We Lost 3 Quarters

[Thinline]

Mate, it's really good of you to steal one little quote and throw my whole contribution way out of its original context. Fair dinkum.

I realise and understand the realities of the scoreline and how the game panned out.

I'm not being negative.

Fact is we lost 3 of four quarters and din't do a whole heap of attacking after a barnstorming start (a deliberate strategy to start fast and furious?).

There were some unfamiliar things last night. Fumbles, second-guessing, missed targets, dropped marks.

The clinical nature of our recent performances wasn't there.

Further, we looked a tad leaky when they ran at us usually through a running carrier either side of true CHB...

Again, I ask the question...Is this the way everyone will play us now?

And, I reiterate, we looked really, really buggered...

[InkerSaint]

Mate, it's really good of you to steal one little quote and throw my whole contribution way out of its original context. Fair dinkum.

Er, I hope you're referring to Jonesy and not me... ?

Otherwise... que? Come again?

[Thinline]

Yeah...Jonesy...not you...

[jonesy]

Mate, it's really good of you to steal one little quote and throw my whole contribution way out of its original context. Fair dinkum.

I realise and understand the realities of the scoreline and how the game panned out.

I'm not being negative.

Fact is we lost 3 of four quarters and din't do a whole heap of attacking after a barnstorming start (a deliberate strategy to start fast and furious?).

There were some unfamiliar things last night. Fumbles, second-guessing, missed targets, dropped marks.

The clinical nature of our recent performances wasn't there.

Further, we looked a tad leaky when they ran at us usually through a running carrier either side of true CHB...

Again, I ask the question...Is this the way everyone will play us now?

And, I reiterate, we looked really, really buggered...

Look I agree with some of what you say. However,we were not "pinching a win".
I wouldn't be reading too much into last night. If we are aiming to be invincible then yes you might be concerned that we may drop 2-3 games for the year. We can't decimate everyone. Does Geelong get all of it's average winning results scrutinized as much our win last night..nope! Did some of hawthorns losses in the second half of last year put them under the spotlight as much as our victory last night...nope!
Over reaction of the year to this never headed after the 3 minute mark victory

[InkerSaint]

Here's a stat for you.

Tackle count over the last 4 weeks: 72 - 78 - 66 - 58

Not a good trend. That figure should have been 70+ last night. The scoreline would have resembled our game against Fremantle rather than our game against the Doggies.

What's going on? Complacency? Running out of puff? A reflection on the opponent? A blip on the radar perhaps?

Those are the questions I reckon. I don't believe there's anything wrong with the gameplan - unless it cannot be carried out over the season, or against certain opponents. Then it would most definitely be "Moorabbin we have a problem".

[bigcarl]

Here's a stat for you.

Tackle count over the last 4 weeks: 72 - 78 - 66 - 58

Not a good trend. That figure should have been 70+ last night. The scoreline would have resembled our game against Fremantle rather than our game against the Doggies.

What's going on? Complacency? Running out of puff? A reflection on the opponent? A blip on the radar perhaps?

Those are the questions I reckon. I don't believe there's anything wrong with the gameplan - unless it cannot be carried out over the season, or against certain opponents. Then it would most definitely be "Moorabbin we have a problem".

you can't tackle them if you can't catch them, i guess, and i thought essendon's extreme pace troubled us.

perhaps we missed having an extra runner in and i'm all for that so long as it doesn't mean limiting us to one key forward or mean that we are smashed in the ruck.

with hindsight, i might have played raph or eddy in the backline and used blake as second ruck (in the place of an underdone king).

[InkerSaint]

you can't tackle them if you can't catch them, i guess, and i thought essendon's extreme pace troubled us.

I don't know what anyone else saw but I thought Essendon broke a lot of tackles that on any other day would have lost them possession.

Taking the other factors into account - poor disposals, dropped marks - I don't think we had multiple problems... we had one. The team was buggered.

Did Essendon run us ragged? Is the gameplan running us ragged? The short break? Or was it just a down week?

I really hope it's one or both of the latter two.

Next week will tell all.