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The losers from Round 2 - can they bounce back?

1st April, 2019
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Roar Guru
1st April, 2019
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Round 2 represented more than just a loss for a number of teams. Melbourne were appalling, as were Essendon against a very weak St Kilda team, and Richmond and Sydney will fly under the radar – but they were as equally horrible.

Let’s go through each team, and see where they’ve gone wrong, and whether they can come back from it.

Essendon
The bombers were shocking in Round 1, getting beaten by 72 points against the Giants, and they followed that up in Round 2, with an even more insipid performance against St Kilda, a team that was expected to be bottom four, and only beat the Gold Coast by a point in Round 1.

The worrying thing for the bombers, is that Round 1 was a lack of effort. The giants had 63 more disposals, and 37 more uncontested possessions, while they laid five less tackles than the Giants did.

Round 2 wasn’t a lack of effort. Yes, the Kyle Langford brain fade was ridiculously bad, but the effort was there. They had more possession throughout the game, beat the saints around the ball, and had more inside 50s, however the system let them down.

They simply had nobody to go to, when they went forward, and they seemingly didn’t address that for the entire game. When the ball went into the saint’s forward line, it was a completely different story. The St Kilda forward line made space for each other, and Hurley was the lone hand down back, allowing them to kick a winning score, with less inside 50s than the bombers.

They have a season defining game this Friday against Melbourne, who are both 0-2, but the bombers problems do seem more problematic than the Demons. With Brisbane and North Melbourne to follow that, there’s a big chance they’ll be 1- 4 or 0-5, and John Worsfold’s job will come into question, if it isn’t already.

John Worsfold

Bombers head coach John Worsfold. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Media/Getty Images)

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Melbourne
Speaking of that Friday night clash, it’s as big for Melbourne as it is for Essendon. I thought they put in the worst display of any team in Round 1, losing the disposal count by 93, and losing the uncontested possession count by 93, which is simply a lack of effort.

They needed to respond, if not with a win, but a much better showing in Round 2 – and they didn’t. They went down the highway to Geelong, and were humiliated by 80 points. They yet again lost the uncontested possession count by 45. Admittedly, they played a very good outfit in Geelong, who could go on to contend for the premiership this year.

There is a positive note for the demons though. Even though they got destroyed in most stats, the one stat they went well in was the inside fifty count, where they had 24 more than Geelong did. They’re playing poorly, but they are still getting enough chances to kick big scores. The loss of Jesse Hogan has impacted the forward line more than their hierarchy thought, as youngster Sam Weidman isn’t ready, and they seem to have nobody capable of filling that void.

In totality, I’m backing Melbourne in to win their next couple against Essendon and Sydney to get their season back on track. Their problems are more system based, and as coaches will tell you, they are easily fixable with the right attitude. Tom McDonald, Sam Weidman, Max Gawn and the likes of Christian Petracca and Bailey Fritsch do need to lift though.

Max Gawn

Max Gawn of the Demons looks dejected after defeat during the round one AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the Port Adelaide Power at Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 23, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

Sydney:
I thought they were the biggest losers of the week the swans, and the alarm bells should be ringing for Coach John Longmire.

They just seem incapable of moving the ball from defence to attack in any way, shape or form. They had 52 inside 50s on Friday night, and returned eight goals, with Lance Franklin having to kick two miraculous goals, for them to have any chance of winning. They only had five different goal kickers, which has been an alarming stat since Franklin made the move to Sydney.

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Their other main issue, is the fact that they are just too slow. A midfield of Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Ryan Clarke, Harry Cunningham and Isaac Heeney, are simply going to get run off their feet, against most sides in the competition. The only player in their forward line who applies any pressure is Tom Papley, because again, they are relatively slow.

Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills have both been average, to put it nicely. Mills gets some leeway because he is returning from a long term injury, but you would have expected more than the 16-disposal game he dished up last week. Heeney was supposed to go into the midfield and become a star of the completion this year, and he’s done basically the opposite of that in his first two games.

Sydney have got Carlton at Marvel Stadium this week, in what is a huge game for them, followed by Melbourne and Richmond. I can only see them winning one of those, and their season will basically be over after that. John Longmire wouldn’t be sleeping very well at the moment.

Isaac Heeney flies high

Isaac Heeney of the Swans (second from left) marks during the Round 1 AFL match between the Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, March 23, 2019. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

Richmond
I don’t think they’ll be spoken about much this week, but the tigers were disgraceful on Thursday night. They were humbled by a very good Collingwood team by 44 points, and there is cause for concern, for Damien Hardwick’s men.

The Tigers weren’t good in Round 1, all but winning by 33 points against a poor Carlton team. They lost the uncontested possession stat by 51, and it was just their class that got them over the line against the Blues.

They got the reality check they might have needed on Thursday night though. They lost the uncontested possession stat by a whopping 153 disposals, which is an alarming stat for the first two games of a season, and maybe more disappointingly, they laid 26 less tackles. You should be the ones tackling more if you don’t have the ball in the first place.

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The defence I thought stood up really well, in the absence of superstar Alex Rance. Jordan de Goey got off the leash, but realistically he got on the end of some very easy goals. Scarlett, Silvagni and Rance wouldn’t have stopped the Collingwood forward line the way that ball was getting delivered to them. They passed the first Test without Rance, funnily enough after a 44-point loss.

I’m not sure what to make of this tigers team in 2019. Obviously the loss of Rance, Caddy, Houli and now the Coleman Medallist in Jack Riewoldt hurts them a lot, but the good teams can fight through that.

They’ve got the Giants away, Port Adelaide away, and then Sydney at Marvel Stadium in their next three. We’ll be able to come to a better conclusion on them after that. I’m not writing off a champion side in Round 2, but it does look ominous.

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