AFL Autopsy RND 4: Dons Demolished

[Nicholas61]

We undid every positive from the first 3 rounds. Lots of work to even cement ourselves as a mid table team.

Huge% loss tonight. Now an uncompetitive 82%.

A big part of it ties into Bunks post where we aren't sure what a heap of players are - lack skill, IQ and athletic two way running to execute a modern game plan. Because of a lack of defensive ability it can unravel bad as we saw at the end of last year and which we will probably see for a while yet until we turn over the list enough assuming we now have the right list management people in place.

 

[brutus76]

Get someone from the Melbourne Storm to teach those soft pretty boys how to tackle for a start

 

[canteencritic]

Defensively we've been the same all year except for the second half vs St Kilda. Tighten the defence and Essendon are beat. Bulldogs, Port and Geelong smash us the same way every time.

This club will never amount to anything as long as they get thrashed like this. Even average sides haven't seen a 69 points loss in years and this is the 3rd 69+ loss in 6 games. Inc preseason it's the 4th 10 goal+ loss in 8 games. Can't even be bothered cleaning up the margin.

Same all year - more like same for at least 20 years

 

[DallasCrane316]

Bit concerning

 

[FootyGuru]

I thought Caldwell had a crack tonight. In only 81 minutes had 24 touches and 8 tackles, 423 metres gained. A heap of pressure and repeat efforts.

 

[canteencritic]

Can happen over there (and often does for us). Burn the tape and move on asap

It has been happening for over 20 years - overall we a insipid interstate

 

[mcgrath_truther]

feel like every year we have a heap of soft tissue injuries, some of them continuously getting pushed back & what not.

what the hell is our medical team doing?

 

[DallasCrane316]

feel like every year we have a heap of soft tissue injuries, some of them continuously getting pushed back & what not.

what the hell is our medical team doing?

Scott genuinely seemed at a loss for words over it in the presser.

Guelfi with a minor calf injury (that he didn’t even know was injured until after a scan) that hasn’t gotten better at all in 3 weeks.

What the hell is going on there?

 

[yodellinhank]

Scott genuinely seemed at a loss for words over it in the presser.

Guelfi with a minor calf injury (that he didn’t even know was injured until after a scan) that hasn’t gotten better at all in 3 weeks.

What the hell is going on there?

What was the scan?

 

[mcgrath_truther]

Scott genuinely seemed at a loss for words over it in the presser.

Guelfi with a minor calf injury (that he didn’t even know was injured until after a scan) that hasn’t gotten better at all in 3 weeks.

What the hell is going on there?

i've got nfi, it's kind of crazy how frequently it happens too.

who even is the medical team? seems like they're rookies. maybe it's time for a big clear out. get rid of the clear dead weight that's rotting this club from the inside

 

[Happyskeret]

Kinda tempted to have an all time melt but don’t have the energy for this s**t anymore. Being in my early 30s this club have brought me close to 0 joy. It ain’t gonna change

It doesn’t get better in your late 40’s I’m sorry to say.

 

[BrunoV]

Bit concerning View attachment 1951146

Guelfi still out? Who said there are no positives?

 

[Happyskeret]

Genuine superstar

He ran out of the centre like Judd in Ricciuto’s body.

 

[Zach Package]

Won the hitouts convincingly, 34-23

Lost centre clearances 19-6. That is an all-time hammering

Doesn’t really matter what happens from there, back or forward.

Tonight is squarely on the midfield.

Hobbs had a shocker

Perkins off with a hammy

Setterfield was meh, won a bit of the footy

Caldwell did SFA, couldn’t win the footy

Duursma the same, though he’s just a flighty wingman anyway

Merrett was just okay (by his standards) and we can’t do much unless he dominates

Parish was poor.

Our midfield is just so shallow. Merrett, Parish, Setterfield, Hobbs. They’re the only true mids in there tonight.

Durham out

Shiel out

I don’t know exactly what Caldwell is, I don’t think the coaches do either, but I don’t think he’s a ball winning mid. Maybe hes a tagger, or a wing, or a HFF.

Duursma is a bit of a linking wingman

Perkins isn’t a mid and we haven’t developed him as one

We have a lot of players who are neither KPPs or mids. A lot of them out there tonight. Poor selection, poor list, superstars like Merrett can cover it a bit when they’re dominant, when they’re not, we’re exposed.

Strange and reactionary.

Hobbs basically didn’t play any midfield time tonight, took a couple of nice overhead marks and tackled well but wasn’t in and under, probably should have been.

Perkins 16 touches 3 clearances, 2 tackles and a goal in less than 50% game time. Was building into another big game and firmly looks a midfielder.

Duursma and Kelly ran their guts out on the wings and got back to support an under siege defensive group. No issues with those two.

Parish still hasn’t hit his stride, maybe a little undercooked but the cupboard is pretty bare so I can understand picking him.

Caldwell I had only behind Merrett, had a pretty good game.

Lost the game in the ruck and by letting them careen out of the front of stoppages at pace. Few arm tackles I didn’t like but I reckon if we play like that against a bottom 8 side it’s close and we could well win, just a simple case of consistently losing the ball at the source and not being able to get any kind of field position for 80 of the 120 minutes.

Defended the ground tremendously well in the first quarter, dominated field position for the first 10 minutes of the second and then the dam wall didn’t break, if ****ing exploded.

 

[gillon]

I thought Caldwell had a crack tonight. In only 81 minutes had 24 touches and 8 tackles, 423 metres gained. A heap of pressure and repeat efforts.

We would be a better team with him in the middle instead of Parish, as he can actually kick.

 

[Rick Ross]

Strange and reactionary.

Hobbs basically didn’t play any midfield time tonight, took a couple of nice overhead marks and tackled well but wasn’t in and under, probably should have been.

Perkins 16 touches 3 clearances, 2 tackles and a goal in less than 50% game time. Was building into another big game and firmly looks a midfielder.

Duursma and Kelly ran their guts out on the wings and got back to support an under siege defensive group. No issues with those two.

Parish still hasn’t hit his stride, maybe a little undercooked but the cupboard is pretty bare so I can understand picking him.

Caldwell I had only behind Merrett, had a pretty good game.

Lost the game in the ruck and by letting them careen out of the front of stoppages at pace. Few arm tackles I didn’t like but I reckon if we play like that against a bottom 8 side it’s close and we could well win, just a simple case of consistently losing the ball at the source and not being able to get any kind of field position for 80 of the 120 minutes.

Defended the ground tremendously well in the first quarter, dominated field position for the first 10 minutes of the second and then the dam wall didn’t break, if ****ing exploded.

Fair.

 

[Happyskeret]

This was me when BT was in our rooms before the game and said they were trying to get the players in a happy place before the game.

 

[mIKe9441]

Until we somehow find a genuine modern day mid who is a leg driver from stoppages, explosive and kick goals, we will never do anything. Every good team has one.

Port have 3 of those guys, and tonight showed the difference what they do. Our best player by far is Merrett, and he just doesn't damage the same way as those guys.

We have to draft well before Tassie comes in or we are in big trouble

 

[justlookingaround]

Thrashed by 70, best young player gets injured, coach says none of our injured players are recovering, some even getting worse. Midfield absolutely dominated by a 20 year old. Everyone says our new clash jumper looks stupid.

Honestly rough night to be a bombers supporter. One of those reminders that we support a cursed club. Worst gather round ever

 

[theboxmike]

It’s just one loss it’s just one loss….

Can’t help but feel that early on we got unlucky with the bounce of the footy. Honestly we probably should have been up by at least two goals early.

However the insipid shit the boys pulled afterwards was unacceptable. Why are we cursed with soft tissue injuries?

Rozee tears us a new one every time we play them, which we have no answer for.

Our ruck contests have been very questionable this year. Both Draper and Goldstein seem off and let the opposition rucks take the ball far too often. ****ing Philips was more competitive last year and at least gave a contest.

Draper is exciting but he needs to cool it and start being more precise with his kicks. Kicking it straight up in the air doesn’t do shit.

The bont is going to tear us apart like rozee. Would love setters to play a very defensive game on him next week.

I thought we were to slow last night at times and other times we were way to fast. We couldn’t get the mix right. Sometimes it’s just not your day.

 

[theboxmike]

Coach looked like he was struggling to hold the anger in. Not sure if that’s a positive or negative.

I hope he rips into them privately. A good old spray and questioning players need to happen after a performance like that.

 

[quotemokc]

A almost want Shiel back just so we can have someone with a bit of pace (if he even has any left)

 

[BomberFan355]

I’d love to know our interstate record over the last 6-7 years, I seems like we have been rubbish away from Melbourne for a long time. Not that we’re great in Melbourne.

Even when Carlton were rubbish they seemed to do well interstate.

 

[ClintEastwood]

But port did play in a prelim final last season.

Sorry for the intrusion, but no we didn't. Straight sets exit, that gutted us like you guys are probably feeling a bit at the moment.

 

[JayJ20]

I’d love to know our interstate record over the last 6-7 years, I seems like we have been rubbish away from Melbourne for a long time. Not that we’re great in Melbourne.

Even when Carlton were rubbish they seemed to do well interstate.

Even when Carlton were rubbish (post 2019) they weren't getting thrashed very often.