Wallpapering the Cracks

[BenDoolan]

Some love to wallpaper the cracks by blaming umpires and how we're missing so many elite players, but they always ignore the underlying defects;

SKILLS - WTF has happened the past 6 weeks? I reckon we're on par with Carlton in this department. How f****** deplorable is it? Handballs to the feet, handballs to the opposition, handballs that loop so the opposition can tackle from 50 metres away, handballs to players with someone on their hammer, kicks going astray, set shots are a f****** joke...

PACE - LOL how f****** SLOW are we? Not just foot speed, but getting the ball from hand and onto boot FFS. Couldn't believe the amount of times someone was tackled when they had heaps of space to dispose the footy, but managed to get themselves tackled because they took 2 minutes to drop the ball onto their boot.

Speaking of BOOTS - how much do they cost? 200? 300 dollars? And they can't f****** stand up in them? A clear, windless night and they kept slipping over FFS. f****** useless.

GAMEPLAN - what is that SHIT? Stagnant, clueless footy. From the kick out - NFI. Going forward - NFI. In the middle - what a f****** joke.

I Could go on, but I am f****** tired of this rubbish. At least Bomber Thompson had us playing with some consistency and purpose. We are a complete basket case.

[hop]

Yep

[kelvin_sheedy]

Our supposedly better players in Goddard and Stanton fumble at crucial times

They play behind the ball and clog up the back half.

Skills will be poor if you have no separation.

The slip over is a classic trait of mentally soft players. We have 1 too many.

[paddyl90]

Spot on. Nothing more to add but for them to f***** fix this shit!

[grassy1]

James Must Rule with an Iron Rod at Training.

If he's tried the easy way,It ain't working Jimmy.

Practice makes Perfect is Bullshit!

Perfect practice Makes Perfect Footy!

And if that means running the Bastards into the ground,So Be it!

Find a Muddy Field and let them slide around in that Shit,to make the players Work that Many bit harder.

It might be 2015.

But It Is Time to Reintroduce Hard,Commando,Military Training Drills into this SOFT MOB!

NOW JAMES!

[boncer34]

Windless? Were we sitting in the same stadium Benny?

Not that I disagree with the rest of what you're saying.

[nudder12]

Some love to wallpaper the cracks by blaming umpires and how we're missing so many elite players, but they always ignore the underlying defects;

SKILLS - WTF has happened the past 6 weeks? I reckon we're on par with Carlton in this department. How f****** deplorable is it? Handballs to the feet, handballs to the opposition, handballs that loop so the opposition can tackle from 50 metres away, handballs to players with someone on their hammer, kicks going astray, set shots are a f****** joke...

PACE - LOL how f****** SLOW are we? Not just foot speed, but getting the ball from hand and onto boot FFS. Couldn't believe the amount of times someone was tackled when they had heaps of space to dispose the footy, but managed to get themselves tackled because they took 2 minutes to drop the ball onto their boot.

Speaking of BOOTS - how much do they cost? 200? 300 dollars? And they can't f****** stand up in them? A clear, windless night and they kept slipping over FFS. f****** useless.

GAMEPLAN - what is that SHIT? Stagnant, clueless footy. From the kick out - NFI. Going forward - NFI. In the middle - what a f****** joke.

I Could go on, but I am f****** tired of this rubbish. At least Bomber Thompson had us playing with some consistency and purpose. We are a complete basket case.

Absolutely, totally spot on BenD
But no blaming umpires tonight.
Skills are shit - we didn't so much lose the game, as give it to Richmond. So frustrating to see potential moves undone by poor skills and turnovers.
Pace? - someone please tell Hibberd that it's not a rule that you must wait until the very last nanosecond before you're tackled to kick the ball. Same for Heppell.
Gameplan? - no problem with that - what I do have a problem with is the lack of a Gameplan Option B or C if Plan A isn't working.

[BenDoolan]

Windless? Were we sitting in the same stadium Benny?

Not that I disagree with the rest of what you're saying.

Maybe not. Were you in Hobart?

I was up with the seagulls at the MCG. Top deck, about 17 rows from the very back. Not a breath of wind. Walked from Richmond station to and from the ground. Not a breath of wind.

[Flip]

Is anyone starting to think about the Coaching Staff?

[s'dreams]

Some love to wallpaper the cracks by blaming umpires and how we're missing so many elite players, but they always ignore the underlying defects;

SKILLS - WTF has happened the past 6 weeks? I reckon we're on par with Carlton in this department. How f****** deplorable is it? Handballs to the feet, handballs to the opposition, handballs that loop so the opposition can tackle from 50 metres away, handballs to players with someone on their hammer, kicks going astray, set shots are a f****** joke...

PACE - LOL how f****** SLOW are we? Not just foot speed, but getting the ball from hand and onto boot FFS. Couldn't believe the amount of times someone was tackled when they had heaps of space to dispose the footy, but managed to get themselves tackled because they took 2 minutes to drop the ball onto their boot.

Speaking of BOOTS - how much do they cost? 200? 300 dollars? And they can't f****** stand up in them? A clear, windless night and they kept slipping over FFS. f****** useless.

GAMEPLAN - what is that SHIT? Stagnant, clueless footy. From the kick out - NFI. Going forward - NFI. In the middle - what a f****** joke.

I Could go on, but I am f****** tired of this rubbish. At least Bomber Thompson had us playing with some consistency and purpose. We are a complete basket case.

Absolutely, totally spot on BenD
But no blaming umpires tonight.
Skills are shit - we didn't so much lose the game, as give it to Richmond. So frustrating to see potential moves undone by poor skills and turnovers.
Pace? - someone please tell Hibberd that it's not a rule that you must wait until the very last nanosecond before you're tackled to kick the ball. Same for Heppell.
Gameplan? - no problem with that - what I do have a problem with is the lack of a Gameplan Option B or C if Plan A isn't working.

Of course you can blame the umpires - for picking up the really dumb and soft free kicks we gave away in our forward 50 ... and for picking up the even dumber and softer free kicks and 50's we gave away in the Tiger's forward 50.

Can't the umps realise that our players are dumb and selfish and just look the other way?

[/sarcasm mode off]

[Mrs Mercuri]

Our forward coach is Bassett, mids coach I think is Skipworth- both must go if we don't start improving

Is anyone starting to think about the Coaching Staff?

[BERT]

There are 2 things that frustrate me no end and we do both really well. Fumbling and slipping over.

[boncer34]

Windless? Were we sitting in the same stadium Benny?

Not that I disagree with the rest of what you're saying.

Maybe not. Were you in Hobart?

I was up with the seagulls at the MCG. Top deck, about 17 rows from the very back. Not a breath of wind. Walked from Richmond station to and from the ground. Not a breath of wind.

Weird.

We were up the same height and quite a few around us were putting jackets on because "Jeez this wind has a bit of chill in it."

Not that I paid a hell of a lot of attention, to busy watching the disaster unfold below. So it may have been slight.

I just remember people saying that.

[MH_Bomber]

I agree with everything that has been said but I also reckon that there is a mindset in this Essendon team that does not handle pressure or expectations.

We seem to lose every big milestone game. Whenever there in a position to consolidate themselves in the 8 they go into their shell. To me its like they are afraid to make a mistake. Bomber Thompson alluded to this when commentating during the North game. They know they need to play on straight away and get ball moving quickly but it looks like they are on sedatives not PEDs. I question some of the senior players who are all too ready to give the evil eye should a youngster make a mistake. They also call for it when they are not in the right position.

Apart from the coaches, its up to the senior players in the team to lead.

I have heard James Hird say on a couple of occasions, if we win the contested ball and play the way we want to play then the rest will take care of itself. Well the rest isn't taking care of itself.

Next week we have Geelong at Etihad and unless we play like we did in patches during the Swans and Hawthorn games we will be absolutely slaughtered.

[BenDoolan]

Windless? Were we sitting in the same stadium Benny?

Not that I disagree with the rest of what you're saying.

Maybe not. Were you in Hobart?

I was up with the seagulls at the MCG. Top deck, about 17 rows from the very back. Not a breath of wind. Walked from Richmond station to and from the ground. Not a breath of wind.

Weird.

We were up the same height and quite a few around us were putting jackets on because "Jeez this wind has a bit of chill in it."

Not that I paid a hell of a lot of attention, to busy watching the disaster unfold below. So it may have been slight.

I just remember people saying that.

I was top deck Olympic stand - perhaps protected. Were you opposite in the Southern / Ponsford?

[Gyoza]

Is anyone starting to think about the Coaching Staff?

No, like you I'm extremely confident that once Hocking, Myers and Kommer are back we will be unbeatable.

[Royza]

As shit as everything has been, the 2 things that f*** us over (or at least prevent us from beating the crap we played last night):

- Waiting for Carlisle to come good on his goal kicking. Can mark, but may as well be setting up the opposition's rebound.
11 goals 10 behinds from 8 games. Others miss sitters sure, but when you're the key forward & taking set shots from such gettable positions you should be doing your job.
JD has 19.9 in comparison. The midfield is also light on for goals. Colyer is equal 2nd with Carlisle, & the next best are a few players on 6 which shows how we're going for goals.

- Our back-line is our strength. So it shits me that the basic kick out outside 50 is such a danger to us. Much of that is attributed to our ruck who can't contest a mark (where we miss Ryder a great deal).

Plenty of other f***-ups as you all have mentioned, but that is just the icing on a crap cake & changes weekly. It was kicking into players for the past few weeks, now it's slipping over & going back to unnecessary hand-balling.

[Ronny Rotten]

Is anyone starting to think about the Coaching Staff?

No, like you I'm extremely confident that once Hocking, Myers and Kommer are back we will be unbeatable.

Ha, Hocking, Myers & Kommer are not going to give us much needed pace into our "statue like" midfield

[BenDoolan]

As shit as everything has been, the 2 things that f*** us over (or at least prevent us from beating the crap we played last night):

- Waiting for Carlisle to come good on his goal kicking. Can mark, but may as well be setting up the opposition's rebound.
11 goals 10 behinds from 8 games. Others miss sitters sure, but when you're the key forward & taking set shots from such gettable positions you should be doing your job.
JD has 19.9 in comparison. The midfield is also light on for goals. Colyer is equal 2nd with Carlisle, & the next best are a few players on 6 which shows how we're going for goals.

- Our back-line is our strength. So it shits me that the basic kick out outside 50 is such a danger to us. Much of that is attributed to our ruck who can't contest a mark (where we miss Ryder a great deal).

Plenty of other f***-ups as you all have mentioned, but that is just the icing on a crap cake & changes weekly. It was kicking into players for the past few weeks, now it's slipping over & going back to unnecessary hand-balling.

Spot on.

So many defects...

[Jazz_84]

Our forward coach is Bassett, mids coach I think is Skipworth- both must go if we don't start improving

Is anyone starting to think about the Coaching Staff?

yet Skippy is our VFL coach and they seem to move the ball perfectly ok, our forward 50 structure is quite efficient in the VFL.... go figure