Glass half empty: Essendon gave up 25 goals to the Crows, lost by 10 goals and were defensively weak. Again.
The same old defensive problems re-emerged, problems that have plagued the Bombers for more than a decade since Mark Thompson challenged the mentality at the club – “when, when, when are you going to change?”
Essendon fans walked away from the MCG on Saturday asking the same question.
The Bombers’ defensive efforts against the Crows were poor.Credit: AFL Photos
Under Brad Scott, they are yet to improve defensively and by some statistical measures they have gone backwards. It’s a small sample size of two games this year, but there has been no improvement on what had been their weak point since Scott arrived, and clearly before.
Based on last year’s ladder positioning (11th to Adelaide’s 15th), Essendon would have assumed to be on par with, if not ahead of the Crows – but they were belted. To lose so badly thus fosters the idea they are losing, not gaining, ground on the competition. Their encouraging pre-season matches feel misleading now.
None of the stats are going to be flattering in a 10-goal loss, but the Bombers only managed 48 inside-50s, seven marks inside-50 (compared to Adelaide’s 20) and took half the number of contested marks (7-14).
So that’s the glass-half-empty view. Is there a glass-half-full way of looking at it? Or even quarter full?
Essendon kicked 100 points. They won hitouts, clearances and centre clearances, so their problems were not around the ball or scoring. It was, hmm, defence – so the problem is identified.
They were without Jordan Ridley, Kyle Langford and Darcy Parish. And if you are feeling generous, throw in Peter Wright and Jayden Laverde. Take the equivalent players out of Adelaide – we saw the results last year.
Essendon were the youngest team fielded this week save for Richmond. In round one, they averaged 82 games a player; this week it was 75.
Essendon are in the midst of the rebuild they had to have. That’s why they committed to Scott, understanding it would be fraught to judge a coach on the list as it is now.
As Matthew Lloyd despondently observed on Nine: “All recruiters miss some but can you recruit that many bad top 10 picks?” He then rattled off the sadly familiar names not to have reached anything like the potential their draft ranking indicated – Zach Reid, Nik Cox, Archie Perkins, Ben Hobbs, Harrison Jones, Elijah Tsatas.
Adelaide have Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Jake Soligo, Josh Rachele and Dan Curtin. Rankine is already elite; the other four look on the path to joining him, albeit Curtin is only a couple of games into his career.
At Essendon, only Isaac Kako and Nate Caddy look like getting anywhere near one day reaching that level.
As bad as Essendon were defensively – and they were bad – put the Adelaide and Essendon team lists from Saturday up head to head, and the result is not a surprise.
An opposition assistant coach, who was monitoring the game and didn’t want to be named for obvious reasons, said the Essendon defenders were far too detached from their opponents. It would be brave, or reckless, to continue with experimenting with Dylan Shiel in defence.
Ben McKay was clearly very poor and the focus of fan ire (not unexpected when he came in on known big money and played like that). Essendon would have assumed when McKay arrived that he might have played a fair bit of football with Ridley. That hasn’t happened.
Adelaide are far better than their 15th place last year suggested (they should have played finals the year before) and now have one of the best forward lines in the competition. They play three talls in Taylor Walker, Darcy Fogarty and Thilthorpe. And Curtin is tall (197 centimetres) but he doesn’t play that way. He’s like Patrick Cripps and Marcus Bontempelli – a midfielder in a key forward’s body. Then they have Rachele as a small and Ben Keays. Rankine also rotates forward.
That is hard forward line to play on for any defensive unit, but for a poor and depleted one such as Essendon’s, it was rude exposure.
But the problems, which were magnified by the length of leg rope and modest pressure Essendon defenders applied, started up the ground. Without Langford and even Wright, Essendon were inexperienced and undersized against an Adelaide side that now has a strong and stable defence.
Importantly, Adelaide didn’t always go forward quickly, so it wasn’t just about speed and run. Often the Crows moved the ball patiently with 35-40 metre kicks that they were easily able to hit up thanks to the distance the Essendon mids and defenders gave their opponents.
Intelligent Saints
The Adelaide result cannot be disentangled from St Kilda’s win over Geelong. The depleted Saints were not poor last week in losing to the Crows. Watching the Crows then dismantle Essendon gives a greater idea of St Kilda’s effort last week.
This was an intelligent game from St Kilda. They have beaten the Cats at Marvel Stadium the last three times they’ve played there and each time they have deployed a clearly effective short kicking game. Over the last three seasons, the Saints have averaged 112.5 short kicks against the Cats – next most among clubs is 94.
Jack Steele and Jimmy Webster enjoy the win over Geelong.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
They not only denied Geelong the ball – the Cats had just 135 disposals in the first half, which was their third fewest to half-time in a decade – but where St Kilda denied them. They refused to feed the Cats’ punishing intercept defenders and were adroit in their short, carved-off kicks into attack.
Jack Macrae has given St Kilda what they wanted: more art with ball use. With him, Jack Sinclair and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, St Kilda look far more creative in constructing their attack because the ball users are so much more capable.
Mason Wood was excellent forward of the ball and the first sample of Anthony Caminiti behind the ball was very promising.
North chasing a rise
Hawthorn changed the narrative for all low teams in the last 12 months.
Now Adelaide ask “are we this year’s Hawthorn?” And after Sunday’s demolishing of Melbourne, North Melbourne pose the same question.
With the stockpiling of elite talent through the draft, the Roos’ moment to jump must come at some point. The query is if it is now. One smashing of Melbourne in round two is not definitive proof, but the case is strengthening. (And for all the words of change spoken over summer, nothing has actually yet changed at Melbourne.)
Look beyond the high draft picks at North and the trio of older off-season recruits. The excitement in this game was what Charlie Comben did in defence. It was the speed and daring of Robert Hansen jnr. It was Tristan Xerri going head-to-head with Max Gawn and winning. It was the importance of Paul Curtis and Toby Pink when Melbourne tried to rally. It was Bailey Scott’s bodywork to mark in the last quarter and goal.
Ranking Rankine
Scott Pendlebury has spent a long career making the game seem frozen around him and other players look flustered while he was ponderous.
Rankine moves in a similarly disconnected way. He runs quickly while looking as though he is jogging. He sees things in his mind’s eye before others have caught up on his plans.
He was being chased by Andy McGrath around the boundary for the goal that will likely end up the best of the year. McGrath is quick, but didn’t gain on Rankine. The measure of the goal was that Rankine never appeared to consider the need to cut inside to take the shot, nor look for someone else.
In truth, it probably never occurred to him. “Why would I do that when I can just kick it from here?”
This is more than confidence, it is a complete lack of doubt that anything else would happen.
