Am I missing something??. Did we not just belt the bejesus out of the much hated Lions and barely a squeak about it on the site. Where are the follow up comments from the "Sack Sheedy Brigade", the "Hird is Beyond It" Faction, the "Play the Kids" Alliance, the "Much Too Slow" forum.
Are we only prepared to criticise rather than praise. This was a hell of a win at the end of a hell of a week for the club and they came through in the best possible way.
Still a lot of work to do and we will be inconsistent this year, but for Christ sake enjoy the wins when they come.
Smell the Roses
Smell the Roses
Too far for Baker now he's on to it, now he’s got it, OPEN GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Dons are in front by one point at the 8 minute mark
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Windy_Hill
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CameronClayton
- High Draft Pick
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Well, you can only comment as each game is played. We have been shithouse for about a month up until now. The criticism was justified when they displayed soft, disinterested, lazy, unaccountable football. All of that was eradicated yesterday - AND WELL DONE TO THEM! Now they have to display some consistency in that area - intensity, desire and spirit. If they do that and lose, at least I know they've tried their best. But they haven't been doing that on a consistent basis so far this year.
Yeah, but you are a bigger pessimist that Lloyd is King. Every time we beat someone it's because of their injuries or because they played poorly. Every time we lose one it's because we are rubbish, or Sheedy has lost it. We won three and half games last year, and then three losses are "pathetic". We have been competitive in all three of those games, and if lloyd plays, we probably win two of them. Considering where we are coming from, we are travelling along very well.Windy_Hill wrote:So how do you explain away three pathetic losses in a row?
Great to win but I am sceptical I am afraid
Re: Smell the Roses
beating the lions is great.rockhole wrote:Am I missing something??. Did we not just belt the bejesus out of the much hated Lions and barely a squeak about it on the site. Where are the follow up comments from the "Sack Sheedy Brigade", the "Hird is Beyond It" Faction, the "Play the Kids" Alliance, the "Much Too Slow" forum.
Are we only prepared to criticise rather than praise. This was a hell of a win at the end of a hell of a week for the club and they came through in the best possible way.
Still a lot of work to do and we will be inconsistent this year, but for Christ sake enjoy the wins when they come.
after losses to the dawks, filth and scum, i was almost going crazy. great to get a win over one of our newer rivals.
suck it up browny.(and matthews of course).
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Boyler_Room
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While I'm loving the fact we're back on the winner's list and only just outside the 8... am I the only one who thinks we weren't that good yesterday?
Yes we smashed Brisbane by 64 points. Yes we took our opportunities when they presented and ran out the game strong... but we made some incredibly poor decisions that other teams would have buried us for ... and we were able capitalised (to a point... given our poor, poor goal kicking) on Brisbane's even lower performance (something other teams usually do to us).
A prime example? Merrett's inexcusable dropped mark in defence, which resulted in Lucas swooping on the crumb and snapping truly.
Example's of poor decision making that directly cost us scoring opportunites are:
McVeigh mark's on F50. Handball's to JJ running past who then kicks into an opponent not 2 metres away resulting in Brisbane rebounding, rather than an Essendon score.
Lloyd with the ball in the pocket snaps and hooks around his body off balance straight to an unmanned Brisbane defender in the goal square while Lucas was open in space.
There are numerous other examples but I was cringing quite a lot. We were just lucky we were playing Brisbane (IMO).
On the flip side, we did run the ball much better, managed to stop Brisbane's run (by getting numbers back) and used our match-ups to advantage. Players like Houli, Dyson and Slattery had their influences, Winderlich continues to grow in confidence, Davey was a little pressure machine and our backline looked as good as it has in a long time.
I saw the same deficiencies in our game, just they didn't hurt us as much as they can against better teams.
Yes we smashed Brisbane by 64 points. Yes we took our opportunities when they presented and ran out the game strong... but we made some incredibly poor decisions that other teams would have buried us for ... and we were able capitalised (to a point... given our poor, poor goal kicking) on Brisbane's even lower performance (something other teams usually do to us).
A prime example? Merrett's inexcusable dropped mark in defence, which resulted in Lucas swooping on the crumb and snapping truly.
Example's of poor decision making that directly cost us scoring opportunites are:
McVeigh mark's on F50. Handball's to JJ running past who then kicks into an opponent not 2 metres away resulting in Brisbane rebounding, rather than an Essendon score.
Lloyd with the ball in the pocket snaps and hooks around his body off balance straight to an unmanned Brisbane defender in the goal square while Lucas was open in space.
There are numerous other examples but I was cringing quite a lot. We were just lucky we were playing Brisbane (IMO).
On the flip side, we did run the ball much better, managed to stop Brisbane's run (by getting numbers back) and used our match-ups to advantage. Players like Houli, Dyson and Slattery had their influences, Winderlich continues to grow in confidence, Davey was a little pressure machine and our backline looked as good as it has in a long time.
I saw the same deficiencies in our game, just they didn't hurt us as much as they can against better teams.
Former Captain of Kakadu Kangaroos - Inaugural OD Champions
Duckling Finance
Making Dreams Come True
Finance Consultant
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Making Dreams Come True
Finance Consultant
Boyler_Room wrote:While I'm loving the fact we're back on the winner's list and only just outside the 8... am I the only one who thinks we weren't that good yesterday?
Yes we smashed Brisbane by 64 points. Yes we took our opportunities when they presented and ran out the game strong... but we made some incredibly poor decisions that other teams would have buried us for ... and we were able capitalised (to a point... given our poor, poor goal kicking) on Brisbane's even lower performance (something other teams usually do to us).
A prime example? Merrett's inexcusable dropped mark in defence, which resulted in Lucas swooping on the crumb and snapping truly.
Example's of poor decision making that directly cost us scoring opportunites are:
McVeigh mark's on F50. Handball's to JJ running past who then kicks into an opponent not 2 metres away resulting in Brisbane rebounding, rather than an Essendon score.
Lloyd with the ball in the pocket snaps and hooks around his body off balance straight to an unmanned Brisbane defender in the goal square while Lucas was open in space.
There are numerous other examples but I was cringing quite a lot. We were just lucky we were playing Brisbane (IMO).
On the flip side, we did run the ball much better, managed to stop Brisbane's run (by getting numbers back) and used our match-ups to advantage. Players like Houli, Dyson and Slattery had their influences, Winderlich continues to grow in confidence, Davey was a little pressure machine and our backline looked as good as it has in a long time.
I saw the same deficiencies in our game, just they didn't hurt us as much as they can against better teams.
our midfielders need to learn on how to not give each other hospital handballs running through the middle!!!
geeezus, talk about the fumbles.
I think the top two teams of the comp(cats and wce) would give us a pumping if we played them at the moment...
i just hope as a team our confidence soars after saturdays win. and our coaches give our players heaps of skills work over the coming few weeks, to iron out the rough edges!!!!
i always believe you know when your team is right, when you start to have consistently no changes in team selection.
honestly think sheeds is still hunting for the right team balance. work to do.
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Windy_Hill
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Disagree with you Rob. I am always happy to give credit where its due. But I am afraid to say that our losses are horribly predictable. Against teams who are clearly less than average yet are able to muster some G&D against us.robbie67 wrote:Yeah, but you are a bigger pessimist that Lloyd is King. Every time we beat someone it's because of their injuries or because they played poorly. Every time we lose one it's because we are rubbish, or Sheedy has lost it. We won three and half games last year, and then three losses are "pathetic". We have been competitive in all three of those games, and if lloyd plays, we probably win two of them. Considering where we are coming from, we are travelling along very well.Windy_Hill wrote:So how do you explain away three pathetic losses in a row?
Great to win but I am sceptical I am afraid
The loss to Carlton was, I am sorry, simply pathetic.
Until we can put away these types of teams (including Richmond this week) I remain sceptical.
What I will say though is get Houli and more of his type on the ground, more often.
Clearly a case of where total committment and attitude shines out.
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azza78
- High Draft Pick
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How many people out there would have predicted that after 8 rounds we would have already surpassed last year's win total, be out of the 8 by 1 game, be equal with St Kilda and Sydney, and be ahead of Freo and Melbourne? And who would have predicted we would do this despite missing key players such as Lloyd, Hille and JJ for several games?
Yes, we still have several glaring deficiencies such as our skill levels and decision making, but remember, we finished 2nd last (and 13th in 2005) for a reason. It's very rare that teams can turn it all around in one off-season. But whilst this side still has it's faults, we are definitely improved and on the way up again.
Not only have Davey, Jetta and Houli tasted senior footy already, but Winderlich, Stanton, Ryder, Lovett and Monfries have taken on significant roles within the side. When you include Watson, Laycock, and Johns, and that's a significant number of players who are still incredibly inexperienced at senior level.
Having said all that, the only thing that has disappointed me this year has been our lack of intensity over the last month. Whilst I can forgive skill errors and poor decision making (especially when our players are trying to back themselves and create play), it's very hard to overlook players not prepared to chase, tackle, smother etc. When we do that, we can compete with any team in the AFL.
Yes, we still have several glaring deficiencies such as our skill levels and decision making, but remember, we finished 2nd last (and 13th in 2005) for a reason. It's very rare that teams can turn it all around in one off-season. But whilst this side still has it's faults, we are definitely improved and on the way up again.
Not only have Davey, Jetta and Houli tasted senior footy already, but Winderlich, Stanton, Ryder, Lovett and Monfries have taken on significant roles within the side. When you include Watson, Laycock, and Johns, and that's a significant number of players who are still incredibly inexperienced at senior level.
Having said all that, the only thing that has disappointed me this year has been our lack of intensity over the last month. Whilst I can forgive skill errors and poor decision making (especially when our players are trying to back themselves and create play), it's very hard to overlook players not prepared to chase, tackle, smother etc. When we do that, we can compete with any team in the AFL.
4 wins...4 losses. Is the cup half full or half empty? Using last year, (and not YR2000) as a benchmark, I would suggest the cup is more than half full. Anyone who did not derive a great deal of pleasure from Saturday's effort has not been taking their medicine.Windy_Hill wrote:So how do you explain away three pathetic losses in a row?
Great to win but I am sceptical I am afraid
Not to confuse blind parochialsm with pragmatism, but we are better than last year and heading in the right direction. I recall Sheedy sayng last year that by introducing the youngsters, we would suffer from inconsistency. I will cop the losses no matter how painful for results such as Saturday produced.
Too far for Baker now he's on to it, now he’s got it, OPEN GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Dons are in front by one point at the 8 minute mark
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Boyler_Room
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Not to rain on your parade or anything, but I will submit that the losses weren't due to "playing the kids" but rather poor selection at the table and senior and second tier players not executing a game plan... or anything resembling the game of football (at times). The kids have more than done their job, and if not for guys like Davey, Jetta, Ryder and co we'd be in real trouble.rockhole wrote:4 wins...4 losses. Is the cup half full or half empty? Using last year, (and not YR2000) as a benchmark, I would suggest the cup is more than half full. Anyone who did not derive a great deal of pleasure from Saturday's effort has not been taking their medicine.Windy_Hill wrote:So how do you explain away three pathetic losses in a row?
Great to win but I am sceptical I am afraid
Not to confuse blind parochialsm with pragmatism, but we are better than last year and heading in the right direction. I recall Sheedy sayng last year that by introducing the youngsters, we would suffer from inconsistency. I will cop the losses no matter how painful for results such as Saturday produced.
Former Captain of Kakadu Kangaroos - Inaugural OD Champions
Duckling Finance
Making Dreams Come True
Finance Consultant
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Fantastic that we have surpassed our wins tally from the entire '06 season in 8 games. Having Lloyd back certainly straightens us up and the enthusiasm and constant improvement in our young guns is great to see.
Losing to Carlton was inexcusable and our performance against the Hawks and Kangaroos was predictable - which is the main source of criticism I believe. While we have improved in some areas there are other parts to our make-up which have not change.
This is the Essendon Football Club - not some piss-ant couldabeen organisation hanging around to make up the numbers (read Melbourne, Geelong, Richmond, Bulldogs, Freo...)Thus we should expect and demand growth and improvement.
Port Adelaide won the G.F. in 2004 - in 2006 they were well on the way to rebuilding with 4 Rising Star nominations - look at their ladder position now.
I don't think it is too much to expect the same strong winning ethos from EFC and its players.
When supporters come away from a performance like that against the Kangaros and start sprouting statements fundamentally proclaiming joy at our endaevour and level of performance - then rose coloured glasses it is.
Losing to Carlton was inexcusable and our performance against the Hawks and Kangaroos was predictable - which is the main source of criticism I believe. While we have improved in some areas there are other parts to our make-up which have not change.
This is the Essendon Football Club - not some piss-ant couldabeen organisation hanging around to make up the numbers (read Melbourne, Geelong, Richmond, Bulldogs, Freo...)Thus we should expect and demand growth and improvement.
Port Adelaide won the G.F. in 2004 - in 2006 they were well on the way to rebuilding with 4 Rising Star nominations - look at their ladder position now.
I don't think it is too much to expect the same strong winning ethos from EFC and its players.
When supporters come away from a performance like that against the Kangaros and start sprouting statements fundamentally proclaiming joy at our endaevour and level of performance - then rose coloured glasses it is.