Rd 16 v Essendon Bombers @ MCG

[Agent 86]

We have not covered for the loss of Hewitt and that kid who went to Adelaide.....that is obvious. We miss Hewitt's grunt big time.

George is a plodder - but sometimes you need plodders. Plus you get the feeling The blues are back to their days of brown paper bags?

Yet another slow-motion train wreck of a game. Parley’s kicking is woeful (and not just goal kicking). Could have had 5, but a few didn’t travel more than 30m. WTF?

Stephens just doesn’t look like he wants to kick the ball at times - just no confidence in his own boots.

RB looked great when we were up and about in the first Q, but looked like a kid when they picked up the heat.

Ollie? Where did you go? Was everywhere last week and nowhere this time around.

The old “you’re only as good as your bottom 6” was true today. But sadly a few more than 6 were below par.

[Agent 86]

Rd 16 v Essendon Bombers @ MCG

Heeney is among our top 4 and is certainly elite.

Your judgment is rivalled only by your spelling.

Play the ball, dimel. But you’re correct about Heeney. He got roughed up today and we need a few more tough nuts to help out in these situations.

[stevoswan]

Some of the overreaction is always funny. Very, very frustrating result but not sure it's like the gallows some would suggest.

A very annoying result but just a reflection on an inconsistent team. And at the be all and end all, we kick reasonably straight and we win by 5+ goals. Probably a lot more I suspect.

Very damaging result to say the least for our season, but just one of those days where we paid the ultimate price for not kicking it between the two big sticks, where they couldn't miss when it mattered.

Sent from my CPH2009 using Tapatalk

Just like last years elimination final. When we are staring success in the face we go to water in front of goals. It's not good enough.

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We were just awful in every aspect of he game. We played like it was a double 6 day break game. We had no pressure on the ball. We just left their players open to take mark after mark. Essendon give you so much, yet we blew so many chances. Just too casual, like we really didn't care.

I would have felt worse if we won the game, because we would have been so undeserving. We have talent, but I'm not sure if we have character. Time will tell.

We face the Fairypups after a 6 day break and after their 8 day break. Chalk next week in as a loss then? I am....and not looking forward to the free kick count either with the Dogs needing assistance to make the finals.

[Mel_C]

I don't think I've ever seen us beat Essendon at the MCG live.

I was nervous and worried before the game. We just don't seem to bring the pressure against the lower sides. We really have to do something about the run on that teams have against us. And it's got to be more than send Mills back.

Edit: Apart from the hawthorn game, have we won another day game this year?

[SwanSand]

WOW ! What a poor performance in the entire game but specially in the last quarter.

Watching that last quarter I reckon I want to use the word that David King used to describe St Kilda - Fraudulent.

We were fraudulent with the way we setup behind the ball and we defended, we were just expecting that someone will win the ball and we were ahead of the contest letting Essendon walk over us in that last quarter and the game at that time needed us to be more defensive minded - one on one.

This was a game which could have been easily opened up by our elite field kickers - Florent, Blakey, Campbell and Mcinerney. But sorry no one told them that the game was on especially Campbell. Not sure what he brings to the table to get a game. I would rather have Clarke in the team or Bell or Wicks or Ronke. The player of his calibre cannot have 5-6 touches and expect that others will pick up the slack.

[AB Swannie]

No late changes for #AFLDonsSwans

Medical substitutes:
@essendonfc - Andrew Phillips
@sydneyswans - Ryan Clarke

I hope I don’t put the moz on but really think we will put them to the sword.

Sorry. My fault.

[Merdo5555]

Heeney is among our top 4 and is certainly elite.

Your judgment is rivalled only by your spelling.

Im sorry did miss him winning a Premiership of Brownlow?

To be considered elite you have put together 22 games of great quality. As usual Heeney is great for half of the season and average for the rest. Thats not elite, he is a good player and will never be more than that until we see consistent excellence week in and week out.

[lwjoyner]

just as i thought would happen, do we ever wion insomeones milestone game. Goal kicking has gone off has in almost every game at some stage. Even a fguy who has kicked over 100 golas missing some easy ones and as for paps i would loke to know how many points he ha skicked to go with is 200 goals.
By the way who is our defenmsive coach we have noe world record sprinter in our team but by gods do we give our opponents planty of space always well off them surely tjey acn read the game and be were the ball isa goind not hang bnack and hope it will come to them.
Very very disappointing game we cant take the opportunities presented to us, Firsy Port and now the dons.

[707]

Jordan Dawson...doubt he would have changed the outcome.

He would have. I said at the time that his loss would set us back. Was doing it all by the end of last year. His 20 classy possessions vs our lowest possession winner today, that makes a difference. He was also an organiser of players. Dawson been huge for the Crows this year.

To quote Brett Ratten a few weeks ago "if you can't beat the 16th team you don't deserve to play finals"

We had them on toast then missed a number of gettable shots to let them back in, momentum changers.

I'll reserve more thoughts until I watch the full game on replay, but gutted with that result.

[Merdo5555]

If we can get great trade value for Papley I would trade him in a second. ROnke is a like for like replacement that will do the job. A strong bodied midfielder who is willing to lead when the going gets tough would be ideal.

Would probably also do wonders for our Salary Cap.

[Swanny40519]

Extremely disappointing loss. It has happened many times over the years, when we have an opportunity to win a game and get into the top 4, we fail badly under the pressure.

We should have buried them today - they have only won 3 games for the year, and what did we do - we turned the ball over so many times, kicked woefully in 3rd qtr kicking 2.8. I don't know if they have kicking practice but this year our goal kicking has been terrible.

Today we were too loose in our defence and the bombers in the second half killed us with their forward entries. I agree with some of the above points - some of our short passing his way below standard and if we somehow manage to stay in the top 8, I think we are just making up the numbers.

Our coaching today was poor with the way our defence set up in the second half was too loose and it appeared too slow. Fox, Blakey and Rampe had poor games.

[H2F]

Anyways finals are pointless with this side ideally we should be using the time left already setting up 2023 give Gould a chance at a few games throw in any other players who have been on the cusp or close to getting a chance.

[707]

Harry had a blinder in the ressies today, albeit against a lot of toppies. Certain to be recalled next week as the most obvious change, for Campbell probably.

[crackedactor 01]

We are not a serious side. I noticed just like the Port game that just when the other side became more physical we went into our shells. Missed Joey Kennedy out there today. We really look like we don't want to play finals football. Mcdonald and Campbell are promising but they are not yet up to AFL standard.

[i'm-uninformed2]

On Campbell, I’m not defending his game today and he will be dropped, but I don’t think he’s being helped by being yo yo-ed around by the coaches. In and out of the side, medi sub, back, forward, playing a role in reserves for two weeks that he’s not then asked to play in the seniors.

They either need to settle him into a role down back again (where I personally don’t think he was too bad), or put him back into reserves for a minimum 4-6 week stretch or whatever it takes in the role they ultimately want him to play in the seniors. Bouncing him around so much can’t be great for his development.