16 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

The complacency is a funny one.

If the coaches acknowledge it before the game ("every opponent is tough"), you are validating that you are favorites and should win.

If you don't, you risk letting it fester in the playing group's mind, and players rock up just thinking it will happen.

Coaches too. I don't need to as tight on that message, or that assignment. Play fast, play attacking , they won't be able to go with us.

Either way, it's unavoidable, and results in a collective 30% lowering of intensity.

Supporters are the same - look at how bad the reaction is on here. Everyone expected to trounce them. Probably said "lucky we have Essendon this week, don't need to worry".

A week off from the angst and tension. We don't need to be at our best.

Its totally, universally unavoidable and seeps in from all sides.

Not just in football - in everything. You take your foot off the pedal, you are eventually found out, 95% of the time.

The only tonics are experience - those who've seen it before and can bring unconditional effort no matter the circumstances (gawn) - and those who just love the game and see every chance to play as their everything (Kossie, Butters etc)

Until you have team with a critical mass of these two types, these days will happen, and will always happen.

Theres's nothing the coaches can say or do to prevent it. All mindset.

I was the exact opposite, I never thought we would win. It’s our thing at gather round, bombers smash us.

Just like Fremantle has become a team we lose to 9/10 times.

I honestly believe the boys were tired as well as thought they had it in the bag and had no answers when they were significantly tested.

Bombers still have some real talent in Merrit, Magrath, and their new youth. Heck, even McKay had a good day for once.

Goes to show the talent is there, you can’t go in with a poor mindset, or you’ll be found out really quickly.

Funny isnt it. How we see things.

After being smashed by the bombers, I said to the son-in-law, you Lions will be locking your laps playing us next week.

He replied: "not really, Gawn will be out for a vengeance."

I hope is right. But, how can we turn that effort around.

6 minutes ago, Swooper1987 said:

This is partly true, but what the Bombers game plan did yesterday was make Gawn redundant behind the ball. No contested marks and only 1 for the game told the true Gawn story. He was terrific at winning his own ball and was in fact the highest rated player on the ground, but his influence was curtailed by the Bombers' ability to go around him. That is great coaching, and not dissimilar to what Geelong have done when playing against us in recent times. At all costs, avoid Gawn. I'm surprised more coaches haven't adopted this strategy.

Completely agree with this. Went a long way to beating us and could do so with the time afforded in unconstested possession after winning the contest and looking to find a mark first rather than attack. They were really good at taking our game away from us and will be interesting to see if they can start to put some form together off the back of it now that they're starting to get continuity of talent in their side.

21 hours ago, Dees1911 said:

Melbourne & Tottenham

I thought I was alone !!

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I had a feeling of doom yesterday when I saw them running out in that awful jumper. Just felt really wrong

3 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Can’t stand him. He literally has tantrums if he doesn’t get the ball in a contest, did you see yesterday?

Slapping at the ball after someone else Has marked it and another time he flexed up his muscles like the hulk, literally like a kid does when they have a tantrum.

He definitely has head noise.

The concept of taking a mark is one being able to conduct a fair contest to the best of your ability.

Not having to be retarded by several guys who want to hit you in the face or grab your arms or take your feet out from under you.

Moving on to reality we have instances where that happens, mostly it doesn’t.

What we are finding is one week it does and one kicks three to four goals, the other weeks young and old players find that a different rule is in place or made up.

59 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

I was the exact opposite, I never thought we would win. It’s our thing at gather round, bombers smash us.

Just like Fremantle has become a team we lose to 9/10 times.

I honestly believe the boys were tired as well as thought they had it in the bag and had no answers when they were significantly tested.

Bombers still have some real talent in Merrit, Magrath, and their new youth. Heck, even McKay had a good day for once.

Goes to show the talent is there, you can’t go in with a poor mindset, or you’ll be found out really quickly.

good summary.

How can you explain the bombers kicked 12 goals to 1 after 20 minute mark of second 1/4.? Can't.

The loss was an ' in your head' thing, not talent or gameplan. Genius required to figure this result out.

But we now know the team is improving but some big issues still to be addressed.

58 minutes ago, RedBlueandTrue said:

Completely agree with this. Went a long way to beating us and could do so with the time afforded in unconstested possession after winning the contest and looking to find a mark first rather than attack. They were really good at taking our game away from us and will be interesting to see if they can start to put some form together off the back of it now that they're starting to get continuity of talent in their side.

But the really interesting thing will be how King/Gawn plan to address this in game in future, having seen the strategy work effectively.. And what role rest of team has.

and the conclusion is that if the lowly bomber can succeed - why can't other teams.

10 minutes ago, demon36 said:

good summary.

How can you explain the bombers kicked 12 goals to 1 after 20 minute mark of second 1/4.? Can't.

The loss was an ' in your head' thing, not talent or gameplan. Genius required to figure this result out.

But we now know the team is improving but some big issues still to be addressed.

Nah got no clue.

Bombers were on, we were not. I think it could be that simple.

I also think our coaches were out coached.

You have both the coaches and players being outplayed and you’re doomed.

So perplexing after last week, I guess consistency is key.

I was sure we moved on from these losses. They looked flat from the beginning and once Essendon had a sniff it was all over. Move on fast, rest anyone who needs it and bat up again next week. Big test at the G, the crowd just shrank by 7500 though.

This game was eerily similar to round 11 2024. Whilst we had previously been solid but not to the level of the 3 previous seasons we capitulated unexpectedly to West Coast Eagles which had been putrid all season and winless. We made them look like premiership material. That hastened our decline. I hope this not a sign of bad things to come.

12 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I was sure we moved on from these losses. They looked flat from the beginning and once Essendon had a sniff it was all over. Move on fast, rest anyone who needs it and bat up again next week. Big test at the G, the crowd just shrank by 7500 though.

7500 pee hearts.

We are 3-2, and have played the most existing football we have seen from us since 21. We have the softest fan base in world sport if they jump off after 1 bad game.

We won a flag 5 years ago ffs. Some fans still talk like they are long suffering.

2 hours ago, Swooper1987 said:

This is partly true, but what the Bombers game plan did yesterday was make Gawn redundant behind the ball. No contested marks and only 1 for the game told the true Gawn story. He was terrific at winning his own ball and was in fact the highest rated player on the ground, but his influence was curtailed by the Bombers' ability to go around him. That is great coaching, and not dissimilar to what Geelong have done when playing against us in recent times. At all costs, avoid Gawn. I'm surprised more coaches haven't adopted this strategy.

I reckon this is spot on. They chipped the ball around, and we simply didn’t apply anywhere near enough pressure on their kicking to force a turnover. We thought it was going to be as simple as waiting for them to make a mistake, but they didn’t, and as a result their confidence grew and grew as the game went on.

Add to that we didn’t win enough of the ball at stoppages, and you have a 45 point loss. Our intensity was way down, and our lack of depth in the midfield got exposed badly.

We lacked pressure and speed all over the ground but it stood out a lot in the backline amount other areas.

Would we look at moving L Picket to defence as a small defensive back man who has speed and can pressure when needed. Admit he is still learning the game and slight in stature but could be worth a look. Would be a Nev Jetta type.

2 hours ago, old demon fan said:

I hope is right. But, how can we turn that effort around.

It’s between the ears old.

1 hour ago, Demon_spurs said:

I had a feeling of doom yesterday when I saw them running out in that awful jumper. Just felt really wrong

Bury it to never be seen again.

We are a bad travelling team. Perhaps too much of getting to know each other and less focus on the system and preparation.

We became frenzied runners, but were playing behind, second to the ball and chasing all day. Often we were in the wrong position to gather the ground-balls, then became witches hats as we attempted to defend with zone. We got the transitioning wrong, compressed when in attack and spaces when defending.

Do we ever use a central corridor, making us more predictable to defend against?

Our anticipation was wanting, being slow off the mark, and the defenders not supporting each other.

Our run and intensity was only in spurts.

We lost poise and connection, and our conversion from inside 50 was back to last year's incompetence.

A few will be replaced, and we reset for a blitz at our fortress (MCG).

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Kev

FWIW,

2024 Dons finished 11th on 46 points and we finished 14th on 44 points.

2025, we finished 14th on 28 and Dons finished 15th on 24.

Going off the last two seasons, 72 points to us, 70 to Essendon.

I think maybe people forget that Essendon last season essentially only had about 4 fit players available later in the season… still only finished 1 game behind us.

Might be a very unpopular opinion, but excluding the games this year, we’re almost dead even on output. Probably worse for us considering Dons injuries last year.

Yes it was a bad game by us, terrible in fact, but we just aren’t miles ahead of Essendon when you look at wins/losses since 2024.

1 minute ago, BoBo said:

FWIW,

2024 Dons finished 11th on 46 points and we finished 14th on 44 points.

2025, we finished 14th on 28 and Dons finished 15th on 24.

Going off the last two seasons, 72 points to us, 70 to Essendon.

I think maybe people forget that Essendon last season essentially only had about 4 fit players available later in the season… still only finished 1 game behind us.

Might be a very unpopular opinion, but excluding the games this year, we’re almost dead even on output. Probably worse for us considering Dons injuries last year.

Yes it was a bad game by us, terrible in fact, but we just aren’t miles ahead of Essendon when you look at wins/losses since 2024.

Agree with this. Essendon are not a good side but they shouldn’t be terrible/bottom 2. The second half of last year they were hopeless because they could barely field a team. Poor start to this year but they have enough talent that they were always going to improve once they got a bit of confidence back.

Having said that, GC should pants them this week.

8 hours ago, BDA said:

i expected inconsistency

i did not expect non-existent pressure and total lack of effort against a likely wooden spooner. we weren't just off yesterday we were nowhere near.

You did not expect inconsistency at all.

Apart from the hyperbole ("likely wooden spooner" ...), inconsistency means EXACTLY what you saw yesterday. Wild swings in performance, across and within games. An inconsistent team is one that might look dominant one match or quarter and underwhelming the next, might beat a ladder-leader one week but then lose to a cellar-dweller.

What you expected was in fact the reverse, consistency, where we'd more or less perform to a similar level every time we ran out onto the park.

If you hate losing fine, but don't kid yourself about "expecting inconsistency".

1 minute ago, bing181 said:

You did not expect inconsistency at all.

Apart from the hyperbole ("likely wooden spooner" ...), inconsistency means EXACTLY what you saw yesterday. Wild swings in performance, across and within games. An inconsistent team is one that might look dominant one match or quarter and underwhelming the next, might beat a ladder-leader one week but then lose to a cellar-dweller.

What you expected was in fact the reverse, consistency, where we'd more or less perform to a similar level every time we ran out onto the park.

If you hate losing fine, but don't kid yourself about "expecting inconsistency".

you're like my wife. Telling me what i think.

don;t be such a pompous [censored]

10 minutes ago, godees said:

Agree with this. Essendon are not a good side but they shouldn’t be terrible/bottom 2. The second half of last year they were hopeless because they could barely field a team. Poor start to this year but they have enough talent that they were always going to improve once they got a bit of confidence back.

Having said that, GC should pants them this week.

It’s all explainable about them I think. 17 losses in a row, 12 of those were last year when they had so many injuries. This year having long term injured players coming back probably rusty and the Merritt stuff over the summer probably wasn’t great for morale. Can’t imagine that club would’ve been all smiles in pre-season.

By no means do I think they’re gonna be great like you say, but the numbers don’t lie about where our respective clubs sit over the last 50ish games.

7 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

I'm happy to enjoy the rollercoaster.

No you're not. You're only happy to enjoy it as long as there's not much rolling and coasting.

9 hours ago, bing181 said:

And an even greater chance that we don't.

That’s true… but always trying to be glass half full!

7 hours ago, Demonsone said:

King is early days into he’s game plan but the contest defence needs to be addressed.

Maybe we could take a leaf out of teams that were great at contest and defence.

e.g. the 2021 premiership team went alright in those areas.