Post Match. Pies bombed. All comments.

[shawthing]

HEAR HEAR, WELL SAID, BRAVO. At long last, some common sense, Totally agree, mass injuries have ruined our season, second only to the Tigers, and look at them now. We do have some promising kids, and we will hit the trades hard. I wonder what the reaction would be if we beat the Cats next week, every game is different.

Good Lord. I forgot about the rose coloured glasses brigade. Now you remind me of them. That was a long time ago.

[David]

It was a pretty horrible game to watch for the most part. Even when we were still in front early in the third quarter we looked totally listless. Positives were the efforts of Ned Long, who I thought was very good once he came on; Kreuger for battling it out and almost single-handedly giving us a chance in the dying minutes with two opportunistic long-range goals; Crisp’s first quarter, which was up there with Didak’s memorable three-goal burst; and Moore played his best game for a while I thought. Otherwise we just really lacked energy tonight and a lot of skill errors didn’t help. Definitely the worst I’ve seen us play since the first three weeks of the season.

Worst takeaway apart from the loss is having to accept that the Bombers are actually a pretty good side and are probably finals-bound. Just disgusting to think about!

[Magpietothemax]

Worst take away is the injury count
Checkers (season)
Cameron( weeks)
IQ (???)
Catastrophic.
I officially declare season over.
The injury crisis just turned into a cataclysm
You don't ride through a cataclysm.

[Big T]

Our tackling has been very poor for quite a while.

My biggest gripe is our handballing - no teams dished out more hospital handballs, and I would love a stat on how many times we-take the wrong option. We have a penchant for putting team mates under pressure. Our use of the corridor has become our Achilles heel. It’s turnover city.

It’s ok to fail the year after a flag given the injuries.

What’s not ok is having the oldest list in terms of our starting 18, minimal depth and no first round pick next year.

That spells disaster.

[Jezza]

Fly's presser

You said last week you didn't want to put yourselves in a position to chase the game. It happened again. How disappointed were you with the 3rd quarter?

"It was hard to watch at times. There were passages of some really unpredictable play for us. I just mentioned to the players it was a bit unrecognisable. It's always a challenge at this level that opposition are trying to take things away from you but you've got to remain true to who you want to be. We have a strong DNA as most teams do. Particular parts of that DNA were just not on show at times. We'll get busy on those things that we know are important to us".

What's the early word on Brody Mihocek's pec injury?

"Brody looks like he's going to need surgery. He'll most likely be out for the season".

How did the rest of the group deal with the news on Mihocek given his importance?

"There's probably a level of most would know, but not yet because we got to get scans to officially make that the case. That will happen shortly, and as we always do we love and support. We'll get around our players and rally together. It is what it is at times".

Do you feel like one of the issues this year is when you lose control of the game it happens for longer periods and too much damage is done to rectify it?

"Maybe. I just go back to what we do. You look at what we want to be. We want to be a high pressure team. To have one six (160) or something (pressure rating) is the lowest for the season. Some of that is within our control. Credit to Essendon, they moved the ball extremely well. 129 uncontested marks. We knew that was coming, so you have a method to try and restrict that phase of the game, but we didn't execute it so you get no chance to put pressure on. Now, we go back to what we want to be. We want to be a high pressure team and we want to play the game in that phase and tonight we just didn't execute it".

If you compare last year to this year and looking at the differences, do you think there's a multitude of areas where you've fallen away or do you zero in on one or two areas?

"Well, last week was really obvious in watching the tape. Parts of our game just looked disconnected. Tonight, we looked unpredictable. Those things we get to work on. This game forces you to live in an outcome world, but we don't live in that space. You're judged on your wins and your losses and that's fair, that's what we're here to do. Ultimately, as soon as this is done we go straight to process. Straight into Monday is your best training day you've ever had in your life, get better in the gym and keep getting better [by] looking at the tape and improve ourselves and we keep moving".

Did your players look more gassed to you than usual in the last quarter?

"That is a great question to ask because when you're unpredictable, there's energy out of 'I'm not sure where I'm going to run; is that ball going there? I thought we were going to move it that way?' so there's layers of disconnections so you become more disconnected. Obviously to the eye, maybe we looked like we didn't have energy. We spoke about it at half time, 'how do we get energy in in our group? By being predictable'. Again, we didn't execute that".

Brody Mihocek is done for the season. How do you address the forward line with other forwards already missing?

"It will be fun won't it. We're going to have some fun. We've played some games this year without Brody. He was out for an extended period with a hamstring injury. When you look back at those games, we found a way to score. Again, it comes back not to individuals. Magnets don't win games. We've got more experience back in our team than previous weeks, but for some unknown reason in the last couple of games we look more disconnected. It's not about the personnel for us, it never has been. It's not about who's playing, it's about how we play. We've got to get back to how we want to play".

What about the younger players in your side, it felt like the likes of Joe Richards, Lachie Sullivan and Harvey Harrison were giving you a lift a few months ago. Do you think their energy levels are at the same level as previously?

"Again, it's not about the individual(s). When you defend as a team there's a system and energy attached to that. The same when we attack as a team. It's not about any individual, it's about a collective. When you take one person outside of a system and then the others fall down. We'll be concentrating on that. Really galvanising our group in terms of connection around the way we move and the way we defend. I liken it to we need to learn to dance together. We're not dancing, we're stepping on each other's toes at times. We'll spend some energy around that".

Zach Merrett seem to get through your system in the first half. Did you consider applying a tag on him at that point?

"We went into the game with a mindset about him because we know how much he generates and runs and creates. There was definitely some energy and discussion around that".

Is there any part of you tonight that reconsiders whether having an extra day up in Queensland was the best way for you to win this match?

"We reviewed the game up there and then a group of guys stayed up and trained the next day. Then we had a day off as we normally would and then we were due back. Half the group stayed up because they wanted to. They had families and things. We won't compromise on that. I'm not sure those things would be something we reflect on too much other than to say if you walk into our environment on Monday for your first time you've ever been in our environment, I guarantee you won't know if we won or lost. I promise you that, because we're all about getting better".

How's Isaac Quaynor pulled up?

"He's got a bit of a sore toe, so I'm not sure what that looks like. He'll get some scans on that and we'll see where that sits".

How close was Josh Daicos to not playing tonight?

"Very close. I thought on Wednesday or something I said 'he's a million to one to play'. Someone told me 'he's miles behind' and I said 'he must have been two million yesterday' because he looked a long way off it. Credit to our high performance team, Simon does an incredible job with our players, and our physios give them every chance".

Realistically, how far away is Dan McStay from returning? It was reported tonight that he's close to a return through the VFL next week.

"Yeah, that's probably accurate. He's very close. Whether it's next week or the week after, he's very close. It will be exciting to have Dan back. I'm sure everyone will get pretty excited when they see Dan jump and run around at VFL or whatever it looks like. Clearly after Checkers going out, we're going to need every one of our guys like Dan be ready to present. We're not going to rush Dan in before he's ready. That doesn't make sense. Comeback to my original statement, it's not who plays, it's how we play".

You wouldn't consider an immediate return for McStay straight at AFL level without having played VFL footy, after Melbourne opted to do this with Jake Melkhsam who's returning from an ACL injury as well?

"Yeah I'm not sure. I'm not in the world of comparison. We just sort of worry about our athlete. Dan's done a lot right. We'll weigh all that up".

https://www.afl.com.au/video/1163973/fu ... 0187464001

[Big T]

Rewatched the game. Schultz very poor. Concerning.

[dalyc]

Rewatched the game. Schultz very poor. Concerning.

If that was your only takeaway then you either need to watch it again or get your obsession looked at.

[Big T]

Rewatched the game. Schultz very poor. Concerning.

If that was your only takeaway then you either need to watch it again or get your obsession looked at.

Which obsession? There are so many

[BazBoy]

Quite noticeable was how Josh began to struggle towards end of game
And again noticeable Bobby limping and not getting to contest later in game

Both had injuries in recent times that may have resurfaced

[warburton lad]

The pressure is on for next week.

There will be some deep discussions at selection.

Assuming the injuries to Mihocek, Cameron and IQ the changes might be...

Outs: Mihocek, Cameron and IQ

Ins: McInnes, Noble and Macrae.

B: Howe. Moore. Maynard
HB: Markov Dean. Hoskin-Elliott
C: J Daicos. Pendles Nick Daicos
HF: Lipinksi. Krueger. Richards
F: Hill. McInnes. Schultz

Ruck: Frampton De Goey Crisp

IC: Long, Noble , Harrison, Sidebottom
SUB: Macrae

We are literally down to the bone in terms of available players with no respite in sight.

No point whingeing, but how many players this year have missed multiple weeks: Mihocek, Cox, McStay, Elliott, McCreery, Mitchell, De Goey, Carmichael, Krueger, Steene, Murphy, Eyre and Begg... Little wonder we have been disjointed for most of the season.

McRae will not use injuries as an excuse, but they have derailed our season.

The difficulty of being predictable to your teammates is absolutely compounded by the glut of absences...

I don't believe we will put in as poor an effort against the Cats but I am not sure if that will translate to a win.

Floreat Pica, folks.

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

Wow.

First time in a long time I thought we just did not have the cattle on the field.

Injuries are taking a toll, and clearly even players without injuries have seriously niggles.

Dons pressure was incredible, full credit to them...and that probs explains why they tired late and we came back.

I for one went to bed after 2 metre Peter kicked that goal.

I am coming down from Canberra with my daughter next week for her first game at the MCG...here's hoping we put on a better performance

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

We just gotta play McInnes from here on in, a good young player who needs a prolonged run.

[qldmagpie67]

It’s hard to know where to start on such a poor performance across the board

So much said on these pages already so I’ll just give you some key stats to why we lost

They took 18 marks inside 50 (33% more than there season average)
They took 129 uncontested marks there most in over 9 years and 42 more than there season average
We laid only 43 tackles the entire game (25 under our season average) and only 4 inside our attacking 50 (they had 12)
We had 48 ineffective or broken tackles the most ever in a game under McRae
They had 279 uncontested possessions 40 more than there season average
There disposal efficiency was a tick under 80%


Champion data have a great stat it’s called effective disposals
Which means a disposal that goes directly to a team mate who gains possession undisputed
A ineffective disposal means a turnover or ball lost and went into dispute.

Merrett had 30 touches with 25 being effective and was the best on ground by a mile
Sidey had 32 touches 13 being effective. Pointless getting so many times when nearly 66% of the time the ball goes into dispute or is turned over
Nick D had only 7 effective kicks all game from 23 attempts (under 33% effective by foot) and 13 effective disposals out of 31 touches so basically 50% snd this from a guy who we rely on to supply our forward line
Our average pressure rating across the game was the second lowest ever under McRae and the second term was our lowest quarter rating ever under McRae
The last month we have conceded more than a 100 uncontested marks per game. We are easy to play against like this. They hold possession until a player gets free ahead of the ball then they go bang and it’s inside 50
These are effort based issues
I reckon we lost this because of lack of effort sand lack of planning
Why start Long as sub when we needed inside mid pressure ? He could have been given a run with role on Caldwell who would have taken him to the contest and at least he could have made him work hard for his ball. Crisp let him run free

Josh never should have played he couldn’t get out of a canter all night and his kicking appeared to be hampered as he didn’t want to stretch out

We likely won’t make top 4 and there’s a better then fair chance based on current form and players available we will make the 8
Time has come to really sit down and pull the list apart and see who belongs and who doesn’t

[ANNODAM]

Making the 8 & sitting at the bottom half of the ladder is just making up the numbers I feel.

I said it last night in the match day thread, Josh wasn’t 100% he opted for a hospital handball instead of kicking the ball further afield on so many occasions it wasn’t funny!

A few times we had options to kick it towards goal, we went sideways in the middle & it was intercepted & turnover goal to ESS.

When we play like that & it pays off, all well & good, but when it doesn’t makes us look ordinary, it’s like ESS stole our playbook or something, they just knew exactly what we were doing even before we did!

[Haff]

Now the red wine has subsided it’s time for some calm reflection.
This was the yardstick game and we’ve come up short.
Injuries, key players woefully out of form and the completion has worked us out. Then there’s the unknown tangible of hunger, maybe it’s because of the aforementioned reasons, maybe they have their flag, dunno.

Personally the expectations have dropped right off now. Sure we could rally and sneak in but we’d be one of two sides ever to make that happen.

Well still be ok next season, hopefully we can get Bailey to help our stuttering midfield and go again, hopefully doing a Geelong 09-11.