2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Ouch. Talia has been real poor since coming back. I'm sticking with him though JJ as well. JJ made a ton of errors a lot was from trying to my be the ball quickly. That should be encouraged not discouraged.

Agreed, but a time has to come when you can't keep allowing the turnovers or lack of awareness and surety with the ball.

I'm happy to keep JJ in as he's trying to be proactive. I think Talia has a bit of defensive positioning work to do in the seconds.

[Remi Moses]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Need games into both of them.
Carried 12 players with less than 70 games ( not an excuse, but you don't get comfortable in your own skin until that mark)
JJ is going to frustrate with his mistakes, but we need to encourage run and carry

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Need games into both of them.
Carried 12 players with less than 70 games ( not an excuse, but you don't get comfortable in your own skin until that mark)
JJ is going to frustrate with his mistakes, but we need to encourage run and carry

I just fear with Talia at the senior level that semi-reasonable forwards will smash him given the chance and only on occasion will he get to beat average or poor forwards until he learns his craft more.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out tomorrow at Footscray. If another tall sticks his hand up tomorrow we could end up with Williams playing back and one of Campbell or Cordy up forward next week.

If that occurs I think Talia should go back to Footscray for a few weeks after watching the tapes and work his arse off on the things he clearly lacked in today.

[Twodogs]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

The logical reason would have been to at least provide a contest with Flethcher.

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Just had Bmac speaking with Sam Lane and it was pretty clear he was frustrated with what happened on the ground from a positioning and match up perspective.

Mentioned talls not being where they needed to be on the field, and smalls not being there as well. Also talked about match ups needing to be worked through on the fly, given that instruction to do what is required is provided prior to the game unfolding.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Lack of a winning forward option = we lost.

Crameri, Williams and Dickson woeful, Hunter poor, Jones not much better. Dahl good when he was there, but seemed to play more in the midfield in the second half.

Still have grave concerns over our coaching and match day selections. Playing (and thus allowing them) a loose man rarely helps us when our forward half is already so average, let alone competing out-numbered. In this specific game it killed us, with Fletcher/Hooker both having field days/quarters. Ten coaches in the box watching this, no action taken. Brilliant. (Graham didn't say to man up Fletcher, he said to kick it quick to even numbers/one on ones - but we simply didn't set-up this way).

The decision to drop Campbell, play Williams, and then use Jones in the ruck was laughable. For some reason Campbell has his haters, and whilst he has much to work on, he rarely gets out-marked and is capable in the ruck. Jones got smashed in the ruck whilst Williams (and Jones and Crameri) struggled to mark whilst allowing their opponents to out-mark them repeatedly. This is unforgivable as a tall forward, and it happened time and time and time again. Even looking past the selection in which IMO wasn't the right one, why didn't Williams be the one to do some relief ruck work? Jones has no tank, he can't ruck, and he's a better forward than Williams. It makes no sense on all accounts.

My frustration at selections and overall coaching can't be understated. Amateur hour.

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Sorry TBB, but Graham did mention more than once to not let Fletcher be left alone. There's only so much you can coach into a team to not allow a side like EFC do everything they can do to get him free.

If you, me and just about any luddite can see it you can be sure the coaching team can.

The players weren't smart enough to rotate with the EFC players as they rotated to get Fletcher free. It happens to inexperienced teams all the time. Funny how he never gets to completely smash the good experienced teams like he did ours tonight.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Just had Bmac speaking with Sam Lane and it was pretty clear he was frustrated with what happened on the ground from a positioning and match up perspective.

Mentioned talls not being where they needed to be on the field, and smalls not being there as well. Also talked about match ups needing to be worked through on the fly, given that instruction to do what is required is provided prior to the game unfolding.

We keep hearing this week in/week out, but what changes? The buck stops with him. There has been no progression.

We persist with playing a loose man each week, and every week, the opposition's loose man does more damage - which IMO is due to the incompetence of our forward line. (eg. Jones and Williams have little football nous).

[Remi Moses]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

That's all good, but players should be playing to instruction. If they're not then they should be out of the side.
Our senior players should be taking the reins and engaging Fletcher in the play.
That was the constant message to Ben Graham on the bench .

[Remi Moses]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

We keep hearing this week in/week out, but what changes? The buck stops with him. There has been no progression.

We persist with playing a loose man each week, and every week, the opposition's loose man does more damage - which IMO is due to the incompetence of our forward line. (eg. Jones and Williams have little football nous).

They made 4 changes this week. How many do you want?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

They made 4 changes this week. How many do you want?

Read it again.

It was a rhetorical question in regards to what happens on the field every week, not who and who doesn't play.

Either we have a collective group of very dumb footballers, or McCartney and his message isn't effective.

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Read it again.

It was a rhetorical question in regards to what happens on the field every week, not who and who doesn't play.

Either we have a collective group of very dumb footballers, or McCartney and his message isn't effective.

I think this is an issue (mainly due to experience), and coupled with an introverted and maybe under performing leadership structure in the playing group we are starting from a long way back.

Another poster has quoted a list of 12 players under 70 games played tonight. That's a lot, and it takes a lot of work to get them to fall in to line with the message.

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

TBB - On your point in not selecting Campbell I think the MC erred in not giving him another game. It is clear we are exposed when we have Jones or Williams in the ruck.

IMO he should have been given another crack, irrespective of how poor he was last week (and he was quite poor).

It was the same issue again with the forwards we had in the team. They didn't work hard enough often enough to make early position (or at leas they didn't seem to from the coverage), and they weren't helped by a lack of decisive and varied ball movement forward from up the ground.

[always right]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

May I ask which posters went to the match? Thought we set up really well today and there was a lot of thought given to our match ups and structure. Worked well for the first half but we fell into some old habits in the second half.


So much to like about tonight but the match was there for the taking and we failed to put our foot on their throat.

[jeemak]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 7 - Essendon V Western Bulldogs

Didn't get there (though I do have an away membership). Interesting point Always Right.

Can you elaborate on how it played out from your perspective?