Preview Essendon vs Adelaide, Docklands, Saturday 12/08/17 @ 7.25 PM

[Rack Watts]

Move the game to Hobart.
That's how you beat them.

 

[Beerfish]

Move the game to Hobart.
That's how you beat them.

Without telling them?

 

[Laverde2Smack]

Mate we had 96pts at half time, anything from then on was irrelevant.

Ambrose beating Walker in every single one on one battle and holding him goaless is irrelevant? Oh boy..

Sent from my F3115 using Tapatalk

 

[MarkG]

This isn't true anymore. Otherwise he'd be best 22.

Who sits in the best 22 is up to the selectors and their opinions. It may not necessarily be the ones that are the best 22. They can also be in the best 22 when playing at their best but are playing at 40% of their capability.

 

[jaguaress]

You never know, we have been surprised before.

 

[DapperJong]

Who sits in the best 22 is up to the selectors and their opinions. It may not necessarily be the ones that are the best 22. They can also be in the best 22 when playing at their best but are playing at 40% of their capability.

I dunno what you're trying to say here. Bird has played 1 AFL game so far. He is not the player you described in your previous post even though he was at Sydney.

 

[MarkG]

I dunno what you're trying to say here. Bird has played 1 AFL game so far. He is not the player you described in your previous post even though he was at Sydney.

He has played 1 AFL game this year which we won by 71 points playing against a side that thrashed a top 4 side the previous week by almost 100 points.

Bird took out their best player who had half the possessions compared to the previous week when he was BOG. Not only that, he racked up around 20 of his own possessions and laid 4 heavy tackles.

Therefore you conclude that he is not in our best 22 because whatever reason which many Don supporters find hard to understand.. perhaps he is not taking the game on enough or is a tagger and we want to be 1 dimensional game plan and not tag.

 

[srobbo]

I think we need to look at retaining Howlett for a negating role. Prob as that defensive HF on Laird/B Smith with a view to hurt them on scoreboard when opp arises.

 

[lamaros]

I think we need to look at retaining Howlett for a negating role. Prob as that defensive HF on Laird/B Smith with a view to hurt them on scoreboard when opp arises.

Howlett has never been a great tagger.

 

[DapperJong]

He has played 1 AFL game this year which we won by 71 points playing against a side that thrashed a top 4 side the previous week by almost 100 points.

Bird took out their best player who had half the possessions compared to the previous week when he was BOG. Not only that, he racked up around 20 of his own possessions and laid 4 heavy tackles.

Therefore you conclude that he is not in our best 22 because whatever reason which many Don supporters find hard to understand.. perhaps he is not taking the game on enough or is a tagger and we want to be 1 dimensional game plan and not tag.

You're twisting a lot of stats there and also exaggerating. Bird had 18 touches (nice round up) and i doubt you can remember if his tackles were heavy (does that even matter) and I highly doubt you remember who he played on.

I'm assuming you mean Ross who certainly didn't have half his normal output. Added to this, St.Kilda's best mid in Jack Steven still had 30 touches.

And you're trying to tell me Bird influenced the game that much? There ain't enough mayo.

Could he replace Jobe? Maybe. Is he best 22? Hell no. And I reckon the selectors might have a clue.

 

[MarkG]

Howlett has never been a great tagger.

He is not so much a tagger, but he is a guy that goes incredibly hard at the contested ball. So if the guy we are trying to tag is in the hard ball contest, he will know Howlett is there and avoid getting cleaned up by him.

 

[srobbo]

Howlett has never been a great tagger.

His strength is his tackling (had 6 last week) & we need plenty of it in our front 3rd if we're to curtail them launching attacking raids off HB.

He can hit scoreboard too, so i wouldn't hve thought assigning him a primarily defensive role would be the worst idea.

 

[Milanista28]

Adelaide won't block the corridor as much as North and Blues IMO as they'll want to use it as much as us, So if our kicking is on we can score quickly the flip side to that is if it's a little off the Crows will absolutely make you pay.

**** I'm excited to be tested by the best, Let's see what you're made of EFC.

 

[Halftimehero]

Zach offered a week

 

[Beerfish]

Shock horror.

 

[Lore]

Watching a replay of the first quarter (this is where most of the damage was done), and ten minutes in it was pretty even in the middle, a few clangers (Leuey), Adelaide taking contested marks and capitalising on our turnovers, whereas they're not turning it over much despite some good pressure from us. Adelaide are also zoning up quite quickly, blocked up the corridor and then cut off the switch as well, and forcing us to handball backwards on the wings when we can't break through. They're clearly well-drilled on defending the rebound. We're outnumbered at the contest, out-positioned up forward. Their forward press is pretty efficient too, pretty much every behind they kicked is followed by a goal shortly after.

McKenna, Ambrose, McGrath and Kelly probably our best through this section. Colyer good on the flank. Heppell and Watson are everywhere. Parish really good in the middle, when the ball gets anywhere near the middle that is.

Basically, we definitely turned up, but we were a mess in round four. Joe was kicking wonky, Hurley hadn't hit his straps, we had Stanton out there because Myers had dislocated his finger in pre-season. Zaharakis was being a potato trying to grow roots on the wing. Leuey was rucking and didn't have any chemistry with the midfield, might as well have worn a Crows jumper outside of the ruck, given how costly his turnovers were. I think it was McKenna's first AFL game for the year too, and though he was good he's definitely found another gear since then. In general the team was a rabble, cobbled together a third from each of the 2015 and 2016 teams and a third from draft/trade/FA and trying to implement a new game plan with a new coaching department on top of that. Pretty much everything here has improved since then.

In the end we were comprehensively out-played in that first quarter, which ends with a 36 point lead in favour of Adelaide. More than half of the final margin in about fifteen minutes of play.

With regard to match- ups, our defence that day was Hurley, Ambrose, Brown, Baguley, McGrath, McKenna and Pops, with Stanton floating around. A third of the back line has changed since that game (Stanton, Brown out, Ambrose only just come back in), and another third (McGrath, McKenna and Hurley) have found a lot of form since then.

Doesn't mean it won't be a challenge of course, but it's definitely a different group with more experience between them.

This is what was published on the club website about it last time;
http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-04-15/coaches-notes-1st-half-v-crows

In the Bombers defence Michael Hurley started with the job on Taylor Walker, Patrick Ambrose started on Tom Lynch and Mark Baguley is playing Eddie Betts.
...
Early in the second term, Essendon moved Ambrose onto Walker, with Hurley switching to Andy Otten. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was also shifted onto the ball.

But the changes didn't slow the Crows momentum. At half time they'd booted 15 goals to seven to lead by 52 points.

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-04-15/coaches-notes-1st-half-v-crows

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-04-15/coaches-notes-2nd-half-v-crows

After Eddie Betts kicked five goals in the first half, Andrew McGrath was moved on to the Crows forward in the second half. McGrath kept Betts to one goal.

The Bombers were able to control large parts of the third term through their dominance at the clearances (12-3 in the first 20 minutes of the term).

Despite an improved second half, the Crows booted the final three goals of the match to win by 65 points.

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-04-15/coaches-notes-2nd-half-v-crows




And Merrett was offered 2 weeks down to 1. Heh. One week means probably a slow, old depth player comes in. Joys.

 

[Milanista28]

****

 

[eDPS]

Would like to see McGrath given a go in the midfield. He is fresh after a week off and our chances of winning this game are low the least we could do is try some new things and get some development into young andy.

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

Rest the whole team now Zachs out...make a mockery of the system bombers...them come back and blitz the last 2 games.

 

[JayJ20]

OUT: Watson, Colyer, Fantasia (Injured), Merrett (susp)
IN: Bird, Langford, McGrath and Kelly

Howlett to play Fantasia's role in the forwardline or as a defensive forward.

McGrath on the wing to take Colyer's role. Goddard to take Merrett's role. McGrath on the wing to take Colyer's role. Bird in the middle to run with Sloane and Langford in the midfield rotating forward.

Whatever little confidence I had is pretty much gone now. Fantasia and Merrett too big to cover against Adelaide IMO. So annoyed with Merrett at the moment. Some pace gone there and Colyer is seriously not the answer unless Woosha can really put a rocket in him and tell him to lift his game.

 

[srobbo]

**** you Zach!!

 

[eDPS]

OUT: Watson, Colyer, Fantasia (Injured), Merrett (susp)
IN: Bird, Langford, McGrath and Kelly

Howlett to play Fantasia's role in the forwardline or as a defensive forward.

McGrath on the wing to take Colyer's role. Goddard to take Merrett's role. McGrath on the wing to take Colyer's role. Bird in the middle to run with Sloane and Langford in the midfield rotating forward.

Whatever little confidence I had is pretty much gone now. Fantasia and Merrett too big to cover against Adelaide IMO. Some pace gone there and Colyer is seriously not the answer unless Woosha can really put a rocket in him and tell him to lift his game.

I don't want Goddard in the midfield anymore and if he is it needs to be with 2 quicker players. A potential midfield of Heppell, Goddard and Bird is waaay to slow. Parish needs to spend even more time in the midfield and we may even see Tippa get a run in there since we cant put Fanta in their for stints anymore. That's why id like Begley in aswell. We even used Green in a few centre bounces on the weekend so its clear we need speed in there.

 

[Teflon Dons]

Would like to see McGrath given a go in the midfield. He is fresh after a week off and our chances of winning this game are low the least we could do is try some new things and get some development into young andy.

Would definitely throw them off. Can't see it happening after last times 2nd half dominance of Betts.

Langford in, Parish on the ball hopefully. Saves us having to force McGrath into the middle for the very first time at the level against this outfit, which would be my preference.

 

[JayJ20]

I don't want Goddard in the midfield anymore and if he is it needs to be with 2 quicker players. A potential midfield of Heppell, Goddard and Bird is waaay to slow. Parish needs to spend even more time in the midfield and we may even see Tippa get a run in there since we cant put Fanta in their for stints anymore. That's why id like Begley in aswell. We even used Green in a few centre bounces on the weekend so its clear we need speed in there.

It is, but unless we see McGrath go to the midfield (highly unlikely), that's all we really have at the moment. We'll definitely need a lot of our faster type players rotating through the midfield, but I don't think we have many fast midfielders to begin with.

Parish has to play more minutes in the midfield with Merrett out.

 

[DapperJong]

I think we just have to rotate heaps of them through the middle. Even give Kelly a go.