Analysis Why are we s**t?

[Bombers1234]

Bigger bodies with a few more preseasons in to our younger players will make a big difference. Teams are applying pressure on our ball handlers who are not physically strong enough to break tackles and move the ball forward. I'd hope the coaching staff and club can stick the course and keep pushing for the correct behaviours on and off the field for the next 2 preseasons. If we can't get results by then, time for an overhaul of staff and players.

 

[Lore]

 

[rumply]

Would like to see one win shortly so Hobbs can get off the mark.

 

[yodellinhank]

View attachment 1393381

If Barrett's "sliding door" premise is simple then the conclusion is often a convoluted word salad that not only carries on far too long but may even slip off onto a tangent that tries to make an unrelated point which distracts from the original premise. Cheese is great I think I like soft cheese the best.

 

[Lore]

If Barrett's "sliding door" premise is simple then the conclusion is often a convoluted word salad that not only carries on far too long but may even slip off onto a tangent that tries to make an unrelated point which distracts from the original premise. Cheese is great I think I like soft cheese the best.

Yeah the sliding doors is complete gibberish and conceptually he clearly does not understand what a sliding doors moment actually is.

“IF we had done an external review in 2020 THEN…” would fit better.

But I think he generally prosecutes an argument that most of the AFL Media agree with, and for that reason I find it interesting that the thrust of today’s sliding doors is “forget another review [which might potentially sack a coach etc which usually the media love], you just need to play confident footy”.

 

[Call Me Cake]

I like sliding doors.

 

[BomberManU]

View attachment 1393381

Hahaha, how the f#@k is this a 'sliding doors' moment?? If he wants to smugly label his rubbish 'Sliding Doors' then at least understand the concept. Why this guy is one of the 'big name' football journos is baffling.

 

[rumply]

I like sliding doors.

They do come in handy.

 

[windyhill]

I’ve worked out why we are a current laughing stock, it is obvious, be absolutely shithouse before they bring in the new Tassie team. Get the picks in before they bend over backwards to welcome them in. Think g.coast, gws.

 

[Yoda_]

Hahaha, how the f#@k is this a 'sliding doors' moment?? If he wants to smugly label his rubbish 'Sliding Doors' then at least understand the concept. Why this guy is one of the 'big name' football journos is baffling.

Sports journalism in this country is a joke and has been for some time now

 

[Corleone]

Sports journalism in this country is a joke and has been for some time now

Just sports?

 

[JayJ20]

If you want outright honesty - this is where you're going to get it from

Or Clarko will be an agent for Hawthorn to set us back another 10 years. We've already seen it happen with Malthouse and Carlton. It even has the succession plan of a favourite son (Mitchell, Buckley) that portrays fake bad blood between Clarko and Hawthorn like it did for Malthouse and Collingwood. Stay away.

 

[citizen-erased]

Yeah the sliding doors is complete gibberish and conceptually he clearly does not understand what a sliding doors moment actually is.

“IF we had done an external review in 2020 THEN…” would fit better.

But I think he generally prosecutes an argument that most of the AFL Media agree with, and for that reason I find it interesting that the thrust of today’s sliding doors is “forget another review [which might potentially sack a coach etc which usually the media love], you just need to play confident footy”.

does he still call it sliding doors.
if he does, he clearly doesn't understand the then part.

often thought where we would be if we took King's advice and rebuilt in 2016
Let Hurley go via FA (pick 2 guaranteed)
Let Heppell go as well (pick 3)

I don't think too many others net us much and you'd want Hooker back.

2016 draft adds McGrath, Clug, Taranto, Ridley and Draper
2017 you don't pursue Smith esp given we probably finish bottom 2 and could add Brayshaw
I reckon Stringer and Saad are too good for the price to turn down.
Small bump in 2018, but lands us Smith with our pick
2019 better but still bottom 6 - trade that for 12 and 18 to GWS. Add Weightman and Robertson. Take the Daniher deal and add Kozi in 2019 and McDonald in 2020.
Off goes Saad and Fantasia and we bank Perkins and Reid in the 1st. No idea what 29 eventually became after it went to GWS.

Ridley Reid Kelly
Redman Laverde McGrath
Merrett Smith Clug
Stringer Jones Martin
Weightman McDonald Kozi
Draper Taranto Brayshaw
Robertson Langford Snelling Hobbs

 

[Beerfish]

I’ve worked out why we are a current laughing stock, it is obvious, be absolutely shithouse before they bring in the new Tassie team. Get the picks in before they bend over backwards to welcome them in. Think g.coast, gws.

3peat incoming!

 

[Yoda_]

Im surprised 23 pages in and not one mention of the lack of tough stickers out football club has had over the past 20 years

 

[fairbump_playon]

They do come in handy.

They also go out handy

I guess sliding doors really facilitate running both ways

Maybe there aren’t any at Tullamarine

 

[fairbump_playon]

Im surprised 23 pages in and not one mention of the lack of tough stickers out football club has had over the past 20 years

#bluecollar..ish

 

[Mootsy]

players need to go back to study geometry

 

[Maxabillions]

Pretty good analysis of why we are shit:

Dive Bombers: What’s gone wrong at Essendon?

A deep dive into what’s gone wrong since Essendon made the finals last year.

www.theage.com.au

 

[ghostdog]

Pretty good analysis of why we are shit:

Dive Bombers: What’s gone wrong at Essendon?

A deep dive into what’s gone wrong since Essendon made the finals last year.

www.theage.com.au

Can anyone paste the full text please?

 

[FlyingV]

Can anyone paste the full text please?

After seven rounds last year Essendon had two wins. This year they have one.
After seven rounds last season the Bombers felt like a team performing to expectation. This year they do not.
Last season ended with them shooting beyond expectation, losing an elimination final to the Western Bulldogs in the Launceston wet. This year a bottom-four finish would not surprise.

A dejected Essendon leave the field after their loss to the Western Bulldogs.Getty Imagesnone
How did we get here?
First, of those first seven games this year, the Bombers, along with Hawthorn and Gold Coast, have played the most matches against the current top eight.
Melbourne, in contrast, have played none.

Games v current top eight teams, 2022​

5 - Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Essendon
4 - Geelong Cats, Port Adelaide, GWS Giants, North Melbourne
3 - Fremantle, Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs, West Coast Eagles, Richmond
2 - Sydney Swans, St Kilda, Adelaide
1 - Carlton
0 - Melbourne
Source: Champion Data
That said, maybe some sides are not in the eight because they copped Melbourne ... and maybe some are in the eight because they played Essendon. The stats are the stats; make of them what you will.
Against that, Essendon also lost to Collingwood, a team that finished second-bottom last year, when the Bombers beat them twice.
This is not to say Essendon over-achieved in 2021. They achieved about what they should have with a draw that favoured them and a list that was relatively healthy. Their eighth-placed finish was the definition of average with 11 wins.
Last year, Jake Stringer missed the first two games, but ended up playing 19. He is already certain not to do that this year.

Jake Stringer, the Bombers’ most dangerous forward capable of midfield bursts, has hurt his hamstring again.Getty Imagesnone
Last year, Zach Merrett played every game; this year he’s already missed three. Stringer and Merrett are their two best players.
Last year, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwutiplayed 20 games and booted 34 goals. He hasn’t played a senior game this year and probably won’t.
Last year, their young players were performing better than they are this year. Second-year drop-off is not uncommon.
Essendon have been among the AFL’s youngest teams this year. In round seven, based on games played, they were the third-least experienced with 69 games on average, behind only North 67.9 and Adelaide 66.9. There is normally a correlation between age and ladder position.
They are the factors that explain where the Bombers are, but do not excuse where they are. They should be better than this, but maybe not that much better given their available list.
Essendon are playing a game that looks different to last year’s and it is falling to pieces. This starts in the middle where Sam Draper has been serviceable, but their bunch of generally undersized midfieldershave been dissected and scrutinised and exposed as having too many one-way runners.
In nearly every statistical category you care to mention, from clearances, tackles, contested possession and scores from intercepts and clearances (the list goes on) they have basically gone from top six to bottom six. The numbers do not lie. They often play a labour-intensive game with the ball going nowhere.
That is about how they are playing. Why they are playing that way is about coaching and personnel.
The Bombers have an undersized defence, as they did last year, but last year the midfield was performing better, which eased the pressure on defenders for it held up the speed with which the opposition took the ball forward and let the defenders get set. Last year, they had a better forward line, too, one that hunted and kept the ball in and did not see it sallying out as it has this year.
Their team defence has fallen apart, which is partly structural and partly a lack of run and commitment to work to be in the right positions.
The focus was rightly on this after the round five loss to Fremantle, partly because of the size of the defeat, but it was brought into sharp focus because the Dockers are such a clear and strong counterpoint to Essendon. The Dockers’ team defence is excellent and probably as good as Melbourne’s.

“Clearly there is a shift in the way they want to play and they don’t seem to know how they want to play,” one club assistant coach said.
“When you drop a player like Dev Smith(now injured) it was not a reaction to one bad week. Those decisions never are. That will have been a conversation they will have had over two to three weeks.”
Ditto the half-pregnant decision to drop, then reinstate, Dylan Shiel last weekend.
“Smith won a best and fairest, but ... he was a bad fit,” said a recruiter who asked not to be named. “But at the time they brought in him and Shiel they still had [Joe] Daniher, [Orazio] Fantasia, [Cale] Hooker. [Michael] Hurley and Tipungwuti [Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti] were playing, so they didn’t look bad.
“Now you look at them and think they are the wrong players for where they are at and they paid a big price to get them - two first-rounders for Shiel - but at the time you could understand it.”

​

Another club recruiter said they thought the Bombers list was OK, but - and this is a common refrain about the Bombers - not as good as Essendon spruiked.
“I like Harrison Jones of their kids. He hasn’t done as much yet, but I think he will be the best of those kids. [Nik] Cox, I reckon, having seen him as a junior you would need to keep your foot on his throat, but he is a very good player. [Archie] Perkins is a nice player, but Jones will be the one,” said one recruiter.
“But they are kids. They are like all the kids who came through in the last few years, they have missed out on so much footy, so they will take a bit of time.
“They are really short down back - picking up Jake Kelly is pretty short-term - and they are small in the midfield.”
That is the problem recruiters acknowledge is the same problem everyone can see and has been a problem this year - the midfield.
“I don’t mind their list, but who is their best young midfielder? It’d be [Darcy] Parish, but is he an A-grader? [Andrew] McGrath is a flanker and [Jye] Caldwell, we don’t know if his body will hold up yet,” another recruiter said. “What else is there? They haven’t brought in an A-grade midfielder in a long time.
“I don’t think their list is that bad. I think they’re young and they’ve had injuries to senior players, but they’re underperforming. ”

 

[Squeaky]

Fair article...

 

[Yoda_]

Fair article...

Doesn't really say much that hasn't been already discussed to be honest

 

[Lore]

After seven rounds last year Essendon had two wins. This year they have one.
After seven rounds last season the Bombers felt like a team performing to expectation. This year they do not.
Last season ended with them shooting beyond expectation, losing an elimination final to the Western Bulldogs in the Launceston wet. This year a bottom-four finish would not surprise.

A dejected Essendon leave the field after their loss to the Western Bulldogs.Getty Imagesnone
How did we get here?
First, of those first seven games this year, the Bombers, along with Hawthorn and Gold Coast, have played the most matches against the current top eight.
Melbourne, in contrast, have played none.

Games v current top eight teams, 2022​

5 - Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Essendon
4 - Geelong Cats, Port Adelaide, GWS Giants, North Melbourne
3 - Fremantle, Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs, West Coast Eagles, Richmond
2 - Sydney Swans, St Kilda, Adelaide
1 - Carlton
0 - Melbourne
Source: Champion Data
That said, maybe some sides are not in the eight because they copped Melbourne ... and maybe some are in the eight because they played Essendon. The stats are the stats; make of them what you will.
Against that, Essendon also lost to Collingwood, a team that finished second-bottom last year, when the Bombers beat them twice.
This is not to say Essendon over-achieved in 2021. They achieved about what they should have with a draw that favoured them and a list that was relatively healthy. Their eighth-placed finish was the definition of average with 11 wins.
Last year, Jake Stringer missed the first two games, but ended up playing 19. He is already certain not to do that this year.

Jake Stringer, the Bombers’ most dangerous forward capable of midfield bursts, has hurt his hamstring again.Getty Imagesnone
Last year, Zach Merrett played every game; this year he’s already missed three. Stringer and Merrett are their two best players.
Last year, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwutiplayed 20 games and booted 34 goals. He hasn’t played a senior game this year and probably won’t.
Last year, their young players were performing better than they are this year. Second-year drop-off is not uncommon.
Essendon have been among the AFL’s youngest teams this year. In round seven, based on games played, they were the third-least experienced with 69 games on average, behind only North 67.9 and Adelaide 66.9. There is normally a correlation between age and ladder position.
They are the factors that explain where the Bombers are, but do not excuse where they are. They should be better than this, but maybe not that much better given their available list.
Essendon are playing a game that looks different to last year’s and it is falling to pieces. This starts in the middle where Sam Draper has been serviceable, but their bunch of generally undersized midfieldershave been dissected and scrutinised and exposed as having too many one-way runners.
In nearly every statistical category you care to mention, from clearances, tackles, contested possession and scores from intercepts and clearances (the list goes on) they have basically gone from top six to bottom six. The numbers do not lie. They often play a labour-intensive game with the ball going nowhere.
That is about how they are playing. Why they are playing that way is about coaching and personnel.
The Bombers have an undersized defence, as they did last year, but last year the midfield was performing better, which eased the pressure on defenders for it held up the speed with which the opposition took the ball forward and let the defenders get set. Last year, they had a better forward line, too, one that hunted and kept the ball in and did not see it sallying out as it has this year.
Their team defence has fallen apart, which is partly structural and partly a lack of run and commitment to work to be in the right positions.
The focus was rightly on this after the round five loss to Fremantle, partly because of the size of the defeat, but it was brought into sharp focus because the Dockers are such a clear and strong counterpoint to Essendon. The Dockers’ team defence is excellent and probably as good as Melbourne’s.

“Clearly there is a shift in the way they want to play and they don’t seem to know how they want to play,” one club assistant coach said.
“When you drop a player like Dev Smith(now injured) it was not a reaction to one bad week. Those decisions never are. That will have been a conversation they will have had over two to three weeks.”
Ditto the half-pregnant decision to drop, then reinstate, Dylan Shiel last weekend.
“Smith won a best and fairest, but ... he was a bad fit,” said a recruiter who asked not to be named. “But at the time they brought in him and Shiel they still had [Joe] Daniher, [Orazio] Fantasia, [Cale] Hooker. [Michael] Hurley and Tipungwuti [Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti] were playing, so they didn’t look bad.
“Now you look at them and think they are the wrong players for where they are at and they paid a big price to get them - two first-rounders for Shiel - but at the time you could understand it.”

​

Another club recruiter said they thought the Bombers list was OK, but - and this is a common refrain about the Bombers - not as good as Essendon spruiked.
“I like Harrison Jones of their kids. He hasn’t done as much yet, but I think he will be the best of those kids. [Nik] Cox, I reckon, having seen him as a junior you would need to keep your foot on his throat, but he is a very good player. [Archie] Perkins is a nice player, but Jones will be the one,” said one recruiter.
“But they are kids. They are like all the kids who came through in the last few years, they have missed out on so much footy, so they will take a bit of time.
“They are really short down back - picking up Jake Kelly is pretty short-term - and they are small in the midfield.”
That is the problem recruiters acknowledge is the same problem everyone can see and has been a problem this year - the midfield.
“I don’t mind their list, but who is their best young midfielder? It’d be [Darcy] Parish, but is he an A-grader? [Andrew] McGrath is a flanker and [Jye] Caldwell, we don’t know if his body will hold up yet,” another recruiter said. “What else is there? They haven’t brought in an A-grade midfielder in a long time.
“I don’t think their list is that bad. I think they’re young and they’ve had injuries to senior players, but they’re underperforming. ”

I agree with much of what has been said but they’ve missed Reid and Hobbs from some of their comments, even just to acknowledge they exist and what their shortcomings are — if you’re talking about Jones, Cox and Perkins then these should also be accounted for, especially as first rounders that may address some of their questions about A grade mids and height in defence.

Height in defence, well Stewart and Zerk are on the list even if they’re injured and not great lol plus some of those other weedy kids Fair enough if you don’t rate them but at least acknowledge that they exist and why you don’t rate them..

 

[rumply]

Put in half the effort the Suns just did & we might start getting somewhere.