Explain Hocking and Lonergan non-inclusion

[MH_Bomber]

Is there something major I am missing but how, can these guys be out of the side ? Are they injured ? If they're not injured then why would you leave out two strong bodied, red hot go in and under types when the lot out there today served up that tripe.

Drop Davey please. I know its not all his fault because the way it was kicked to him was appalling, but how many times has this bloke literally ran past the ball or been put off his run by what seems slight physical pressure. We all love his tackling but he has done very little else for weeks now and never plays the price on the selection table.

How many times did you see the Bomber players literally run into trouble - that was the worst performance since that atrocious 1st half against Richmond last year.

I for one am extremely angry the side have underdone all the good work done this year and worse still against Richmond.

[MH_Bomber]

Seriously I would like to know the reasoning...

[BenDoolan]

Hocking didn't play yesterday, so I don't know what the chop is. Lonergan being dumped is perplexing.

McVeigh, Davey should be in the gun to being dropped. I love Froggy's endeavour, but he is fumbling, tumbling, piss farting around far too much lately. McVeigh can piss off and play with the Bendigo turkeys.

Our senior players were disgusting today. ******* disgusting.

[billyduckworth]

Good question. We were badly beaten in terms of "hard ball gets" or whatever horrible Americanism they use for it these days. Watson, Prismall & Stanton all tried hard but we could definitely have done with Lonergan & Hocking. Reimers, much as I love his style, hasn't really done anything much yet. Davey keeps running past the ball, as you say. And McVeigh seems to have lost his mojo (left it behidn in a bar in South Melbourne somewhere?).

[juff]

I love Davey's defensive pressure and tackling, but as said elsewhere he is just too small to be an effective marking target in the forward line. What is the point of directing a pass to Davey in a two on one contest when he is almost always the smallest guy on the ground?

[MH_Bomber]

Stanton cannot run or he takes an eternity to get his legs moving. So he too is either injured or isnt right.

I dont know what is going on with some of the selections.

If it were up to me I'd drop Davey and Reimers immediately for Lonergan and Hocking. Lloyd wont play next week surely because he is injured. So I'd bring in Neagle. Zaka surely must be near to coming back in.

[merc_2]

I couldn't believe they were dropped.....when i saw the 22 named on Friday night...it came as one big shock to me.....Some grunt in the midfield would have helped today...

[robrulz5]

Both would have really helped today especially with Watson obviously injured. Lonergan is just about the toughest player we have an he literally bleeds for the club almost every week.

[The Fly]

Both would have really helped today especially with Watson obviously injured. Lonergan is just about the toughest player we have an he literally bleeds for the club almost every week.

Exactly. I was somewhat bemused when I saw his omission.

[Mick]

Interesting the amount of outrage with these selections after the loss and not after the teams were announced.
Could it have been that Lonergan was being mentally rested in the twos? and Hocking being rested?

[MH_Bomber]

I just assumed they were in the side Mick. I was unaware they were non-inclusions.

This was the team as of Thursday and they were both listed as interchange from...

ESSENDON
B: Henry Slattery, Tayte Pears, Michael Hurley
HB: Courtenay Dempsey, Dustin Fletcher, Adam McPhee
C: Brent Prismall, Mark McVeigh, Andrew Lovett
HF: Nathan Lovett-Murray, Angus Monfries, Kyle Reimers
F: Jason Winderlich, Matthew Lloyd, Alwyn Davey
Foll: Patrick Ryder, Andrew Welsh, Jobe Watson
Int (from): Brent Stanton, Ricky Dyson, Heath Hocking, Cale Hooker, Scott Lucas, Hayden Skipworth, Sam Lonergan,

In: Lovett-Murray, Monfries, Skipworth
Out: (none)

[boncer34]

Taking yesterdays debacle out of the equation which in and under midfielders would you honestly pick out of the following 6: Welsh, McVeigh, Watson, Prismal, Lonergan, Hocking?

We cant take 6 in and under mids into a game. Silly selection to do that because you still need the outside players like Stants, Lovett, Dyson and co. and Dyson isn't as much of a reciever as he used to be.

Theres your answer MH.

[swoodley]

Taking yesterdays debacle out of the equation which in and under midfielders would you honestly pick out of the following 6: Welsh, McVeigh, Watson, Prismal, Lonergan, Hocking?

We cant take 6 in and under mids into a game. Silly selection to do that because you still need the outside players like Stants, Lovett, Dyson and co. and Dyson isn't as much of a reciever as he used to be.

Theres your answer MH.

Sorry Bonce...but your argument doesn't quite hold up as Welsh, McVeigh, Watson, Prismal, Lonergan & Hocking have all been playing in the team recently along with Stants, Lovett, Dyson and co.

That's a list of 9 players which would be the bare minimum for a midfield these days with all the rotations.

[boncer34]

Taking yesterdays debacle out of the equation which in and under midfielders would you honestly pick out of the following 6: Welsh, McVeigh, Watson, Prismal, Lonergan, Hocking?

We cant take 6 in and under mids into a game. Silly selection to do that because you still need the outside players like Stants, Lovett, Dyson and co. and Dyson isn't as much of a reciever as he used to be.

Theres your answer MH.

Sorry Bonce...but your argument doesn't quite hold up as Welsh, McVeigh, Watson, Prismal, Lonergan & Hocking have all been playing in the team recently along with Stants, Lovett, Dyson and co.

That's a list of 9 players which would be the bare minimum for a midfield these days with all the rotations.

Didn't say it was logical. Just tried to answer the question.

[andrewb]

Hmmm... We won the tackling, the contested possessions, the possession count and the Inside 50s considerably. I don't think we missed hard at it midfielders. Lonergan has been disappointing this year and Hocking has been workmanlike.

Our forward line was SHIT. We lost because we had fewer shots on goal despite having 15 more entries and even more disturbingly they didn't have a dominant backman - we were just shit. Goes to show that with Lloyd hobbled we're in serious trouble.

Neagle must come in and I'd even consider going the whole hog and bringing Darcy in for Lucas as well.