AFL Autopsy RND 18: Essington crapped on by the Cats

[astrowizzle]

That may week have helped redman with his decision. Parish to geelong might be back on as well
I hate this team

 

[raskolnikov]

Oh well. I'll be in Europe all September anyway. At least I won't have to find a place to watch the footy.

 

[windyhill]

Great to see Bowes strolling around doing what he liked. Still shake my head at how Geelong, the premiership winners ,pulled that deal off. Incredible. I do remember reading that in our presentation we had “Adrian showing him around” Thumping us on and off the field once again The Cats.

 

[Squeaky]

Well done to those who sat through that shit show.
I couldn't. Not again after the truly awful first quarter.
So utterly predictable to be put away in 20 minutes again.
Where was the EFC from last week (1st half)? So far away...

 

[boncer34]

That may week have helped redman with his decision. Parish to geelong might be back on as well
I hate this team

It's not exactly like Adelaide are setting the world on fire.

 

[Vindicater]

That may week have helped redman with his decision. Parish to geelong might be back on as well
I hate this team

Then Redman looked at the scores and saw Adelaide lost to GWS at home.

 

[boncer34]

I'm still incredibly frustrated this morning.

But last night's loss doesn't undo the progress we've made this season, it was incredibly bad but it hasn't been replicated over a stretch of 4 to 5 games, yet.

For whatever reason Geelong just match up incredibly well on us, they're our ultimate bogey team at the moment and considering they're the reigning premiers it's probably not THAT big a shock. We've still run the top 2 close, we've still beaten Melbourne, we've still put away the shit sides like we should.

One loss doesn't simply erase all of that, even though watching it felt like it did. The big test comes Friday night and beyond. We're still up to our eyeballs in the finals race, do we compete or do we just roll over? That will tell us far more about how we're tracking then last night's aberration.

 

[Don_Gia]

I'm still incredibly frustrated this morning.

But last night's loss doesn't undo the progress we've made this season, it was incredibly bad but it hasn't been replicated over a stretch of 4 to 5 games, yet.

For whatever reason Geelong just match up incredibly well on us, they're our ultimate bogey team at the moment and considering they're the reigning premiers it's probably not THAT big a shock. We've still run the top 2 close, we've still beaten Melbourne, we've still put away the s**t sides like we should.

One loss doesn't simply erase all of that, even though watching it felt like it did. The big test comes Friday night and beyond. We're still up to our eyeballs in the finals race, do we compete or do we just roll over? That will tell us far more about how we're tracking then last night's aberration.

Yeah spot on…I always thought this was gonna be a decent loss out of this stretch of 6 matches…put away Dogs, Swans…smack Eagles, North and beat Giants and it will reinforce the improvement we have made this year. Collingwood in rd 24 is like sitting an exam after studying all year…see how much we have learned.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

This type of performance was why Ive been super keen on drafting guys like Humphrey and George. We need far more players who are strong enough to stand up to serious physical pressure. A reminder of what football looks like at the pointy end of the season.

 

[Foxx]

Well done to those who sat through that s**t show.
I couldn't. Not again after the truly awful first quarter.
So utterly predictable to be put away in 20 minutes again.
Where was the EFC from last week (1st half)? So far away...

We can beat the average and good sides with our pressure. But our turnovers are still in every game irrespective of the result.
The very good sides will make us pay.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Oh well. I'll be in Europe all September anyway. At least I won't have to find a place to watch the footy.

Me too! See you there

 

[fairbump_playon]

I'm still incredibly frustrated this morning.

But last night's loss doesn't undo the progress we've made this season, it was incredibly bad but it hasn't been replicated over a stretch of 4 to 5 games, yet.

For whatever reason Geelong just match up incredibly well on us, they're our ultimate bogey team at the moment and considering they're the reigning premiers it's probably not THAT big a shock. We've still run the top 2 close, we've still beaten Melbourne, we've still put away the s**t sides like we should.

One loss doesn't simply erase all of that, even though watching it felt like it did. The big test comes Friday night and beyond. We're still up to our eyeballs in the finals race, do we compete or do we just roll over? That will tell us far more about how we're tracking then last night's aberration.

Beautifully put. Totally agree.

 

[MiguelM]

Hope they had an icy dip in the bay!

As others have said, mentally and physically trounced. There wasn't even a whimper.

We had mentally left the game after 5 minutes. Hobbs the only player that came close physically. Braydon Maynard has more hardness in his little finger than this whole club.

You have to look at recruiting, watershed moment for Scott.

 

[ghostdog]

Bad loss

Good marker of where Essendon is at.

Lacks physicality, can outscore a team in an open game but struggles in high impact games. Parish, Merret, Hobbs has same problem as Parish, Merrett, Sheil. It’s just too small physically.

Lots of bad panicked usage. The class between Essendons SFs and other forward entry players vs Geelongs (Stengle, Myers ect) was glaring.

Used the ball poorly, lost physical contest and the scoreboard reflected that.

We've had that same issue with Geelong for years. Their bodies are generally bigger and they beat us up at the contest.

 

[brendan84]

Geelong could do unspeakable things to us in an elimination final

 

[Yoda_]

Watching the mini and the only goals we are kicking is through luck of the long bomb not being marked. Safe to assume we did this all night with arguably one of the best interceptors the game has seen in the last decade (Tom Stewart) along with his new age team mates?

Mentioned in the preview thread that we simply needed to use our mediums/smalls as marking and mobile forwards. Looks like we didn't.

Geelong v Hawthorn was the Kennedy curse. What can we name the absolute mental choke hold this football club has over ours?

 

[Yoda_]

Oh, and don't even tell me we need a big bodied key defender. just watch 3 goals from small dinky kicks to a leading Tom Hawkins

26

Tom Hawkins

Age

36

Ht

197cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

5.5

5star

T

1.9

4star

G

2.1

5star

D

12.7

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.1

3star

G

1.6

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

G

2.2

5star

that not even Stephen Silvagni and Dustin Fletcher

Dustin Fletcher

Age

49

Ht

198cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.0

4star

K

12.3

5star

HB

3.7

3star

M

4.7

4star

T

1.2

3star

MG

301.6

4star

No current season stats available

D

14.2

4star

K

11.4

4star

HB

2.8

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.4

4star

would struggle defending.

Midfield pressure looks to be atrocious. Pathetic

 

[Yoda_]

Geelong could do unspeakable things to us in an elimination final

we need to make it first

 

[windyhill]

Geelong could do unspeakable things to us in an elimination final

 

[Yoda_]

I don;'t know what was worse, we could have showed up with some fight, an honourable loss put the AFL world on notice that we are a serious football side. We are 5th, playing the 8th ranked side on the ladder. Coming off a decent win playing exciting football in our captains 200th match .

Instead, we don't even show up for a pretty resilient sort of guy who could have left but stayed loyal. What an insipid performance. We've been up for a fair bit this year, even in the losses to Port, Collingwood, we've fought. Perhaps a blip. It is a hurdle we need to overcome if we are to ever take the next step from potential to actual football club.

 

[MiguelM]

I don;'t know what was worse, we could have showed up with some fight, an honourable loss put the AFL world on notice that we are a serious football side. We are 5th, playing the 8th ranked side on the ladder. Coming off a decent win playing exciting football in our captains 200th match .

Instead, we don't even show up for a pretty resilient sort of guy who could have left but stayed loyal. What an insipid performance. We've been up for a fair bit this year, even in the losses to Port, Collingwood, we've fought. Perhaps a blip. It is a hurdle we need to overcome if we are to ever take the next step from potential to actual football club.

At the same time Merrett gets tagged out of games too easily. Happens too often against the bigger sides. We need 2 big bodied midfielders IMO to rotate with Merrett, Parish and co. I don't thin Perkins is the answer. Setterfield was doing ok until he disappeared off the face of the earth.

I so wish we threw everything at DeGoey when he was a chance of leaving!

 

[ant555]

Oh, and don't even tell me we need a big bodied key defender. just watch 3 goals from small dinky kicks to a leading Tom Hawkins that not even Stephen Silvagni and Dustin Fletcher would struggle defending.

Midfield pressure looks to be atrocious. Pathetic

We need a big bodied defender !
Lack of midfield pressure does not change that one bit.
We need a goof FB and we need a CHF. The order they come in does not really matter as long as we get them in the next two years.
We need better marking midfielders and we need a small forward with X factor.
The issues are the same as most have been commenting on for the last 5 years. One year of Scott is not going to be some sort of magic wand.

 

[ant555]

At the same time Merrett gets tagged out of games too easily. Happens too often against the bigger sides. We need 2 big bodied midfielders IMO to rotate with Merrett, Parish and co. I don't thin Perkins is the answer. Setterfield was doing ok until he disappeared off the face of the earth.

I so wish we threw everything at DeGoey when he was a chance of leaving!

Not sure that is where we need to be going. This has been a bit of our issue since the saga. We get in touch with the finals and start thinking about what we can add before we have developed any sort of steady identity or game plan .

As for Merrett , the issue is not he gets tagged out of games too easily. The issue is two or three others do not step up to take the load and no one shows any physical presence towards the player tagging him.

 

[Yoda_]

We need a big bodied defender !
Lack of midfield pressure does not change that one bit.
We need a good FB and we need a CHF. The order they come in does not really matter as long as we get them in the next two years.
We need better marking midfielders and we need a small forward with X factor.
The issues are the same as most have been commenting on for the last 5 years. One year of Scott is not going to be some sort of magic wand.

With the amount of collateral we have spent on a key defender, I am keen to see what they have to offer before writing off and moving for an established one.

The rest I agree with and have pointed out

 

[ant555]

The only good thing I can say is Bryan played okay and got 80% plus game time.
The rest . Just shows that Scott will need to make a few changes to the list over the next few years for us to be a genuine contender to the top 4.