Scott lost for words after shocker
IN the end, the 34-point margin on Saturday probably did Essendon an injustice.
Its victory over Geelong at the MCG was emphatic.
The saying goes that teams should be wary of taking on opposition clubs immediately after they have sacked a senior coach.
Ex-game performance manager Mark Neeld might not have held the status that John Worsfold does at Windy Hill, but his departure clearly sent the playing group a message that everybody at the club was on notice and they responded in the best way possible.
No such communication had been required at the Cats, but clearly they did not take heed of the threat the despondent Bombers posed.
Their performance was, in many ways, in the ilk of Geelong of recent weeks.
They won the ball first, delivered it into attack, had repeat entries inside-50 when they didn’t kick a goal and shut down their opponent’s space when they had the footy around the ground.
Essendon kicked the opening five goals of the match and by quarter-time its 18-point lead already looked like it was unassailable such was the manner the Cats were playing.
They have been excellent in recent years, Geelong, without winning a flag, but every now and then they put in some absolute shockers.
Notwithstanding the fact that the AFL gets more even every season, last year it lost three on the trot in games most outsiders had envisioned being comfortable wins, and in 2016 suffered similar defeats at the hands of so-called underdog sides.
Geelong coach Chris Scott summed up the feeling immediately after the contest when he said his team was simply no match for Essendon on the day.
“Our performance in some ways was inexplicable,” Scott said.
“We didn’t execute any of the things we planned going in. I think it’s always ungracious to talk too much in these situations about how poorly we used the ball and fumbled and were beaten in the contest without acknowledging how good the opposition were.
“There is no doubt that they beat us in virtually every facet of the game. They were really good around the ball with their pressure, but it wasn’t just around the ball, they went inside-50 37 times in the first half, they tackled really well.
“On the flip side we just couldn’t apply the requisite pressure that is needed to beat a team that is up and about.”
It took until the 25th minute mark of the opening quarter for Geelong to hit the scoreboard and even then it came via a banana on the run from Stewart Crameri.
The pressure from the Bombers was intense from the outset, which was reflected by the 36-21 tackle count at quarter time, but the perceived pressure was also telling.
It meant the Cats had registered 48 kicks and 56 handballs in the first quarter — they are yet to finish a match with more handballs than kicks this season and only managed to maintain that record thanks to a more free-flowing final term — and had 43 handball receives to Essendon’s 28.
Scott acknowledged the Bombers seemed more willing to fight than the Cats, but said he was confident things could turn around quickly.
“I can’t defend any accusation levelled at us for that performance,” he said.
“There will be some observations that say ‘They were up for it more than we were’ and that is probably our assessment as well.
“Is it something we accept? Clearly not, but it’s something we can remedy very, very quickly, but if you watched us play this week compared to the last few weeks you would have thought it was a different side trying to do different things, and that wasn’t our intention.”
Several players — of all levels of experience — were down on their usual output, and although there isn’t exactly an extensive queue of players lining up to come into the side just yet, there will be in the coming weeks.
You get the feeling there will be more than a handful of the selected 22 from Saturday’s loss that will not enjoy going over their match edits on Monday.