Review Dees v GWS - Good, Bad & Fugly at the 'G at long last - Rd 16

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They all have piss easy draws. Beating port helps but we have to be perfect on the run home and still hope others stumble. They aren't us.

I reckon they will, at least 1 will (apart from us..).
 
I thought Petracca was our only good mid today, looked pretty good and might be back in form

I was furious with him today.

He was good with the ball but horrific without it, no 2nd defensive efforts at all.
 
Vineys kicking was terrible, he still looks injured to me and I think he picked up another knock.
Midfield was exasperating, smashed in clearances, not sure what has happened but we need it fixed asap.
Hunt was a perfect example of our mid/forward falling down, he either made the incorrect decision or had no forwards presenting to kick to.
Our "speed" forwards were nowhere to be seen and Tommy needs to switch back to kicking drop punts.
Need to spin the roulette wheel at the selection table.
 

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Also, this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm starting to have some doubts about the viability of the Gawn/Jackson tandem.

Both are great ruckmen, and Jackson will be an absolute star, but neither of them have the level of forward craft needed to carry both (averaging half a goal per game each). Granted, Gawn drops behind the ball regularly, but neither can be the reason that we're keeping a genuine FF wasting away at Casey. You can't just take the best ruckman in the league away from his strengths purely to get games into a young guy if you're trying to compete for a flag.

This is no slight on Jackson btw, who should win the RS, but the balance just feels off.
 
I was furious with him today.

He was good with the ball but horrific without it, no 2nd defensive efforts at all.
He's like Dusty, he's not there for the defensive effort. Think he had a couple holding the balls too, had 6 tackles which is a good indicator
 
Lost at selection. Get Brown in now. We were screaming out for a forward target all day.
Whar? TMac dominated... Unless you meant to say we lacked unimpressive goals that Brown could provide
 
Whar? TMac dominated... Unless you meant to say we lacked unimpressive goals that Brown could provide
TMac dominated as a high CHF. We had zero deep forward target until Goody basically shackled Fritsch to the goal square in Q4. But he’s too small to play the contested FF we need. Brown will at least fly.

Get Brown in, tell him to play out of the square the whole way.
 
Lost at selection. Get Brown in now. We were screaming out for a forward target all day.
yeah this, I know our forward 50 entires are largely the reason our scoring is such a problem. But being at the ground today, it was just clear we barely had any genuine tall options to go for, Fritsch is a medium sized forward, and Tmac was often too far up the ground.
 

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Someone let Gawn, Oliver and Trac know that the 6 6 6 rule has been introduced, and instead of ****ing round at centre clearances with handball they should actually kick it blindly inside 50 and give our forwards a chance 1 on 1. Who knows we might get an easy goal occasionally.
 
TMac dominated as a high CHF. We had zero deep forward target until Goody basically shackled Fritsch to the goal square in Q4. But he’s too small to play the contested FF we need. Brown will at least fly.

Get Brown in, tell him to play out of the square the whole way.

He's not a deep forward who can win one on ones. That's the problem. TMac is playing Brown's role better than him.

We'd be better off if Brown was fit enough to play centre half forward but right now he's to slow/unfit and had TMac deep.
 
We 100% needed another target up forward. Tmac was good at roaming up the ground but when he got it at 70m out we had nothing to go to often. LJ isn't a smart forward and didn't offer us anything as a target. Fritsch did very well taking some grabs in the 2nd half but it's not his game to take marks body on body with a defender. If he hasn't taken those juggling marks we wouldn't have barely even kicked a goal

The signs have been there for a month that our forward line isn't working. We need to rotate some players in as our youngsters are tiring. Midfield decides when it wants to go. Viney in hasn't really paid off yet. Sloppy handballing all day from many players.

All will be forgotten and forgiven if we rock up and beat Port over there but we need to shake the team up.
 
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Focus off the pox forward line for a minute - aren't you glad we have an all-star midfield of Gawn, Petracca, Oliver and (lol) Viney
This is where people calling for brown are completely nuts. Brown in today adds nothing. It's still the most bizarre decision to recruit him.

Petracca played like he was just going to "get it done". He isn't dusty. He can't just expect to be better than other blokes. Was not hungry at all. Oliver the same. Viney is fast going down my list of fave players. Got in the way all day, can't handball to anyone and what the hell was that reverse chrckside in the last? Harmes had a massive influence in the second half and could well have pinched it off him alone.

I'm not angry or panicking because I still think we defend well enough around the ground, and are hard to score against. That's far more important come finals time than replying on say slingshot footy or the like. The issue today is we scored 7.13 and of those misses, around 6 or 7 were gettable. Petracca twice, rivers, Fritsch.. and that doesn't count the momentum killers of hunt (who at least had the guts to get in position to impact) we've been inaccurate for a few weeks and it is deflating. Our midfield aren't giving enough good ball to our forwards, and our forwards aren't really capitalising when they get it.

Viney was supposed to toughen up our midfield but he's blocked it up again. Brayshaw had 16 for the match, but 9 in the last quarter. Where was that effort and desperation in the first 3 quarters? Same for harmes. Oliver had 9 at half time. Finished with 28. Why are we starting with Pickett in the square at the start of quarters? Kid hasn't won a clearance all year. It looks so fancy but if he isn't impacting, why set him up?

The boys have a quick turnaround for Thursday night now against port, and we will see by half time if they want it. I'll sit on the fence until then.
 
I'm for Brown coming in, but he woukdnt have made any difference today. Midfield was shit. Even when we had Gawn down there clear on the lead late Trac was kicking it over his head.
 
To be honest, most of us saw this coming. The last month has been absolute pus. If Essendon were just a little more composed we would have lost 3 in a row to teams outside the 8. Today was quite possibly the worst performance I've seen from a side on top of the ladder at this point in a season. It was utter garbage.

It wasn't selection, it was lack of intent. Where's the pressure gone? The skills have dropped off a cliff. Our forward entries have been abysmal yet again. We don't have the luxury of gun forwards like Lions or Cats to make our poor entries look decent. We looked sluggish and weak live at the ground. Our accuracy for goal is still a huge issue that doesn't seem to be getting any better.

A few on here have been saying the Top 4 was no certainly, and it's looking very likely we'll be out of the 4 come next Thursday. What a disgrace from a club who was on top 2 games clear. We're not winning the premiership this year. I think it's plain to see now. Teams have worked us out and we can't kick a score and also have one of the laziest midfields in the comp. Dogs, Cats, Lions are looking ruthless right now, while we can't even get out of second gear. Wheels aren't looking wobbly anymore, they will have officially fallen off come next Thursday night...
 
He's not a deep forward who can win one on ones. That's the problem. TMac is playing Brown's role better than him.

We'd be better off if Brown was fit enough to play centre half forward but right now he's to slow/unfit and had TMac deep.
Brown has never played CHF. He’s played FF with a second banana playing CHF. Waite, Larkey both were in the 2 role.
 
Goodwin has taken a side that he had turned into winners in the first half of the year and told them to pack numbers behind the ball and scramble home 9 goals to 7 over second rate teams. It’s ****ing ridiculous.

So obvious that this defensive mindset has coincided with a drop off in intensity around the ball. Players need to take responsibility for their shit efforts too but it’s not that surprising they’re not taking the game on when the coaching panel is telling them through their tactics that we’re going to lose contests and have to recover the ball through intercept marks.

For 8 ****ing years we’ve been so easy to beat just by the oppsotion outnumbering us in our f50. We finally get a team and a system going which is better than that and then abandon it midway through the season when we’re on top of the ladder.

Goodwin needs to give himself an uppercut, back the so-called amazing defence he’s assembled in and play some attacking football and give the forwards a chance.

Small forwards are flat as a tack and need an injection of enthusiasm through some personnel changes. Bowey in for Hunt.
 

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Review Dees v GWS - Good, Bad & Fugly at the 'G at long last - Rd 16

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