helped. 
They opened up the play in the second half and got some good clearances, which coincided with Gawn going into the middle. That helped them isolate Wright 1-1 who is not only hard to stop but who is a very good kick. May was doing really well in the first half when the game was a defensive slog, but when you let opposition waltz out the front of the clearance you can’t stop their big forwards from marking. 
 

Overall you could see we are a class above. We played in small patches and just destroyed them with ball use. If we kick straight the game is done at 1/4 time. But because we are conserving energy we powered ourselves on for small patches to secure the win and take the wind out of their sails just when they thought they had a sniff. 
We are not at our best and clearly nowhere near the same fitness level as this time last year. But professional quality sides make things happen and we keep making wins happen. 

 

Agree with this, sometimes an entire half of the field was empty,   flooding is back.

Couple of other points, Smith was very good,   very frost like energy and athleticism   but no panic.

The strong goal from Sparrow got our heads re set   and Langdon's goal  was a head shaker.

And Bowey,  to put it very mildly   we have another gem.   

We definitely can play better but there were no real passengers last night.  I was not worried apart from when that 2 metre bloke got 2 quick ones and thought he might repeat.   He was too quick on the lead , too tall, and mostly quite accurate. And when they looked for him their entry was much better.

But we prevailed     Go Dees     B2B in 22

[640MD 3,337]

Yes and Weideman  looked very good in isolated times.   I am sure his problem is above his own shoulders.

He can mark, he can lead, at times he can kick straight, if he can stay until BBB retires, he will fill that role and kick 3 or 4 each match.      ( perhaps )

Cannot think of any player last night who had a complete stinker.    Pleased to be there and very pleased to beat Essundun

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

4 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

39 inside 50s is an incredibly low count. 

But you can see the defensive issues we have right there with the 20 scoring shots. That’s a score from 51% of their entries. 

In the first two rounds we conceded the lowest and second lowest number of scores from inside 50s conceded, down in the low 30%s. So the fact it jumped to 51% last night indicates a concern with our backline, but also different sort of game/win (Essendon conceded territory by flooding more than GC or the Dogs did).

Fair comments.

tbh I'm not sure the team care too much how many G/B the opps kick. 

My read is the defence KPI's are:  low opp i50, opps to score only a max 60-70 pts, keep play in our half of the ground and if we do those the opps goal scoring efficiency won't matter too much because we will have kicked a higher score by virtue of our high i50. 

Sure sometimes that plan may not work if say they had kick 16.4.  If their 20 shots had given them 15.5 we still would have won. 

[Dr. Gonzo 24,121]

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

In his press conf Goodwin wasn't too worried about their scoring efficiency:  20 scoring shots (10.10) from 39 i50.

He would have been rapt that we kept them to 39 i50!  39!!  That means the game is being played in our half of the ground.  Tough for any team to win with only 39 i50.  Gus was a huge part of keeping the ball out of their scoring zone.

Does anyone have the time in forward half %? And broken down to 1st and 2nd halves?

The first half the ball seemed to be played in our 3/4 of the ground, rarely went past half back.

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

10 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Just thinking back to some of the comments and claims in the Casey thread last week that "he'll never make it" etc, gee, there must be some really tasty humble pie being eaten this morning regarding the Weid's performance.

Yeah it's only one game, but I thought there were some really positive signs from the Weid last night.  Must admit that I was quite surprised when he got named as an emergency ahead of Mitch Brown, but really glad for the guy that he was able to repay the faith and really turn it on last night.  Thought the way he was moving and marking the ball was really good.

Agreed.

What impressed me was how he seamlessly he fitted into the team and our 'system'.  He got good separation from defenders, lead well, contested well and didn't let his early misses affect his confidence for the rest of the game.  And he kicked 4.2.

That was a well rounded performance by him.  Couldn't be happier to see him rewarded for his perseverance and hard work.

Really hope he stays in the team.

[titan_uranus 24,963]

2 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Fair comments.

tbh I'm not sure the team care too much how many G/B the opps kick. 

My read is the defence KPI's are:  low opp i50, opps to score only a max 60-70 pts, keep play in our half of the ground and if we do those the opps goal scoring efficiency won't matter too much because we will have kicked a higher score by virtue of our high i50. 

Sure sometimes that plan may not work if say they had kick 16.4.  If their 20 shots had given them 15.5 we still would have won. 

Yes and no - yes, ultimately what matters most is the score so if we’re winning by 5 goals then the frequency of their scores isn’t so important. 

But pre-2021 one of our biggest flaws was that when sides got through our forward half press they scored at will. Last year that was not the case and it meant if our forward half game was off we didn’t automatically lose. The two parts of our game work together and I’m confident the FD would be disappointed with 51% last night. IMO stemming from May struggling with Wright and the Hunt, Tomlinson, Smith trio not being near the Lever, Salem, Petty combo in terms of reading play, zoning and intercepting. 

[Lucifers Hero 39,320]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Does anyone have the time in forward half %? And broken down to 1st and 2nd halves?

The first half the ball seemed to be played in our 3/4 of the ground, rarely went past half back.

The 'Heat Maps' for each quarter and the game would give that but I don't know how to extract them.

Petracca rarely ventures back of centre but the 'Heat Maps' should show the emphasis between middle and forward.

[dees189227 12,361]

On May he was great in the 1st half, we know how good he is in the air punching it away but when his opponent runs to a lead like that he doesn't have the pace. That's where we missed lever because he would have got across to help.

I wonder if gold coast rue letting Wright go. They hardly played him & could do with a forward right now.

Anyway you look at the paper this morning we are back on top for now & Essendon are sitting pretty on the bottom

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by dees189227

[dees189227 12,361]

11 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Only 44k at the game tonight, which was very poor imo. Hoped for more Dees fans at the game, but we had to have 25k (closer to 30) in the crowd .

Dons fans soft and turning toes up at season already (marvellous)

I must admit I was surprised the lack of noise by the dons fans when they ran out. I barely had any of there supporters around me except for a dad with his 2 teenage sons who were starting to annoy me but left after Langdon kicked that goal. There cheersquad looked pretty sparce. Maybe they thought the reigning premiers would crush them. 

[Hellish Inferno 992]

Bugatti Veyron stuck in second gear vs. Toyota Camry struggling to get out of third

[In Harmes Way 7,730]

I first started watching the dees in the early 80’s, so love often wondered what it was like watching the wonderous dees sides of the 1950’s where they lost a total of 6 games at the G in the last 6 yrs of the decade. Now I think I’ve got a good idea - we might not have smashed every team, every week back then but had a team playing team first footy with one or more of our stars shining through.

Good times ahead.