Review R2: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Essendon

[BunjiMac]

Sometimes I wake up and pinch myself and can't believe we have Rankine

 

[SellarStardom]

Last week was excellent but I’m buggered if I know what you were watching today because his ruck work (taps to advantage) was atrocious today. His follow up work as well very below par.


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Agree, thought he was fantastic last week. This week he was bloody awful, our ruck and centre square work was very average

 

[Go the Guts]

That was the most clinical display I've seen from us in a long time despite them reaching 100 points. Probably the best I've seen our skills for a very long time.

Essendon weren't much chop, so still hard to tell where we're at. Nevertheless you can't be much more impressive than that.

Merrett was a big reason they kicked what looks like a competitive score. He was bog in an absolute shellacking.

Good:

Winning at the mcg. Important for our mindset.

Thilthorpe is a weapon. His ground game is absolutely elite and is now finding his feet as a marking option. His goal kicking is also starting to click.

Dawson probably bog for us. Terrible first 5 minutes, but dominated after that.

Soligo again.

Crouch excellent

Rankine so good to ratchet.

Hinge up there with Dawson for bog. He'll be AA if he keeps this up. One of my favourite players to watch.

Michalaney towelled up an impressive Kako.

Rachele looks to have clicked. That play leading to Rankine's goal was Rachele showing he's ready. He shook Merrett with ease and weighted a lovely pass to Soligo off balance. Super important to our chances of success if he and TT keep showing this form.

Murray best game since his knee. Disposal solid finally.

Sholl. Much maligned on here in the past and for good reason. Has proven he's a half decent afl player now. Can someone at the club please tell this guy he is a left footer??!! Has absolutely creamed every left foot pass since his first game and his right footers can sometimes be hit and miss.

Fog destroying a player he should be. Good to get his confidence up early in the year.

ANB and Keays are a great half forward duo. Super hard working players with ANB just so polished.

Hard to comment:

Draper and Curtin. Curtin better this week, but still playing a role where he won't stand out. The shift to the wing is the right move imo. Get him more of the call. Draper showing signs with very few minutes.

Average:

Keane. He's good and bad. Too sloppy at times. You have to wonder how much he cares sometimes. I still rate him, but he has to tidy that up.

Peatling looks like he's trying too hard and it's not clicking yet. Looked better in the pre season imo.

Cumming quiet. This is how I remember him at gws. Uses the ball well, but doesn't stand out.

Curtin looks too slow for the wing.

 

[CDC60]

All of a sudden our performances beating up on what we know will be low ranked teams looks a lot better

Bombers took the Hawks to 24 pts and had more scoring shots in their game 24-23

Saints knock off the Cats after we decimated them!

Big game next week to really set up the start of the year


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Essendon will beat Port on Thursday

 

[spenze]

Essendon will beat Port on Thursday

It'd be great if they do, the go Ken signs will be back out

 

[ams4crows]

Essendon will beat Port on Thursday

Not if Drew shuts down Merrett

 

[Cromulant]

Not if Drew shuts down Merrett

He won't.

Merrett is now at a point where you can't keep him down for a full game.

Top tier player.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

He won't.

Merrett is now at a point where you can't keep him down for a full game.

Top tier player.

36 disposals, 4 goals, and 11 I50s is probably worthy of three votes, even in a 10 goal loss. He just had no support.

It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.

 

[Minor Threat]

Good: All. I felt like this was a coming of age game for Curtin. He looked confident and comfortable at the level.

Bad: not much.
Merrett 36/4.1? Draper 3?
Should I be worried about Keane? A few mistakes but I guess we will know more about our defense when we play a legitimate top 8 side.

Ugly: The crackdown on the 15m rule. Alot of very harsh calls in most games I’ve watched this year.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Bearded Clam - I think it's time. Time for you to just say that you got your call on Ben Keays wrong.

You have been hanging on for too long. It's past time. Show old Bicks that it's okay to admit you were wrong.

We will embrace you.

We know he’s joking about Keays

Might as well keep the joke going as don’t want to jinx Keaysy’s AA form

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Hi Mr Wabbit
Glad of your contribution
Seriously how did your rate our game today ?

Who actually cares

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Curtin is going to be an absolute superstar

Well done Nicksy for backing him in, it will pay off in spades

Think I was right in saying tex knows his role perfectly and is executing it just right at the moment and looks to be moving v well

Allows TT and Fog to shine

There aren’t too many weak links at minute , would have preferred to keep them to 80 points , pretty difficult ground to defend on a dry , still day

Still not sure Nicks is an amazing coach but no one can think he’s a dour coach

Also …. Laird going at 100% disposal efficiency was interesting

As was being able to sub Rankine late in 3rd when he was just catching


Rachele is a different bloke this season in how he’s a team player . Wonder if not playing midfield last year has affected his game


Wonder if Draper went down rooms for injection ? Wow that was a big hit

Anyone else injured or sore ?

 

[1970crow]

Essendon will beat Port on Thursday

I’ll take that bet.

 

[footy4ever]

Neither Essendon nor St Kilda are as bad as we made them look.

I mean, they're really bad, but Richmond, WCE and North all look worse.

Smart take. Saints getting up over Geelong.

 

[Mattrox]

Early favourites for the 2025 flat track bullies tag

RDWHAHB

 

[rabidcrow]

Curtin is going to be an absolute superstar

Well done Nicksy for backing him in, it will pay off in spades

Think I was right in saying tex knows his role perfectly and is executing it just right at the moment and looks to be moving v well

Allows TT and Fog to shine

There aren’t too many weak links at minute , would have preferred to keep them to 80 points , pretty difficult ground to defend on a dry , still day

Still not sure Nicks is an amazing coach but no one can think he’s a dour coach

Also …. Laird going at 100% disposal efficiency was interesting

As was being able to sub Rankine late in 3rd when he was just catching


Rachele is a different bloke this season in how he’s a team player . Wonder if not playing midfield last year has affected his game


Wonder if Draper went down rooms for injection ? Wow that was a big hit

Anyone else injured or sore ?

That was probably my only disappointment out of the game (Keane errors aside) was I would like to see more reaction when oppos target our players physically. The Soligo hit - which should have been a free kick as he got dumped without the ball - and Draper hit which happened purely because he was a young player in my view

Would like to see a physical response from some of our leaders - a bit more protection. Same with when Thilthorpe got cracked a couple times after marks. We need some mongrel


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[Jeffcrowe]

Good

Curtin appears to be unable to be tackled when standing up, he will get bigger and stronger, he will be a scary midfielder in 2-3 years

Where’s that fool that was calling him a dud last week ? Some people just have NFI

He looks as talented and exciting as anyone on our list

 

[Mattrox]

St Kilda currently thrashing geelong confirming them as a powerhouse, we should be premiership favourites

Put the lid back on until round 8

 

[FullyBigKPro]

The Rankine gather right on the boundary, shimmy, one arm fend off of some EssenLOL spud, step turn, short sprint and lace out pass to our forward....

It was the most pure football poetry in motion.

Sophocles would be even proud.

 

[Mutineer]

Watching the replay atm. How much does David Rodan love his job?

Has a son Tevita Rodan that's showing plenty of promise coming through the Coates Talent League junior pathway at the Calder Cannons...fair bit taller than his father.
Port F/S the only club he played the 100 games for.

 

[Mostyn]

Derpy derp. What a laughable response.

I’ll say it again so you can take it in.

We played with 1 ruckman. They played with 2.

We lost the hitouts.

The 2 collective rucks had 7 clearances to ROBs 1.

Essendon won the centre clearances 23-15 which kinda suggests maybe their rucks were putting it in better spots than ROB.

ROB was not in the best 40 players out there.

This is very simplistic.

They ran two ruckmen against one, which means we could utilise that other spot for a player who could do more around the ground than a pure ruckman.

It was 38 hitouts to 34 for the teams, with ROB still having more hitouts than anyone else, and a much higher percentage of hitouts contests won.

Wheelo has him winning the majority of ruck contests he competed in at 52% (remembering some contests aren't won by anyone at all) and he's going at 34% of his hitouts to advantage, which would be the best in the entire AFL.

The best in the entire AFL.

Clearances around the ground were split evenly. We let Tsatas be free around the hitouts, presumably because he turns over a lot of his clearances, and he got twice the number of clearances of anyone else out there. Didn't seem to hurt us.

I'm not expecting my ruckman to get many clearances themselves - but sure, he didn't do that very well.

I'm not arguing he was amazing. But he's putting the ball to good spots and the opposition are choosing to run two rucks at him, which is an advantage to us more often than not. He's been fine so far.

 

[Sizzlepack]

That was a lot of fun. I was sitting in the second row of the MCC, right behind the Rachele and Rankine goals in the third quarter. Sounds a bit silly but it honestly felt like a privilege to witness.

Think that was an 8.5/10 performance. The attacking game was almost perfect. Ball movement was outstanding. Thilthorpe has arrived. Really liked Curtin's game, yesterday felt like the first time he truly fit. I'll repeat what I said after R1: putting up scores like this without major contributions from Walker (acknowledging he was good yesterday) is very significant. Our prime movers in attack are 21, 22, 24 and 25.

Defensively some concerns, we still bled too many stoppage exits (to be fair though, that is Essendon's strength) and we made a few very poor decisions in D50 (Worrell and Keane the culprits here). To an extent it's a natural consequence of our attacking style, but there's some recalibration to do. Nice to have a soft start to the year to work on it in training. Learning what the AFL thinks 15m is this year will also help, we got caught out by that a couple of times.

Still room for improvement, but it's hard to quibble too much when you kick the biggest score by a non-Vic side at the MCG in a dozen years.

 

[Mostyn]

I think it's hard to argue with. We lost hitouts, lost centre clearances and he was awful around the ground too.

We need better in the ruck to take advantage of the midfield we have now built.

He wins more hitouts at a higher percentage than any ruckman in the league and goes at a higher percentage of hitouts to advantage than anyone.

I mean - I also don't think they're very relevant stats, as you're better having a ruckman do more around the ground, and I do not think there's any correlation between a good ruckman and a premiership winning team.

 

[CrowBloke]

I put a bit on when we were $34 at the end of January.

Into $13 now on SB.

You backed THE CROWS to go top, end January??
Gutsy bet .

I hope that you collect!

 

[Mutineer]

This is very simplistic.

They ran two ruckmen against one, and it was 38 hitouts to 34 for the teams, with ROB still having more hitouts than anyone else, and a much higher percentage of hitouts contests won.

Wheelo has him winning the majority of ruck contests he competed in at 52% and he's going at 34% of his hitouts to advantage, which would be the best in the entire AFL.

The best in the entire AFL.

Clearances around the ground were split evenly. We let Tsatas be free around the hitouts, presumably because he turns over a lot of his clearances, and he got twice the number of clearances of anyone else out there. Didn't seem to hurt us.

I'm not expecting my ruckman to get many clearances themselves - but sure, he didn't do that very well.

Excellent stats website Wheelo, nearly as good as having Champion Data at your fingertips.