Review Round 17 = Collingwood 80-92 Essendon

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Worse loss of the season to lose to a rubbish team like Essendon.

Too many players drinking their own bath water.

Lipinski, Markov need to go. Markov is so bloody indecisive.

The pressure up forward is non existent.

Fly needs to make a statement and drop a big name or two. Give me hungry players.
The captains form has been poor all year but keeps getting games, emblematic of the rot at the moment really.

But, problems all over the field tonight, significant issues after Q1.

Just no effort, you just want to see some efforts that say I'm not going to let you win this ball, at worst we're going to halve it, and the fight from the boys is just not there.

The defense is so disorganised (where are you captain!!!), there is no fight. A captain is supposed to stand up when it gets tough, he's supposed to lead and organise those around him, but Moore is just giving us nothing. Put him up forward or drop him. Perfect game to try it against the Cats.

Mids are getting well beaten, it felt like the clearances were much more in their favour compared to what the stats say. I daresay this is again a case of their clearance wins are much more impactful than ours and hence more memorable. Our opponents walk out of contest and get clean takeaways and good entries. Unless Daicos does it for us, then nobody does.

The connection to the forward line was just not there, we persisted with the Buckley era bomb it to their outnumber and hope our undersized forwards can miracle us a goal. Where was the run and carry, or a bit of mung ball going into f50?

Just as an aside, Nick was not at his best tonight (Jesus, hes's had 31 with 17 CP). All being told, if he plays one of his more regular games in terms of hurt factor we probably get away with it again tonight based on the final margin.

So, pretty much doom and gloom. But until we are mathematically no longer a chance to make the 8, only then can we say we are not winning something this year. We can still get a few back, still stumble on some form, and before we know it we'll be shaking down the frontrunners for their W in the shadows of the 4th Q.
 

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Ned Long - looked really good in limited game time. Really should’ve started on the ground.

Reef needs to play, has speed and a habit of getting in behind the defence.


Half the backline (minimum) are having down years, that doesn’t bode well.
Long tried hard as you'd expect being his first AFL game. Agree that McInnes should be playing. Our forward line is incompetent and lacks targets. Why he isn't out there is worrying. I think we need to just get McStay out there now. If he is fit and can move around just bring him in. The forward line is a mess and lacks aerial threats, the Dons absolutely MURDERED us in the air all night, it was embarrassing..
 
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It's been staring us in the face for a long time.

Haven't evolved as a side.
Yeah. I’m pretty displeased but I make peace with it because we really did good last year to win the flag. Really good.

I don’t accept how they’ve shown up this year because it looks very weak piss.

But. We won the flag…..having said that this effort is NOT acceptable to a team that just won the flag and a premiership coach.

Yet they behave as though it is. The coach is beginning to concern me with how he’s not demonstrating a bit of fire in his attitude that this is not acceptable.
 
Need Wrighty back as the team looks like needing a renovation sooner rather than later.

Midfield is shallow, only really two runners in Daicos and Crisp. After that it’s looking extremely poor.

Backline looks very poor also, most players down and a few aren’t up to it.

The forward line hard to judge as every week 2-3 of the em get injured.

Wouldn’t back us to beat many teams in the comp on current form. The North game was the warning sign and it’s gotten worse. Just beaten for numbers to the ball and also for pressure too, and then our defending we guard space and make it too easy for the opposition.

Make the hard calls now rather than kid ourselves like Geelong did this year.
 
The Good

  • Richards continues to show great composure. He holds his spot.
  • Harrison continues to be a solid contributor. He holds his spot.
  • Crispy’s first 10 minutes
  • Krueger kept competing.
  • Sidebottom a solid general down back.
  • We did well to only lose by 2 goals. That scoreline flattered us.
  • Long did alright when he came on.

The Bad

  • We got slaughtered in the air.
  • Essendon beat us at our own game of handball link-ups through the centre
  • Essendon had more around the ball so looked like they were clearly running harder
  • The loss (sad face)
  • The rest of Crispy’s game
  • Frampton had a game to forget
  • Breakdiwn of defensive structures
  • Connection between the mids and forwards clearly off all night. Timing just seemed to be off.
  • Dump kicks in the forward line that got rebounded way too easily.

The ugly

* Mihocek’s injury (sad face)
 

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Can anyone enlighten me as to why Dean was subbed off?

Listed as injured on the interchange list.

He did more in his short game time than the majority of the other 22 players outside Nick

Why he started as the sub is beyond me

Coaches have been making some baffling decisions around the sub

They don’t use it properly at all

Coming off a calf injury, only 2nd game back.
 
Playing more young players wouldn't even be a white flag at this point - it would be an improvement.

At the least, we should be getting more games into Long, McInnes, Richards, Allan & Jiath.

It’s a massive concern that we’ve actually looked worse in the last 2 weeks since getting a few players back from injury
 
Was rightfully worried when Scott sooked it up about the umpiring after they lost last week. Perhaps the only thing surer than a Scott whinging is the side of a coach complaining about the umps getting the rub the following week.

Umps are also behind on the scragging tactics of taggers. Nick was hold or shoved every contest and barely got a free.

That said our energy wasn’t there tonight, just 40 tackles says a lot. Missed the pace of Noble and McCreery, plus McCreery’s pressure. Pendlebury, DeGoey and Mihocek all looked they hadn’t played in weeks at various times. We also need to find a way to counter sides playing keeping’s off to slow our momentum and pressure.

On a positive note we may get to see the druggies lose another final. Despite how bad we played we still only lost by a couple of goals. Swans for example would have won by at least 7-8 goals.
 
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Not sure if it’s the flag last year or how busy my life is at the moment, but I turned it off early in the last and don’t really care. We’re not a contender and I’m at peace with it.

My life is in ruins I forget to check the bar fridge and I ran out of alcohol just after half time so I turned it off then and didn't care also

But I'll refocus and be back again next week with a refill tomorrow
 
We peaked mid 2023.
Aside from a few handy newbies in Harrison, Richards and Dean and the growth in Naicos, I feel we are on the slow decline.
Battle weary servants, WHE, Sidey, Mihocek,Howe, Pendles.
Cameron, Frampton, Quaynor, Maynard, Moore and Hill look buggered after a grinding 2 yrs.
Not sure if we can right this ship
 

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Review Round 17 = Collingwood 80-92 Essendon

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