Some Perspective Please

[ealesy]

Before we start calling for mass sacking of players and coaches let remember some facts.


1. No Lucas, McVeigh, Dempsey, Longeran, Gumbleton, Hocking, Fletcher, Davey all of would have been selected to play today if fit. That's our CHF, general of the backline, our best running defender, our best young key forward prospect, two young tough bodies in the midfield (something we are crying out for), and or best defensive player.

2. Port Adelaide were grand finalist last year. Sure they have had a poor start to the year, but they are starting to hit their straps. Remember they lost 4 games in a row at one stage last year.

3. Knights has acknowledged there needs to be a defensive component added to our gameplan but wants the boys to prefect the fast attacking gameplan to start with before adding to it. IT IS THE EXACT SAME ROUTE CLARKSON TOOK AT HAWTHORN. Expect us to have a far more accountable and defensive component to our gameplan after another pre-season.

4. McVeigh, Lonergan and possibly Fletcher will be back for our next game which will help massively.

5. Atkinson, Daniher and Myers all playing their first game. Jetta, Hislop, Neagle and Houli have all played fewer than 10 senior games.

[robbie67]

Completely agree. Plus I'm closer to my goal of no more than 4 wins for the season. Who's that big WA kid with the funny name again?

[tonysoprano]

Agree with everything except the Clarkson at Hawthorn bit. They improved their defensive effort first. Then followed with a more attacking flavour.

2005 Points For: Ranked 15th, Points Against: 13th
2006 PF: 14th PA: 9th
2007 PF: 9th PA: 4th
2008 PF: 2nd PA: 4th

[danstar84]

I agree about perspective, However, some of the sher stupidity shown tonight isn't a result of inexperience. I think we gave them half a dozen goals from switches to players who either were in enough space, or just horrible disposal.

This handball at all costs plan won't work. Once we get it near the middle of the ground we need to get it in long to our forwards. Put it "in front" and let them do the work. I know injuries have hurt in this area, as we haven't had the same players in the team long enough so that they learn how each other play, but going that one ball extra is killing us. There were also numerous times when a player was looking to handball, had no options and then puts themselves under enormous pressure.

Need to get these sorted.

[ealesy]

Completely agree. Plus I'm closer to my goal of no more than 4 wins for the season. Who's that big WA kid with the funny name again?

Nicholas Nauitini...personally I would be hoping for Daniel Rich, who from what I've heard is most highly rated midfielder at this point in time.

[bombercol]

Completely agree. Plus I'm closer to my goal of no more than 4 wins for the season. Who's that big WA kid with the funny name again?

Nicholas Nauitini...personally I would be hoping for Daniel Rich, who from what I've heard is most highly rated midfielder at this point in time.

He would be ideal when we show Laycock the door.

[ealesy]

From what I've heard there are question marks over his skills though, we really don't need another player adept at turning it over.

[bombercol]

But we need another ruckman and one that will have a dip when he crosses the white line.

Hille yes, Ryder yes, Laycock passenger.

[billyduckworth]

Actually, despite the scoreline, believe it or not, but I thought there were some positive signs:

(1) Lloyd did better than the last few weeks
(2) CJ wasn't as bad as he can be
(3) Hille & Ryder tried hard and at least broke even against a very strong ruck combination
(4) Daniher, Myers, Atkinson, Neagle, Hislop - all the young "INS" - showed something, without starring
(5) Watson didn't turn the ball over as much as usual
(6) Monfries got more possessions than usual

Having said that, I can't see us winning another game until we get Lucas, McVeigh & Fletcher.
The backline, with no Fletcher and no Ryder, looked very lost.

[bombercol]

Actually, despite the scoreline, believe it or not, but I thought there were some positive signs:

(1) Lloyd did better than the last few weeks
(2) CJ wasn't as bad as he can be
(3) Hille & Ryder tried hard and at least broke even against a very strong ruck combination
(4) Daniher, Myers, Atkinson, Neagle, Hislop - all the young "INS" - showed something, without starring
(5) Watson didn't turn the ball over as much as usual
(6) Monfries got more possessions than usual

Having said that, I can't see us winning another game until we get Lucas, McVeigh & Fletcher.
The backline, with no Fletcher and no Ryder, looked very lost.

100% correct.

Disposal was still very ordinary.

Johns wasn't "that bad" either but Neagle's game IMO makes Johns' tenure at EFC a lot more shaky.

Gus Monfries I thought played pretty well excpet for two or three horrid turnovers. He needs a lot more time in the middle IMO.

As far as Watson, yeh he turns it over on occasions but he is very important to us.

[robrulz5]

Lloyd kicked 5 tonight but would have been really frustrated. Several times he had a one on one with his opponent but instead of kicking it to him on the lead they would muck around with it and turn it over. From memory Lloyd only took one mark on the lead and he had to go to the wing to get it, all his other marks where either pack marks or a wrestle with an opponent. They were good marks but we need to kick it to Lloyd more often when we have the chance.

[jimmyc1985]

Agreed. This was the most obvious flogging in the history of obvious floggings. I think i won my mates a collective total of about $900 by telling them all on Thursday night to back the bejesus out of Port to win by more than 40 points.

[paddyl90]

THANKYOU LORD FINALLY SOME COMMON SENSE AROUND HERE ! Yes tonight was appalling, but I was really impressed with some players tonight.

Positives- Lloyd looked back to some vintage Lloyd, great marking and kicking.
- Myers, Hislop, Neagle and Daniher were great, not super but they showed some great signs.
- Andrew Lovett makes a game really exciting and can be a spark when we are down. Dropped off a bit in the second half but still tackled ferociously.
- For a team with so many injuries and to at least kick a pretty good score and showed some great footy very sporadic at that though.
- Accuracy, we have to be the most accurate team in the competiton, even with a thrashing when we get our chances we take them and I really like that.

Negatives- Skills, really need a lot of work, once again too handball happy and too cute.
- Defence, minus Ryder and Nat Rat (just excused)they were shocking tonight, Johns (had good moments),Nash and Welsh had dirty nights out of defence. KICK THE BALL FORWARD!!! Is it rocket science? Coming out of defence, we are so indecisive and it pisses me off. Really needed Fletch's booming long kicks.
-Umpires. Enough said.
- Essendon supporters, not all just the small minority who talk such rubbish and are really negative should be ashamed of themselves. e.g. booing and bronx of Essendon players. Such sore losers and were really pathetic.

Overall, disappointing night, poor skills and we have a lot of work to do to be competitive again. But as usual I see the positives of the game being Lloydy and the youngsters were impressive tonight i think. Darcy Daniher I like the looks of him. A weeks break McVeigh should be right?, get some rest then tackle the swans in Sydney. I LOVE ESSENDON still

[danstar84]

Overall, disappointing night, poor skills and we have a lot of work to do to be competitive again. But as usual I see the positives of the game being Lloydy and the youngsters were impressive tonight i think. Darcy Daniher I like the looks of him. A weeks break McVeigh should be right?, get some rest then tackle the swans in Sydney. I LOVE ESSENDON still

Hopefully we should have Mcveigh, Lonergan, Fletch, Licha, Remiers, Rama available to play in a couple of weeks.

[nathanskinner]

[quote="JumboPaddy"]
- Essendon supporters, not all just the small minority who talk such rubbish and are really negative should be ashamed of themselves. e.g. booing and bronx of Essendon players. Such sore losers and were really pathetic. quote]

Yeah was terrible. Players were singled out, Lloyd being one which i found to be the most annoying. 'Has Been' he was labelled. Imagine if he were playing for the opposition today... would have doubled his goals

[ealesy]

The thing that us revolted me this year about Essendon the most isn't the coach, the players the gameplan, John Hamquinn, it's our supporters.

As a whole, our supporter base has been acting like a bunch of spoilt little pussies who aren't getting their own way. As a supporter base we have enjoyed a lot success in the past 30 years or so. We are not use to the situation we have found ourselves in the past few years and instead of accepting it graciously and looking forwards realising this period we are going through was inevitable seeing the communists at AFL house punish teams for being successful, they have been whinging, moaning, bitching and sooking about everything and anything.

The most disappointing thing I'm finding about our supporter base this year is that we are "eating our own" at Richmondesque levels. Something I never thought I would see. It's revolting and disgusting and a poor indictment on our supporter base.

[Doctor Fish]

THANKYOU LORD FINALLY SOME COMMON SENSE AROUND HERE ! Yes tonight was appalling, but I was really impressed with some players tonight.

Positives- Lloyd looked back to some vintage Lloyd, great marking and kicking.
- Myers, Hislop, Neagle and Daniher were great, not super but they showed some great signs.
- Andrew Lovett makes a game really exciting and can be a spark when we are down. Dropped off a bit in the second half but still tackled ferociously.
- For a team with so many injuries and to at least kick a pretty good score and showed some great footy very sporadic at that though.
- Accuracy, we have to be the most accurate team in the competiton, even with a thrashing when we get our chances we take them and I really like that.

Negatives- Skills, really need a lot of work, once again too handball happy and too cute.
- Defence, minus Ryder and Nat Rat (just excused)they were shocking tonight, Johns (had good moments),Nash and Welsh had dirty nights out of defence. KICK THE BALL FORWARD!!! Is it rocket science? Coming out of defence, we are so indecisive and it pisses me off. Really needed Fletch's booming long kicks.
-Umpires. Enough said.
- Essendon supporters, not all just the small minority who talk such rubbish and are really negative should be ashamed of themselves. e.g. booing and bronx of Essendon players. Such sore losers and were really pathetic.

Overall, disappointing night, poor skills and we have a lot of work to do to be competitive again. But as usual I see the positives of the game being Lloydy and the youngsters were impressive tonight i think. Darcy Daniher I like the looks of him. A weeks break McVeigh should be right?, get some rest then tackle the swans in Sydney. I LOVE ESSENDON still

=D> Slow handclap... Now slowly speeding up... =D> Now off the scale... =D>

Nice summery Paddy. I too am sick of whiney Essendon fans. The way this lady sitting behind me was carrying on, coaching and sniping our players, made me wonder big time. Her expectations were insanely high. It was as if she had our team list confused with Geelongs or something... I know it probably sounds bad, but I was considering turning around and choking her to death at one point. Luckily, I weighed up the options. On the good side, the surrounding crowd would have held an appreciative round of applause for my merciful deed, as I got dragged out by the cops. The negative: 15 years jail time sharing a cell the size of the mens bogger at the Corner Hotel front bar with Bubba from Craigieburn.

[BERT]

The thing that us revolted me this year about Essendon the most isn't the coach, the players the gameplan, John Hamquinn, it's our supporters.

As a whole, our supporter base has been acting like a bunch of spoilt little pussies who aren't getting their own way. As a supporter base we have enjoyed a lot success in the past 30 years or so. We are not use to the situation we have found ourselves in the past few years and instead of accepting it graciously and looking forwards realising this period we are going through was inevitable seeing the communists at AFL house punish teams for being successful, they have been whinging, moaning, bitching and sooking about everything and anything.

The most disappointing thing I'm finding about our supporter base this year is that we are "eating our own" at Richmondesque levels. Something I never thought I would see. It's revolting and disgusting and a poor indictment on our supporter base.

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Fantastic post. It really shits me to see them carry on like that. Why go to the footy if you are going to bag the side you support?

[tom9779]

I don't get to many games living in Sydney, but I will look at the game up here in two weeks with interest.

I swear one of our major problems is our forward line set up and our midfielders defensive pressure(ie mids when they don't have the ball). (very tough to tell from watching on the tv)

i wasn't expecting a win, but I was expecting to not get thumped.

disappointing.... some heart please EFC.

[swoodley]

I would expect that the majority of EFC supporters who attend matches these days cannot remember (because they weren't there?) the awful days of the '70s.

Anyone who can't remember pre Sheeds, has had a wonderful ride on the "success train" and no doubt are now struggling with the fact that we have been poor for a number of years.

The only cure for this is another period of success but just like any other time that you're sick, you need to take your medicine and eventually things will get better.

Having been a regular in the outer at Windy Hill through the 70s, I can tell those of you who weren't around then that when success eventually comes, it's a very sweet taste and all the more enjoyable for having been through the bad times.

So have a bit of a whinge from time to time but just make sure you stick with the team because we will rise again.