AFL Autopsy 5 goal loss to Swans

[Chief Hopper]

This reminds me a bit about Hawks line in the sand game against us.
Football isn't just about fitness and skill. A winning mentality is needed. You can't just make that happen either, it needs to develop and grow.

If Essendon needs to improve, we need these circuit breaker moments where it's no longer the old team of strugglers and pushovers. We need a group saying, a focus, so when we do come up against teams we aren't really ready to beat, we can at least even odds a bit.

I'm sure when Sydney meet us next time they won't be all smiling at the thought of 4 quarters of Essendon.

 

[boncer34]

not sure about that.

we barely beat hawks and they are rubbish.

20 years of being s**t weighs on people's minds IMO, they start to get negative towards themselves.

We shouldn't be Hawthorne, North or West Coast is probably the better phrasing.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Papley seems like a bit of a flog

Absolute bell end.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

View attachment 1937629

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Liked that we where a bit more physical.
Did not like the team defense . I am going to keep pointing at slow forward line across the board. It kills us. None of them have any speed and not just the small blokes. They rebound off Wright something shocking. He is the slowest of slow and he takes 45 minutes to transition into defensive mode. If he does not mark it, which he has not ben doing , then we are playing one man down. Then we do not have any other blokes to pressure.

Jones addresses this, but he just can't mark it...

 

[Nicholas61]

We are not going to improve when our younger players are even worse in defensive transition than our already poor older group.
Caldwell, Perkins, Hobbs and Tsatas (not lack of endeavour) were jogging behind their men all night on transition.

Would have been nice if we listened to Woosha all those years ago when he requested players with a defensive edge.

 

[crackers65]

Yes, we all know about the 'Cotton On' money that's handed to Cats' players under the table.

Is that how they do it now. Word used to be about blocks of land along the coast.

 

[dank420_]

So many times the whistle go before the rules were infringed? They were paying anticipated free kicks.

I reckon the broadcast was out of sync. The bounce of the ball was coming through my speakers well before it was bounced.

 

[Ati Tude]

We were competitive for most of the game, and really not out of the contest until Hind gave away a free kick in the d50.

Setters and Duz were awesome in the middle. Thought Gresh was great too. Menzie looked a bit of a no show.

Felt a bit sorry for Tsatas. He often seemed to be free but over looked by his team mates. Defensively he also seemed to give his man far too much space. Had a goal kicked on him early but didn't learn from it.

I mostly like Durham but was at least one instance of him not working hard enough on transition and his man linked up when they got a goal. Like the way he goes about it with the ball and in the contest but can work harder. But that's our whole team too.

 

[Ati Tude]

Brad Sewell doesn't like this

 

[Ati Tude]

Ok, looking forward, rather than at the negatives, can we bring in somebody to have a defensive impact right now?

Only Redman, Kelly and Ridley (maybe 2 more weeks for Rids).

 

[jdstorm]

Good synopsis

We did well at the things we can do

We were smashed at the thing we can’t do

And why can’t we do it? It’s the perfect storm.. where we pay for both our long term culture of mediocrity and will to stay switched on and to fight when it’s toughest, and our unwillingness to draft super hard running competitors.

Come on now the Swans were basically running on fumes at the end there too. They just had a bit more gas in the tank and broke away.

This team overran the hawks so they are somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Would have been nice if we listened to Woosha all those years ago when he requested players with a defensive edge.

Team culture was so bad wouldn’t have done much. Merrett got kicked out of the leadership group for having suggested it. Stringers got the edge but not the tank

 

[Red Black and Blue]

The too physical stuff is a beat up. We didnt go that hard, except for Drapers effort. I think its just jarring because its foreign for us, not the competition. Wed probably have the least amount of long term bump suspensions over the past 20 years. Collisions are part of the nature of high intensity competing.

The transition running isnt as bad as we think. They got out the back while we were streaming forward and more so when we were chasing the scoreboard at the end. No team is going to stop that regardless of their runners. We burnt Sydney a lot of times, but made errors that didnt make them pay and allowed them out the back and they did make us pay.

One of the things we need to do more is be selecting with forward handball in the attacking 80. When the ground compresses we are getting caught out by defenders coming forward and thats setting up their sling shot.

Where they really got us for fitness was around the contest. As we fatigued we stopped resetting to defensive postions around the contest and that is so much harder to get parity when youre giving them the extra numbers ahead of the ball.

 

[andleanback]

The fact that Heeney and Papley think it even warrants sh*tting on the “Essendon edge” is good news. They wouldn’t be talking about it at all if it just didn’t exist. We looked ok tonight in areas we’ve previously lacked (toughness being one). Unfortunately we must be the worst side defending transition in the league. That, and Nic Martin has had a horror start to the season. I reckon we give the saints a run next week.

I’m all for us being over the top with aggression even if we give away frees. Be meak for far too long. If swans are talking about it, means we got under their skin.

 

[Old Campaigner]

I’m all for us being over the top with aggregation even if we give away frees. Be meak for far too long. If swans are talking about it, means we got under their skin.

The challenge will be turning it from a bit of poorly directed aggro into pressure and a little extra spice on the tackles so the opposition are always looking over their shoulder when they have the ball

 

[boncer34]

Out hustled Sydney around the ball comprehensively in the first half. It started with ruck control and Draper beating Grundy but there was much more pressure than last week and it was a much more physical contest.

Would be fascinating to have seen that game play out at the G. The constricted space seemed to suit us but Sydney is adept at playing angles and taking really short kicks that never feel Iike they're on in the middle. It releases the transition through the corridor in the way a 30m inboard dart does at the G.

Ground defence horrible. It felt like Sydney players were lapping ours, sometimes trying to catch up with the previous transition. It kept them close or in front in the first half when we probably should have been 3 or 4 up at half time.

I find it difficult to try to put it into context. The game can only look like that twice a year (if we play Sydney in Sydney in a final in addition to home and away).

That's a pretty similar game to the ANZAC day games of the last few years and Collingwood mids, wingers and flankers are pretty similar to Sydneh. We've held up well in those. Sydney's foot skills are next level.

The best Sydney team, including Adams and Parker is more suited to last night than the G or even Marvel.

Merrett and Setterfield outstanding. I want to say Draper was also great but it could be heat of the moment assessment. He just seemed to dominate Gruney in the first quarter and a half but, 6 clearances aside, the numbers don't favour him.

The umpiring was appalling even though we seemed to have the run of it. Completely at odds with the contest. So many times the whistle go before the rules were infringed? They were paying anticipated free kicks.

Out of interest did anyone else with Kayo feel like the sound was way out of synch? Even with marks it sounded like the whistle was blowing a good 2-3 seconds before the player got the ball.

 

[ant555]

Out of interest did anyone else with Kayo feel like the sound was way out of synch? Even with marks it sounded like the whistle was blowing a good 2-3 seconds before the player got the ball.

It seemed slightly out on Fox as well.

 

[Gumby2Hurley]

Out of interest did anyone else with Kayo feel like the sound was way out of synch? Even with marks it sounded like the whistle was blowing a good 2-3 seconds before the player got the ball.

yep whole game.

 

[andleanback]

The challenge will be turning it from a bit of poorly directed aggro into pressure and a little extra spice on the tackles so the opposition are always looking over their shoulder when they have the ball

Yeh exactly but hopefully this can change the playing groups mind set as they learn to be more overly aggressive to the opposition. This might be the only way to stimulate it

 

[citizen-erased]

Swans sooking aside

We matched them in a few areas around the ground they usually doninate us
Clearance, tackles, contested game all toe to toe.

Next step is the cleaner ball use
The trick to this transition game is to stop the turnovers.
Our fwd 50 entries, marking and defending of the first rebound possession needs a lot of improvement.

Other facets are on the up though.

 

[supportyourteam]

Would have given Draper a vote until he was subbed off. Seemed to be the point that Sydney got their mojo mojoing in full .

 

[Happyskeret]

Which is fair enough guys but I think that says more about our expectations than anything. Be nice to not go into games with such low expectations.

We aren't Hawthorn, North or West Coast. We shouldn't be expecting 10 goals + beatings in my opinion.

True my expectations are at the point where I can handle competitive losses it’s the blowouts that bother me these days.

I’m still worried at some stage we are going to fall off a cliff like we have in the past but until that happens I’m going to remain positive. It’s a low bar I know.

 

[Happyskeret]

It seemed slightly out on Fox as well.

Before the game on channel 7 I noticed it was out of sync too.

 

[BrunoV]

Out of interest did anyone else with Kayo feel like the sound was way out of synch? Even with marks it sounded like the whistle was blowing a good 2-3 seconds before the player got the ball.

I only noticed 4 or 5 frees.

Sync would definitely explain it.

 

[MisitisGoal]

Cansomeone please gif the Heeney hit to Hind in the face please?

Cant remember the exact moment but remember seeing it. Suspension?

Hind doesn't have that sort of head. Like Peverill its GUR. No penalty.