TheWiz

Disappointed he isn’t wearing those sunnies…

The one thing that all my Essendon mates say is “we have a young list, what do you expect - we’ve just got to put games into them”. It’s rubbish. Shout out to @WheeloRatings, but Essendon are at the AFL mean (25.9 years) and only 0.2 years younger than us, which isn’t that impressive when you think we have Ben Brown (31), TMac (31) and Gawn (32) playing. Absolutely time for the focus and commentary on their culture to be turned up.

“Silky” McVeee… strong!

In 5 days they’ve done 549 km 638 disposals 122 tackles 49 scoring shots … and 2/2 wins - so bloody good Go Dees

The AFL has completely butchered umpiring. Umpires have been calling to get rid of the bounce due to injuries and mental health since 2014, the AFL changed their training and they no longer train together or have access to a gym, and they abuse they cop is back because it’s clear that dissent is not a rule anymore this year. This is against the backdrop of footy being short of 6,000 umpires.

Great thoughts. Do you see any merit in Tomlinson back in for TMac going forward?

First scan post the Port game is in…

Spot on WYL. A lot of clubs don’t know how painful it is like we do. We had to endure two expansion clubs and free agency in our rebuild. If you’re rebuilding in 2027-29, it’s going to be very challenging. It’s tough to rebuild a list, it’s even tougher when all the available talent - young and old (like Scully and Frawley) - gets sucked out.

For some context, at the time he had 3 children under 2, including two with autism, and no family support.

No change for me. Woey was a great injection of speed, but I think we’d need Billing’s clean disposals / fwd 50 entries for this game. Milera out is a big loss for Adelaide, so I think we should have some forward advantage over their depleted backline. TMac should go to Tex to leave Leaver as the intercept. I feel for Max. ROB is a tough opponent, so after a 5 day break I wouldn’t mind if we shared some of the rucking duties around. Adelaide has uncharacteristically poor disposal efficiencies at the moment. Keep the midfield pressure on. Leave Crouch alone as he doesn’t always take the best options and man up on Dawson who should be their best player. Laird is elite so not much we can do there.

Mid way through the 4th quarter he did a late bump on Rozee from behind. It was paid as a downfield free kick and Rozee did look like he had some wind knocked out. When I saw the replay it didn’t look too bad. More body on body and a bit towards the side and back. A second later I think it would be more of an issue, but I would be surprised if he was suspended for it.

What a ripper of a game. Just like Jack - tough and gritty. Well deserved! 🔴🔵

Howes… 4 disposals (all uncontested), 3 turnovers and 1 free against Literal dead weight

They keep running Brown under the footy. Put someone out the back of the pack. Worked for Fritsch’s first goal

Salem has to work harder. First touch midway through the 2nd quarter isn’t good enough

They only one I knew was Doedee (partly because of the unusual name) who they lost to Brisbane last year!

They need to get rid of Crouch. Gets a lot of it, but doesn’t play to their strategy and always puts the ball into a worse position. Cannibalising Dawson who is a much better user.

Sorry but why would we be getting a “mid teens” compensation pick? Petty vs McKay 24 years vs. 26 years old Pick 37 vs Pick 21 62 games vs 71 games 1x Premiership vs Nil. McKay Essendon Deal 6 years at $850k pa = Round 1 compensation pick (#3) John Ralf Reported Offer 5 years at $800k pa = Mid Teens

Chook respectively I completely disagree. We can’t blame players who have focused on perfecting one craft for their careers for not developing another in just one preseason. I think we should go back to the birth of it - it was the club’s idea. When they approached Max the only question he asked is if it would help us win a premiership and they answered yes. The club overestimated their ability to develop their forward craft, overestimated the value of this structure, and did not fix our forward issues which cost us a shot at the premiership.

Best first quarter we’ve played in a while, and loving it. Everyone on their game. Absolute pressure and body commitment. Max’s run down tackle a highlight…

Adelaide got completely out coached last night. Didn’t try and minimise Stewart (10 intercept marks, 28 disposals at 89% efficiency), let Dawson butcher the ball as distributor for too long, and no corridor movement. If their kicking was better they could have gotten there, but they should have rolled Geelong as a baseline.

There still appears to be a bit of smugness around the St Kilda area and isolated showers of denial near Collingwood.

I think / hope it’s more than that. Hawthorn have a very depleted backline of talls (Jiath, Blanck, Grainger-Barrass, McCabe all injured). It’s just kicker Sicily of any talent (sorry Frost). The Petty inclusion might be to take further height advantage. Let’s just hope our just forward 50 entries are good and on target.

Lol what?! Please tell me you’re joking!

The free count was a bit lopsided, but I was amazed by the lack of running and pressure from Collingwood. Felt like there was no accountability and once a contest was lost they just gave up. Far too many passengers.