Preview Round 13: Essendon Bombers vs Carlton Blues - Battle of the Consolidation Prizes - MCG - Sunday 9th June - 7:20pm

[faible]

Thanks and wow, what a fall from grace from a 'star' that Essendon and Carlton were throwing everything at landing, to being stuck in the VFL despite injuries to Parish, Setterfield, Hobbs amd Duursma...

I know his dodgy kicking became an issue but seems like there's more to it for such a fall...whether a fallout with the coach or just a personal issue with Shiel impacting his footy.

He's had some bad injury luck the last couple of years, and is playing in a midfield where he's kind of competing directly with a few other guys that are very samey role-wise.

There's never been any commentary that he's anything less than the consummate professional in terms of how he trains and prepares, so I think it's just a bit of a role thing and bad timing with injuries; from memory he's copped injuries of some kind in 21, 22, and 23 with some niggles over this preseason as well.

Rumour had it he was interested in a trade to St Kilda and would probably be playing most weeks if he did, as they don't really have a similar player competing with him and are a different age demographic.

He was sold a bit of a lemon when he came across given the club imploded not that long after, so it's just all-round not quite worked out.

 

[Maddogm]

called being realistic.

And here we have the call of the eternally pessimistic

/Attenborough

 

[ant555]

It’s funny how he seems to have same walking gait as Adam Saad

Kicking action is similar as well

 

[brutus76]

IN Setters, the Caddyshack Kid, Shiel, Saad (why not)

OUT Hepps (managed), Langers (injured), Menzie (SUB), Lav (strategy)

Stick with Bryan so old Goldy gets more of a rest as we really need him in the 2nd half of the season

 

[HirdsTheWord]

And here we have the call of the eternally pessimistic

/Attenborough

wouldn't say eternal

just since west coast

 

[boncer34]

rarely scared of carlton but they could do an absolute number on us.

we are in shocking form.

Only 1 team has done better than us against the Suns at home.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Only 1 team has done better than us against the Suns at home.

?

 

[eth-dog]

?

Adelaide lost by 5. Nobody else has been below 4 goals.

 

[boncer34]

?

What Ethan said. Richmond ran Geelong on their home deck for 3 quarters. West Coast have touched up teams over there.

Our forms not that horrible.

 

[Kyptastic]

If Langers is out, the change should be Setterfield in with Stringer moving to permanent forward. Stringer has been pus at centre bounce these past couple of weeks

 

[FootyGuru]

Let me first preface this by saying I really like tsatas as a player, but surely Shiel, and now el-Hawli are better options as wing/fwd rotation or sub.

Tsatas has really quick hands and a nose for the ball, unfortunately he isn’t outplaying our current mids.

I still think Shiel has a spot inside our best 22, just not sure where.

 

[boncer34]

If Langers is out, the change should be Setterfield in with Stringer moving to permanent forward. Stringer has been pus at centre bounce these past couple of weeks

Only player to win more than one centre clearance not named Z Merrett.

Says more about what's going on around him doesn't it

 

[HirdsTheWord]

What Ethan said. Richmond ran Geelong on their home deck for 3 quarters. West Coast have touched up teams over there.

Our forms not that horrible.

i know about GC, just don't see how just because other teams showed similar form against GC, it means we should see the same as a positive?, most other half decent teams belt Richmond and West Coast, so shouldn't we do the same by the same "other teams" measure?

seems like finding an excuse to me to make it a positive when we played poorly.

agree to disagree on the bolded, at least for the last 4-5 weeks. Think we have been poor since west coast bar GWS game.

if I'm wrong we will see and im happy to own it, i hope i am.

 

[boncer34]

i know about GC, just don't see how just because other teams showed similar form against GC, it means we should see the same as a positive?, most other half decent teams belt Richmond and West Coast, so shouldn't we do the same by the same "other teams" measure?

seems like finding an excuse to me to make it a positive when we played poorly.

agree to disagree on the bolded, at least for the last 4-5 weeks. Think we have been poor since west coast bar GWS game.

if I'm wrong we will see and im happy to own it, i hope i am.

Fremantle 37 pts
Essendon -6 points
Melbourne 35 points
St Kilda -14 points

Eagles home form is pretty good.

It's pretty simple if we're there abouts with other clubs how can you say our form is poor? Are you saying the entire league is in poor form?

We're a mid ladder side. Competing with other clubs is where we should be.

 

[ant555]

Maybe we need to look at playing Cox forward if Langford is out. Could be a handful playing half forward flank .
I would look at a way to get both Satterfield and Shiel in the side. If we have to resort to Gresham going into the middle then we need other options.
Maybe Perkins out to the wing to replace Cox.

 

[Kyptastic]

Only player to win more than one centre clearance not named Z Merrett.

Says more about what's going on around him doesn't it

We only won 35% of the Centre Bounces Stringer attended on the weekend. Only Durham was worse of our midfielders at 29%.

Caldwell and Gresham both went at 60%. Perkins went at 55% and Merrett 44%.

 

[jmoo wan]

why are always getting the last games of the round, played late, lol.
(i guess in a way, it's a longer rest).

we were shit when that part of the draw got fixtured. We are good now so the last part of the draw has us playing prime time slots baby... prime time slots!!!

 

[boncer34]

We only won 35% of the Centre Bounces Stringer attended on the weekend. Only Durham was worse of our midfielders at 29%.

Caldwell and Gresham both went at 60%. Perkins went at 55% and Merrett 44%.

Without looking raw numbers would explain that.

Note I wasn't disagreeing with you either.

 

[jdstorm]

Yeah if Langford is out, that’s enormous. We don’t have even a close like-for-like for him.

Do we go slightly bigger with Caddy? Do we go even bigger again with 2 rucks?
I don’t think you can go another small, such as Davey. Do that, and when wright has to ruck you’re left with what - just jones down there as a target? Jones and stringer?

Suppose you could just go next best available - a Shiel, Roberts type (assuming setterfield is in anyway). But man, Langford and stringer are such a huge part of our forward line, and we’ve got no coverage for them. It’d be rough regardless of which way we go.

Id argue Stringer is the like for like and having 1 medium forward rather then 2 probably helps us structurally.

allows for dual rucks + an extra small to keep up pressure.

Rucks Bryan, Goldy
Forwards Wright, Jones, Stringer, Perkins, Gresh, Guelf

Looks fairly balanced and Goldy can be plonked forward for some extra size

 

[footyfanatic111]

Redman in for scans on a hammy, combine that with the doubt surrounding Langford. Very much up against it if they were to miss.

Roberts to debut if Redman misses?
Or even El-hawli for a miraculous debut after one vfl game of the half back.

If Langford misses, setterfield in and stringer full time forward.

I don’t have a great feeling about this week, but this is like a grand final to me. I *kn hate this mob with a passion, hopefully the lads keep the new streak against the ScumBaggers going for another year.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[JayJ20]

Pardon the intrusion, but just curious what you mean by average?
Since the loss to you guys last year that kick started our run, we are 8-2 at the G. Two of those are finals games. Three were against the Dees, one Sydney and one the Pies, who went on to win the flag.
The two losses were Cats and Pies by a combined 19pts.

Anyway, just seemed an odd take, but hopefully we have a cracking game and the standard of umpiring lifts dramatically from this week.

Bring your best Dons. Top 4 hopes potentially at stake for both clubs. When is the last time that could be said?

I guess this is where the real meaning of average is lost. By average I don't mean it's bad, but it's not Sydney at the SCG level dominant.

It's average meaning it's nothing special for us to be expecting a 6 goal loss like the poster I was quoting was saying. Blues tend to have close games at the MCG (and so do Essendon) and unless Langford and Redman are out, I won't expect a heavy loss, though I don't think we'll win.

 

[JayJ20]

i know about GC, just don't see how just because other teams showed similar form against GC, it means we should see the same as a positive?, most other half decent teams belt Richmond and West Coast, so shouldn't we do the same by the same "other teams" measure?

seems like finding an excuse to me to make it a positive when we played poorly.

agree to disagree on the bolded, at least for the last 4-5 weeks. Think we have been poor since west coast bar GWS game.

if I'm wrong we will see and im happy to own it, i hope i am.

We weren't bad yesterday. We were just inaccurate and inefficient going inside 50 and that was in part because Collins and Mac Andrews are just great players. I'm not saying we're a good team, but every good team has inefficient games where they can't put their dominance on the scoreboard.

It happens. Carlton lost to Adelaide at home because they were inefficient. We haven't lost a single game in Melbourne this year so there's far more reason to be optimistic and happy about our season.

If we lose this week, oh well. Still happy with our season as long as we keep it close. 8-4-1 at the bye is far better than we imagined.

 

[Bombers36]

OUT: Langford, Redman, Tsatas
IN: Goldy, Setterfield, Shiel

Team;-

Ridley McKay McGrath
Heppell Lav Martin
Cox Setterfield Hind
Guelfi Jones Shiel
Stringer 2MP Gresham

Goldy Durham Merrett

Bench: Perkins Caldwell Kelly Bryan
SUB: Menzie

 

[mike ross]

With all the doubts on Redman and Langers at the moment, I had a vision last night of Cox playing half forward and grabbing this game by the scruff of its neck.

It was an awesome vision, one that hopefully comes true.

 

[Pweter]

With all the doubts on Redman and Langers at the moment, I had a vision last night of Cox playing half forward and grabbing this game by the scruff of its neck.

It was an awesome vision, one that hopefully comes true.

I fully endorse this vision.