Finals

[Thunder Shaker]

Adelaide playing consistent footy - Really?
Since their Round 13 Bye.

Lost - To Hawthorn at home
Won - Unconvincingly against Carlton at the MCG
Won - Belted the Bulldogs at home (but everyone was doing that)
Won - Belted a depleted Melbourne. Game was done by qtr time
Won - Got over Geelong at home by 21 points.
Draw - Collingwood. Should have lost after being 50 pts down.
Won - Belted a dismal Port, but so has every top 8 side except us.

What is consistent is they have belted some very ordinary sides on the day. The rest of their performances over the last 2 months have been just average to ordinary.

They may be top of the ladder but they aren't the super team that Collingwood was in 2011 or Essendon in 2000. They are beatable, but first we have to get over Fremantle, before we start thinking about them.

Adelaide got flogged by North Melbourne and Melbourne. They also lost to Geelong at Kardinia Park (but most visiting sides do that there so that's less remarkable).

Losing to Geelong in Geelong is understandable, getting flogged by Melbourne is perhaps as much Melbourne's good form at the time. But the loss to North Melbourne in Hobart was inexplicable. North Melbourne were 64 points up at quarter time and Adelaide didn't score in the first quarter.

[Boddo]

Adelaide playing consistent footy - Really?
Since their Round 13 Bye.

Lost - To Hawthorn at home
Won - Unconvincingly against Carlton at the MCG
Won - Belted the Bulldogs at home (but everyone was doing that)
Won - Belted a depleted Melbourne. Game was done by qtr time
Won - Got over Geelong at home by 21 points.
Draw - Collingwood. Should have lost after being 50 pts down.
Won - Belted a dismal Port, but so has every top 8 side except us.

What is consistent is they have belted some very ordinary sides on the day. The rest of their performances over the last 2 months have been just average to ordinary.

They may be top of the ladder but they aren't the super team that Collingwood was in 2011 or Essendon in 2000. They are beatable, but first we have to get over Fremantle, before we start thinking about them.

To win a game you have to play atleast good footy to win. They've done it regularly, a lot more regularly over the last few months than every side except one, I'm pretty sure I'd class regularly as consistent. I never once said their a super side n I don't think Collingwood of 2011 is a super side & Essendon were a very good side in a very poor year in 2000. Brisbane n Hawthorn of the last 17 years were super sides. Hawthorn of the mid eighties to early 90's was a super side. Carlton of the late 70's early eighties was a super side. This super side crap gets thrown around to easily. Every single club official, not players, from Sydney n above would be starting to think n prepare for finals from tapering their training load down to resting players to monitoring every niggle. It's not the 70's or 80's anymore where you just keep training everyone into the ground. Read a bit of what happened to the Sydney finals campaigns under Hafey. Bad bad preparation.

[Boddo]

Good post Boddo. I would add re Kennedy, giving him another week's rest would help give some of the younger midfielders (Heeney, Hewett, Papley) valuable experience in the middle just before the finals.

So true that's what I was thinking. My post was long so I didn't want to make it any longer.

[Mug Punter]

The Bombers worry me, seriously do not want to play them in a knockout finals match. So, with that in mind I'm desperately hoping Adelaide do a job on them this weekend.

[Boddo]

The Bombers worry me, seriously do not want to play them in a knockout finals match. So, with that in mind I'm desperately hoping Adelaide do a job on them this weekend.

Very good side in the making. They just lack forward pressure ATM. Fix that n you've got a top 4 side. Remind me a bit of Geelong from the late/early nineties. High scoring side that doesn't defend in the forward half well so it gets walked out to easy. It's why once it got back in our forward half regularly we were able to steal that game off of them. Fix that n they will be very very good imo

[Plugger1300]

I don't rate Essendon at all
Flashy side that doesn't bring any heat
Play a style of footy that is not made for finals
Hope we play them

[Jeynez]

Richmond haven't won a final since 2001. They have lost the last four finals they played in.

Which is the only reason why they aren't treated as a serious flag threat, by myself included. They always seem to play well against us, so I'm not overly keen on playing them

[Markwebbos]

Adelaide got flogged by North Melbourne and Melbourne. They also lost to Geelong at Kardinia Park (but most visiting sides do that there so that's less remarkable).

Losing to Geelong in Geelong is understandable, getting flogged by Melbourne is perhaps as much Melbourne's good form at the time. But the loss to North Melbourne in Hobart was inexplicable. North Melbourne were 64 points up at quarter time and Adelaide didn't score in the first quarter.

I think Adelaide have a lot more strings to their bow now than they did earlier in the year and if they played that game v Norf again the outcome would be different.

[ScottH]

So where do the naysayers/non-believers sit now?
Still in a precarious position, but not far away from the 8.
The next 5 games will tell the story. Win 4 and surely everyone will be back on board?

23/05/2017 - 3-0-6
08/08/2017 - 11-0-8

[Matty10]

Very good side in the making. They just lack forward pressure ATM. Fix that n you've got a top 4 side. Remind me a bit of Geelong from the late/early nineties. High scoring side that doesn't defend in the forward half well so it gets walked out to easy. It's why once it got back in our forward half regularly we were able to steal that game off of them. Fix that n they will be very very good imo

Although they do have the top ranked player for forward half pressure:

"McDonald-Tipungwuti has created more forward-half turnovers than any other player ? three ahead of Demon Alex Neal-Bullen ? but has incredibly generated 28 more points than any other player from this source. No wonder opposition players get nervous when he?s in the vicinity."

No Cookies | Herald Sun



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Boddo]

Although they do have the top ranked player for forward half pressure:

"McDonald-Tipungwuti has created more forward-half turnovers than any other player ? three ahead of Demon Alex Neal-Bullen ? but has incredibly generated 28 more points than any other player from this source. No wonder opposition players get nervous when he?s in the vicinity."

No Cookies | Herald Sun



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But the whole side is terrible at forward half pressure. It's one player pity for bomber fans that the rest of their forwards don't follow suit. Good for us though

Scott Lucas talks about it here when they lost to Brisbane. It happens to regularly with them

http://m.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-07-03/dons-lack-of-pressure

[Matty10]

Finals

But the whole side is terrible at forward half pressure. It's one player pity for bomber fans that the rest of their forwards don't follow suit. Good for us though

Scott Lucas talks about it here when they lost to Brisbane. It happens to regularly with them

Dons lack of pressure - essendonfc.com.au

That article is about one game. It might be a matter of consistency, I'm not sure, but there are other articles on their website that indicate their forward-line pressure is very good. I can't find the team stats that ranks them just in the forward half, but I doubt that they are near the bottom. The lack of inside 50s might suggest that it is their midfield strength that is holding them back, rather than their pressure in the forward line.

[MattW]

The Bombers worry me, seriously do not want to play them in a knockout finals match. So, with that in mind I'm desperately hoping Adelaide do a job on them this weekend.

Yeah, they should have beaten us. A bit like GWS, they are capable of overrunning us with pace and ball movement through the midfield. Like Jeremy Cameron, we don't have a great match-up for Daniher: Grundy is a bit immobile, Rampe is a bit small, and Melican isn't quite good enough yet.

[Thunder Shaker]

Yeah, [the Bombers] should have beaten us.

Let's watch this again ...

[MattW]

Let's watch this again ...

Haha. For the *thousandth* time. Beautiful. They did choke, though. They win 49/50 after Daniher takes that mark with 50sec to go.