this season starting to mirror last season -
we are not good enough to many ordinary footballers

And I dont care what anyone says Andrew Walker is a very ordinary footballer the amount of times the ball was kicked forward today and he was 10 metres behind his player not even making the contest is ridiculos

Ellard- curnow -betts - not good enough

thought Warnock was ok today but learn to kick FFS

Hendo tried hard but we need more than that

and poor watson I felt for him


we will lose next week and it will be 1 from 5

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Must DESTROY the bummers next week!!!!!!!

Next week is looming large as being decidedly unpleasant.

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

Another opportunity slips away....disappointing especially since they were not at their best today....ever since our last quarter fadeout against Sydney we have not been the same team....nothing to with injuries reckon the application across the board has dropped off....do not reckon we are a fit enough side to be honest....will be an interesting next few weeks....if the players really want Ratts there next season they need to start showing it....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

A few blokes struggling for form leaving it for the others to do the hard work. Not the horrible result some were predicting but a win.
Lacked a bit of leadership today with 3 of our leadership group out.

Keep working on our game. Get our balance right and get our best players back in the side fit.

Top 6 will be fine with the late bye. Just need to make sure we are fresh and in touch by finals.

Yeah, I agree with you Donstuie. Both sides will come away thinking they could've played better.

But having said that, Collingwood don't scare me, I think they are beatable.

With Waite and Jamo to come back, we have a lot of scope for improvement in us. Consider Carrazzo and Russell as well as maybe Hampson and we will look a far stronger side.

If we can figure out some sort of kick out strategy that will deliver us the odd goal and get our press back to the form it was in at the start of the season and we are in with a massive show.

Then we just need to kick straight.

I must say I was very pleased with Robbie's ruck work today. Would love him to kick a goal and take some more marks but hopefully that will come.

Also liked Twomey's game. More blokes who do the right thing 90% of the time are welcome in the side.

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Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times, blame it on the WIGGINS!

Can't complain about effort but Ratten and coaching staff aren't making it easy.

Selecting players out of form or out of position.

Watson, White, AJ, Houlihan, Twomey, Bower have all been picked when fitness or form hasnt warranted it.

Henderson is Not a key defender. If Bower is in side why is he a sub? Surely he was the right match up for Cloke. We struggle for a key forward with Waite out and we keep him in defence. Why? We have enough other players that can play defence but not many key fwds.

Playing talls as subs. Just proves we have concerns about these positions.

Touhy gets dropped whilst playing okay and filling a vital role in side. Would of been handy today.

We still keep bombing it long to our smalls. Where are the talls?

Our selection policy just seems to be about matching the opposition instead of playing OUR own game. I'm sure Ratten said this week he wanted us to take them on yet our selections were very negative.

Structure and balance are so important yet the past few weeks we have thrown that away.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

BOG Judd kept us competitive when they should have blown us. At the end of the day
Murphy is all class .Not enough of the ball but a efficient user
Kade tried hard all day and really puts in in all the contests
Thought Warnock did well in the contests but still can't mark. Kreuzer played his worst game on memory. We had the edge in the centre clearances but lost due to costly turnovers, carying too many passengers waiting on team mates to take the game on and not running hard enough forcing long kicks into our forward fifty.
Gibbs is struggling to adjust to the rigours of playing in the centre where he does not have as much time as he did playing loose off half back. Not used to seeing so many decision making errors but he will adjust and be better for it.
We robbed Peter to pay Paul. Sacrificed Henderson as a forward option. Obviously the game plan was to lose respectfully. Unfortunately I only saw run out of our defence when Bower came on in the last and was prepare to roll the dice. Shame he didnt come on earlier. Duigan was our best defender and keeps on impressing me with his leadership. Prepared to take the game on and create some drive out of defence. Collingwood did their homework and stopped yatrran from running the ball out. Would love to see Yarran playing as a wingman. His poor attempt at a spoil in the first few minutes really hurt the side.
Watson was out of his depth in all facets of the game. Don't understand the logic of kicking it short when you can hoof it as long as he can. Could not adjust to the pace of the game. Our forwards tried their best against the best drilled defence in the competition and resting our ruckmen in our forward line has been a failure. Having said that I can't stand the fact Thornton and Walker were being caught behind their defender. Unforgiveable.

Why play Aaron Joseph ahead of Bower ?
Bower would ve provided us with much needed dash out of the backline..
Why pick Matthew Watson if his Bullants form didnt warrant it, and then why continue to give him teh kick out duties even after he d made crucial errors...
Eddie striggled on teh big stage again... Big concern..
Still the same old problems with over handballing and dumb decision making.... We ll never learn.

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

I feel that I've been bemoaning our kicking in skills for years and little changes. Too many seven point plays, who do you blame for that? The players? The coaching team? We seemed to be so slow moving the ball into attack, especially compared to Carringbush. How many times did the ball go into a one on one contest in a wide open Colli.... (can't say it) forward line? Hendo did well considering the situation down back, he needs to stay in defence for the rest of the year.

Couldn't fault the endeavour of most, but, the final margin flattered us. I hope the club doesn't see this match as a "pass" mark. We need to be better, nay must be better than this. We need a big win next weekend, otherwise we have done little this year to show we've moved any closer to another flag.

Felt sorry for Watson; thrown to the wolves. Twomey could be a diamond.

I don't mind losing to a better team. And I don't mind losing if the boys have a crack.

I do mind losing cause someone thought it was a great idea to let a VFL reserves player take the kick-ins, and that bloke didn't learn anything from his last outing in navy blue, made the same mistakes all over again, and was still making the same mistakes in the second half when the game was on the line.

I know he's young and he'll get better. But I'm not seeing a lot of game sense at the moment. It's like watching Bart zap himself with the cupcake over, and over and over again.

Learning from mistakes is what it is all about for the kids. Yes it sucks now watching as a supporter but in years to come as Watto is hitting guys lace out on the fly over 60 metre's remember this post. He's just turned 19 today, he was playing on the 'G' in front of 85,000 and he was under the mental pressure of playing against the AFL's best team. Perspective NC.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Guess that's the question cazz., why did they play Watson then?

If we play them in the finals we will beat them.

They did little today to convince me otherwise.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

I agree, but we'll be comming from 5th or 6th and might end up having to beat the WCE in Perth.

That's not achievable with our side.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

And what do you see that convinces you we will beat them in finals if of course we get the opportunity to play them???

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Obviously they expected him to kick better. Such is life. Last week in the VFL his kicking was brilliant so he was in form in that area. You'll never never, never know if you never, never give him a go. Down the track this one experience alone will be worth it's weight.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

For all our KP problems, our midfield depth needs bolstering with some extra class. We need to play some guys who are not underdone particularly in the engine room. Ellard has not been winning enough ball for a few weeks now.

We desperately need the likes of Lucas to step up. We cannot rely on Murphy, Judd, Gibbs, Robinson to rack up possessions. We need some good link players in the middle of the ground.

Not sure about this Hendo at FB idea. We need someone to straighten us up and Thornton hasn't seemed like the solution. Henderson at least has the size to provide that contest.

I'm up for giving players 2 games in a row at least but I worry about Watson.

No excuses for having our bookends out - the Pies had Dawes out.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Are you giving Judd BOG?..........I thought he struggled against overwhelming odds all day, and had no positive influence on our outcome.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

Between them, Cloke, Jolly and Ball took as many contested marks as the entire Carlton team.

We have someone down back who could help us in this area, he is a natural forward and we play him on Cloke.

What we saw today was that Cloke will beat anyone he is on if he is getting the service. He had 7 shots on goal. It does not make sense then to play Henderson on him if Cloke is going to get silver service. You almost have to concede that Cloke is too good for anyone. Give yourself a chance to win FFS!

Once again the opposition got a lot of score due to our poor forward line structure and poor forward 50 pressure. Lots of their scores were generated from their kickouts and/or us using Betts or Garlett as the CHF. You're always going to struggle with these guys leading up the ground as marking targets.

Betts against O'Brien in a marking contest.

Our own kickouts were once again extremely poor....bomb it long at 45° to the ruckman and hope to win it at ground level. The coaching staff need to be more inventive than that.

Poor games from the second tier midfielders Curnow and Ellard. Gee Ellard has been poor the past few weeks...he needs to provide more. Robinson's hardness was once again there but early on he twice bombed the ball straight to Collingwood players.

Captain was terrific although butchered the ball a bit. Kreuzer showed signs today. Warnock was excellent for a while in the ruck but again failed to impact in marking contests along with his poor kicking for goal. Bower was good when he came on.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch