Review Good/Bad vs Essendon, R17 2023

[texanmike]

Selection has been abysmal for years, Murphy is not a forwards arseh*le, either play him up the ground at stoppages or don’t play him at all. Sholl is made of butter and Mchenry should be perma sub and nothing more. We went small in defence again despite losing every game we had tried this in the past, you should have played Borlace Nicks. Nicks is obviously picking guys he thinks he can trust and he will be sacked because of it. This team is not ready for finals because we have a bottom 8 midfield. We have invested in forwards and defenders for far too long, we reap what we sow. We will get smashed in the midfield again next week, it’s the same old story with this club, can we get a coach with some ****ing balls, enough is enough.

 

[Crow till I die]

The four you point out. Bringing in McAdam, Nank, Berry and Shoenberg is across the board upgrade

I see the problem especially today as lack of any system at centre clearance. Nearly every time they would have a guy hitting the contest at pace, flicking it to another player on the move and they were away. When we get it, we are stationary more often than not and get nailed in a tackle or get an ineffective kick that does not clear the area and is turned over and they were away.

They really should have won today by a lot more than 18 points - it was a gulf in quality out there. They barely fumbles, we have given them numerous goals on turnover from just not clean grabbing the ball

My question is - does one A grade mid at seasons end really make all the difference when our system is pulled apart like it was today at clearances early on..probably not. We are 2 or 3 A graders short at stoppage who can arrest the slide themselves when the coaching fails

 

[Klug]

I swear he had a few in the first qtr and looked ok. Nothing after that

He had at least 2 that I saw

 

[MsTopG]

Selection has been abysmal for years, Murphy is not a forwards arseh*le, either play him up the ground at stoppages or don’t play him at all. Sholl is made of butter and Mchenry should be perma sub and nothing more. We went small in defence again despite losing every game we had tried this in the past, you should have played Borlace Nicks. Nicks is obviously picking guys he thinks he can trust and he will be sacked because of it. This team is not ready for finals because we have a bottom 8 midfield. We have invested in forwards and defenders for far too long, we reap what we sow. We will get smashed in the midfield again next week, it’s the same old story with this club, can we get a coach with some ******* balls, enough is enough.

Nicks is more focused on getting an extension than getting known spuds out and giving some others players a chance. Worrell wouldn't even be playing unless Doedee went down. Powaa win 12 in a row and drop 3. Can you see Nicks doing that? It takes 4 or 5 losses in a row to drop anyone.

 

[cleanhands]

Okay:
Dawson - never stopped trying
Pedlar - with the skipper, the only one you could trust with ball in hand
Worrell - kept working, not helped by selection
Schoenberg - was okay, but could have been fatigue amongst the Essendon mids

The woeful:
Thilthorpe - Himmelberg showed more effort in the SANFL yesterday. Refuses to work hard when up against it.
Rachele - ditto. We can’t carry a Hollywood player in games like this. Bruise free.
Sholl - Rory Atkins Mk II
Murphy - Can’t select him away from home, no good away from Adelaide Oval
Sloane - shaping as Scotty Thompson Mk II, a cooked warrior going on too long
Soligo - never involved
Milera - backwards step after a good month. No effort at the contest.
Selection - defensive structure exposed Murray & Worrell to roles they are not comfortable in. Let Merrett run around free of any body pressure.

A few others struggled, ROB, Max, Murray, Keays, Laird

GWS midfield will tear us apart next week.

You have to be careful pointing out RT faults people come for you

 

[cleanhands]

Looking at the stats pedlar had zero center bounce attendances, not easy to dominate as a mid if you don’t get played there.

Never trust stats

 

[NSWCROW]

Josh Rachele

less wanky goal celebrations - more red meat

 

[radzyb]

Bad: nicks continues to not trust the kids in the important games
CBA’s for pedlar, soligo and Rachele
4 vs collingwood
41 vs north
0 yes 0 vs essendon

Didnt Rachele start in there?

 

[Scorpus]

We hung Michalanney out to dry having him play as a third tall defender, and in doing so threw out our entire defensive structure

 

[NSolis]

Disappointing performance, flattered a bit by the scoreboard as we got absolutely pumped in the first half. I will say though I thought Essendon were excellent, especially in the second term. Would have beat a lot of teams today.

Good:
Not many positives, but I though Dawson and Hinge were very good, as was Jones. Basically most of our rebounding half-backs played well, as you'd expect given they had a lot of opportunities, and Murray and Worrell were fine. Walker and Keays were also fine.

Bad:
Max was very poor, easily his worst game, and I thought our forwards and most of our younger midfield players were quite poor.

This is a game where Murphy deserves the criticism he generally gets on this board, thought he was very poor and would be close to being dropped I reckon. Same with Soligo, would be close to getting dropped. Both basically invisible aside from one good effort from Soligo for Thilthorpe's goal.

Another thing that stands out is that we started the game with the younger midfielders taking CBAs and they got absolutely belted in the first quarter. Pedlar, Rachele and Soligo got lots of midfield time in the first term, while Keays and Sloane had basically none. Midfield evened up quite a bit in the second half, but the kids got a lot less action. Not sure how much to take from that about where they can end up vs just being bodied by a more experienced midfield, but it was not encouraging.

 

[MsTopG]

I remember somebody writing a post about how the club culture is now led by the younger brigade. If Sloane gets a new contract, I'm pretty sure we can put that theory to bed.

The club needs to show some cahoonas. What Blight did was the right approach. Many people were bagging Blight when he cleaned out the dead wood.

 

[Shuestar13]

I'm presuming Nicks is trying to hit a KPI by making finals.

He certainly doesn't appear to be making decisions looking towards to the future.

Yep, I agree with you. And the insanity is that the team HE is picking is counter productive to making the finals and hence him not meeting his KPI.

Just bizarre stuff.

I do get it, I know your percentage is somewhat inflated by two big wins against the bad two (but everyone is beating them).
And of course, the two efforts against Collingwood, you’re a couple of kicks out of the top four.

So I get it is hard for him to overlook his battlers. But at some point, he is going to have to make some tough calls to truly progress the side/club.

 

[WheresGroomgone]

Sloane was caught at least twice today being too slow to distribute the ball resulting in Essendon goals - and he provided absolutely nothing at CBA - what does he bring apart from history?

 

[MsTopG]

We hung Michalanney out to dry having him play as a third tall defender, and in doing so threw out our entire defensive structure

We did that earlier in the year with the same result. Borlase or Keane was the right play. At least play them as a sub. Nicks lack of trust in the unknown is a weakness.

 

[Crow till I die]

Josh Rachele

less wanky goal celebrations - more red meat

got caught a bit today instead of realising the heat was on a clearing the area.. Expect a bit more from our elite projecting players in those situations

 

[cleanhands]

We did that earlier in the year with the same result. Borlase or Keane was the right play. At least play them as a sub. Nicks lack of trust in the unknown is a weakness.

That would release Jones to a wing and Scholl omitted, hardly think so

 

[NSolis]

CBAs were definitely not 0 for the younger mids. See my comment above but the story with CBAs is we used Dawson and Laird throughout the day but more heavily in the second half, started with kids taking a lot of CBAs and then moved to Sloane and Schoenberg later in the game because we were getting belted (and obviously because Schoenberg got subbed on).

CBA totals as best I can tell:
Dawson 32 (18 first half, 14 second half)
Laird 30 (17 first half, 13 second half)
Rachele 12 (10 first half, 2 second half)
Schoenberg 10 (all second half)
Pedlar 9 (all first half)
Sloane 8 (4 first half, 4 second half)
Soligo 4 (all first quarter)
Keays 2 (1 first half, 1 second half)

 

[Moonwatcher]

The good is that the Saints and the Dogs are still vulnerable and should we overtake one of them then we shall have earned a finals berth.

 

[WAG]

I see the problem especially today as lack of any system at centre clearance. Nearly every time they would have a guy hitting the contest at pace, flicking it to another player on the move and they were away. When we get it, we are stationary more often than not and get nailed in a tackle or get an ineffective kick that does not clear the area and is turned over and they were away.

They really should have won today by a lot more than 18 points - it was a gulf in quality out there. They barely fumbles, we have given them numerous goals on turnover from just not clean grabbing the ball

My question is - does one A grade mid at seasons end really make all the difference when our system is pulled apart like it was today at clearances early on..probably not. We are 2 or 3 A graders short at stoppage who can arrest the slide themselves when the coaching fails

Well it certainly doesn't help when our ruckman is palming it down the throat of the opposition mids. No amount of setup or system can overcome that.

 

[Geoffa32]

The good is that the Saints and the Dogs are still vulnerable and should we overtake one of them then we shall have earned a finals berth.

To then get belted at Docklands in an away Final....

On SM-A325F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Moonwatcher]

To then get belted at Docklands in an away Final....

On SM-A325F using BigFooty.com mobile app

The more experience the better

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

That would release Jones to a wing and Scholl omitted, hardly think so

We are picking players over trusting our structure.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

The good is that the Saints and the Dogs are still vulnerable and should we overtake one of them then we shall have earned a finals berth.

Max King ruled out for the year.

 

[ABAB]

Where are all the 'So you're not happy with this season?', 'what a great season' nuffies?

Barely winning 1 away game against awful opposition, what an amazing season so far. Putting aside the issues with the midfield, Nicks' Crows are flat track bullies that don't run hard enough more often than not, away from home. Getting more midfield talent isn't going to fix this s**t work ethic.

The irony of the talk about Nicks apparently fixing the Crows culture too. What do we get? A rebuild that basically ignored the need for a strong midfield, and a bunch of blokes that are too piss weak to gut run when they aren't being tugged by a home crowd.

Oh but we almost but didn't beat Collingwood twice!!! Moral victories!

Not sure where you had us finishing before the start of the season, I certainly didn't have us not only fighting for finals but showing our good is good enough to match it with the top 4 so massive tick we are heading in the right direction and I've also seen enough of Rachele, Soligo and Pedlar that they can be quality midfielders, Schoenberg has been a disappointment but definitely not as much as Berry (let's hope he can regain his form next year as he is very important in the future midfield and shown he belong in the AFL).

Our away form is a concern but this usually happen to a very young side, if it doesn't improve in a few years time after getting a few more years into the list then we definitely should be concern. I suspect this inconsistency to be still there next year given all our senior players will be a year older with Smith and Sloane either gone in the 2nd half of next year if not earlier.

 

[CrowBloke]

Dish up hot garbage.

Rinse and repeat all season

W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L ... is pretty consistent

Nicks needs to address this --- maybe ask Blighty about a travel regime.

Crows are headed for 4-3 after this ie 12-11 by end of year.
Better'n 2022, but meh.