Autopsy Dogs 🐕 pantsed by injury depleted Cats 🐱 97-75

[Timewillcome]

You sure can paper over a lot of cracks with decent conversion at goal. Essendon seem to do this well in the games I've seen of them.

I liked JUHs intensity and aggression last night. Not a perfect game but he had a couple of plays where he had multiple efforts and tackled hard.

Bont doesn't play well we don't win. Can't afford to let it go into our defence, even when Jones stops it we turn it over.

Wasted year in a relatively even comp.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Maybe we could put him behind the goals & let the players aim for his head

In all seriousness, isn't it a successful technique to have the kicker aim for a specific person, or sign, behind the centre of the goals? I've seen supporters hold up targets or signs saying Kick it to Me. They can find another player during play (mostly) but they just seem to go to water when they look at those sticks. And don't get me started on hitting the post - they could try all day at training and never hit them once.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Like having the bye except you get 4 points for it...

We should just cede those 2 games every year and not even turn up. Would save a lot of angst.

 

[Some Idiot]

Disagree. It's a big worry

Bont is close to the best kick I've seen at the club but he can't kick a shot from 20m on a slight angle. He never just fixed it because he's a skillful

JUH definitely has the tools to fix it, but he needs to do it soon before it becomes a long term issue

Has to be banned from taking those shots from 50m out at this point. Would have about a 10% strike rate from that range at best. Needs to put it top of the goal square until he improves.

 

[Munnez]

I'm trying to keep calm. But tonight I am probably the most livid I have ever been after a loss, including all those ass kickings we have conceded.

Tonight was meant to be about making a statement, showing maturity, proving we are contenders and not pretenders. Against a team missing Dangerfield, Duncan and Holmes from their midfield. Providing us with the best chance we may ever get in a long time for a rare Geelong win. Instead we failed big time.

I thought the first half was good. We were moving the ball well for the most part. We were getting something happening inside the forward 50. Whilst we couldn't break away from them. I thought most of our goals were earned, where most of theirs I felt we gave it to them directly. I thought if we just cut out the turnovers a little, we should be right. Though I did think we were behind in the center clearances and needed to lift a little there.

Instead, after half time we reverted to the worst the team has had to offer all season. Our disposals by foot dropped by over 10 percent, we kept turning the ball over, we stopped running, defensively we let them move from coast to coast with ease, and the forward line ceased to function.

Seriously, someone needs to ask Bevo, why the team has ranked down the bottom for goal accuracy almost every year he has coached, and why it has never improved? And why the forward line regressed last season, and regressed even more this season, despite being more experienced? I miss the 2021 forward line and midfield, that constantly had clean inside 50 entries, kicked big scores, found space and marks inside 50 with ease. Why do we persist with players who cannot kick a simple shot at goal from a close distance?

Cannot carry both Gards and O'Brien down back. Gards is not confident enough, and not game aware enough. Has pace and can punch it, that is it really. Turns it over, slows the play to much, or abandons his man to often, causing the defence to come a part.

Our midfield the last 3-4 weeks, has been beaten at the center. Honestly, over pundits calling our midfield the best in the league. Instead of playing like 200 game veterans, we constantly get out worked and outran from the middle.

Are we allergic to the top four? Never once finished there under Bevo. Had the chance to finish top spot in 2021 for the first time in club history, only to piss away the final three games of the season against teams we should have beaten on paper. Then last week vs the Suns, and this week against the Cats. Could have been two games clear inside the top four, with a softer fixture ahead. Instead we are a game and percentage outside.

Bailey Smith, i swear every single kick went directly to an opponent. Seriously why are skills across the AFL these days so s**t? You're professionals who have played since auskick, yet many players cannot hit the side of a barn.

The midfield need to get it together, and stop believing their own hype. Start owning the middle like the 100-200 game players they are.

The forward line, I have said it heaps. They are our Achilles heel these days, more so than the defence. Inefficient, and inaccurate.

There were probably some good things, and some good players, but I can't think of what. Was stuck at the game surrounded by arrogant entitled Cats fans, who have let 15 years of good football inflate their egos, that they all have big heads. Endless direct taunting, particularly in the second half, made the whole game a s*t experience tonight. They deserve another 50 years of nothing to bring them back to earth.

Impossible when Suns gift Geelong players and draft picks too keep them at the pointy end. Then there is the go home factor where they add star power for a late 1st rinse and repeat yearly

 

[Dazb86]

English was huge.

Jamarra had a good game I thought.

Not sure how it looked on TV but some of our skills out of defence were absolutely shocking. Can't be missing easy short kicks under no pressure. Absolutely burnt ourselves this game.

 

[calder_daddy]

Our genius coach likes to overthink logical players positions because he thinks he's a tactical mastermind. He played Lewis Young in the ruck for a year who would be best 22 in our defense and blind freddy could see he was a backman

I’m taking that as he hasn’t been tried as a forward half player.
I understand your frustrations with Young though

 

[MaxiBont]

10 games played with 28 points with the next two games against the Suns and Cats team without a midfield. Have more scoring shots and expected score in both games but manage to lose both. Instead of winning both and being in 3rd we shit the bed in both games and now will likely go to 7th by the end of today. This is not a mentality of a winning team

 

[Snarls Barkley]

I’m taking that as he hasn’t been tried as a forward half player.
I understand your frustrations with Young though

He played there through his first few seasons, rotating half forward with stints on the wing. Then he found a home at half back and has now moved into pretty much a permanent midfielder.

He was decent there. I think the role he is in now probably suits him the most to be honest. Gets plenty of the ball and can utilise his foot skills whilst not being the defensive weakness as a defender.

 

[Walsh Bay]

Same as last year.

We are only as good as Bont is fit.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I'm unable to post here for some reason, but if the Facebook posts I'm seeing about Bevo's explanations about goal kicking are fair dinkum and he actually said these things, what hope have we got?

What were they?

 

[VogonProsthetnic]

Beecause we picked too tall a team, we had to play Daniel in defence,

He is not quick enough and can’t kick far enough to be of any use in quick transition out of defence and is a liability 1 on 1:

In doing so we lost our best delivere inside 50 and one of our goal kickers.

Believe or not we have some decent quick defenders in the reserves who Bevo won’t play. One or two of Cleary, Crozier, VDM should have been picked.

 

[Sentinel]

Thank Bont we didn't run into Geelong in the 16 finals series or we'd never have witnessed what we did.

 

[Bulldog Banana]

Silly thing is, I swear we recruited TOB to be an interceptor.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Yeah because he tore us a new one playing that role for hawthorn in tassie. Just another example of a spud playing like a champion against us.

On SM-A505YN using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Munnez]

Naughton Should be in defence as An interceptor to Generate rebound and ball movement. Free up space and provide more opportunity and empower JUH. Naughton can’t kick at goal.

I reckon you guys aren’t far away, and will improve in second half of year

Only if Bevo has the sack to admit he is wrong and make the move

 

[dogwatch]

Just one observation regarding the impact of playing in Darwin last week...do we look at how the Gold Coast performed last night? They ran all over the Crows in the second half, booting 11 goals to 5.

They stayed up there. More recovery and adjustment time. Didn’t have the 4000km round trip AND because they are from Qld they are more acclimatised to warm conditions and perhaps even the humidity as well. Meanwhile Adelaide are not used to it, had to travel up, and quite possibly didn’t even do the meticulous sauna prep that we did.

Not really surprising at all.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

I steeled myself and watched the presser and all I heard was frustration about us using the ball so poorly and awful conversion.

Um, that's coaching. That IS coaching. No whinging and moaning about it every week, do something about it.

Um...No it isn't. Its more an issue of the recruitment of players who have a sub-par skillset.

Its nearly impossible to remove this aspect once its so imbedded in their football DNA after they've progressed to the AFL.

Most players carry the same faults that they had as juniors right through their careers.

Case(s) in point: Jack McRae. Bailey Smith. Aaron Naughton.

Or indeed from last night. Look at Gryan Myers. There is no coach in the world that is going to teach him how to kick conventionally or beyond 40 metres.

So they will work with what they've got and use the unpredictability of his dinky little kicks to maximum advantage. This allows the Geelong forwards to dine out on his predictable unpredictability. They always know exactly where his kicks are going to go. Defenders, not so much. Good coaches see this and re-role players into positions to take advantage of their weaknesses.

Coaches can drill fitness, disposal techniques, game day structures, coaching philosophies or any other football voodoo into players until the end of time. What they can't do is improve techniques to a point where they are failsafe under pressure or in front of goals. That is an issue for the individual and one that resides entirely between their ears. It's also an issue that has plagued this group for a number of years. They just dont have it.

Bevo has surrounded himself with assistants who are second-rate yes-men. None have relevant experience at external successful ALF clubs.
If our season replicates last year we must have a total footy department rebuild (a la Tigers at the end of 2016).

Heres a question that is unknowable to anybody not in the inner sanctum.

Are they "yes men" or guys that the club in its penny pinching ways could afford?

But hey, look over there at our shiny new facilities. Aren't we a success!

 

[NBates]

What were they?

"When it comes to goal kicking practice, more is less...if that makes sense." Luke Beveridge

 

[NBates]

What were they?

"We're not sending Aaron Naughton into defence because he was inaccurate for one game" Luke Beveridge May 2023

 

[doggies ftw]

"When it comes to goal kicking practice, more is less...if that makes sense." Luke Beveridge

Lol I knew this would be the case, I bet we don’t train it at all - you can tell we don’t considering no one really has a set routine they just wing it every time

 

[Leon]

I‘m not the biggest Bevo fan these days - although I do think Scott out coached him last night, and also clearly owns him in general.

However last night the players are to blame for the loss.

Beveridge cannot make players like Naughton, JUH, Bont, McNeil and Artie mail the shots they should be.

 

[Freshwater]

"When it comes to goal kicking practice, more is less...if that makes sense." Luke Beveridge

If a professional footballer is not practicing his goal kicking and his kicking is crap, then he is wasting his career, his talent and everyone who pays to watch him and his team. Flushing it all away. If a coach is not insisting on practice and setting standards, the coach is also forfeiting their role in the club. This is the coaches job, to improve their men.

 

[huddo#9]

"We're not sending Aaron Naughton into defence because he was inaccurate for one game" Luke Beveridge May 2023

It's all good, he knows what he is doing wrong

Bulldogs star knows what's wrong, now hoping to fix accuracy woes in 2022

“Hopefully that’s what happens this year.”

www.sen.com.au

 

[Next Waiting]

A good team is often “more than the sum of its parts”. We are the exact opposite, we are somehow less than the sum of our parts. A handful of elite players but it’s just not working.

That's an interesting way of looking at it and hard to disagree with.

Along with some psychological assistance to increase kicking efficiency across the group in every aspect of the game, to at least equal the sum of our parts is a desirable outcome for the second part of the year. To surpass it a dream.

On the above shall ye be judged at year's end.

 

[Next Waiting]

I‘m not the biggest Bevo fan these days - although I do think Scott out coached him last night, and also clearly owns him in general.

However last night the players are to blame for the loss.

Beveridge cannot make players like Naughton, JUH, Bont, McNeil and Artie mail the shots they should be.

This.

The coaches can do many things for the players, but actually kicking the ball for them is not one of them.

As Norm said earlier, it's between the ears of most of them.