Analysis i've got a high tolerance for essendon being s**t, but this game was appalling

[Yoda_]

Our development has been horseshoe for a decade. Coincidentally coincides with how pathetic our VFL lists have been in that time.

The last time we looked reasonable was when the VFL side was going well and had decent mature VFL talent running around.

We get excited about Xavier O'Neil, Jack Peris and Jackson Hately

6

Jackson Hately

Age

24

Ht

191cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.3

4star

K

8.5

3star

HB

6.8

4star

M

4.8

5star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.7

3star

D

14.2

3star

K

8.4

3star

HB

5.8

3star

M

4.8

4star

T

1.4

2star

CL

0.4

3star

D

17.2

5star

K

8.6

4star

HB

8.6

5star

M

5.6

5star

T

3.0

5star

CL

0.8

3star

as VFL signings. Hardly dominant VFL players

 

[CBombers17]

I think I was most happy with Scotts appointment as he coaches effort based teams. I get the multitude of problems but if he can ingrain a culture of effort across the group we will be a long way down the path of recovery.

This will take 2 or 3 years IMO and whilst last night was disappointing we've shown pretty good intention overall so far.

 

[ant555]

Our development has been horseshoe for a decade. Coincidentally coincides with how pathetic our VFL lists have been in that time.

The last time we looked reasonable was when the VFL side was going well and had decent mature VFL talent running around.

We get excited about Xavier O'Neil, Jack Peris and Jackson Hately as VFL signings. Hardly dominant VFL players

Peris has been .

 

[silk]

Number 1 is not correct. We are fit. The issue is we have never really bothered to draft endurance runners as a priority and secondly when you defend badly you spend more of the game chasing players back the other way and you run out of gas much earlier. Last week we defended okay and went the distance with one of the fittest running sides in the AFL.
Make no mistake. Poor defense kills your running ability as the game goes on. You end up continually chasing .


---

Is it really a shock we still suck ?

The only way out of this sill be stability under Barham / Vozz / Scott / McPherson / Rosa for the next 3 or 4 years and hope they are a team that can build it up again. They could easily fail as well and we are back at square one but that is how it is.

And finally people need to take the Essendon player blinkers off and actually not be shocked if a lot of the current blokes are not up to being finals contenders. Personally I do not buy that the time is now because if it is not then what about Parish and Merrett and co who are our better players . It is part of the journey. When Melbourne started under Roos / Mahoney / Taylor / Goodwin to the time they won a flog they turned over 90% of the list and only Gawn and McDonald where left to play in the GF win. It took them 9 years and 60 plus players being turned over and they came from a similar spot to us. Years of under performing. Years of average drafting including a period where they has a plethora of top 20 picks.
Richmond where also similar.

Good post and reflects what I said in my preview thread this week, though obv your post has much deeper analysis than "shut up Lloyd"

 

[Yoda_]

Peris has been .

serviceable

 

[BomberManU]

Another 'catalyst/wake up call' loss. Have had a few of them recently, but we'll keep plodding along with a couple of upset wins along the way. I know there's nuance and it's not as simple as 'play the kids', but for ****s sake, play the kids.

 

[Yoda_]

Another 'catalyst/wake up call' loss. Have had a few of them recently, but we'll keep plodding along with a couple of upset wins along the way. I know there's nuance and it's not as simple as 'play the kids', but for *s sake, play the kids.

the kids are injured or no good. that therein lays the problem

I would love to see Reid in for Laverde, I would love to see Hunter in for someone, I would love to see Tex in for Menzies, I would love it. simple fact is, a few pillars we need are not fit

 

[brain taylor]

I'm not putting it all on coaches.. for sure Scott can only do so much but I still don't see a game plan here. Like it really was as simple as Port went 'man to man' and it was game over. We had zero response to it. Zero.

Our defensive scheme is still poor. Port continually walked (or sprinted) out of centre bounce but not a SINGLE move was made.. at no point did we line up defensive side or send a defensive sweeper (you can do this in 6-6-6 by choosing where you position your HB and Wingers).

It was clear our forward line wasn't working but I saw no change in set up down there.. our leading patterns are beyond bad. Stringer didn't get a run on the ball.. we didn't change up the midfield mix at all.

So yeah.. I'm not saying Scott is the worst problem or only problem.. far from it BUT I promise he is not the coach that is going to drag us out of this mess. Look around the league. You can tell within a year or two if you have found the right coach.. the impact is immediate. Scott is out of touch with modern footy.

During the first quarter i felt like i could see what they were going for and why, the high press actually looks pretty good when it works. I'd say Scott gets the modern game, but we're still shit because (once again) see ant's post

 

[ant555]

serviceable

Says you.

 

[Yoda_]

Says you.

each to there own

 

[BomberManU]

the kids are injured or no good. that therein lays the problem

I would love to see Reid in for Laverde, I would love to see Hunter in for someone, I would love to see Tex in for Menzies, I would love it. simple fact is, a few pillars we need are not fit

What about Davey, Davey, Caddy and Tsatsas? If we're waiting for the current side to lay a stable, competitive platform for them to land on, we'll be waiting a long time. They were willing to use a full season just to identify problems, surely they can use a season to get games into players.

 

[Yoda_]

What about Davey, Davey, Caddy and Tsatsas? If we're waiting for the current side to lay a stable, competitive platform for them to land on, we'll be waiting a long time. They were willing to use a full season just to identify problems, surely they can use a season to get games into players.

Davey for Stringer (as a HF/Mid), Davey as a winger/possible hbf, Tsatas can take the midfield minutes of any of Setterfield, Caldwell or even Parish, Caddy can fill a role of Jones if he doesn't become a consistent AFL player. Or we go down a rabbit hole of no 2MP/second ruck.

 

[ant555]

What about Davey, Davey, Caddy and Tsatsas? If we're waiting for the current side to lay a stable, competitive platform for them to land on, we'll be waiting a long time. They were willing to use a full season just to identify problems, surely they can use a season to get games into players.

A Davey ran around like a sheep dog on the outside of the contest all day looking for easy possessions and not using his pace to break the game open or make tackles.

Tsatas was paying a penance for dogging a few contests against Sydney.

Caddy got injured and has only played 50% of a VFL practice match and 1 full VFL game. Was out of the game in the first 10 minutes last week.

J Davey has just played his second game in two years.

If we are going to be serious about not playing the youth this week give me Roberts who has been very good in both VFL games or Hayes who was in the best few last week.

 

[Old Campaigner]

In further, disturbing news. The average age and games experience of our midfield last night was older and more than Port. So you can't actually say we are a 'young' and 'developing' team.

Other teams zoom past us each and every year.. they get better more than we improve so we are continually stuck in a loop. We are not as fit as other teams, our list balance is woeful, our game plan isn't crash hot either.

The fact that we had to make a big deal out of trying to play with intensity??? FFS.. that is nothing to get excited about. Screams that our culture is butter soft and not going to get better anytime soon.

Last time I actually felt proud of this club was those few glorious periods during the Hird years where we actually played hard, accountable football and challenged for top 4. Haven't see us play with anything resembling passion since. Can't see any evidence at all that Scott has challenged or changed things at all. I think we have bought in another guy who is a failed coach and there is nothing to suggest we are improving in his 2nd year in charge. Dodo might be a nice man or whatever.. but this list sucks and it has been bad for near 20 years.. far too long. Can't blame the saga anymore. Our club is run by morons who clearly do not understand modern football.

It really does need to be a total clean out and start the whole thing again. North will win a final before us. Scoff at me for sure but North will win a final before us. We are going absolutely nowhere.

I don't think the issue is the people currently running the club, the issue is the people who were previously running the club.

Unfortunately it takes a long long time to flush over a decade of poor list management and crappy culture through the system. Carlton and Melbourne are probably the only two clubs that have had to come from as far back us we do, and you can see how long it took them. The appointment of Paul Roos probably indicates the point the penny dropped for Melbourne, from there it took nearly a decade for them to win a flag.

 

[sameolds33]

In further, disturbing news. The average age and games experience of our midfield last night was older and more than Port. So you can't actually say we are a 'young' and 'developing' team.

Other teams zoom past us each and every year.. they get better more than we improve so we are continually stuck in a loop. We are not as fit as other teams, our list balance is woeful, our game plan isn't crash hot either.

The fact that we had to make a big deal out of trying to play with intensity??? FFS.. that is nothing to get excited about. Screams that our culture is butter soft and not going to get better anytime soon.

Last time I actually felt proud of this club was those few glorious periods during the Hird years where we actually played hard, accountable football and challenged for top 4. Haven't see us play with anything resembling passion since. Can't see any evidence at all that Scott has challenged or changed things at all. I think we have bought in another guy who is a failed coach and there is nothing to suggest we are improving in his 2nd year in charge. Dodo might be a nice man or whatever.. but this list sucks and it has been bad for near 20 years.. far too long. Can't blame the saga anymore. Our club is run by morons who clearly do not understand modern football.

It really does need to be a total clean out and start the whole thing again. North will win a final before us. Scoff at me for sure but North will win a final before us. We are going absolutely nowhere.

Re the bolded:

I remember a Hird presser (maybe 2013?) when he was frustrated and angry about the soft tissue injuries preventing him from fielding his best side with any continuity. Then the Saga broke. Was reminded of this last night when Brad was asked about soft tissue injuries. Not a new story for EFC.

May affect us more than other clubs with similar injury lists because we lack depth.

 

[ant555]

I don't think the issue is the people currently running the club, the issue is the people who were previously running the club.

Unfortunately it takes a long long time to flush over a decade of poor list management and crappy culture through the system. Carlton and Melbourne are probably the only two clubs that have had to come from as far back us we do, and you can see how long it took them. The appointment of Paul Roos probably indicates the point the penny dropped for Melbourne, from there it took nearly a decade for them to win a flag.

Agree.
The Tigers also spent a lot of time floating between mid range mediocracy and flat out horrible .

 

[Yoda_]

Agree.
The Tigers also spent a lot of time floating between mid range mediocracy and flat out horrible .

we've got 12 more years before we see a flag then

 

[ant555]

we've got 12 more years before we see a flag then

We may well have.

 

[Old Campaigner]

we've got 12 more years before we see a flag then

Good chance

 

[Old Campaigner]

Re the bolded:

I remember a Hird presser (maybe 2013?) when he was frustrated and angry about the soft tissue injuries preventing him from fielding his best side with any continuity. Then the Saga broke. Was reminded of this last night when Brad was asked about soft tissue injuries. Not a new story for EFC.

May affect us more than other clubs with similar injury lists because we lack depth.

I don't have any proof but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if our soft tissue injury issues stem from a culture of not taking post training recovery/stretching/warm downs seriously or something.

 

[Happyskeret]

A Davey ran around like a sheep dog on the outside of the contest all day looking for easy possessions and not using his pace to break the game open or make tackles.

Tsatas was paying a penance for dogging a few contests against Sydney.

Caddy got injured and has only played 50% of a VFL practice match and 1 full VFL game. Was out of the game in the first 10 minutes last week.

J Davey has just played his second game in two years.

If we are going to be serious about not playing the youth this week give me Roberts who has been very good in both VFL games or Hayes who was in the best few last week.

I do think Hayes is at the stage where he is worthy of a debut at the very least and Roberts is a a matter of when.

 

[JayJ20]

Not only was the game utter BS, but all of my hopes for this list build was completely dashed because everything reminded me of the last 20 years.

What young player right now on the list can seriously project to be as good as Rozee and JHF? For a "rebuilding" side, our opposition (who are contenders) yesterday had far better youngsters. Caldwell and Rozee are from the same draft yet not even our best player in Merrett could match Rozee (and JHF).

JHF felt like prime Dusty/Cripps/Danger out there yet he is younger than Perkins. Fool us once and we get it. Fool us 20 years straight? I don't think so. Unless somehow proven otherwise, absolutely nothing changed.

 

[MiguelM]

Until last night I was hopeful we might have made great strides and be a good chance on Anzac day. Now I think we will be lucky to be within 50 points.

Mid season draft please target speedy players. Severe lack of line breakers.

 

[Squeaky]

7) draper is a real character.

So is Elmer Fudd...

 

[fairbump_playon]

we've got 12 more years before we see a flag then

We’re winning a flag in 12 years? Wow that’s fantastic. Way better than I had thought.