jnrmac

Jst heard DB on SEN with Hungry. Wona likely to play in the curtain raiser game. Nothing else of much interest. Talked about the injuries being mainly collision injuries which are pretty much unavoidable. Players that have improved quite a bit are Strauss, Bennell, Maric and also said Jamar will 'dominate' a few games this year.

Spoke to him last wednesday. Back is fine. His quad is recovering well. Only a slight strain. Could play this week but more likely next week for a half.

Thanks for the first hand update. Always appreciated.

TJ finished in our TOP 10 B& F TWICE in 10 years!!! He won it once and was third the other time. For a No1 pick it was not good enough. Add to that the fact he was lazy and you have a fantastic trade for Grimes. TJ has played intermittently at the Bears and certainly hasn't lived up to their expectations. Grimes is a GUN.

Here's an exercise in damned lies and statistics for you. I have a different opinion about the results. Comparing our side with the Grand Finalists is always going to accentuate a point. We are nowhere near there (and of course no-one is saying that we are). So for us to win a GF we will need to have a list that is around where Stakka highlighted we should be. That theory has been around largely since Mick Malthouse's 'Premiership Clock' which Daniher also tried to model our side around. It doesn't give a true picture of what we should be achieving now with our list where it is at. North and Ess appear to have exciting game plans with young players. They are going to get flogged every now and then. One would expect inconsistency. But one also would expect that every now and them we play a recognisable game plan that produces more than 12 wins in 3 years. But I digress. Since Stakka noted that the 08 Hawks were a bit of an exception I took the trouble to download the official AFL team lists for the START of 08 (which would make a fair comparison to the Dees at the start of 2010). I think Stakka may have used the stats from the end of 08 and it makes a whole lot of difference: His stats for the Hawks were: Age 24yr 7mth Games 87.0 Less than 50 4 50 to 99 3 100 to 149 9 150 or more 6 Their Grand Final team at the START of 08 shows: Age 24yrs 1 mth Games 76.3 (without Crawf as Stakka omitted Junior) Less than 50 6 50 to 99 10 100 to 150 3 150 or more 3 There is now only a minor difference in the Dees of 2010 and the hawks at the start of 2008. In particular 16 players less than 100 games compares to our 18. And they won a flag with that team! I hold the opinion that our players are hearing the company line " we are a young team that's building" AND consequently not performing up to their capability as a team instead of the Voss or Scott line "we may have a young side but we expect to be competitive". People we have won 7 games in 2 years. IF we were competing well then the actual win/loss ratio would not be so important. It's how we are losing that is frightening. And I make the point about tackling, chasing, running, hitting targets from 20m, defending kick-ins, centre square set-ups etc - these things don't necessarily depend on number of games played, experience etc. It's about attitude, basic skills and accountability. You don't need to be elite to do most of those things.

Add a third, Height.

2 from 6

Hmmmm a lot of posters have their best team without our Captain. Methinks the Club knows a little bit more than many here.

We have a forward line structure?? Well oil beef hooked.

That's annoying. We get first goal of the last quarter to get to within 15pts and they then kick three in a row..

CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 12.8 14.8 92 Melb 2.6 3.9 8.11 9.11 65 Fourth Quarter - Time: 6:29 Score: Essendon lead by 27 points.

Bomber goal

Quick goal to Petterd CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 12.8 12.8 80 Melb 2.6 3.9 8.11 9.11 65 Fourth Quarter - Time: 1:29 Score: Essendon lead by 15 points.

CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 12.8 80 Melb 2.6 3.9 8.11 59 Three Quarter Time Score: Essendon lead by 21 points.

Good Lord we may have won our first quarter for the year......

CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 12.7 79 Melb 2.6 3.9 8.10 58 Third Quarter - Time: 25:13 Score: Essendon lead by 21 points.

CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 11.7 73 Melb 2.6 3.9 6.9 45 Third Quarter - Time: 13:54 Score: Essendon lead by 28 points. Venue: Visy Park

Goal to the Bummers

Great centre clearance from Grimes which resulted in a goal to Petterd – Dees 5.9.39 to Ess 9.5.59

CURRENT SCORES Score ESS 6.1 8.5 8.5 53 Melb 2.6 3.9 4.9 33 Third Quarter - Time: 3:32 Score: Essendon lead by 20 points. Venue: Visy Park Bell goal in first 20 secs

Believe it or not I watched the game again this morning. It was worse the second time. Warnock - disposal terrible Bennell - killed down back, looked better going fwd Sylvia - I reckon he is lazy & unaccountable Jetta - too many unforced errors MacDonald easily our best. Frawley tried hard but was outclassed. Umpiring was disgraceful. Scully & JT good debuts Maric - some really good and some really bad. If he could get rid of the bad will be really good (!) Overall Freo was harder and put more pressure on, their fwd line functioned well. In contrast we had too many running unattended in the middle of the ground who were unaccountable when they had it and fumbled badly when we had it. Game plan is non-existent.

is it the coaches job that players can't hit targets? Freo to their credit were very hard at it all night. Didn't give us any time at all. I'm worried.

Ha! LOL There's some irony for you. I'd suggest realistic expectations won't result in anything like a huge 2010!

I have 3 questions: 1. WHy is our midfield set up so bad. It was atrocious last year and it was clear Sandi was dominant yet their mids were left alone at centre bounces. 2. Why is our defending at kick ins so bad? ANother set play where we fail to even have a gut 5m from the kicker and give them an easy option of kick to self run 15m and roost. 3. How can our skills be so deplorable after a whole summer of focus on them? Dropped chest marks, missed targets by hand and foot were the order of the day.

I see the link to the AFL match day site has the team but no Scully or Trengove. Anywhere else the team sheet is printed??