AFL Autopsy RND 13: Done By The Blues

[andleanback]

It's a business.

How does that have an positive impact on the business of the essendon football club

 

[ghostdog]

Well Brad has not told me personally but there is a reason why Nick does not get a game despite him being in the best 3 or 4 in the VFL every week and I have mentioned it 1000 times. They do not rate him because he has no physical presence and his work rate up and down the ground is not at Goldstein's level.
Goldy has his limitations now days and is not a physical animal as such but if you watch his game he gets up and down the ground all night . He will be in the back pocket and then without hesitation he will be pushing hard the other way. He got done by DeKoning around the ground numbers wise but it was more he was playing a separate role where after the ruck they did not really play on each other.
Scott will play Draper ahead of Bryan because of the physical side of thinks.
Nick is the same player he was at the start of last year.
To be very clear. Yes I am implying that right now the coach does not rate him.

Oh I know the comments you've said a thousand times about Bryan, but I think that's tge first time I've seen something more direct, and since you know people...

Although last night they didn't play on each other around the ground, Goldy couldn't have even if that's what we wanted. TDK plays like a mid. He would have run off Goldy anyway so we probably needed to have a different plan for Goldy to make better use of him.

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

That 50 they got from Martin not returning the ball correctly happened inside the square but near our half forward flank...resulted in a shot from 30m out for them. Guelfi got a 50m from not too far away from the same spot but we were going the other way...he kicked from 40m out. Seemed like they got closer to a 60m penalty and we got about 40m. It is a bit hard to tell at the game. Did I imagine that?

 

[ghostdog]

Have to give the Blues team defense credit. They managed to coral us down one wing for most of the night and they set up their zone very well. Gave us very little room to switch the footy and forced a lot of long down the line to out number contests. We had no answers as we have no marking power forward of the footy.

Have to also say we know when we kick down the line to a contest we are basically a 10% chance of marking it so why do we run off like we are going to hold the mark ? a lot seem to be running to the next spot as if we are going to mark the footy. FFS two or three need to start working in front and center and at least try and make the fall of the ball a break even at a minimum. Too many times the opposition have the numbers at the fall of the footy and our blokes are in no mans land .

Archie is very good at minding the grass in his area of the zone.

Did not get enough from Cox on his wing.

Kelly was horrible.

2MP must have some sort of phycological issues stemming from his shoulder injury as he does not look like taking a mark.

Jake starting to go backwards no he is spending more time at center bounce.

Menzie did okay first time at half back.

We simply did not make the most of the opportunities we created.

The switch of Menzie to half back highlighted what I'd been getting at earlier in the season about the need for a player who can run and carry off half back. Redman can distribute in the field playing Martin's role. Martin should be receiving and chaining up or striking, but we need a rebounding hb who can run and carry. I thought that might be El Hawli but maybe it's Menzie, at least in the interim, now we know SEH can find the goals.

 

[Nicholas61]

That 50 they got from Martin not returning the ball correctly happened inside the square but near our half forward flank...resulted in a shot from 30m out for them. Guelfi got a 50m from not too far away from the same spot but we were going the other way...he kicked from 40m out. Seemed like they got closer to a 60m penalty and we got about 40m. It is a bit hard to tell at the game. Did I imagine that?

I thought Guelfs 50m wasn't 50. A perfect storm of crappola last night. And their 50 looked huge. The AFL should use a more scientific approach to getting 50s more accurate.

 

[ghostdog]

I thought Guelfs 50m wasn't 50. A perfect storm of crappola last night. And their 50 looked huge. The AFL should use a more scientific approach to getting 50s more accurate.

Electronic trundle wheel. Just have someone run that bastard out there.

 

[mike ross]

How does that have an positive impact on the business of the essendon football club

It's the bigger picture. Clubs are in it together. Rivalries and what not are just propaganda made to generate interest. Just my opinion.

It's like why are they selling carlton merchandise right next to ours at our home game? Same reason.

 

[ant555]

The switch of Menzie to half back highlighted what I'd been getting at earlier in the season about the need for a player who can run and carry off half back. Redman can distribute in the field playing Martin's role. Martin should be receiving and chaining up or striking, but we need a rebounding hb who can run and carry. I thought that might be El Hawli but maybe it's Menzie, at least in the interim, now we know SEH can find the goals.

Long term my view is that Martin having played half back will make him a better wing going forward. If there was one thing that is an issue with Nick it has been the defensive side. He is not a defender but now he has a much better idea of the defensive running side of things and the transition . They know they need run from half back . It is why they drafted Roberts and Lual and tried Martin back. Is also why they took SEH. It is not perfect now but it is big picture stuff.

 

[ant555]

Oh I know the comments you've said a thousand times about Bryan, but I think that's tge first time I've seen something more direct, and since you know people...

Although last night they didn't play on each other around the ground, Goldy couldn't have even if that's what we wanted. TDK plays like a mid. He would have run off Goldy anyway so we probably needed to have a different plan for Goldy to make better use of him.

Personally I would play Bryan for 4 or 5 weeks in a row simply to see an extended period at AFL level .

 

[yodellinhank]

As frustrating as the game was the loss doesn't undo all the strides made in the first half. We still won those games.

The last time we've been in this position and faded in the 2nd half it's been due to 10 goal+ hidings so you can't say, as yet, that it's the same old Essendon.

True.

But really Brad had a shocker for large parts of last night alongside the players and you can't win games of football when both coach and players are off. One can cancel out the other but not both.

Our gameplan is clearly to get it in long and deep to Jones, Wright and Langford and that is, also clearly, not working. Moving Menzies and Martin at half time worked but what else did he do to adjust in the box? Martin forward is his 1 wood emergency plan at the moment, and again, Carlton adjusted and we had no more moves.

What do you think he could have tried that would have turned things around? I'd argue what you've posted above about things changing and us not getting blown away is largely attributable to the gameplan.

I don't think the forward set up is working. Brad doesn't have Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow to set up around. None of our forwards were capable on the night of providing that kind of presence. We need someone to play as a CHF rather than having three guys trying to escape and be the third tall.

Without forwards who can play as key posts, we have to crab it around and try to maintain possession so that the opposition doesn't rebound on us.

 

[yodellinhank]

That 50 they got from Martin not returning the ball correctly happened inside the square but near our half forward flank...resulted in a shot from 30m out for them. Guelfi got a 50m from not too far away from the same spot but we were going the other way...he kicked from 40m out. Seemed like they got closer to a 60m penalty and we got about 40m. It is a bit hard to tell at the game. Did I imagine that?

Yeah, I was honestly not sure that the one against us wasn't a short double fifty, for gobbing off at the 50m penalty.

 

[rumply]

Might be time to look at the balance of that forward line. Not sure how much longer we can continue to carry Pete, he’s not doing anything Caddy couldn’t do.

That's the first move I'd be making post the bye, Caddy in & 2MP to the VFL until he can learn to mark again.

 

[faible]

Forwards coach has some work to do, two weeks in a row we’ve had more i50s and scoring shots and lost. We’re not a good enough team elsewhere we can afford to be wasteful in the forward half.

Poor i50 entries are a killer, our forwards need to work harder to create space and our midfield needs to use their brains and don’t just bomb it long because Wright is in the side. We lack the marking power and crumbing at ground level for that to work.

We have good mediums who are going to take marks on the lead, so kick it accordingly.

Midfield (presumably Caldwell and Durham) did well to limit Cripps and Walsh, but didn’t get enough from anyone else. Goldstein wasn’t poor but he’s also not great at neutralising an opposition ruckman, and we didn’t use him going the other way to force TDK to be accountable for him.

Defence was just under the pump the whole time, when we’re letting the opposition get clean transition from defence to i50 our defenders are hung out to dry.

 

[andleanback]

It's the bigger picture. Clubs are in it together. Rivalries and what not are just propaganda made to generate interest. Just my opinion.

It's like why are they selling carlton merchandise right next to ours at our home game? Same reason.

That’s totally different selling merch, at home games the home club gets profit on any merchandise sold. Would collingwood allow us to announce our players like that at their home game, absolutely not. It’s a small thing, but just a strange thing to do, firing up the opposition crowd at our own home game.

 

[ghostdog]

Personally I would play Bryan for 4 or 5 weeks in a row simply to see an extended period at AFL level .

In tandem with Draper when he returns?

 

[ghostdog]

True.

What do you think he could have tried that would have turned things around? I'd argue what you've posted above about things changing and us not getting blown away is largely attributable to the gameplan.

I don't think the forward set up is working. Brad doesn't have Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow to set up around. None of our forwards were capable on the night of providing that kind of presence. We need someone to play as a CHF rather than having three guys trying to escape and be the third tall.

Without forwards who can play as key posts, we have to crab it around and try to maintain possession so that the opposition doesn't rebound on us.

Weide to full back and McKay to CHF. That's a change.

 

[bacon buster]

I’m really not sure what game people were watching last night

It was disappointing to lose, yes. I hard Carlton with a passion. But our effort was there. And pretty consistent across 4 quarters. Carlton had a few patches where they torched us, but we seemed to be winning the arm wrestle for 2/3-3/4 of the game.

Obviously we missed some good chances to make the game close. I felt that Carlton probably had another gear to go to, but they never needed to as we never made it close enough.

Happy with the effort. Disappointed with the execution. But think our guys will learn from that. A few tweaks of personnel and I’m confident we can rack up enough wins after the bye to make the finals.

Don’t think many of us expected to play finals this year, so we need to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves, nor get too down

At the end of the day, 3 of our 4 losses will be against the other top 4 sides.

 

[eth-dog]

I’m really not sure what game people were watching last night

It was disappointing to lose, yes. I hard Carlton with a passion. But our effort was there. And pretty consistent across 4 quarters. Carlton had a few patches where they torched us, but we seemed to be winning the arm wrestle for 2/3-3/4 of the game.

Obviously we missed some good chances to make the game close. I felt that Carlton probably had another gear to go to, but they never needed to as we never made it close enough.

Happy with the effort. Disappointed with the execution. But think our guys will learn from that. A few tweaks of personnel and I’m confident we can rack up enough wins after the bye to make the finals.

Don’t think many of us expected to play finals this year, so we need to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves, nor get too down

At the end of the day, 3 of our 4 losses will be against the other top 4 sides.

Honestly thought we didn't rock up defensively before HT. Effort in the second half was good but not really consistent over the game IMO

 

[mike ross]

Honestly thought we didn't rock up defensively before HT. Effort in the second half was good but not really consistent over the game IMO

I thought we didn't rock up until midway through the 2nd. By then it was done.

 

[yodellinhank]

Weide to full back and McKay to CHF. That's a change.

Funnily enough I wondered what McKay forward would look like when lamenting we don't have somebody like McKay forward

 

[ant555]

That's the first move I'd be making post the bye, Caddy in & 2MP to the VFL until he can learn to mark again.

2MP was better than Jones .

 

[cobra land]

2MP was better than Jones .

I will keep banging on about this but why not put Jones to a wing ?, he's not a big goal kicker and his strength is his ability to get around the ground and take marks. He would be a good outlet when coming out of defence too.

Caddy moves to CHF, he will crash packs and bring the ball to ground, Jones then plays the wing role like they are wanting Cox to do ?

 

[ant555]

I will keep banging on about this but why not put Jones to a wing ?, he's not a big goal kicker and his strength is his ability to get around the ground and take marks. He would be a good outlet when coming out of defence too.

Caddy moves to CHF, he will crash packs and bring the ball to ground, Jones then plays the wing role like they are wanting Cox to do ?

Does he actually have the tank ? There has only ever been one KPF who has been a real success on the wing and that is Richo .
He may be better as a defender which my not be a bad thing as Reid can not get on the park .

 

[faible]

I will keep banging on about this but why not put Jones to a wing ?, he's not a big goal kicker and his strength is his ability to get around the ground and take marks. He would be a good outlet when coming out of defence too.

Caddy moves to CHF, he will crash packs and bring the ball to ground, Jones then plays the wing role like they are wanting Cox to do ?

Caddy hasn’t really had much consistency until the last month, thought in the game he played his attack on the ball was very positive but he faded in the second half.

Hopefully post-bye we can see a bit of Caddy, Roberts and El-Hawli at AFL level.

 

[justlookingaround]

More I ruminate on this game more I feel we absolutely pissed it away, probably the third time we’ve done that all year.

Credit to the blues, they stood up when it mattered and were clean as possible in their f50 and on rebound.

But we dominated play for much longer than they did. Just couldn’t get anything for it. We turn that momentum into scoreboard pressure even once and we’d have been in it right till the end.

2MP gets his hands on everything but just seems pathologically incapable of holding a mark. That’s not the be all end all cos he brings it to ground - but we just never get the crumb. Langford is either carrying something or has been completely found out by oppo coaches.

The only time we look like scoring is when we run wild card plays like Marto or Cox going fwd.