layzie

That's just not right

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

Is there anything we can really do if our 'no fly zone' defence concedes 15 marks inside 50? If I didn't see the game but saw that stat, 9 times out of 10 I'd assume we were beaten.

The towel went in so early too, some of the moves we made early in the 3rd looked like junk time moves.

It's great to see the quick ball movement but sometimes I really want us to slow the game down and not forget about the stuff that got us to this point. That first half was almost exclusively played on the outside and I would have loved to have seen us try to keep things in close a bit with some repeat stoppages. Contested footy is our 1 Wood and there's times when we should aim for more stoppages to back our guys in.

At least we've proven to be good off 9 day breaks

Yeah thought he had a down day along with others.

The similarities are there and for me most notably it was this habit of everyone pushing forward at aerial contests, almost expecting that we'd win the hard ball and be off to the races. I cant remember how many times a long kick out of defence for the opposition came off the pack out the back to a free Essendon player who would scrap the next kick forward which they marked nearly every time. Being front and square is great but I felt like we didn't set up for this well and expected things to go a certain way. We also just didn't bring enough effort in either game plain and simple.

A very nice windfall indeed!

Yep, no point arguing with anyone's assessment after today. We let ourselves down.

It's gotta have a terrible influence on the rest of the group. Seeing those efforts week after week. Also he may have started his career as a ruckman but his ruck work in the forward line is non-existent.

Did a fine job on Stringer early, potting performances like his today is splitting hairs. Thumbs down on the coaching stuff for not throwing him into the middle later on.

We stunk up the joint. If I paid to see an opera singer and they performed with that level of effort I'd be asking for my money back.

Rory Lobb's efforts are really pathetic, got a lot of nerve commanding the money he does.

Stink up the joint why don't you.

Hard work takes you a long way to winning the game these days. Especially when it comes to applying pressure, the single best gamechanging element. That work rate from Essendon was very impressive.

We will but things that were once big strengths were weakened today. 15 marks in our defensive 50 shouldnt ever happen even without Lever. Not a disaster but a little more than just a one-off bad day. Need to learn from it.

The problems were there for all to see. Is it fatal? No. But it sure as hell isn't an aberration.

Champion team needs a champion effort.

Outcoached, outmarked, outgroundballed, outrun, outthought, outmuscled, outplayed.

6 . Viney 5. Rivers 4. Gus 3. Petracca 2. Oliver 1. McVee

Beaten badly today, doesn't matter which way you slice it.

What a honker

Well beaten today

At least they haven't stopped