AFL Autopsy RND3: Beaten by the Saints

[fishardansin]

We were outplayed most of the night and only list by 3 goals. I’ll somewhat take some positives out of that.
Red man played his worst game in 2 years, never recovered from his disaster of a first 10 minutes.
Heppell…ummm how do we get out of this situation?? Surely BScott is the one to do it.
Nothing else was overly shocking

What I saw was us control the play but skill errors and brain farts inside 50 at both ends cost us.

It was a shocking loss in context and better serve as a learning.

 

[citizen-erased]

I thought it was a poorer game than people are saying here. I would have thought only 3-4 guys won their match ups across the ground.

Probably why it wasnt so bad. 18pt loss and id struggle to name 3.

Kelly, mass and....langford was good when he got a look at it, but was thrown about all night

18 instead of 80 is something. Its not much, but it's something i guess

 

[citizen-erased]

This. 1v1 he gets pushed over too easily. Almost always a mark the other way which is lethal the moment they've got their kicking boots on. Such a shame.

Thing is, you don't want mass defending deep 1v1. He should be engaging his opponent so a taller defender can come over.

We were very exposed

 

[Albertross]

 

[Bombermania]

The result flattered Essendon in the end since the Saints were the better side for most of the night.

Easy to be critical but that match is the reality of where this side is at the moment.

 

[windyhill]

Mason Wood was the fortunate recipient of the Essington “Wayne Carey for an evening” experience.
Each week we pick one
spud campaigner from the opposition and make him look like The Duck. Congratulations Mason, it was your night.

I do agree.Id have Snags on the podium as well.

 

[silk]

Positives - Looked over at qt time and we fought back well.
Cadwell show his skills
Kelly was good - Probably the only defender that can really hold his head high.


Negatives - Defense -
Selection - As I said in the gameday thread. Next week is important for him because he choose and poor team tonight and was out coached. We all saw it coming...

Stringer is a liability these days. 1 Above Average VFL game wasnt enough. Shouldn't have played

Hinds isn't a good option for Sub. Wasn't able to have an impact when he came on.

Heppell needs the tap and really shouldn't have played.

Draper can't solo ruck -

Weeds can't backup ruck. When were rolling at the start of the fourt, Draper was good. When weed rucked, he was barely competitive. Killed momentum.

Flip should have played.


Also on specific players

Redman - Well that's why he ain't captain. The Saints forwards got in his head early and he didn't have the maturity to work through it. He'll need to bounce back next week.

Jones - Just doesn't impact games enough and too often misses important kicks, specially for goal, but it still developing. Not too worried.


God we missed BZT.
Laverde sadly is just a stop-gap for until Reid comes back.

 

[outersanctum]

Nothing annoys me more than losing the exact way I thought we would lose after selection. I really think this was the first time that I disagreed with selection and nothing I saw tonight will change my opinion.

Heppell was rightly subbed off last week and should have been dropped this week.
Stringer shouldn't play a game until he is truly match fit and demanding a spot
Draper isn't ready to play solo ruck and Weeds isn't good enough to be 2nd ruck
Langford is not a like for like replacement of BZT
We need more runners.

On the plus side.. we got jumped early by a combo of saints being amped up and the umpires helping to assist redman to have his worst game in his career.. I highly doubt he will put in another one this bad for the rest of the season.. but we fought our way back into the game not once but three times. The final margin of 18 was probably a fair reflection of a game that really could have gone either way.

If Heppell gets a game next week then I'm officially off the brad scott bandwagon. Was a liability. I thought he was too quick to pull Jones.. who was at least presenting up to the ball carrier. Weeds was disappointing.. very. Davey is very exciting but made a few errors tonight, hopefully he will learn from them. Langford is a forward and should be played as a forward. Whatever this 'utility' plan is.. abandon it now. Is a liability down back and too slow for midfield or wing.

Mixed bag tonight.. a couple of really disappointing parts but that is what we are going to get this year as we start the long process of rebuilding. I like our young core and you can see the talent coming through.

 

[windyhill]

It’s sad watching H, completely devoid of any confidence.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Redman played his worst game in 2 years.

 

[mike14]

1.1 for Jones, Weed, Davey and Stringer. Hard to win games when 4 forwards have that output between them.
I know in preseason we wouldn't have thought that'd be our forward structure but we need to find a way to make it work

 

[eth-dog]

Positives - Looked over at qt time and we fought back well.
Cadwell show his skills
Kelly was good - Probably the only defender that can really hold his head high.


Negatives - Defense -
Selection - As I said in the gameday thread. Next week is important for him because he choose and poor team tonight and was out coached. We all saw it coming...

Stringer is a liability these days. 1 Above Average VFL game wasnt enough. Shouldn't have played

Hinds isn't a good option for Sub. Wasn't able to have an impact when he came on.

Heppell needs the tap and really shouldn't have played.

Draper can't solo ruck -

Weeds can't backup ruck. When were rolling at the start of the fourt, Draper was good. When weed rucked, he was barely competitive. Killed momentum.

Flip should have played.


Also on specific players

Redman - Well that's why he ain't captain. The Saints forwards got in his head early and he didn't have the maturity to work through it. He'll need to bounce back next week.

Jones - Just doesn't impact games enough and too often misses important kicks, specially for goal, but it still developing. Not too worried.


God we missed BZT.
Laverde sadly is just a stop-gap for until Reid comes back.

I thought Hind was excellent after coming on.

 

[oldandslow]

Heppell has had his time. Cannot kick and far too slow. But this has been the case for a long time now.

Smashed in the aerial contest and for 2 small forwards to kick 8 between them was always going to be hard to win. Wilkie did what he wanted. Hard to see us competing against the very top sides with our talk forwards - not up to it at this stage.

Positives - Martin, Caldwell (last qtr), Ridley, Shiel at times.

Was Guelfi injured? If not he should have played.

 

[scythe]

Did I see someone have a post removed falsely accusing me of mouthing off at Saints supporters before the game? Oh well, I’m sure it made sense to whoever wrote it.

I’ve defended Heppell long enough, does not deserve his spot. If he has much left in him then he should earn it through form in the VFL.

I’m convinced he has some sort of game-time-as-penance clause in his contract.

 

[eth-dog]

Did I see someone have a post removed falsely accusing me of mouthing off as Saints supporters before the game? Oh well, I’m sure it made sense to whoever wrote it.

I’m convinced he has some sort of game-time-as-penance clause in his contract.

Yeah, it was kinda funny.

 

[silk]

I thought Hind was excellent after coming on.

I felt he didn't impact the game enough when it was up for grabs, but I'm willing to concede I might be letting the couple of bad things I saw override any good things he may have done.

 

[citizen-erased]

Positives - Looked over at qt time and we fought back well.
Cadwell show his skills
Kelly was good - Probably the only defender that can really hold his head high.


Negatives - Defense -
Selection - As I said in the gameday thread. Next week is important for him because he choose and poor team tonight and was out coached. We all saw it coming...

Stringer is a liability these days. 1 Above Average VFL game wasnt enough. Shouldn't have played

Hinds isn't a good option for Sub. Wasn't able to have an impact when he came on.

Heppell needs the tap and really shouldn't have played.

Draper can't solo ruck -

Weeds can't backup ruck. When were rolling at the start of the fourt, Draper was good. When weed rucked, he was barely competitive. Killed momentum.

Flip should have played.


Also on specific players

Redman - Well that's why he ain't captain. The Saints forwards got in his head early and he didn't have the maturity to work through it. He'll need to bounce back next week.

Jones - Just doesn't impact games enough and too often misses important kicks, specially for goal, but it still developing. Not too worried.


God we missed BZT.
Laverde sadly is just a stop-gap for until Reid comes back.

Im gonna go the unpopular opinion here

Jones may not be good enough.
Getting schache vibes. Flashes but not an afl fwd. Weid + jones is a soft set of KPFs

 

[eth-dog]

I felt he didn't impact the game enough when it was up for grabs, but I'm willing to concede I might be letting the couple of bad things I saw override any good things he may have done.

I mean there were a couple of turnovers but they were at stages where we had to take risks to get back in it.

 

[silk]

Im gonna go the unpopular opinion here

Jones may not be good enough.
Getting schache vibes. Flashes but not an afl fwd. Weid + jones is a soft set of KPFs

Shouldn't be unpopular. I agreed he hasn't done enough yet and could get surpassed very quickly.

 

[gillon]

Heppell decision likely cost us the game. He cost us at least a few goals

We have carried players before but not like this. Myers was at least a strong body. Even Nick Kommer was able to put pressure on. Zaka would occasionally bob up with a goal.

Right now, he offers nothing and it was a really poor decision to play him. He gets bodied off the ball, can’t kick and can’t apply any pressure.

Disclaimer, he seems like a great guy and I respect what he’s put into the club. But he should not play until we are out of finals contention.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

First quarter was terrible but genuinely enjoyed that contest (helps being at the game with my saints supporting wife). We are both mid table teams and we toughed it out after a horrendous start.
Only thing im really negative on is dys still being in the team, its sad to say but he is done, every essendon supporter in my vicinity was groaning whenever he got the ball and i think he turned it over every time he kicked it.
Redman had a poor game by his standards too but i know he'll bounce back.

 

[Pweter]

Mason Wood was the fortunate recipient of the Essington “Wayne Carey for an evening” experience.
Each week we pick one
spud campaigner from the opposition and make him look like The Duck. Congratulations Mason, it was your night.

Haven't watched Wood this season?

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

Im gonna go the unpopular opinion here

Jones may not be good enough.
Getting schache vibes. Flashes but not an afl fwd. Weid + jones is a soft set of KPFs

That’s not unpopular, it’s a fact.
Weid is just Francis mkII and Jones is nothing more than inflatable advertising stuffed into a guernsey.

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

Haven't watched Wood this season?

2 games? Yep and I’ve watched his career. Potato journeyman played out of his skin tonight. It’s our gift to him.
Watch Jesse Hogan kick a bag on us next week.

 

[outersanctum]

Im gonna go the unpopular opinion here

Jones may not be good enough.
Getting schache vibes. Flashes but not an afl fwd. Weid + jones is a soft set of KPFs

You may be right about Jones but I'm not ready to call it yet.. he is coming off a lot of time missed to injury and at least has been getting on the park.

I think he is still too small to be a key forward.. if he doesn't put on more weight then he may have to play a different role.

Fair to say there is still a lot to play out with that whole group of Reid, Jones and Cox et al