IRW

Please please please stay. ..ON THE GROUND 

Too kind to... Kossi Howe

35 minutes ago, CHF said:

Damn frustrating game to watch with the performance of the umps and our dreadful disposal.

backs look better with Lever there but they are suffering from the same as the rest of the team because of the Tiger's pressure their disposals are off. 

No forward line to speak of. Very dysfunctional. let's try playing an experienced forward sometimes soon.

Mids.... so many superstars and so very little results at the center bounces. Who is our midfield coach?? 

Work harder at the basics, bring pressure and  look to secure and keep the ball.

 

We can win this.

Mate they ain't superstars even if they are very good.

Superstars always give you the goods 

8 minutes ago, gregdemon said:

Worst umpiring I have seen  so one way against us

Seriously grow up!

Do you go home and cry when they lose

2 minutes ago, #11-TonyAnderson said:

Same as last week. So predictable. Should Kick the ball on angles and low into the forward line like every other team does against us!

 

The good game day  coaches must love Goodwin

1 minute ago, Demon Disciple said:

[censored] that. I’m all for the doom and gloom

Chanting OM?

1 2 3.

After me...

12 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Who’s idea was it to have a 4 gamer lead our forward line tonight on the big stage?

I think that was Demonland 

5 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

Talk, we aren’t doing enough of it. Playing very selfish footy.

Trac rarely exits packs  , he stands up in tackles and sprays the ball forward kicking off balance 

3 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

We'll be lucky to play finals. Which other team would play Riewoldt into form

At last someone has noticed .

Top eight maybe ..or maybe not

1 minute ago, McQueen said:

Chatting with a Richmond mate on the side, and he completely agrees that the umpiring is pathetic and looking after the Tigers. 😡🤬

It's always the umpires fault with you guys.

I mean ...seriously??

1 minute ago, Gunna’s said:

Hopefully you’ve started something Fritta

Its never Frittas fault. 

I am surprised Goodwin hasn't rested him

It's the coaching stupid 

20 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

You couldn’t have missed the point anymore than you just have. 

No I didn't Scott was on the money with facts to support him.

 Goodwin couldnt run a press conference for kindergartens .

He was a good footballer though 

7 hours ago, layzie said:

I did the same, really wanted to let it sit for a bit and get some clarity. You have not only hit the nail on the head but built a house with the remaining nails. 

That Brisbane game was the definition of a one-off as we will never be monstered like that in contested ball. This game however took things to a new level. I’m a realistic football fan, I don’t yell ‘pick the ball up’ at games and then get really annoyed at players when they don’t. It’s a two team sport after all but what I can’t cop is having our fortress attacked and destroyed at our most strongest points. To be 35 – 7 in the possession count 5 mins in was very telling, to be smashed in centre clearances early was also telling, but the icing on the cake was to concede 15 marks inside defensive 50 mostly directly in front. That is the point you throw your hands up and say “well, they got us”. Lever out definitely hurt of course as he’s so often the guy coming over the top and killing the contest but come on, we should have had enough to deal with their talls. 

We really missed Gawn’s ability to drop back and influence as well and this is where I look squarely at Brodie Grundy and say “Mate, you may be getting beat in the ruck right now but you can still influence the game in other ways." Get on your bike and push back hard to try and get a spoil, a physical body on a Bombers forward, something, anything! It was so obvious we were getting outmarked 1 v 1 in that backline, we really needed some help. To be fair no Hibbo and a wounded Petty didn’t help either as they can cut across and do this but we just needed the big man getting back more. 

I said this earlier but when the ball was in the air and the pack formed, we seemed to setup with someone front and square and a couple on either side ready to takeway and move the ball quickly forward. Rarely we had someone to the back of the contest and the number of times Essendon got a long kick out of the 50 up to the wing or centre it would come off hands to the back and perfectly placed for a Bomber to take it then scrap kick it into 50 where we got outmarked all the time. I found this happened in the Brisbane game for nearly every first quarter goal. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence but I’ve said before there are things about our defensive approach and what got us here that I don’t want to lose completely. Which kind of leads me into the next point.

The Bombers played with such speed and dare in the first half, the game was not really played in close at all and there were very few stoppages. It’s time like this where I’d like to slow the game down a bit, force stoppages and let our contested bulls get to work. The rain could have really helped us get back into it, as the 2nd half started I thought that maybe Essendon could struggle because they won’t be able to get as much speed on it and it will be harder to bomb in long to their tall timber. If we could just get that first goal of the second half we may well be able to scrap back into it and get it on our terms. 

No, we simply weren’t up for the challenge. EFC came out and went bang, bang, bang with 3 straight and the game was dead. Forget what happened previously, this was the most disappointing moment of the game for me. After this there was this feeling of cue in the rack with 15 mins left in the 3rd quarter? I was seeing JVR down back, Fritsch up the ground, the kind of moves you see when we’re 50 points down. We turned our heels up.

It’s such a cliché in AFL footy to say another team wanted it more but this is exactly what happened. We started off looking a bit cruisey and casual, trying some fancy stuff and not always thinking team first while Essendon player were cracking in 110% efforts, tackling to hurt and always providing an option for a handball. In a lot of ways we were beaten at our own game and anyone still saying Essendon will do nothing this year you may be right but don’t be surprised if this is a platform for them to build on this year. For Melbourne this sets us back a little, while nothing fatal we had some weaknesses laid bare and there to be exploited. We were outcoached and their selections paid off big time. It’s extremely unsettling to see this lack of effort in Round 5, we saw the response after Brisbane but the one thing you want each week is effort and I hope this isn’t going to be a team that thinks they can flick the switch and get the job done as opposed to consistent intensity. 

Long way to go but it’s a more level playing field than we think sometimes. We don’t have a divine right to beat a team on a given day and if you’re 5% off you likely get done. Bit nervy for the ANZAC eve game now as we run into a Richmond side with two losses on the bounce and something to prove. Would have been much nicer to go into it off a win but that’s the way it is. 
 

" speed and dare" ..Collingwood are going to smash them unless the coach actually coaches on game day..which is unlikely 

10 hours ago, demon3165 said:

Neeld like Noble walked into a mess of clubs, players ran the coach and players moaned to board members no doubt Neeld has his problems but when the board could not see the problems it just went down hill from there, gee didn't the great Gary Lyon have a hand in his appointment? 

The only thing G.Lyon got right was acknowledging he got it wrong and wouldn't be involved in any future choices

51 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Simple, we don’t complain in the presser like Scotty the sook 

I thought Scott's call was appropriate.

I can hear the squeals from the likes of you starting up when Max is merely double teamed and I would expect any coach to go hard publicly for his players.

Goodwin is characterless zero with even less subtlety or press nous

3 hours ago, Macca said:

Oh I've been in some barney's here IRW, I can assure you

Going right back to when I dared to question the untouchable Neeld.  I swear he was miles more protected than Goodwin.  Which makes no sense

See you on the cycling thread

Gracious me when was Neeld protected.

I was slow to realise how awful he was but that was because it seemed impossible to be do useless that there must have been a plan.

But protected?

Maybe at Ology we just thought everything was rotten at that time

Cheers

4 hours ago, BoBo said:

Hard to argue with that. Goodwin backs us in to regain momentum mostly by depending on us to win back contested ball. Yesterday and the lions felt the same purely because they knew we were going to be predictable and were set up to absorb it. 
 

It’s clear now that teams have the blue print on how to beat us and will do it all year unless Goodwin can make it so we aren’t so  predictable which plays into opposition plans. Wouldn’t mind seeing us switch more to be honest just to make oppositions have to change their set up, up the ground. We kick it straight to a contest constantly in which Essendon was winning at ground level. I don’t understand the point in persisting with that when we are getting outworked around the ball. 

Goodwin did adjust the plan in the off season  so that's all we're going to get.

Flexible  creative not

54 minutes ago, Macca said:

 

He ducked his head into the oncoming player.  That's on Spargo and he was rightfully pinged

Great decision by the umpire

By the way, if we're are being honest we had the better of the umpiring yesterday as we did against the Eagles

 

You don't understand that on Land it's never our fault do you.

11 hours ago, Go the Biff said:

If based purely on talent then yeah. But we've all got our own memories & opinions.

Can't remember the poster but someone on here once said that Jurrah had the habit of turning what should have been six goal games into four goal games and four goal games into two goal games. I thought that was a pretty good analysis.

His star blazed all too briefly and he was talented, exciting and sometimes exhilarating. But his footy was not without flaws. For all his courage in the air he could be a bit selective in the contest. I guess I'm saying I thought he was a bit soft. Probably not a popular view but as I said, we've all got our own memories & opinions.

Thanks for your opinion Mr Neeld ..Jack Watts was soft, Liam was not.

The 6 into 4 and 4 into 2 is the most unusual thing I have ever heard.

It's certainly not analysis 

Try and imagine 5 seasons of LJ and how he would have factored in his style and his many games he would have "won" for a crepe team.

Nor enough games to qualify  maybe

What wonderful fantasy teams..straight from the hearts of Demon fans. 

But am I the only one who thinks ( insists) that Luam Jurrah should be a lock.

Half forward flank perhaps.

If the 2022 pathetic kick to the pocket system  was on place he'd have kicked 50..half from bring free on the other side and still getting the ball ( unlike Watts) and half from flying high in the contested  pack  sifting sunlight through his fingers or kicking goals  from impossible angles.

Geez  short memories

51 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I guess 'boo stadium' will be out in full force today.  They were complaining about the umpires in their 'game day' thread.

Hopefully some of the WA fans we picked up in 2021 come out and cheer for us.

"Rooo" " Boo" how would you know?

Bruce out  Jurrah in

1 hour ago, dee-tox said:

Having looked at the replay, Viney wasn't as bad as I thought on the day! Ok he scrubbed a few kicks and missed a few targets but so do all inside mids. 

Brayshaw was the one I was disappointed in... One contested possession for the game! 

Look at the stats...Viney ( and Trac) had the most " crtl errors" ( leading to turnovers)in the team ( 6 each) no one else got close.

Trac had a lot more possessions though

23 hours ago, Deebauched said:

I read pre and post game. Cannot read during game. Mostly hyper negative comments then i look at scoreboard and we are 5 goals in front !

Took a brief look before half time against Swans someone posted Viney was passed it. That was it for me. Post game thread is good.

During the game pure hysterics.

Anyone who passed it to Viney on Sunday was likely complicit in a turnover