On 15/04/2023 at 13:57, layzie said:

How many times did we burn open players in the 50 today! Quite a lot of visible bickering as a result of it too.

Yep ...the biggest offenders were probably Fritta and Kozzy (to a lessor degree?).

Fritta has history here though and  IMHO Goody needs him to adjust his game a tad.

Difficult though as a forward's inherent tendancy is often to just blaze away.  Sometimes blazing away is the best option and works but sometimes it obviously isn't.

Medium / small forward role very tough area to play i would think.

Split second decisions and calls under a fair bit if pressure / traffic alot of the time.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by Demon Dynasty

Well that was yuck.

My nearly two year old was very demonstrative that her play dough biskies were more interesting than watching the game.

In the third quarter I bowed to her superior judgement and turned it off.

I then had to try the biskies and I feel like I'm probably ahead.

We missed Lever so much, and I can't wait for Max to get back.

Other than the run in the 2nd, we looked like the boring old demons of 2nd half of last year, wouldn't lose by much, would beat the lower teams but we all knew something was up. Really sick of players not looking inward in the forward half too with Oliver working into space and screaming for the ball. He wants to take his game to another level, the other players need to help him there.

It's only early but, our run isn't too bad, just keep building and keep in striking distance of the top four and not risk our players and get them peachy keen for the back half is my optmistic take.

  On 15/04/2023 at 13:57, Demon Dynasty said:

#asmuchasjadedhatesem??

#SinceJadedHatesGeelongMoreThanLifeItselfThereforeHatesGeelongMoreThanEssendonThenYes,I’dConfidentlySayThatIHateEssendonAsMuchAs,IfNotMoreThanJaded

Oh man, I thought we have it bad driving home, one of our DA-ers is sitting next to Brad Scott on the plane. 😑

  On 15/04/2023 at 14:31, WalkingCivilWar said:

Oh man, I thought we have it bad driving home, one of our DA-ers is sitting next to Brad Scott on the plane. 😑

Pencil in neck. 
 

Done. 

Haven’t had a chance to watch the game yet, but I can’t help but feel we were due a loss to Essendon. Arguably we only just got over the line against them the last few matchups so seems inevitable that at some point they were going to get us, as much as that sucks!!

  On 15/04/2023 at 12:18, dazzledavey36 said:

Harmes?

He isn't best 22 anymore.

I went to a friends event tonight I got there and the game had just finished on the screen. 
I had a Collingwood supporter friend approach me as soon as I arrived and he said to me wow, you guys are really missing Harmes hey. Which I thought was interesting... 

  On 15/04/2023 at 19:36, FritschyBusiness said:

I went to a friends event tonight I got there and the game had just finished on the screen. 
I had a Collingwood supporter friend approach me as soon as I arrived and he said to me wow, you guys are really missing Harmes hey. Which I thought was interesting... 

It's obvious your Collingwood friend barely watches the dees otherwise he would have known that Harmes has been in incredibly poor form this year and 2nd half of last year. If he's not tagging then he doesn't add anything further to the team.

Going out of the team for personal reasons saved him getting officially dropped. And I don't mean that in any ill way at all because I really do hope he's in good health and is able to enjoy his footy again.

But in footy terms he'll need to fight for his spot now and for me Jordon is my preferred candidate for that last midfield spot.

As much as I hate to say it, not enough credit is being given to Scott's tactics, taking out our danger players, especially in the first half. 

• Langford/Stringer used as decoys to get May away from the goals leaving us with an inexperienced makeshift defence and a lone ruckman. (Was Petty injured early?)
• Ran the ball through the corridor.  A great tactic at any time let alone when there is no Lever or May to defend.
• Kicked the ball to their tall timber close to goal.
• Two ruckman.
• Tagged Oliver (Setterfield and Snelling).  Can't believe he didn't get more frees from holding/blocking
• Tagged Kozzie (Kelly)

The stupid frees Tomlinson gave away early, gave them goals that upped their confidence and they didn't look back.  It was a repeat of his game vs Reid last year where he gave away early frees resulting in 2/3 goals.  Like yesterday it gave Sydney belief and momentum  He didn't get another game last year and shouldn't this year. 

Add their work rate which we couldn't match and the game was theirs for the taking.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by Lucifers Hero

Two things that were distressing:

• The umpire making Spargo stand the mark when he was not even able to stand,
• Draper running at speed 20 mtrs from the ball drop to deliberately launch a knee into TMc's back,

Wouldn't have minded if a team mate had gone to the aid of our two fallen clearly distressed players.

Spargo won't play next week and will be surprised if TMc does.

Chris Scott is right: ruckman launching a knee into the ribs (or back) of other ruckman has to be stamped out of the game.   It was that horror person Cox who did it to Max on QB last year and set Max back for the whole season.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by Lucifers Hero

Our coaches didn't anticipate their tactics to take out our danger players (May, Oliver, Kozzie) and how they would cover their two missing tall forwards. 

Their remaining danger forward was Stringer and based on Goodwin's mid week interview he was our focus. 

Not sure we had the resources to do much to counter their tactics during the game.  Nonetheless, I'm surprised we do not yet have a system to counteract the 'running at our defence through the corridor' strategy which has been so successful by a lot of teams in the last few years.

Last word:  Not enough 'being a good team mate' that we prided ourselves on in 2021.  Team work and care for team mates went missing.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by Lucifers Hero

I'm watching the replay and just seen some Essendon supporters in the crowd carrying on like nuffies. God help us all if they have a good season.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by BDA

  On 15/04/2023 at 21:11, BDA said:

I'm watching the replay and just seen some Essendon supporters in the crowd carrying on like nuffies. God help us all if they have a good season.

Some? Biggest nuffie supporter base going. 

The Brisbane game was a horror show and yesterday was nearly as bad. I don’t think the brains trust can put this down to a bad day at the office and move on. Some honest conversations required.

No point talking about individual players because the whole team were shizen.

We were totally outcoached for sure. Their ruck strategy worked a treat and the quick ball into their forwards had our defence scrambling all day. Essendon outworked us all around the ground. Their contest work was outstanding, and their defence stood up. Credit to them. They were very good and are a better team than I realised.

But you can talk about game plan and tactics all you like but without the right attitude and appetite for work it means nought. They came to play and we didn’t. We need to find out this week why that was and address it. And I'm not buying fatigue as a reason. 

9 days til Anzac eve. I expect a big response. And if we’re going to get beat let’s die with our boots on. No more of this half-hearted rubbish. Having Essendon pull our pants down like that is embarrassing.

I think most of the team were flat from back-to-back interstate trips and a 6-day break, but I think it's time to seriously consider managing some of the older players in this situation. May and TMac were next to useless, so if they weren't carrying an injury, should/could be out 'managed' for situations such as these.

I thought Grundy played well and has been good in all games. My only issue with him is he only took 3 marks despite being the player everyone kicked to. 3 marks is the most he's ever taken in a game . He really needs to fix this.

Tmac.  I'm sorry I have defended him a lot up until yesterday.  Zero tackles. This is inexcusable.  When your having a bad day getting your hands on the ball, the least you can do is go and wrap up some opposition players. This reveals a complete lack of effort and can't be ignored.

Sparrow is woefully out of form.

Goody was too slow to make any changes.

Our backline was a rabble yesterday and it  looked like amateur hour. Bowser is having a bad season. But it's rare for us to be so poor in this area.

Our mids seem slow to switch on in several of our games.

We have also had a shocking run of injuries this year .

But the biggest issue is our forward line. As mentioned Tmac seems gone. Jvr is in his 3rd game at 19 and we're depending on him. Bbb is greatly missed and I hope he wasn't omitted due to rain. 

The club is short of a reliable, not injury prone strong experienced forward. We have mids galore but didn't think it was important to cover an aging Tmac and Bbb. 

Maybe the Max and Grundy combo can ease this problem a little but I'm not sure we can depend on Grundy with his marking issues to hit the scoreboard big time.

We don't look like premiers at this point in time and I'm not sure how we fix our fwd problem. Yea we will play finals but like last year will be beaten again. I just don't see the commitment from them.

 

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by leave it to deever

  On 15/04/2023 at 09:03, Jaded No More said:

We looked lazy

Yep. We were. Enough said.

Let's not forget that this was this first time the dons had left Melbourne and have played 3 of this year's probable bottom 4.

They were fresh and up for a fight.

Goodwin massively outcoached, he had an absolute shocker. If you could drop him you would.

We bombed it forward like school boys

Forwards, Fritsch, ANB, Melksham and Petracca all burned team mates in better positions.

I thought May was our most important player but maybe it's Lever, either that or they're some kind of couple.

Grundy wasn't the problem it's just that without Gawn,  Scott exposed his weaknesses, he was actually good around the ball.

Bombers really wanted it, should have won by 12 goals.

We need our best 12 fit for Grand Final day.

Essendon ran about 5 tags yesterday and there was a lot of blocking in their forward line. A lot of holds, especially on Clarry not paid. 

  On 15/04/2023 at 21:58, BDA said:

The Brisbane game was a horror show and yesterday was nearly as bad. I don’t think the brains trust can put this down to a bad day at the office and move on. Some honest conversations required.

No point talking about individual players because the whole team were shizen.

We were totally outcoached for sure. Their ruck strategy worked a treat and the quick ball into their forwards had our defence scrambling all day. Essendon outworked us all around the ground. Their contest work was outstanding, and their defence stood up. Credit to them. They were very good and are a better team than I realised.

But you can talk about game plan and tactics all you like but without the right attitude and appetite for work it means nought. They came to play and we didn’t. We need to find out this week why that was and address it. And I'm not buying fatigue as a reason. 

9 days til Anzac eve. I expect a big response. And if we’re going to get beat let’s die with our boots on. No more of this half-hearted rubbish. Having Essendon pull our pants down like that is embarrassing.

This, it was a lazy, lazy effort. Outworked outrun, outtackled, it was like when we got 2goals in front in the second quarter and they fought back to regain the lead it was a collective it's all too hard today

Second time in 5 games it's happened and it's nowhere near good enough. Coupled with the last half of last year I'm afraid we are in danger of wasting the talent on this list, big change in attitude needed.

Whoops.

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by leave it to deever

  On 15/04/2023 at 14:31, WalkingCivilWar said:

Oh man, I thought we have it bad driving home, one of our DA-ers is sitting next to Brad Scott on the plane. 😑

I guess there's always a positive. 

Speaking of which, did you stop at that servo on the way home and run over that old lady's feet?

  On 15/04/2023 at 09:32, Bates Mate said:

Brayshaw had been very average so far this year. He was AA level half back last year.

 

Didn’t Brayshaw keep Stringer to 5 kicks and one goal?

Melbourne were talked up preseason by David King because of the intensity of our training sessions. Where is that intensity now? We just cruised yesterday. Not acceptable.

Rubbish effort. Sort yourselves out Dees.