Combo of Both!
Players:
Too many players simply not good enough (lack of skills, poor decision making, slow thinkers, unwilling to take risks). Missing targets by hand and foot from 25m away
. Certain players killing the momentum of attacks by stopping after marks and playing think music in their dopey heads.
Too much left to too few especially in the midfield. Once Tucky, Foley and Jacko tired we were gone. By halfway through the 3rd qtr we could run anymore. The attacking and defensive intensity dropped off dramatically which allowed the Bombers a free reign. In the first half we contained their inside mids which starved their runners while ours got on top.
Goalkicking apart from a couple of unbelievable exceptions (Lids' one) was crap again
. Early misses denied us what should have been a 5-6 goal lead and those 3 misses after half-time kept the Bombers in with a sniff which they gladly accepted. The worse miss though (and I've forgotten the player?) was the one where he ran to 50 and couldn't decide what bloody foot to kick with
. How blood stupid can you get
.
Coaching staff:
Playing underdone players who can't run out games - Cotch, Connors for example. Long term it doesn't matter as hopefully they'll be right for the start of preseason but it won't win you games now.
Not talls up forward. Having a small midsized forward line means you have to dominate the midfield so the ball is coming in quickly under little pressure and there's plenty of space for the small forwards to lead and mark into. Once Essendon evened up the stoppages out scoring dried up and when they got on top at the stoppages as we tired the floodgates opened. We had to keep up our midfield intensity for the whole game but we didn't have the midfield rotation that could pull it off. It was all left to Tuck, Foley and Jacko and once they tired it was goodnight. Our other mids had ordinary games. A small forward line also means we were having a lot of shots at goal from out wide or far out (50-60m).
Kick-in strategy is awful. We still use the old rule of wait for the ump and allow the opposition to set up their zone. Apparently we are the 2nd best side at scoring coast to coast but it costs us as many goals too because we don't have the precise individual and team skills (have we ever heard of shepherding
) under pressure to avoid getting into trouble. On top of that once again like the Brisbane game our right side was left open by Essendon yet we continually kicked-in to the congested side which resulted in many 50/50 contests that ended up heading back over our defenders heads.
