Review R2: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Essendon

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Dan is building... he was very good in the early and then got a bit quiet and then worked himself back into the game... you can see he will have a 20+ disposal game very soon.

It's very unlikely to be this year without an injury forcing Dan into moving to the wing.
 
The complaints against ROB are a bit much I think.

A couple of dumb errors by foot in open play, but that's not a surprise.

What is a surprise is how good his hitouts to advantage have been the last couple of weeks. He's absolutely feeding the ball into good positions - Crouch is especially benefitting from this.
We lost the hitouts (which is really ROB’s only strength most weeks), got annihilated in centre clearances (23-15 Essendon), ROB had a grand total of 1 clearance himself, while his main opponent had 5 and his secondary opponent had 2. His handballing to nobody was worse than his kicking too.
 

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Idk people calling out umpires gets old. I can assure you Essendon supporters thinking they got cheated to, it is kinda pathetic really.

Curtin will be a jet. In q1 he marked in the back pocket to save a goal, worked his arse to get a follow up possession coming out, kept working down the wing, seriously watch him run, laid a shepherd for Rankine and then worked forward. He is going to be elite. Not to mention his ground work early, clean when everyone else fumbling. McLeod in year 2 averaged 11 possessions a game, this bloke will be ok
 
Excellent game all up. Our forward line is insane and is going to cause many a headache!

Great way to snap the MCG hoodoo! Oh so close a few times in recent year but we’re back winning at the G again.

Defence needs some work on, but we can quietly do the necessary tweaks while the forwards keep dominating.

2-0 for the first time since 2017.

Danger game passed with flying colours.
 
Essendon kicked 84 points against the Hawks last week too and played pretty well, they never struggle to score, they’re just horrendous defensively. We are finally good enough to properly punish poor defensive teams now, that’s a huge step forward.
They sacked Rutten for missing the finals in his second year, after making them in his first.

Some pretty big double standards applying to Scott Bard

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Ugly:
What on earth was going on with Essendon’s backline? One of the worst collective efforts I’ve ever seen. McKay and Reid were nothing short of a joke.

Finding a way to concede 100 pts to that poorly coached shitshow of a side.

Allowing Merrett to run around like an unregistered dog all day.

Umpires calling “not 15” on kicks that travel 22m in defense, but paying marks for kicks that travel 12m in the middle of the ground.

The holding the ball decision against Sid where he blatantly didn’t even have the ball.

With Merrett, I think we are happy to concede his influence and back in our entire midfield unit to come out on top, which is exactly what happened today.
 
The complaints against ROB are a bit much I think.

A couple of dumb errors by foot in open play, but that's not a surprise.

What is a surprise is how good his hitouts to advantage have been the last couple of weeks. He's absolutely feeding the ball into good positions - Crouch is especially benefitting from this.
Stop trying to polish a turd, it has gotten old
 

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We went +70 on marks too. +42 on possessions and +12 on tackles. Lots of good signs there I think. Once the ball is outside the contest I don't think the Bombers have enough guys who want to work hard for it. We scored triple digits off their turnovers because they don't want to work to win it back.

If there's one thing we can give credit to Nicks and our list management is I think we've generally weeded out those guys from our list and it's a minority who may play that way.
Largest kicking efficiency differential by any team in 5 years too
 
I'd be stoked if that is the case

On multiple levels, not least of which we appear to be making smarter decisions with our list management and rotation...

Nicks learning you don't need to run your best 22 into the ground each week if you are winning comfortably.
 
The Ugly

First time we have played Essendon at the MCG since 1995

Come on AFL
That's more to do with Essendon being Docklands tenants. They've rarely hosted non-Vic clubs at the G but, after hosting Freo and Port there in the last couple of years, it made sense for us to get a go.
 
Good:

2 weeks in a row - elite set shot accuracy

It’s so nice to not be panicking when we’re shooting for goal. Disposal efficiency as well.
 
I had money on us 40+ - Essendon are shit, Merritt is about their only good player.

But great to see the manner in which we did belt them, playing like a team, weapons on most lines.

Nicks has remembered it doesn't matter if the opponent kicks 100 points, as long as we kick more.

Hinge under rated.

Keane - worries me, the frequent brain farts are still there, and I think they'll hurt again good sides.
 
We lost the hitouts (which is really ROB’s only strength most weeks), got annihilated in centre clearances (23-15 Essendon), ROB had a grand total of 1 clearance himself, while his main opponent had 5 and his secondary opponent had 2. His handballing to nobody was worse than his kicking too.
You're not watching the games if you can't see how often ROB is putting the ball into excellent spots for our midfield. Clearances were 38 to 39, and ROB had ten hitouts more than anyone else on the ground.
 

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Review R2: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Essendon


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