AFL Autopsy Essendon v Melbourne, Melbourne by 1 point

[Lord Nicholson]

And to top off a shit game for us there's the usual "playing an absolute spud into a superstar"..

Dunn. Check
Pedersen. Check
Jamar. Check

Ah good, we made sure that was covered then.

**** sake

Kinda nonsense... Dunn and Pedersen have been having good years.

There's no magic here in terms of playing another side into form... they just took opportunities presented to them on a silver platter.

 

[Ess_don]

We are the kinda side that bottom sides go into the game confident they can knock us off... and rightly so.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

that hocking attempted tackle in our forward pocket with 80 seconds left was as emabarassing and funny as can be. You can't script that shit.

Its those little things that kill you all the time. Clutch time requires clutch players. We should have locked that ball in the forward pocket and killed the game.

 

[Zach Package]

This makes zero sense. Melksham was shit because he doesn't work hard enough and has VFL level decision making ability. His skill level is also ridiculously inconsistent.

probably not clear, he was shit, but that particular passage of play was a perfect example of why our forward line is so shit, barring Daniher and probably chappy, you can never count of them running to the right spots

 

[FedEXFalls]

What shits me the most is Port have achived way more in 2 years then we have since the new coaching regime came in.

They have actually done more than we have since 2004. Which was many coaching regimes ago.

 

[theboxmike]

Definitely a midfield problem - not enough skill, or match awareness. Anyone who can cop that defeat is kidding themselves. Chappy is giving us nothing, and the same players make the same mistakes, time after time.

To be fair he looks tired and we can't kick to chappys head he's not that sort of player.

 

[rines]

Chappy still adds leadership and some grunt.. however we can't carry Chappy, Licka AND Howlett down forward.. they are too slow and one paced..

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

At least for me Italy won their first match in the World Cup

FORZA ITALIA

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

45 seconds to go with us 5 points up and they have 3 players within 30 of goal and we have 1 defender. You don't see that at the under 9's.

 

[yaco55]

Ashby's games have been better than Melksham's. Some saying trade TBC, ffs he missed a lot of the pre-season. Took important grabs but just farked up two very easy shots.

Daniher's marking was a problem tonight but yeah he'll learn.
To me though it's very difficult to knock players as we have no idea how things are effecting them. Three of our best players tonight were Zaka, Goddard and Z Merrett.

MEMO to mods: The game thread on main board is a farking poor with so many ASADA/drug references.

T-Bell didn't miss any of the pre-season - He was injured in February when the pre-season is done.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Kinda nonsense... Dunn and Pedersen have been having good years.

There's no magic here in terms of playing another side into form... they just took opportunities presented to them on a silver platter.

Yep those two have been good this year. Believe it or not the Dees have improved and Roos is doing a great job. But tonight we just gave it to them.

 

[doug85]

45 seconds to go with us 5 points up and they have 3 players within 30 of goal and we have 1 defender. You don't see that at the under 9's.

We didn't learn from the Hawthorn game.

Not one bit.

 

[yaco55]

Strangest thing is that we haven't conceded more than 25 shots in a game - The midfield and defence are doing their job - Forward line is a work in progess.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

T-Bell didn't miss any of the pre-season - He was injured in February when the pre-season is done.

Got injured mid January.

 

[billylid]

Why do the usual whipping boys get the wrath. Let's look at the blokes on 5 yr deals 500+ a year who aren't worth the kind of money. If 80% of the players had the hunger and heart of Buddha we would have won that game....

 

[yaco55]

Got injured mid January.

The pre-season running component is 90% done by XMAS. January on is more match play practice.

 

[nylexbandit]

At least for me Italy won their first match in the World Cup

FORZA ITALIA

I was supporting England and also hoping Miami got up in the NBA. Horrible period in sport for me.

 

[yaco55]

Changes

In

Fletcher
Ashby
J.Merrett



Out

Melksham
Bellchambers
Dempsey

Play Winderlich at h/b, one of Hurley/Carlisle forward, J.Merrett h/f and Kavanagh in the midfield.

 

[Despair]

I like Melbourne's tactics in defense. Just hold the man until the cavalry arrives... Brilliant.

All the umpires need to be loaded into a bus and driven off a cliff like the O'Doyles

 

[Ben the Gooner]

We've turned over an entire forward 6 and we've had 3 different forward coaches since Knights was sacked. Blaming the forwardline is lazy.

 

[Big Fresh]

Zaharakis has been fantastic the last few weeks. Stood up when it counted. Goddard played pretty well for most of the game. Heppell was okay too.

The rest were bad. I sort of can't believe we were even leading so late given how badly we played. I can cut Joe some slack but he dropped so many easy marks tonight. At least there are no question marks over his commitment and work rate. Bellchambers has been shocking since his return. Melksham has been given enough opportunities. If Kav had played the full game ahead of him he wouldn't have needed to have any impact to do a better job. I really hope to see him play a full game next week. Dempsey's poor form continues. At least he improved slightly after a shocker start. Baguley made two of the biggest blunders imaginable within five seconds of each other. It was embarrassing.

Ultimately our defence was shocking - the ball was never safe in Hibberd's, Dempsey's, or Hibberd's hands, and the Dees looked like scoring off every inside 50. Our midfield's ball use was sloppy and the defensive running extremely lazy - how often did they have numbers running forward with the ball into space? Our forward line is just impotent and inaccurate. All round terrible performance. Zaharakis' Herculean effort and Melbourne's poor quality was the only thing that kept us in the contest until the end.

 

[Yoda_]

We've turned over an entire forward 6 and we've had 3 different forward coaches since Knights was sacked. Blaming the forwardline is lazy.

Or its the truth Ben. We are half way into this season. You would hope that we saw a dominant match or something. Sadly, since rd3 (v Carlton) we haven't seen a massive score.

 

[rines]

Goes back to the fact that we spent two seasons turning Hurley into a forward.. and it was just showing signs of paying off.. and then we have a certain individual come in and change the structure again.. with disastrous consequences.

 

[Seb78]

Im so f****** angry right now. I'm speechless and very embarrassed.

Win and we're 7th. Loss and its just about season over I question whether they want it enough cause right now it doesn't look like it.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Or its the truth Ben. We are half way into this season. You would hope that we saw a dominant match or something. Sadly, since rd3 (v Carlton) we haven't seen a massive score.

69 inside 50s. How many good ones? 5?