Former Essendon captain Tim Watson is frustrated by his old side’s inability to stop opposition star midfielders.
Lachie Neale did as he pleased on Friday night, finishing with 33 disposals, two goals, seven score involvements and four clearances.
The likes of Jack Macrae, Jy Simpkin, Adam Treloar, Luke Parker and Nathan Fyfe have had similarly strong games against the Bombers so far across the season.
Watson explained why Essendon tends to back its own midfield in and how it frees up opposition on-ballers.
“I just want to comment on one part of their game. There’s a lot of things you could pull apart at Essendon right now and if you’re an Essendon fan you’ve been watching the same thing probably for a decade now about their ability to be able to slow sides down and stop them from scoring,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“This is how it has been explained to me because Essendon don’t shut down midfielders they don’t go after a midfielder and they don’t play a tagging type of player, they flirted with that last year with Dylan Clarke, and for whatever reason they’re not playing him.
“I believe the reason is they see themselves as a system-based football team. They don’t tag because they back their system. The system doesn’t always work, in fact the system doesn’t work against the best midfielders in the game.
“When they play against Essendon it’s like all their Christmas’ have come at once. When they play against Essendon they’re going to get out there and they’re going to gorge themselves because they’re not going to get shut down in any way.
“I understand what the system is supposed to deliver and it’s a philosophical shift in the mindset of a coaching group and obviously that has to be transplanted to the players, but if it’s not working then you are required to have a backup plan and I think that’s the thing that frustrates me when I watch them play because there’s no backup to that.
“There’s a difficulty for clubs to get messages across and they’re not training together and that sort of thing, but it’s a major disappointment to watch Essendon.
“I said a few weeks ago when others were saying Essendon was well positioned, they were poorly credentialed teams. The week before against Adelaide they fell over the line. They just fell in against Adelaide.”
Watson adds that he isn’t seeing the similarities in their game style to Richmond that were touted across the pre-season.
“I thought that Blake Caracella coming to the club and Ben Rutten obviously being from Richmond too and you were sold as Essendon supporters that we’re going to play like Richmond,” he said.
“You tell me, what part of Essendon’s game resembles anything Richmond has done in the last three years?”