Half back our achille's heel again ...

[samoht]

Nic Martin had 44 possessions ... that's twice his average - playing as a half back yesterday.

His average last year was 22 playing in the midfield.

Sicily had 46 possessions record breaking possessions against us.

Half back flankers love playing against us ... let's not beat around the bush.

Does our game plan need some tightening/rethinking?

[nostalgicsaint]

If we executed this wouldn't have mattered.

[B.M]

Of course it matters

He doesn’t have 44 we win by 5 goals

[nostalgicsaint]

If my auntie had wheels she'd be a bike.

Ross said post game we wanted to focus on getting our game right. In a year when we're not contending for a flag I don't mind that.

If we executed effectively we win by 5 goals too.

[nostalgicsaint]

I have more issue with Sharman being subbed off- we struggled marking inside 50.

[B.M]

Since when do you let a guy run around on his own and get 44

Get our game right?

Yep - hold 6 forwards and make him accountable- that’d be a start!

[Sainter_Dad]

I have more issue with Sharman being subbed off- we struggled marking inside 50.

Medical Sub - Sharman was not the same after he got collected front on in a collision

[B.M]

bulls***

[nostalgicsaint]

Since when do you let a guy run around on his own and get 44

Get our game right?

Yep - hold 6 forwards and make him accountable- that’d be a start!

Not sure many teams consider holding 6 forwards their game style/preferred mode.

Probably hasn't been the case for at least the last 10 years.

[Yorkeys]

Nic Martin had 44 possessions ... that's twice his average - playing as a half back yesterday.

His average last year was 22 playing in the midfield.

Sicily had 46 possessions record breaking possessions against us.

Half back flankers love playing against us ... let's not beat around the bush.

Does our game plan need some tightening/rethinking?

It might be that Ross over estimates this group and the power of his ability to make silk purses of some pigs ears.
Clearly we can't be dismissive of high possession half backs (or mids) because we need all our better players (5, 6 ?) firing to win, some rub of the green and others contributing. We can't cope with record breaking possessions from any oppo player.
That's before starting behind the 8 ball midfield clearances wise.
As it is now we have a few players you want to have the ball and a lot more you don't, some of the delivery to the opposition is in sabotage terrorist territory; can only wonder who they are trying to help. Sometimes dropping the ball at their feet and running away would be better than handing scoring chances to the oppos on a plate. Coaches must go spare.
A number of forwards don't seem to appreciate when a Sicily or Martin situation is happening they can do more about it than run forward of the contest and watch from afar as ball goes the other way. If Membrey is in one of his can't catch a cold days he could scragg and harass, hope his poor form will be contagious to his opponent through bodily contact.
That loss suggests while we might be capable of beating most teams on a good day, we won't and can probably only be confident of beating West Coast at home with Max playing.
Be interesting whether this loss is another unacceptable we blandly accept as usual after huffing and puffing or whether somethings are learnt about some players and the way the coaches work and changes made.

[spert]

Yesterday, and in the Geelong game, the defensive game of the forwards and midfield was poor. The work off the ball was weak, as was the tackling. Lot of work to do.

[B.M]

What has that got to do with Structure

We clearly pushed Martin’s opponent (Phillipou) up to the contest. Allowing Martin to sag off and do as he pleased.

Who had more influence on the outcome

Martin or Phillipou?

[samoht]

Nic Martin B.O.G. .... Be Our Guest!
Just help yourself.

(To put Sicily's 46 and Martin's 44 possession count in context, Jack Steele as a midfielder has only ever managed to get to 38 possessions, once, over his career).

Good game plan, not.
It needs a rethink, a rejig, IMHO.

[meher baba]

I don't often find myself disagreeing with BM, but IMO...

James Sicily's and Nick Daicos's high possession games against us were works of exquisite craftsmanship. Nick Martin's game on Saturday was closer to a bulk buy from the Reject Shop.

Martin is a good player and can be dangerous, but he was not especially effective on Saturday. As the game wore on, Essendon had more and more inside 50s, quite often from Martin's boot, but most were kicks to the extreme left and right corners where they posed less of a threat to us. Even Stringer's winning goal came from way out wide. Our problem in the second half was all to do with getting the ball out of our back half, not much to do with their ability to move it dangerously towards their goal. A lot of that was due to Scott's coaching strategies, including his ability to neutralise the threat of NWM to a certain extent (not entirely, because Nas is simply too good to be silenced completely).

We ended up kicking a lot of ball aimlessly out of our defensive 50 (Bonner was particularly good at this). Martin ended up with a lot of ball from turnovers. He also got to take quite a few kick ins as a consequence of all our behinds.

In the end, we were worn down by sheer weight of inside 50s by them, rather than unlocked by their superior skills. We were the better team all over the field except when taking set shots in front of the sticks. I thought our defence in particular stood tall. Sure, Wilkie made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes, but he also neutralised a lot of attacks. Battle and Stocker were terrific, Cordy must have been ok because I barely noticed him, and even Bonner lifted in the second half.

The only thing that stopped us winning on Saturday was our terrible rate of conversion of gettable set shots. By my count, Caminiti missed one, Sharman two, Membrey two, Higgins one and there might have been some others as well (I haven't checked the stats or the video). If just one of these had been straight, we probably would have won.