Autopsy Essendon v Hawthorn

[tige19]

When unable to engage someone who quotes stats, get personal as a deflection.
Works every time on the interwebz.

I would but I'm in bed about to roll a leg over with my mrs

 

[heh]

I have waited a while to post, as I bloody hate losing to Essendon.
And, the fact that I had to work up to typing out that * earned the win. (teeth still gritted whilst typing that)

It is easy to say in hindsight that taking the three relative noobs in, was a bit cheeky and cost us, and ideally, in 100% hindsight there were several options that could have impacted more. But Frawley going down really stuffed our structures, caused the choices to look really bad.

Don't know if I am stating the obvious here, but one thing with our style of play, it is really dependent on our structures and knowing where all our players are, the knock ons, the seemingly 'blind' handballs over the shoulder to a player who just happens to be passing.. and when we have a lot of personnel changes, or a big reshuffle on the ground due to injury, we need time to regroup and get the groove happening.
To bombers credit they did not give us time to regroup, and we floundered. Kept trying to keep the 'plays' happening but the normal structure wasn't there to carry it out, and we weren't too good at (or didn't have time to) choosing other options/plays.
There was a couple of times Burgers was free in a couple of runs of play in the second, including a perfect shot at goal, and no one looked up and saw him.

That is probably a whole heap of waffle, but I thought I would add my armchair critic 2 cents.

 

[MinerBoy]

When unable to engage someone who quotes stats,.

I've just rewatched the match and i'm not sure how they do DE% because Lewis DE was just fine. I can only guess that clearances where he just gets the ball out of a tight contest and get the ball forward count against him because they don't land on a chest. However, he got a stack of them and they either got the ball moving our way and gave us a chance at a 50/50 contest further in our attacking zone or in other cases had McEvoy pounce on the loose ball...handball Cyril...handball Gunston...goal.

When you work as hard as him contest to contest and win as many tight balls in congestion I guess it stands to reason that his DE won't be as high as Burgoynes (who is a gun so I'm not Q'ing him) but stats are only useful if they're used in context and when Lewis wins the ball out in the open with the luxury that our HBFs do, he is close to the best in the team at setting up goals for our forwards.

Having re-watched I'm even more comfortable that he was in our top 2 today and probably our best in hindsight.

 

[heh]

Forgot to mention for the five millionth time, that I absolutely adore Poppy.

And while Sicily is a good ways off, he showed some good signs today, for a dude who looks 16. I am going to end up adoring that kid I reckon.

 

[Jaeger]

I've just rewatched the match

Couldn't think of anything worse right now.

 

[LindaCresLove]

Fairly accurate assessment I think CP.

Umpiring - nothing disastrous but the new holding the ball has me scratching my head. We got pinged almost instantly in every tackle today which I don't mind if that's the way they're going with it. Far batter than the stuff they weren't paying last year. Except on the other hand today we had Bombers players impersonating Malceski when Hill ran him down in the GF last year and not getting pinged. What's the go with that?

For a while there thought it was 2001 prelim' with Goldspink playing the role of game changing maggot!

Never the less, we never shouldn't have let it get that close.

 

[Southern Urchins]

I've just rewatched the match and i'm not sure how they do DE% because Lewis DE was just fine.

Not sure, but both AFL website and Footywire had him at 41% DE.

 

[B0SK]

The worst part of this game is the inevitable return of Shoenmakers.

Today's been traumatic enough, why'd you have to go and make it worse?


Seriously I'm hoping Spangher will come in ahead of him.

 

[Phil McCreviss]

Not a great game but some interesting observations.

It appeared that there was a lot of space in the middle of the ground for the Essendon players. I think this is a combination of them working harder in to space to create the option and us just being off our usual work rate when we didn't have the ball.

The general accountability was lacking too. There was one instance where there was a long stoppage of play (think when Hooker went off with the blood rule). The stoppage lasted over 30 seconds and even after that time Essendon had a player free 40 metres ahead of the play. That's very un-like us.

What the game did highlight to me was that our structure is still very much watertight. Everyone on here says it's positive to stay so close even though we played poorly. That's purely because the way we set up is tried and tested. If we played that way with no system in place, we lose by 5-10 goals.

Teams are hungry for our scalp. If we don't brace for the initial onslaught we will fall short. So right now it's about finding form again and getting a few wins in a row on the board.

 

[Mootsy]

Lol, anytime Essendon wins, football loses.

There could be a very good argument made about the fact that roughly half a dozen or so Bombers shouldn't have been out there today.

That's all done and dusted now..move on..

*Runs off to watch the 85 grand final*.....

 

[Angus Young]

Still gutted

That was fkd

 

[Southern Urchins]

I've just rewatched the match and i'm not sure how they do DE% because Lewis DE was just fine. I can only guess that clearances where he just gets the ball out of a tight contest and get the ball forward count against him because they don't land on a chest.

But at 81% surely Watson plays the same role?

 

[SHAKESPEARE]

And I get called a smart arse.... wow!

Agree on Lewis. Played like he believes the hype.

 

[Goodo73]

Exact reverse of last year!

I thought the same thing, at least as far as the late game action was concerned.

 

[Jiggystoon]

We were rubbish today, wouldn't have deserved to win even if we had of won, if I take my "I hate Essendon glasses" off, I look at it as a simple, they wanted it more then what we did, we had a few things go against us in missing Gibbo, Mitchell and then losing Chip early on but overall we looked "off" big time and Essendon made us look slow, in that first half their ferocity at the contest was huge and it forced plenty of skill errors, in fact it reminded me a little bit of when the "Kennett's curse" was in full swing, Geelong would hunt our prime ball movers which forced us into doing silly things with the footy, we kill teams when we have the footy and when we move it quick because opposition teams cant get set up to apply that pressure, but when teams get it right and that pressure is applied to our main ball users we start to look sh*t very quickly, fair play to Essendon, our boys better regroup and really hit the Doggies hard next week

 

[LindaCresLove]

whats that supposed to mean?

Hey You!
That's right, you, Mr Turd.
You may be in a position to claim "not guilty"
But we all (and by that i refer to the rest of the population of the planet), believe that shredding the evidence of your clubs guilt, was the only thing your clubs ever done right)
This is assuming that you paid Goldspink his right wack back in 2001.
Now Ill keep off your board, so you Mr Turd keep off mine.

 

[Jade]

It's hard to hate a club that I respect as much as you blokes.

Don't get me wrong, I love beating you ****s.

But geez..... respect.

 

[MinerBoy]

But at 81% surely Watson plays the same role?

Well I haven't even seen Watson and Lewis has been everywhere. As I said the stats sheet isn't the same as watching the game. Lewis has been a mile ahead of Watson.

Likewise, that second last goal you lay the blame at Lewis. Completely wrong. Watched it closely. Lewis won the ball in close, under pressure released a handball to Birchall in space and Birchall had all the time in the world to use the ball as he wished and put it to the top of the square where Hooker was just far better than our forwards and read the ball, marked it and released it for their coast to coast. Had absolutely not a thing to do with lewis whose only crime in that passage was winning possession and setting his team mate free.

 

[bungholes_premiers]

We win as a team, we lose as a team, the amount of trying to find specific blame is laughable. Do people really expect us to just waltz it in undefeated ?

 

[LindaCresLove]

If people are wondering if I am mentally scarred by the umpiring in the 2001 Prelim' ?

Yes.

I found out today, I still am.

 

[bungholes_premiers]

It's hard to hate a club that I respect as much as you blokes.

Don't get me wrong, I love beating you ****s.

But geez..... respect.

GO BACK TO YOUR OWN BOARD ... uhh .. oh wait ...

 

[MinerBoy]

We win as a team, we lose as a team, the amount of trying to find specific blame is laughable. Do people really expect us to just waltz it in undefeated ?

Was kind of hoping yeah

 

[Hawthorn4ever]

Jono o'rourke - had this belief he is just an average player and first time seeing him play live today .. How he was a no.2 pick is baffling .. Even more outrageous is how we swap pick 19 for him ..

He is just not clean with the ball, always rushed, has bad bad hands ie, is a fumbles king .. Bad decisions.. No tank, no real speed, .. I m astounded how he was so high rated ..

Hawks have lost big in this one .. I think Maynard, miller, Goddard were available at this pick ..

 

[Pessimistic]

Forgot to mention for the five millionth time, that I absolutely adore Poppy.

And while Sicily is a good ways off, he showed some good signs today, for a dude who looks 16. I am going to end up adoring that kid I reckon.

'The Kid"

 

[Pessimistic]

If people are wondering if I am mentally scarred by the umpiring in the 2001 Prelim' ?

Yes.

I found out today, I still am.

As i remember goldstink was red hot on holding in the 50