Adam The God

You're absolutely delusional. He was finished 2 years ago, when he was almost immediately surpassed by younger players. He's too slow for a wing, he offers very little leadership and still goes around aimlessly bombing it when there are better options in front of him. He can no longer win the inside possession with as much skill as any of our mids (his mode of clearance was always Brent Moloney-like anyway - long bombs), so he's finished. We need to accept that, thank him for his years of loyal service and move on. How he was made captain again this year is absolutely beyond me, but anyway, I've long held the view that he's a limited player (at his best, a solid B grader), with little, to no onfield leadership. It speaks volumes for the rest of the leadership stocks on our list that he was made captain again.

Not entirely sure I agree with this. We tried something new tonight. We had players short for the kick in as (usually) decoys. We'd then go to Max, Tom or Weid 60 out. Those short players (usually a Hibberd or Wagner) would then either guard space or come up to the next contest to be the front and centre. I actually like the thinking and it showed that at least we have worked on something with that new rule.

Wow, mate. You're human. Everyone has a breaking point. And completely agree.

That's not true at all. We were worse for longer. Hardly played in the first quarter, particularly in the second part of the quarter and then were completely absent and insipid everywhere in the third. They played a poor second quarter, but otherwise were patchy but played the better football for longer. It is finals over now, so in effect, season over. I think we did a lot right at times. We finally used the ball better from back to front and even from some centre stoppages, we used the ball backwards and then went sideways in order not to bomb it to an outnumber. Our biggest issue is we don't do any of it for long enough. We're playing in patches. It really is hopeless and I still think fitness related. What is so embarrassing and frustrating is that many media pundits tipped us for the flag. We'll finish in the bottom 6 at this stage. The inability to win 1v1s early on and then the inability to win clearances in the third sealed the game. Frost and Oscar look like conceding goals every time the ball is kicked in there, and they usually do. Even when our system and press was working a bit, every time it went forward, Frost would drop a mark or Oscar would get outmuscled or either of them would be pushed under the ball. The goal that Frost conceded on the much smaller man in Baguley was unforgivable. Baguley for the record is a scrubber, bog ordinary player. Particularly playing forward. We also made McKernan, who is a VFL standard forward, look A grade. Typical Melbourne. There was another crucial play at the end of the second. Frost marked the ball on the wing and banged it in centrally to about the 45 metre mark to Max (in a 4 on 1), instead of going to the boundary side of our forward fifty. Essendon brought it to ground, ran it out and scored a goal. Their first for the entire term. In the second term, our midfielders and Max looked really angry and they seemed to channel that really well into winning ferocious clearances. But for the majority of the third quarter, we let simple transition happen and failed to defend clearances. Our defence in the second term started to resemble our defence of 2018 (in a good way), but I think generally Oscar and Frost (given their finals experience now) haven't improved their games. In some ways, they've become worse - at least they won some 1v1s in 2018! Fritsch was playing the interceptor off the wing, but constantly turns it over or chews off more than he should, but more worryingly, like last year, looks completely lost in defence. The goal that Parish kicked from the right forward pocket is a perfect example of Fritsch's inabilities. Firstly, he left his man to try and impact on the contest where we already had a 2v1, so 3 Melbourne players go to the single Essendon player, who chips it over the top to a free player. Fritsch then has time to get back and block up space after not impacting on the contest at all, but he leaves it to Wagner, who is completely out of position, trying to cover 2 other Essendon players. Can we take Fritsch down off the banner yet? I have no idea why he's up there in the first place. Turn over merchant. Statistically, ANB laid some tackles tonight, but he is cusp AFL when playing at his absolute best. Right now, he's playing incredibly poorly and he too is clearly low on confidence, but his basic errors just kill us. Petracca showed some more tonight. He made some seriously bad errors too, but he stayed involved and set up a lot of scoring chains. I think he'll get there this season. We just need to keep backing him. I'm glad KK got some more metres into the legs. He's silk and I think if he can stay on the park, his outside run will be really good for our transition. Love his goal kicking action too. So relaxed. Lockhart did enough to keep his spot as did Hunt, despite rarely (if ever) laying a tackle. In fact, Hunt's tackle attempts routinely slipped, but he, like Petracca, stayed involved and in the game. His pressure on Merrett(?) to bring the ball to ground and then spot up Gus, was a great example of his doggedness tonight. Tommy Mac doesn't look fit and looked sore after a corky or two. Can barely put his arms up either. We wondered whether he was carrying a shoulder injury. He's close to useless at the moment. I wonder if it's worth playing a more mobile forwardline and giving Tom a week off? I was impressed with the majority of Weideman's game. Particularly, after quarter time. I thought he was arguably our best forward, along with Petracca and Melksham. He laid tackles, took at least one good contested mark and brought the ball to ground importantly a couple of times. He went at one contest in the first really softly and with the one hand, but after that moment he really lifted his game. He's another one with a beautiful, relaxed kicking action. Overall though, I don't think these set of defenders can play the zone defence. They get caught out of position far too easily (McKernan marking on Hibberd early on; Frost being outmarked by Baguley - just a few examples) and they almost always all go up together to defend. This has been happening, literally, for years. Why has it not been corrected? I sense Chaplain may well be out of his depth. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him at the end of this year. I've just read a quote from Goody that says 'we're too easy to score against' and this pretty much sums it up. We dominate possession against most teams and then they get a few inside 50s and basically, almost every time they score a goal. This is no longer merely about 'getting the ball out the back' against us. This is failing to win 1v1s, failing to rush the ball through when we have the numbers, failing to defend dangerous areas inside forward 50. There are holes everywhere in our defence. Wagner, Frost and McDonald are constantly out of position in the zone and Hibberd has been bog ordinary since 2017 now. Even Jetta at times goes up in those big pack situations when he should be staying down. It seems to me as though the directive is just get the ball to the front of the contest in those pack situations and ensure it doesn't get out the back (although it almost always does), and in our haste and anxiety to ensure the ball doesn't get out the back, we all go up, leaving opposition crumbers to waltz off with the ball. I'm at a loss as to what defensive system the coaches can implement though, given we can't go man-on-man if we rarely win 1v1s and the zone doesn't work because the majority of the defence constantly get lost in it. However, without another obvious system, I would say that going 1v1 more often would help us. It lessens the complexity to a group of players that either aren't gelling or are rarely positioned where they should be due to a lack of game awareness. It's all well and good to say we need May and Lever in there, because that's true, but it fails to take into account the inability of the rest of the defence. One of Frost or McDonald will still play, even when May and Lever are fit, so if it's broken, we may need to rebuild it. And already, start planning for 2020 with a new system. Hard to implement mid-season, I know. I dread to think about Franklin next week. You watch. He'll kick a minimum of 4, probably 5 or 6. And I think we have to play Jeff Garlett, because we desperately lack crumbers. A thoroughly disappointing night and the only supporter base more smug than the Essendon supporter base is Hawthorn's. Painful sitting through it.

I'll tell you what I do? I notice patterns and I notice work rate and I see that there is a lack of work rate due most probably to fitness and an injury riddled pre season. Essentially the same team won two finals on the MCG 7 months ago. To compare this team to a Neeld team is either aggressively negative or completely lacking in any understanding of football. Did you actually watch Neeld teams or did you have your eyes closed for those years? This team is nothing like a Neeld team.

No, but I'd prefer to be constructive where possible and not be completely gloomy at every opportunity. The way my good friend Ernest put it, seemed a tad too defeatist to me.

Righto.

I don't know why I'm even bothering to enter this conversation since neither of us know the intimate details, but do you really think a shrewd operator like Peter Jackson would have kept Misson at the club if he wasn't happy with him? Seriously, your constant rantings about Misson are the very definition of twaddle. You have no idea, you're completely speculating and unless you've had any medical insight into even each of those cases, your comments are arrogant and pointless. This constant 'I know better than professionals' or 'I know better than properly qualified people' is what's wrong with our society at the moment. You just sound like a dill.

He was named in the back pocket last week too. I think you know by now that where certain players are named is rarely the position they actually start.

You've got no idea what you're talking about.

Is that you OD? Have you taken over Ernest's account?

Yeah, I wouldn't say he's quick, but he's another option for that third tall role, which tells me that they don't think Hore can get the job done. He's probably got more toe than Hore though and he'll need that given Essendon's quicker forwardline. Wagner's strengths for me is he does take the game on as you've said, runs with it and can play a sweeping role that turns into offence. He's not my preferred back, but he'd be ahead of Hore and the reinvented backman-turned-forward Joel Smith. His kicking is a little iffy, but I like his composure. As for Petracca, I'm glad he's kept his spot. He got to the right places last week. I'm glad they're backing him in to rediscover some form. I reckon he'll click this year. Bookmark it.

Disagree. The same plan won Richmond and the Bulldogs a flag. It's not a garbage plan, particularly when you have such a dominant ruckman and midfield. The debatable point for me is whether we've built a list that actually compliments that midfield and game style. I'm beginning to feel that we need to invent our own style that uses the midfield dominance, but doesn't hand the opposition a slingshot back the other way to their own attack.

It felt like the last two seasons under Goody his selection views usually aligned with mine, but now that he's doggedly sticking to the game style he wants us to play, the selection is becoming less aligned with how I would pick the team. But he's the professional. I too though, worry that we won't have enough pace at ground level and surely, even though Jeffy can struggle defensively and physically at times, he can't possibly be any worse than an ANB. I think we should have picked Jeff, but maybe he didn't quite get up? All speculation.

I still disagree. We lose and he says, we have nowhere to hide. I don't see how this is a bad thing or how his comments are going to hurt. If anything, it should drive our group to thrive, not drown.

I disagree. His comments resonate with me. I don't want to hear him come out and make excuses. He's saying there are none and that's what I want to hear from him. I'm sick of our mob from Gawn down, talking the talk in the media and then not backing it up. Jeez, poor old Goody can't do much more. Damned if you do, damned if you don't stuff.

Interesting that Wellman and West are the two that are probably the most compelling bits of testimony, and both of those guys are outsiders, with allegiances at other clubs.

Glad to see original OD is back. The end of last year and all that positivity from you was unsettling. You add a bit of negative balance to things.

Our kids did dominate their mids in the middle, but their mids ran harder and used the ball better when they got it, hence the 80 point loss. I don't think we can paper over this fact.

Agreed to some extent, but I like the media getting stuck into us, because it means there's expectations and rightly so. Lift your game MFC.

Sorry to digress here, but why can't we edit posts anymore?

We're all frustrated mate. I think as a few have no observed, fitness is playing quite a part in this. The ability to keep your feet is reduced if you're not fit enough. It's painful to point us things like fitness because it never seems to effect other teams like it has us, but @rjay posted a good article the other from Clarkson in 2009/2010. The article talked about the difficulty of having so many pre season operations at the end of their premiership year and he said that it impacted their ability to back up their title defence. I'm sure we hoped we'd be able to be around abouts, but at this stage 2019 does not look like a realistic year for a premiership tilt. But who knows. Collingwood (with a simple draw mind you) came back from An ordinary start to last year too. We'll know if finals is a possibility this Saturday morning.

A lot cleaner means they hit up targets and were clean in possession. What do you think it means? I was referencing Salem being used as an outside player and that without gut-running and clean ball-handling, a player like won't be much use. Of course their frontal pressure was better than ours in off the square and in the midfield, and in our forward 50, where they constantly pushed us wide or made us kick to contests that could easily be spoiled or halved. I've said all this before. You're clearly taking umbrage to the rain comment, which was made in reference to Salem''s ability to be clean by hand in order to receive on the outside. I made no reference to any other players...

They were a lot cleaner and better structured. That's why they won the game.

I'm not entirely sure to be honest. Salem is rarely a player I notice, although I love his attributes. The rain was pretty oppressive and made ball-handling difficult. Playing an outside role needed real gut running and I'm not sure any of our guys have that yet. I don't think Salem has anyway.