Autopsy Round 21, 2018: Essendon v St.Kilda *Ross' 100th*

[Saintbloke]

I could see after the first JLT match against Carlton, that this may be an ordinary season coming up..a team without a spark...a coach with wet matches and soggy paper, trying to get a fire going.

 

[Yabadoo22]

What a disappointing night! Nearly the worst we have played all year.
I’ll start with some positives.

Pierce. Completed really well in thr air and on the ground.

Steele. His second half of the year has been as good as anyone. Poor fella leaving gws to come to this rabble. Actually looks like he gives a damn as well.

Ross. I’m critical of Ross at times but his last 2 weeks have been superb. Still butchers the ball but works extremely hard and tries to make things happen. Should be captain next year.

Billings and acres showed signs but fade out of games.

Ben long attacks the ball like a madman but isn’t involved enough.

Negatives:

Jack newnes was horrible. Supposed to be a leader

Sinclair’s skills and his effort.

Steven looked unfit and had no impact.

Carlisle and brown were unsighted.

Rice looks to slow

 

[AirWinmar]

Needs to fix his kicking or he's just another spud/

He is actually supposer to be a good kick - id say it is confidence issues like the rest of the team

 

[PoppedCorn]

Thanks billybob, always like the starting centre posts u do


Right that sums it up 100%
Look at the second half.....stitcho has no idea

Yeah sure we missed some targets, most teams do every week, probability says every one is going to do that ffs
But he seriously has no idea how to make positional changes

Fmd

 

[lewdogs]

Where is Brandon White?

Hate to say it about a kid but Rice looks out of his depth.

The period before half time showed we lacked leadership but also a plan to stop teams getting a run on.

First quarter we played well but then went to pieces. Ross and Steele were great. Thought Long was great too.

Steven must have checked out already along with a few others.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Stuvvy looks tired
Just got caught so many times last night
We dont block for him, we dont clear paths for him we literally have no idea how to do that kinda stuff
Cats were the absolute masters at doing that and getting the pill into their best mids hands
We wouldnt have a ****ing clue

 

[Grav]

Is our backline shit or is it our forwards who are?

Just had a quick look at backmen disposals during the game. Note, this is from the team line ups only & players don’t always start or play in these positions eg: Newnes but I did throw in Rice as well.
Not sure who took Saad & Goddards places, but their stats more than match a couple of our guys that played the whole game.

Bombers
Hurley 21
Zaharakis 18
McKenna 20
McNiece 13
Goddard 4 (1 qtr)
Saad 2 (1 qtr)


Saints
Geary 16
Newnes 11
Webster 11
McKenzie 11
Carlisle 8
(Rice 5 )
Brown 4

A big difference, especially from a side that saw a lot more of the ball in their area.


On a positive note ... Oscar Clavarino hasn’t been ruined ...... yet.

 

[Ads734]

After game press conference:

Reporter:
"Ben Paton has been playing half back and wing in the VFL, what was the thinking behind playing him forward tonight?"

Richo:
"Ben has some attributes that means he can be flexible, and that is really exciting for us moving forward"

WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K!!!!

Seriously! How is that a fuc**ng answer...

Midfield frequency stats for the game. If you haven't seen one of these posts before, this is an overall summary of how often players were used as one of your starting 5 mids at bounces.

Total Bounces: 33

Ross 29
Steele 28
Sinclair 27 (26w, 1i)
Steven 21 (20i, 1w)
Freeman 15 wing
Acres 12 (7i, 5w)
Newnes 10 wing
Billings 8 wing
Gresham 7
Long 5 (4i, 1w)
Armitage 3

Rucks:
Pierce 23
Marshall 10

Breakdown by Halves:

1st Half - 18 Bounces

Ross 17
Sinclair 16 (15w, 1i)
Steven 16 (1w)
Steele 15
Freeman 9 wing
Billings 8 wing
Acres 8 (6i, 2w)
Long 1 wing

2nd Half - 15 Bounces

Steele 13
Ross 12
Sinclair 11 wing
Newnes 10 wing
Gresham 7
Freeman 6 wing
Steven 5
Acres 4 (3w, 1i)
Long 4
Armitage 3

Notes:
- Billings becomes only the 3rd player from a club in analysed games to be completely jettisoned from their side's midfield mix after half time (Richmond's Corey Ellis - twice - and the Dogs's Roarke Smith being the other 2).
- 2nd most midfield time for Newnes in analysed games since Rd 7
- Very odd to see Long, Sinclair and even Armitage get inside mid time before Paton who based on a cursory glance of Hamill's write-ups has played there a fair bit. I say Armitage as all of his starts came midway through the last when the game was already gone - a perfect time to trial the debutant
- With Dunstan out and Armitage back it looked like Richo didn't trust others much, as St Kilda had 3 players with 20 or more inside mids starts for the match vs. Essendon's 1 (Merrett) and only 3 players with more than 7 inside mid starts compared to Essendon's 6. OTTOMH, I believe this is the least attendances for the 4th inside mid in analysed matches with 25 or more bounces this season.

you looking for a coaching job ?

 

[Stewart66]

Would love to see Goddard get a crack, but if Gilbert doesn't come in there's always the possibility/probability that Austin will be replacement.

Dead Man Walking doesn't seem to rate big Hughy and there's a high possibility he won't be at Moorabbin next year (HG that is)

Not sure about with HG was really worried for him for 1st half of the year, listened to Lethlean last night
he has seen what I have improved significantly last month.

Think Austin & Hugh in next week , Brown will be probably out , which is good opportunity.

 

[Saint_Dos]

After game press conference:

Reporter:
"Ben Paton has been playing half back and wing in the VFL, what was the thinking behind playing him forward tonight?"

Richo:
"Ben has some attributes that means he can be flexible, and that is really exciting for us moving forward"

WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K!!!!

Seriously! How is that a fuc**ng answer...

Was pleasant to see a reporter ask a few decent questions between Lewie's (why hasnt he played yet) and Paton's question above.

Both answers were astounding. Such poor responses. How can you not have seen Pierce play at all, when our rucks have been so bad.
And playing Ben out of position for an entire match when we are getting smashed.

 

[Rors]

I thought Freeman was a lot better at positioning himself last night & was there for the handball a few times to start some run but we just held he ball too long & didn’t give it

Gotta start honouring the foot work players do to get into space & create something. Freeze was poorly positioned last week, but last night he was very good & we just failed him a number of times. Promising though

 

[Ads734]

Ok So last night was the first time I've seen Acres play some propper midfield minutes as well as long, Gresh etc. Saw Billings take some kick ins. Here's my question. The season has been over for about 8 weeks. Richo actually spoke about it in the presser. Why has it taken so long for these things to happen. Everyone on here could see that these changes should have been happening.

 

[tbarker]

Seriously! Ross is a selfish turnover tosser

THIS!!!! Ross is now out drinking game. Long bomb to nowhere from Ross. Scull. Stop and slow down the play and let the opposition get back. Scull. Handball to a mate standing still. scull. Torch a teammate in position to run and bomb long (sorry, refer to previous). I had to get an Uber home.

SuperCoach points does not reflect the true impact of a player!!!



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[Rors]

Anyone else like me just cringe whenever Membrey takes a mark in the defensive side of centre because you just know that he’ll run back to take his kick & wait.... and wait.... and wait.... and wait, then Kick it to a 2 on 5 contest down the line or a kick 30m backwards to set up another switch?

Does my ****ing head in. Go back & give the hands to a runner coming past, catch the opposition napping & get over the zone through the guts to the opposite forward flank quickly.

If we play this stagnant style against Hawthorn, we’ll lose by 100

 

[jwint43]

No all Australians is telling. Need to bring in the quality like we’ve been hinting at for 3 seasons now.

 

[tbarker]

Anyone else like me just cringe whenever Membrey takes a mark in the defensive side of centre because you just know that he’ll run back to take his kick & wait.... and wait.... and wait.... and wait, then Kick it to a 2 on 5 contest down the line or a kick 30m backwards to set up another switch?

Does my ******* head in. Go back & give the hands to a runner coming past, catch the opposition napping & get over the zone through the guts to the opposite forward flank quickly.

If we play this stagnant style against Hawthorn, we’ll lose by 100

THIS!! Wheel around and just bloody go and kick it!!! Does my head in too mate.


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[BigMonty]

Can anyone confirm that the reason Pierce hasn't got a look in in the seniors is because he's threatened legal action against the club in the past?

WTF are you serious. For what reason restrictive trade practices not allowing him to play to his potential.

If that was the case Slater and Gordon should mount a class action oo behalf of 20 odd players against the club.

They would win too

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[Diehard Saint]

I could see after the first JLT match against Carlton, that this may be an ordinary season coming up..a team without a spark...a coach with wet matches and soggy paper, trying to get a fire going.

Kudos to you and a few others who saw this and said it while the rest of us
( well certainly me) just kidded ourselves....”well Sydney never wins a pre-season game” etc.
You were spot on.

 

[Savatage]

I could see after the first JLT match against Carlton, that this may be an ordinary season coming up..a team without a spark...a coach with wet matches and soggy paper, trying to get a fire going.

Yep and a coach that wasn’t willing to ****ing try new players in the pre season.

 

[Palantine]

I know there's bigger fish to fry, but the umpiring was stinking last night. There seemed to be a fifty meter penalty, which gave them an easy goal, for having one of our players get thrown to the ground, nowhere near the mark. I think all umpiring direction is lost and all over the place at the moment. I truly feel they don't know what they're doing anymore. And when you add to this the totally diabolic TV commentary, I can hardly watch it. The sound is almost always off.

Sadly, I hope last night's display is only the result of getting a better draft selection. How else could you explain such public backing from Lethlean for our coach, designed to stop massive media speculation because he knows he's told Richardson to fluff and fluff and fluff to get pick two or three. Seriously it's that bad it's a joke. If Richardson doesn't slam some players publicly then this has to be the case. Surely.

Somehow it's depressing no one is accusing us of tanking. They all just think/know we are simply that shit.

 

[BigMonty]

Anyone else like me just cringe whenever Membrey takes a mark in the defensive side of centre because you just know that he’ll run back to take his kick & wait.... and wait.... and wait.... and wait, then Kick it to a 2 on 5 contest down the line or a kick 30m backwards to set up another switch?

Does my ******* head in. Go back & give the hands to a runner coming past, catch the opposition napping & get over the zone through the guts to the opposite forward flank quickly.

If we play this stagnant style against Hawthorn, we’ll lose by 100

Said the same thing 3 weeks ago and got howled down. Can see why Swans let him go. Clubs do not let potential A graders go players are let go for deficiencies in their abilities that probably hard to fix. Become gof at other clubs but rarely what you build a team around. Good luck Tim I think you are a great number 3 but no Rooey

Membrey decision making
Bruce hard hands
Stringer attraction to 15 y/o

Having said that GWS must regret trading Devin Smith and to an extent Steele as they are probably exactly what they are missing at the moment tackling pressure and a stopper that gets his own ball.

Make Ross and Steele co captains next year.
Put Geary on the opposition's running half back play as defensive forward where he can tackle and put pressure acts where it counts.

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[crasha301]

Seb with a lazy 43 disp but what did he actually do? There is a reason why teams don't tag him.

Would be a good 5th string mid in a good team.

I'd flog him off for a mid/late 1st round pick.

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[Saint believer]

2 interesting elements that changed with us playing the dons:

Carlisle went into his shell compared to most of the season and Billings didn’t wait until q3 to have a crack.

Looks like he could have been auditioning for a possible trade.


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[WesCoSeagulls]

So disappointing. You must be disappointed. It's disappointing to see a disappointing loss in front of a dissapointed crowd culminating in a disappointing season. Was really dissapointed with the dissapointing commentary from the usual dissapointments on a dissapointing friday night telecast.

On a less dissapointing note Essendon are the bogey team of the comp for past 2 years. Can be dissapointing one week then outstanding the next. As an outsider looking in I thought Saints looked young and inexperienced lastnight. Need to adjust that for next season. Can't have 18 teams in the finals so chins up for next year.

 

[Half Back Pocket]

Newnes, Ross, Sinclair etc refused to run back when Essendon pressed (when Hooker scooped the ball back from the boundary line, Merrett kicked towards the 50 with Newnes 25 metres behind jogging. They were together at half back 20 seconds before)
Unfit? Injured? Don’t care?