AFL Autopsy Praccy Match v. St Kilda

[ant555]

Gawn would not make us better as much as you'd think. Goldy was dominating the centre, clearances were not the problem. Everything else was.

Gawn takes 3 or 4 marks around the ground on top of the ruck work . That is where the difference would be. The problem is we are simply easy to defend because we do not have the rucks or a CHF that can take a relieving mark when need one. Sides just strangle our play and we die a slow death.

 

[MiguelM]

Gawn takes 3 or 4 marks around the ground on top of the ruck work . That is where the difference would be. The problem is we are simply easy to defend because we do not have the rucks or a CHF that can take a relieving mark when need one. Sides just strangle our play and we die a slow death.

Spot on. Precisely what I was getting at. Totally on the same page as you on this one. Marking targets wing/fwd of centre are essential and our number 1 deficency closely followed by small fwd pressure/speed.

Growing up watching Madden, Crow, Vander's, Daniher, etc, even Copping, I was spoilt.

Do we even train marking these days?

 

[Jack Richards]

Worry about Hayes..

 

[ant555]

Anyone who thought c grade players was going to improve us had rocks in there heads. We shiouyld likely finish 12 - 18th imho


lack forward power outside 2 guys (Wright & Stringer), we lack size in the midfield despite the "depth" we now have, our back line is made of broken players in hope they come good.


We have very few players I would trust. trust to perform, trust to sacrifice for the team, trust to beat there opponent in a big final.

Going to be a hard slog unless we have some real big development from a large number of the younger cohort on the list

The middle was actually okay and we have been running a bit of size through the middle with Setterfield / Durham and Stringer . There where no issues there we won the middle.
As for C grade players. Gresham was really good. McKay gave away a couple of free kicks but he is fine. Duursma and Goldy where also in our best so the "c: grade brigade where not the issue. All of them are an ugrade on blokes they replaced.
Problem is we have so many opportunities inside 50 that we simply do not take any advantage of because no one can mark it and the opposition knows it so the play one back to create two on one contests. There is a clear pattern in games where sides just force us to kick long by running a midfield zone and allow us to have the numbers behind the footy as they know we have no one who will take more than 2 in 10 marks down the line.
We end ups chasing all day and looking slow and unfit.
Yes it will be a hard slog. The list still has work needed and the coach knows it. He is at step one which is get them preparing and giving them the tools to be as good as they can but that only takes you so far.

 

[Yoda_]

The middle was actually okay and we have been running a bit of size through the middle with Setterfield / Durham and Stringer . There where no issues there we won the middle.
As for C grade players. Gresham was really good. McKay gave away a couple of free kicks but he is fine. Duursma and Goldy where also in our best so the "c: grade brigade where not the issue. All of them are an ugrade on blokes they replaced.
Problem is we have so many opportunities inside 50 that we simply do not take any advantage of because no one can mark it and the opposition knows it so the play one back to create two on one contests. There is a clear pattern in games where sides just force us to kick long by running a midfield zone and allow us to have the numbers behind the footy as they know we have no one who will take more than 2 in 10 marks down the line.
We end ups chasing all day and looking slow and unfit.
Yes it will be a hard slog. The list still has work needed and the coach knows it. He is at step one which is get them preparing and giving them the tools to be as good as they can but that only takes you so far.

Agree with a fair bit of this.

My point stands that the guys we brought in are C grade players at best. Gresham at his best could be a B grader but nothing more. Goldy, although a great, is closer to the end than the start so the decline is near.

 

[ant555]

We had cap space and instead of getting in 1 - 2 top liners we went for c graders. I do not see how we improve on last season. We had a torrid time with injuries but even then, I don't see us taking a giant step to not just make finals but win a final.

What A graders could we get ? We still have cap space. They chased a number of guys. In the end we upgraded a few fringe spots but it is still an upgrade and I will tell you now that McKay and Gresham are not C grade players. It seems you expected some sort of improvement given the tone of your posts. Are you saying Gresham is not better than Snelling and McKay is not better than BZT ?
No they did not land a genuine super star but you can expect more turnover at the end of this year. They also identified we need a CHF and traded up to grab Caddy. It will be a 3 or 4 year burn from here.

 

[DERO]

I still remember that season that Carlton won the pre-season comp and then went on get the wooden spoon.

maybe the major freaking-out could be reserved for when the real stuff starts?

 

[ant555]

I still remember that season that Carlton won the pre-season comp and then went on get the wooden spoon.

maybe the major freaking-out could be reserved for when the real stuff starts?

Exactly. No freaking out until we lose by 50 plus and destroy our percentage.

 

[MiguelM]

Exactly. No freaking out until we lose by 50 plus and destroy our percentage.

Very happy we play Cats in a practice match not round 1.

Think we match up well against Hawks and they have some injuries. Saints are a pretty good sside. Their smalls are silky.

 

[ghostdog]

Just watched the replay - not ideal but really not too concerned - what did people expect in a match sim game against a full strength Saints side in Moorabbin…?? Our coach wasn’t even there FFS…!!

Positives for me were;-

• Its a match sim game and a great opportunity to try out players in different positions etc - and we did that…!! its a kind of like weeding the garden where we see players like Cox, Weid and even Jones will likely play more reserves than seniors in 2024
• All our recruits looked decent - Duursma in particular looks to have been an astute trade
• We were without senior players in 2MP, Draper, Shiel, Ridley, Hobbs & Kelly - all will come in over coming weeks and significantly strengthen our 23
• No injuries from the game - always a bonus this time of year…!!

No panic stations for me - get a few of the above players back against the Cats next week and hopefully we can put in a much better performance

Agreed. Not freaking out yet. It's been said that next week is "the full dress rehearsal." I think Farto said that.

 

[ant555]

I will say we are not a smart side. You can see it at times where our blokes are all trying to do the right thing and put pressure on but they charge in to contests that they have no chance of making an impact at. The end result is the opposition player they ran past or did not pick up ends up being the outlet player while our blokes do not get right to the contest and have minimal impact. They try and do the right thing but do not have the footy IQ and over cook it. Sometimes defending is actually about cheating on the outside next to the opposition bloke who is doing it.

And while I am on defense it is not a surprise there was a lot of rebound. I have watched the game twice now and we got exposed on the wing big time by Tsatas and his learning to defend and Cox who runs himself into confusion by not knowing where to run most of the time. There is no way either should be anywhere near the wing IMO. If they can not break into the side as a midfielder (Tsatas) or flankers (Cox) then keep playing in the VFL.

 

[ghostdog]

Worry about Hayes..

Sigh. Okay. Why?

 

[ant555]

Sigh. Okay. Why?

Hardly had a touch. Beaten in the air a few times. Not that it is a real worry right now.

 

[ant555]

Apart from Cox and the usual suspect in Wiedemann the two biggest disappointments for me where Jones and Bryan.
Both need to actually show something as they are two players that may be able to fix the marking issue but both flopped.
Jones took maybe 2 out of 20 attempts and Bryan had no impact around the ground in the second half when he was number 1 ruck.

 

[eighties_bomber]

s

Worry about Hayes..

spud

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Weideman is done in my books. Just doesn’t provide anything, shouldn’t be anywhere near the side this year.

He really is an inanimate carbon rod.

 

[MiguelM]

Apart from Cox and the usual suspect in Wiedemann the two biggest disappointments for me where Jones and Bryan.
Both need to actually show something as they are two players that may be able to fix the marking issue but both flopped.
Jones took maybe 2 out of 20 attempts and Bryan had no impact around the ground in the second half when he was number 1 ruck.

Bryan number 3 by a long way. Very disappointing. I know it is a practice match but these are the matches fringe players need to shine.

IMO, Draper is number 2 still and needs to improve marking. Hopefully Goldy stays fit or Draper stays injury free or we are in trouble.

 

[jdstorm]

I’m still optimistic if only because Kelly looked good on the wing preseason and Martin will eventually get moved back there.

So Essendon actually have 4 decent or better wingers + Tex and Edwards show some promise.

Settling in Cox over Lav and having 4 tall intercept defenders should also help the back setup.

Just need 1x HB (which will be Caldwell or Hobbs) since Merrett + Parish is enough small mids then Sheil goes in to HF (Where he looked pretty good last year)

And structurally it’s a decent side

Lost in all this is teams can’t go loose man back against a good running HB because they can just keep running and do give and goes ect

 

[MiguelM]

I will say we are not a smart side. You can see it at times where our blokes are all trying to do the right thing and put pressure on but they charge in to contests that they have no chance of making an impact at. The end result is the opposition player they ran past or did not pick up ends up being the outlet player while our blokes do not get right to the contest and have minimal impact. They try and do the right thing but do not have the footy IQ and over cook it. Sometimes defending is actually about cheating on the outside next to the opposition bloke who is doing it.

And while I am on defense it is not a surprise there was a lot of rebound. I have watched the game twice now and we got exposed on the wing big time by Tsatas and his learning to defend and Cox who runs himself into confusion by not knowing where to run most of the time. There is no way either should be anywhere near the wing IMO. If they can not break into the side as a midfielder (Tsatas) or flankers (Cox) then keep playing in the VFL.

Now that is dedication!

Edit: I tried but only lasted til Guelfi.s miss from 10 metres out!

 

[JimmyR20]

Forgive the intrusion but thoughts from the otherside I shared with my essendon supporting mate

Positives
You were so dominant in the centre clearances you'll be in a position to win most games.

You heavily managed minutes of top stars and had no injuries.

Improvement areas
The thing that stood out to me was the lack of impact your half back line had. Most attacks these days are set up there and think you need to find someone there.

Inside 50 entrances were poor. Probably a result of the earlier build up more than anything but you should be making more of your centre work.

 

[Fayab99]

I'm tired of people saying "it's only a practice game"
We are not a club who is worthy of taking practice games lightly.
I've watched every pre season game and our performance was by far the worst.

 

[Milanista28]

Am I silly for worrying about Perkins? I just don't see the midfield ability the coaches see, why cant he just be a high half forward in the mold of Will Hayward

9

Will Hayward

Age

26

Ht

186cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

3.4

3star

T

2.8

4star

G

1.1

4star

D

9.0

2star

K

4.3

2star

HB

4.7

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

2.7

4star

G

0.7

4star

D

9.4

3star

K

6.2

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

3.4

5star

G

1.4

5star

?

He finds himself in between the play so often.

 

[Happyskeret]

I didn’t see the game but I had the saints as a possible top 6 contender. I just don’t see us as a top 8 side at this stage. That said the margin was a bit disappointing. Sounds like we still have some of the same issues. Glad to see that we didn’t get any injuries though.

 

[Don_Gia]

Happy New Year everyone…good to be talking footy again after a few quiet months…

I’ve read a few pages on here and wanted to know whether there was any distinct playing style yesterday that was different from last year? Besides playing people in different positions…

I did expect Scott to blow the joint up pre-season and introduce something completely un-Essendon after 1 full year and a bit of knowledge of what we can/can’t do…

Perhaps I’ll hold off on the guaranteed GF option for another week

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Forgive the intrusion but thoughts from the otherside I shared with my essendon supporting mate

Positives
You were so dominant in the centre clearances you'll be in a position to win most games.

You heavily managed minutes of top stars and had no injuries.

Improvement areas
The thing that stood out to me was the lack of impact your half back line had. Most attacks these days are set up there and think you need to find someone there.

Inside 50 entrances were poor. Probably a result of the earlier build up more than anything but you should be making more of your centre work.

Very reasonable comments. Now on your bike...