Appalling effort, they were ripe for the picking !!
Apart from Kade Simpson their is a complete lack of leadership on the ground.....a very poor result for the club and Essendon know we will choke under pressure. I expect massive cuts to the list after tonight and I think we need to sort out the leadership group and captaincy....
Essendope have just hit the front, Darcy is all over them saying how much pressure they are under and is making me violently ill.
Essendon size is a problem and they have always seem to have a physical edge over us.....McInnes is a good kid but Crameri is a very strong unit. Lucky both he and Hurley seem injured and not moving so good.....
Nick Graham's achillies heel is going to be leg speed.....slow chasing and he needs to improve his awareness and disposal to make up for his lack of speed and defensive abilities.
Menzel is class.....A grade player in the making....smart and can convert.
We are being outmarked and need to run the ball more...everytime we kick to a contest we lose in the air and they rebound the footy.
Warnock and Casboult are ineffective around the ground although Casboult has contested well on the ground for a big bloke.
Robbo's disposal is D grade tonight, Armfield's kicking is his one weak area and continues to hurt us...
Bell has played ok but continues to try and clean players up by bumping them instead of tackling and also needs to learn that he may be big and strong but you cant expect to break every tackle and you have to get rid of the footy earlier but I think he has been ok tonight on Zaharakis who hasnt touched it...
Curnow done the job on Stanton but done nothing himself....
Gibbs generally has been ok on Watson but the latter everytime he touches it does hurt us badly...
Henderson well held and we cant take a mark up forward....
Eddie and Yazz been ok but need to impact on the scoreboard...
Need a stand alone team with a proper coach...Luke Webster isnt up to it IMO and I'd be looking at someone like Rohan Welsh to develop our kids properly or offering a potential retiring player like Heath Scotland the job.
Got to 100 and lost concentration, gets out 15 minutes before stumps.... but thankfully he made a score in between because there was precious little else.
Another dud innings in a dud series for Clarke...seems to make 2 or 200, for an average of about 50. He should expect a lot of short stuff going forwards.
Can't see us taking 20 wickets on this deck and if we don't make 500 in the first dig we will regret it.
Watson played some entertaining shots but wont get gifted too many better pitches or weak bowlers like Kerrigan and Woakes....felt sorry for Kerrigan who got more nervous as he bowled and dont think I have seen such poor bowling in terms of accuracy for a long while. He could not hit a length and Christmas came early for Watson and Smith....the latter made 60 odd not out but if you saw his first shot you would think he was playing in the family backyard.
We shouldnt lose this test and with 5 genuine bowlers in the lineup have a good shot at winning....
re: Clarke....got rattled by Broad and Anderson got the rewards with Clarke very focussed on not getting hit....both he and Watson will cop their share of short stuff from now on..... re: Broad...seems to love being the villian and getting all the attention...I'd be inclined to do the opposite of what Lehmann said and not give him any verbal....he is one of those players who feed on it and it gets them going...
England playing Chris Woakes which tells you they are not that interested this game, he is a one day player only IMO and is probably only on trial for the tour of Aus as a backup player. Big chance for Watson to make some runs this innings, flat track, weaker and non interested English attack and he has no excuses. Forgot to add Simon Kerrigan also debuting for England.....left arm spinner of sorts...
Batting Haddin at 6... that ploy has always ended in tears... inside three days.
Yep...it never works and while I am happy to see Faulkner get a game as a I think he can play we really are papering over the cracks again. Not that happy seeing Tremlett in the team for England either, thought he really worried are batters when he played out here with his pace and bounce. Hope the wicket is as flat as they say and our batters get some runs....its a dead rubber and usually the series losing team tends to win these games so we might have something to cheer about.
Sure he had the worst run with injury but why does he get a game on the back of one good game?
I acknowledge that Bootsma had a shocker but to drop him would be the easy choice. He comes across as a bit of an introvert, so hopefully MM goes to him and says you had a crap game but I believe in what you've got so we are going to back you in. Get out there and prove me right.
Play him on the HB flank against a non body player.
Okeefe is playing for his career...Bootsma isnt...Okeefe is also more physically developed and we need stronger bodies in the seniors.....we need a good kicking half back flanker with Scotland close to retiring and Gibbs now more likely to be playing further up the ground. Big rewards if Okeefe makes it as a player and Bootsma has time on his side to develop...
O'Keefe is in his fifth year and has had serious injuries every year, people complain about Waite only managing to play half the season, from why I know about O'Keefe he can kick but he's not quick and not a defender in the true sense.
Clear out the rubbish Dale, Collins, O'Keefe, Mitchell, McCarthy, Davies, Joseph etc. We know what they bring and it's just not up to standard. Get some youth in there, speed, size and mongrel. Leave the 190cm projects alone, if they're short then they must have speed, get real mids, get some real size, just get some players. Hughes and Rogers, you're days are hopefully numbered, time for a fresh set of eyes this list with its high number of first rounders should be better and the people to blame are the recruiters.
No arguments from me about clearing out the rubbish...just make sure its a skip and not your normal council bin because we need to stack it high... Fair point about Waite and the comparison with Okeefe is fair enough.....ROK is long odds to make it especially with his injury history but so was Dean Rice when Stkilda dumped him....also agree he is probably a one trick pony with his kicking but so was Stewie Dew and he was a dual premiership player. I just want another couple of looks at ROK before we send him to that skip on the naturestrip....
Some of their recent work is also pretty good Paul Rodgers ex Free, Bad Company vocalist is playing with them One of the finest voices in rock . They perform Queen songs and Rodgers material
Good call Swed....Rodgers is great value live and Brian May really gives Free classics like "alright now" and "wishing well" a real edge with his classy guitar work. The good thing about Rodgers is he puts his own spin on the Queen classics and doesnt try and emulate Freddie Mercury...its Paul Rodgers and Queen not Queen with a pretend Freddie copy doing the vocals. I am a big Queen fan and they had/have a high standard of instrumental work backed by the great showmanship of what was one of the best in the business in Freddie Mercury......Only Thin Lizzy had them covered for guitar work and Lizzy's Phil Lynott was probably one of the other better frontmen of that era...
Hi Elwood Yes your spot on about Rodgers doing it in his own style I read where he said come along to the shows, but don't expect him to copy Freddie. Queen , Return of the Champions is a great concert, as I'm sure you're aware of. Enjoyed Roger Taylor singing Those were the days I think Queen and Rodgers worked well together.
Swed...couple of handy players off the bench for PR and Queen in Jamie Moses on rhythm guitar and Danny Miranda(ex Blue Oyster Cult, another of my fav bands) on bass......Moses is a very good guitarist in his own right and Miranda also fills/filled in for the reclusive John Deacon very well.
Sure he had the worst run with injury but why does he get a game on the back of one good game?
I acknowledge that Bootsma had a shocker but to drop him would be the easy choice. He comes across as a bit of an introvert, so hopefully MM goes to him and says you had a crap game but I believe in what you've got so we are going to back you in. Get out there and prove me right.
Play him on the HB flank against a non body player.
Okeefe is playing for his career...Bootsma isnt...Okeefe is also more physically developed and we need stronger bodies in the seniors.....we need a good kicking half back flanker with Scotland close to retiring and Gibbs now more likely to be playing further up the ground. Big rewards if Okeefe makes it as a player and Bootsma has time on his side to develop...
temay sounds to be another disappointment @ pick 35,
Like I always say if you pick very small players they have to have very good skills or an edge to their game like extreme pace....his maidn claim to fame was high endurance which is good but I would have thought expected in a smaller running player. Temay seems to be just run of the mill in most aspects of the game though and he was a strange choice IMO....coupled with the fact he had made his name at U18 level as a small defender yet straight after his name was called out Rodgers said he was seen as a midfielder......what about recruiting a specialist midfielder ...there's an idea?
Some of their recent work is also pretty good Paul Rodgers ex Free, Bad Company vocalist is playing with them One of the finest voices in rock . They perform Queen songs and Rodgers material
Good call Swed....Rodgers is great value live and Brian May really gives Free classics like "alright now" and "wishing well" a real edge with his classy guitar work. The good thing about Rodgers is he puts his own spin on the Queen classics and doesnt try and emulate Freddie Mercury...its Paul Rodgers and Queen not Queen with a pretend Freddie copy doing the vocals. I am a big Queen fan and they had/have a high standard of instrumental work backed by the great showmanship of what was one of the best in the business in Freddie Mercury......Only Thin Lizzy had them covered for guitar work and Lizzy's Phil Lynott was probably one of the other better frontmen of that era...
I always think you have to try kids and throw them in the deep end at times but with common sense...Bootsma is not a key defender and never will be, playing him on seasoned KP players who outgun him in size and strength is ludicrous and not development. He needs to play on other newbie kids of the same shape and size....its not rocket science....
Its akin to playing Menzel at CHB on Jonathan Brown what we have been doing to Bootsma...we did the same thing to Andrew Walker and had him playing on the likes of Travis Cloke and that stuffed him up for a couple of years.
Put Bootsma on a wing and let the kid develop.....he can run and carry the footy and enjoy being an offensive player....good luck to the kid and I reckon he will be a decent footballer in a few years.
I'm on the Okeefe bandwagon like others...he has persisted agaisnt the odds and I'd like to see him play seniors this week...probably at the expense of Josh Bootsma who needs some confidence rebuilding in the NB's...
