Review R19: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Essendon

[Greenfinger]

Haven’t seen a lot of love for Berry’s game, continued on his good month of footy.

Really enjoyed his work around the clearances, used his strength to break tackles and ensure we got a clean ball out. Kicking seems to have genuinely improved too.

That goal on the run in the 2nd was sublime! Running the wrong way for a right footer, so composed himself, straightened up and nailed it from 40 on the run.

He was awesome last night. Massive upgrade on crouch

 

[Bovo]

What's funny is Nicks' blaming the players when they lose and you giving him credit for last night.

Nicks has been our Coach for nearly 5 years. It's Nicks, with no apostrophe.

We win last night, and Nicks is your hero?
What is wow is your ignoring what I said:
"One of our blokes said post-game that Nicks (no apostrophe) sent them out to be defensive, no surprise, hence the 3-goals-behind start.
Later, Nicks did not "shuffle" the backline around while Essendon kicked that run of 7 goals in the third.
To be fair, Keays was moved into the midfield for the 4th quarter (that's a tick to Nicks) and he and Fog lifted the whole team."
All 3 points are what happened. The last one praises Nicks.

My "guess" about the players going on attack (in spite of Nicks and not because of him) is a reflection of my disappointment at where we are after our 0-4, then 1-5 start.
Look at the players chosen back then, the senior player favoritism, and the fact --- FACT --- that kids have been played only through forced injuries.

You wanna give Nicks credit? Give him credit for another lost season.

Nicks my hero? I think under the circumstances he did okay last night. You kinda get sick of the Nicks bashing in every thread, but to be fair no coach will ever be good enough for our crows. Eventually the fans will turn on them like they have done since at least the Neil Craig days. Fans are a fickle bunch. They turn on players, coaches, board members, presidents, past players, anyone and everyone! Nobody is safe. I’ll guarantee that if Simon Goodwin ever coached our club, his name would be mud before his tenure had finished. I must be old now, because all that seems too much effort. I just want to watch a game of footy these days. But you know, your opinion is allowed and I wasn’t looking for a debate, but I do hope you can find joy in your support of our great club even with Nicks at the helm, because he’s gonna be around a while longer yet.

 

[Gtowncrow]

A key thing from his Presser is that Caldwell passed the test.

So, if the Keays tackle has any penalty, should be reduced as compared to concussion.

But shouldn't even be a week.

Did anyone watching from Adelaide see the Nicks presser? I'm told Ch7 didn't show it in Melbourne. Is this correct?

 

[Mostyn]

Interviews straight after the game. I think both Scott and Nicks said the game didn’t turn out exactly how they wanted. No coach wants to give up 17 goals and I would be certain neither coach “planned” for that.
But the thought the players - from either side- played against instruction - is ridiculous. If the coaches were trying to tactically slow the game down they would have put extra players behind the ball and flooded
Neither coach did - so while they wouldn’t have (didn’t) expect it to be as free flowing neither tried to change it either and the game just developed into a free for all

Remembering neither side wanted the game played as it turned out - not just Adelaide in spite of Nicks!


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Playing with intense defensive pressure doesn't mean slow the game down.

It means force turn overs and errors so you can smash them on the rebound.

Defensive pressure BRINGS attack.

 

[BRL121]

Did anyone watching from Adelaide see the Nicks presser? I'm told Ch7 didn't show it in Melbourne. Is this correct?

It was on Foxtel.

 

[Golumless]

Was a fun game, but I did miss the last 10 minutes due to the friends I was with deciding they had enough.

Great:

The Rachele redemption arc with the last goal. He does look like he's carrying an injury though.

Keays had a career game. 5 goals, 12 score involvements, 5 score launches, 8 tackles, 28 PA, 22 disposals. Absolutely nuts.

Fogarty was phenomenal.

Good:

It's not the breakout game due to the way Thilthorpe faded in the second half, but he took McKay to the cleaners in the first.
That breakout game where he absolutely destroys an opponent seems close though. Also, it's worth keeping an eye on, but our ball movement has looked a lot better since he's been back. Small sample size notwithstanding, but maybe we missed TT a whole lot more than it seemed we would.

I got to say, I really like Berry in our midfield mix. His ball movement skills has also improved out of sight this year and just that strength and explosiveness is such a weapon in the clinches. Would like him to get more ball as the next step, and turn these 15--21 disposal games into a consistent 21--24 disp. games just to help keep the wolves at bay.

Another week where my eyebrows are raised in Dowling direction. A quiet performer, but the kid has something that should hold up long term. A goal, 7 marks, 490 m at 68% KE, 8 ground ball gets and 5 clearances (= highest for Adelaide) certainly is quite the tick.

I won't say our defense held up well when it lost both key defenders, because conceding 113 points says it didn't. I will give them some bit of credit however because it could have easily blown out to 140--150 points with how much disruption had occurred and that we completely lost the handle on how to prevent the opposition from transitioning the ball.

Happy with Taylors game. Not a 4-quarter performance by any stretch of the imagination, but the kid owned his moments and his contested game seems like its in a place where he'll be a long-term regular.

Whilst not amazing, Laird had a sneaky good game. Couple of goal assists and 7 clearances is a pretty good outing for an inside mid.

Meh:

Keane had a rough game, but there was enough circumstance to it where it's a shrug and move on kind of deal.

Bond looked like he was overawed and out of place this week.

Bad:

Dawson, Murrays and Butts injuries. Fingers crossed they're all minor, or even nothing, but this game was a bit of a massacre.

Our slow starts. We've had a few games in the last few months where we've been 2-3 goals down within the first 10 minutes. It's all well and good to fight back, but this is something that needs work.

 

[n4sir]

The Outstanding: Fogarty and Keays

Between them, 9 goals 2 behinds, and how many score assists?

Without them we're not even close in this game.

 

[Gtowncrow]

It was on Foxtel.

Why wouldn't Ch7 show it in Melbourne? The guy's been (is) under such duress in the media and he wins "the game of the year" and the broadcaster decides he's not worthy of 4 minutes of their time.

(Not that we don't already know what he would have said)

Disrespectful by Ch7. Worthy of an explanation.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Taylor is a natural midfielder


Rock solid core
Sees the game 360 degrees
Keeps moving.

He and Sog already have a good partnership.

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Agreed. Taylor, Bond and Dowling don't panic as much as out older players like Laird and Smith constantly do. They seem to be able to work their way out of trouble, and not fire it off to the bloke who's flatfooted next to them.

 

[Drakescoffeecake]

Looks at the “Bads” in your list

Smith, sholl, himmelburg, rachelle..

Smith, sholl, himmelburg.. tick.

Rachelle?… sure I can see why some are not loving what he’s bringing atm..

But.

How’s the fxxkn elephant in your room.

How do you pot these four blokes and not mention our worst on ground by a country mile…

The unflushable turd himself that is L. Murphy..

Yeah forgot Murphy. Deplorable - needs to go. But a winning goal in a nothing game does not excuse Rash of his soft efforts throughout the game.

 

[Pugsley]

Loved that Draper missed that unmissable goal late in the game, and in the end we won by under a goal. Sucked in flopper

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Footy karma.

 

[119others]

A bit annoyed that constantly the AFL claim "game of the year" for a lot of our games over the past three years and yet that hasn't translated to primetime national TV games.

This year we were ranked third for Thu and Fri games in the initial part of the draw (up to round 15 ish from memory). That’s unprecedented for a non finals team from my understanding after Silvers directly requested being looked after commercially after KeaysGate as a form of reward for being screwed over this year (confirmed directly)

 

[Southerntakeover]

Not nationally televised games almost every Saturday night game we've had we've been the fox only game and they played a different one instead.

We've been on Thursday and Friday football for like a third of the season

 

[Truetiger]

The good you beat Essendon, enough said

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Just watching the last 1/4. Keay handballs to Laird who is tackled instantly, and umpire No4 calls it HTB almost in a split second of him receiving it. wtf

View attachment 5194B5D8-4A9D-4E6B-9CED-245419C510F0.mov

 

[119others]

A key thing from his Presser is that Caldwell passed the test.

So, if the Keays tackle has any penalty, should be reduced as compared to concussion.

But shouldn't even be a week.

If the 2 last week included ultimately getting off even with concussions with arms pinned I seriously can’t see how he can be suspended

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Porplyzia with one arm against Sydney at the SCG

Vardy against the same team in the 1998 finals (6 goals), or McLeod the next week against the Dogs with 7?

 

[Eagleboy2011]

View attachment 2053161

The ump couldn't wait to give that

 

[119others]

Draper will go top 2 if he continues his form in the SANFL or do you mean floppy Draper lol.

Yes if he keeps,dominating

Good:
Our 2nd half of the year has been excellent, pity the first half was 13 rounds long instead of 9/10
Some of the stuff in the 2nd quarter was elite, especially handballing out of traffic
Fogartys best game this year, Life without Tex will be just fine
Keays was excellent of course, huge performance
Berry, Dowling and Taylor around clearance and all 3 kicked goals
Michalanneys speed
Rankine will adore Thilthorpe, he gets to the footy and will only get more comfortable.
Killing Essendons season

Bad:
Smith is done, pinpoints opposition targets.
Our SANFL team is going to be murdered when Jones, Curtin and Ryan come into the side.
Murray's injury, fingers crossed

Ugly:
Essendon being a protected species when it comes to HTB, how long did they all get? Also 6 goals from free kicks.
The diving, flopping and arm flailing from Essendon players was disgraceful and they deserved to lose

Glad someone (Browny?) mentioned this at 3 qtr time saying how unusual it was. They didn’t replay (on Kayo) the Merrett free kick/goal in the last qtr also which was perhaps dubious. Fog and TT could easily have recd frees in the last qtr in marking contests also.

BT was a fn disgrace as others have said. Didn’t notice other commentators as biased though.

PS nice way to start a leisurely Sat morning with a couple of coffees in bed and rewatching the Kayo mini highlights and then the entire last quarter!

 

[Carmo]

That was our second least experienced team of the year, 74.8games, losing tex drops the average by about 8 games though. We'll probably be the least experienced team of the round again.

 

[Carmo]

Apparently this is the first time we've won on a Friday at Marvel since 2007 (or something like that - was on the radio just before, wasn't totally paying attention).

 

[Crow-eater]

CBAs (Centre Clearances)

ROB 35 (2)
Berry 26 (1)
Taylor 23 (3)
Laird 20 (3)
Dawson 18 (3)
Soligo 13 (1)
Bond 8
Keays 6 (1)
Himmelberg 3 (1)

Cook and Michalanney also had 1 centre clearance each.

 

[Alwaysacrow]

Ugly:

• Keane. He is a serious serious liability in defence. No body contact, let’s his player run way too loose and he calls switches incredibly late often leaving us with two blokes that look like they’re standing in no man’s land because they don’t have time to switch.

I just watched the final 2 minutes several times and Keane actually saved the game for us after that last centre clearance. He executed a perfect spoil on Caddy who would've surely kicked the winning goal had he marked it.

 

[Pugsley]

Play it again Sam

 

[El Doederino]

Ugly. When Rachele kicked the winning goal and from the centre bounce, Essendon just got a clean uncontested clearance and f50 entry that they really should have done better with.

And then when trying to close the game out, we let them have another entry.

It’s no wonder we are normally on the losing end of these sorts of games.