AFL Autopsy RND 12: Loss To The Suns

[blitzer]

I didn't think we were that bad. Suns have been tough to beat at home and we just didn't make the most of our opportunities and they stood up a bit better in some key moments. I thought our effort was pretty good for the most part and we did give ourselves chances. We were due for a loss at some point. We aren't some unstoppable juggernaut team, so to string as many games together as we have without a loss was a pretty good effort.

I don't really like our forward line mix without Davey. Not because Davey was producing massive numbers but we are too one paced up there without him. Sometimes you just need one player who can really threaten with closing speed and an ability to get out the back that other players can't run down. I'll be curious to see what we do about our small forward deficiency at the end of the year (might just be backing in our development) but it seems like right now we have to get it done with mediums and talls for the most part.

Hopefully Duursma and Parish will be back soon after the bye because they are significantly better than their replacements and it sounds like Setterfield will probably be fit and ready to go for next week based on his VFL stats. I think Setterfield could be pretty important next week to give us another contributor through the midfield as it seems like too much is being left to Merrett and Durham right now.

 

[ghostdog]

The crowd was obviously mostly Essendon supporters. Could hear them on the Teev all afternoon.

 

[DERO]

Anyone still questioning Parish's importance to this team should genuinely be banned from the site.

See, you are capable of making a worthwhile contribution!

 

[MiguelM]

I didn't think we were that bad. Suns have been tough to beat at home and we just didn't make the most of our opportunities and they stood up a bit better in some key moments. I thought our effort was pretty good for the most part and we did give ourselves chances. We were due for a loss at some point. We aren't some unstoppable juggernaut team, so to string as many games together as we have without a loss was a pretty good effort.

I don't really like our forward line mix without Davey. Not because Davey was producing massive numbers but we are too one paced up there without him. Sometimes you just need one player who can really threaten with closing speed and an ability to get out the back that other players can't run down. I'll be curious to see what we do about our small forward deficiency at the end of the year (might just be backing in our development) but it seems like right now we have to get it done with mediums and talls for the most part.

Hopefully Duursma and Parish will be back soon after the bye because they are significantly better than their replacements and it sounds like Setterfield will probably be fit and ready to go for next week based on his VFL stats. I think Setterfield could be pretty important next week to give us another contributor through the midfield as it seems like too much is being left to Merrett and Durham right now.

Yep agreed, Davey adds more than Menzie ATM. Not sure Menzie really deserved a call up. One of the few players to go backwards IMO.

 

[ghostdog]

Something else I just remembered that was frustrating; a few times they found a loose player all alone behind our defensive line. That was especially infuriating in Q4.

 

[Duckworth]

Yep agreed, Davey adds more than Menzie ATM. Not sure Menzie really deserved a call up. One of the few players to go backwards IMO.

I think neither adds much... but we were in trouble in the middle.

 

[MiguelM]

I think neither adds much... but we were in trouble in the middle.

Davey has speed and x factor and higher ceiling IMO. Worth getting games into.

Small forwards is definitely a work in progress though.

 

[Schnitzengruben]

We had a lot of positives to take away from this. If we kicked a bit straighter and delivered a bit better inside 50, we win that. But also, if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bike.

In fact the only game this year I've been disappointed in was the Port game. We're bridging the game between our best and worst quite nicely.

 

[Kyptastic]

Something else I just remembered that was frustrating; a few times they found a loose player all alone behind our defensive line. That was especially infuriating in Q4.

It’s the risk you take when you play a high press. Unfortunately we got found out a couple of times today, but the last few weeks it’s worked pretty well

 

[Happyskeret]

I think I was just more referring to using the climbing of Uluṟu as a reference point in 2024.

The climb closed October 2019, that’s quite a long time. Especially since the vote to close it was 2017 (and local indigenous folk were voting to close it since handback in the 80s)

Many Australian’s have climbed it back when ignorance was a cultural norm. It’s just wierd to use it as a brag in 2024.

Well I stated I was 16 at the time before you posted that. I think it’s a bit weird that you labelled me as a racist!

 

[ghostdog]

It’s the risk you take when you play a high press. Unfortunately we got found out a couple of times today, but the last few weeks it’s worked pretty well

Yeah I think that's where they reminded me of Sydney. Quick and clean on the turnover with a player at the back. We need to learn to be more observant and have one drop back when it happens. Really missing Duursma's run.

 

[Vindicater]

Wright kicked a goal and was pretty good I thought.

Wright looked good in the ruck and around the ground.

As a forward he got destroyed by Andrew.

 

[ghostdog]

Wright looked good in the ruck and around the ground.

As a forward he got destroyed by Andrew.

Tried to lead him up the ground as well. Didn't work. We need another KPF. Wouldn't be opposed to a Jed Walter sized freight train.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

I still think previous years we would have lost that by a lot more but we kept coming.

As bad as Langford was him missing of the last qtr was a big blow…as many times he’s shown he can turn it around in a short time.

Missing Parish, Hobbs, Setts and Duursma plus two rucks ..that wasn’t a bad effort at all. Poor kicking hurt

 

[FootyGuru]

No hes added ~20% of his weight and hasnt kept that

B.Williams did 94cm vertical

So from the 15 afl games you have seen of Bryan (as you said you don’t watch vfl), you have seen that a near elite athlete for his height when drafted is now an average to poor athlete, despite being in a professional environment. Despite having no serious injuries.

If that’s the case Essendon high performance team need to be sacked. Or maybe you need to fall on your sword and stop doubling down.

 

[Runk]

'THE LOSS WE NEEDED TO HAVE'

Onto the scum....

 

[HirdsTheWord]

I still think previous years we would have lost that by a lot more but we kept coming.

As bad as Langford was him missing of the last qtr was a big blow…as many times he’s shown he can turn it around in a short time.

Missing Parish, Hobbs, Setts and Duursma plus two rucks ..that wasn’t a bad effort at all. Poor kicking hurt

it's the same story almost every game this year for Essendon.

Dominate play and just utterly fail to put a score on the board. has been a trend the entire year and we continue to do it and let teams remain in the game. We should have been 5-6 goals up in the first Q against the suns. We would be easily #1 at not converting on momentum.

As improved as our defense is, our offence is alarmingly bad. Our avg score is a shade over 80........really not good and it's not going to get us far.

Langford is either in a bad slump or has an injury and wright is just struggling.

 

[Pweter]

I put the loss squarely on the forward 50 entries and our finishing for goal. Yes we got beat up around the contest, yes the umpiring was crap, but we were our own worse enemy going forward and finishing off.

Plenty will need to go right for us to beat Carlton, we can't afford so many fundamental errors in the forward half of the ground.

 

[Nicholas61]

I don't watch a lot of GCS - is Rowell normally that difficult to tackle?

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Still in 2nd spot, Collingwood kicked out of the 8, not all bad.
Frustrating loss but hopefully the boys take it out on Carlton next Sunday night.

Username checks out.

 

[mcgrath_truther]

can't be too mad, they played much better than us across the ground.

well played to them, good luck going forward

 

[mcgrath_truther]

I don't watch a lot of GCS - is Rowell normally that difficult to tackle?

he is yeah

 

[The Donners]

What did I just watch.

I tipped the Suns but didn’t expect to want to break the telly quite this much.

Kicking inside 50. Umpires. Not sure which was worse.

Kicking inside 50 was much worse. That’s where we lost the game. Kicking for goal was ordinary but some of the angles we were kicking from were poor percentage options.

 

[mcgrath_truther]

despite all of our improvement this year there's still a lot of glaring issues with our team structure.

1) any good midfield will crush us when archie is in there - he's too occupied with ball watching and gets cut apart like he did all day yesterday
2) langford get's sat on too easily, he has struggled in recent weeks against taller opponents who can match his speed, and our entries are doing him no favours, either.
3) too many low % kicks, attempts for goal. we're still making the mistakes that we've made in the past, some of our d50 exits are atrocious and costly, our f50 entries yesterday were especially horrid.
4) there's been a lack of accountability around centre bounces/stoppages in recent games (especially yesterday) and that's where we're getting killed.

lots to work on

 

[faible]

Thought we were just OK. Tried hard (Q2 was a bit iffy from both sides) but had no real answer for Rowell's inside work, consistently poor i50 entries which never really gave our forwards a chance against a GCS defence that had the aerial dominance (Mac Andrew killed us), and gave too much space to Suns players ~ 70-80m from goal to make that i50 kick without much pressure.

Add poor conversion to that when we were on-top and here we are.