Autopsy 2024 Rd 5 Blundering Blues give game away to Crows

[thebluenewdeal]

His name is Jack Martin.

We also need to play 1 less small forward given ours don't really do anything.

Jack Martin is a flanker. A very good one but he rarely plays out of the goal square. He’s also not that crafty at finding space. I think our best player at that is actually Owies but the bloke isn’t powerful enough. It’s like we have bit part players that can help with the load but I just don’t think it’s enough to get us the premiership this year. We are still wanting for a specific type of player. Maybe it’s just Charlie in the goal square and we play TDK inside 50 and Harry further up the field…

 

[The Bighouse]

I'm choosing to be positive.

Martin back
Cerra back
One ruck set up

We will be up to our necks in it in the last few weeks of finals

Martin back playing (VFL?) in late May..

 

[Kernafides]

Hopefully just one of those games. My observations from lvl 3....weiters and mcgov were both off from the start, the long bomb obsession to H and CC which may work some days but didn't today - won't be fixed by a hybrid tall as they'll be ignored, H and CC burnt a number of quality leads in favour of a long bomb glory moment, crows speed on turnover they would just bolt into space, bounce of ball/little touches etc seemed to go their way a fair bit, they were pretty slick around stoppage - we may have won it but they had the cleaner more damaging ones, boyd is our best kick by a mile, Kemp needs to be persevered with over Caleb, not sure you get much more from binns than hollands as both physically immature, e hollands has x factor but has lazy moments, smalls try to create havoc but over commit a bit, the pitt thing didn't work whilst he neutralised the tap contest I think another runner given we looked slow would've been better. Fact is we were the better side today and lost... the reverse of last week. We had a serious dip...we just didn't execute

 

[carlton_99]

Martin back

Martin was 5-6 weeks away in the last update on April 3rd

 

[Opium]

Cincotta? Could be in next week to replace Saad

Injured too

 

[DirtyLeeds]

Few too many similarities to early 2023 for my liking:

2023 - undefeated (with a draw) after four rounds; winning but not playing well; smashed by Adelaide in round 5; tough stretch of games after that where we couldn’t buy a win.

2024 - undefeated after four rounds; winning in unconvincing fashion; a loss to Adelaide in round 5; tough stretch of games upcoming.

We’ll find out what this team is made of in the coming weeks without key players and against quality opposition.

100% agree with this take, only difference is that last year Adelaide completely smashed us; 2024 we smashed ourselves, quite simply should have won that game, so the question is all about why didn't we, not a witch hunt into the small forwards or the rucks, both have some serious deficiencies and they were exposed today. But definitely the next three weeks in particular will demonstrate how far this team has, and is willing to come to play...

 

[NewDarkNavyBlues]

We could quite easily lose the next 5 games straight here. Elephant in the room much? We have half our list on the injury list and play the best teams teams in the competition…

 

[Kruezing]

And the absence of Fog very apparent tonight … he’s one of those guys that gets involved in lots of chains with quick hands and his ability to apply great pressure helps us keep the ball in our forward fifty for longer … we missed that tonight

 

[carlton_99]

Injured too

When?

 

[Sam The Doc]

Evil game on a number of fronts..
Hopefully work something out down back for next week… marchbank ?

 

[Opium]

When?

The word used is "Managed"

 

[luke livingston seagull]

Their mids showed up ours big time today (and last year for that matter)...

it was like adults against kids...

not only are they faster but they appeared to be stronger as well

To be fair… their theme song does try to warn you of this

 

[JustaBattler]

Yup, been saying all along he's a VFL level plodder at best. Nothing against the bloke, but he's just not up to scratch even with the basic skills....got horribly found in the finals series last year to the extent we dropped him for the PF.

And I still have nightmares from that game a few years back where he missed Saad with that simple 20m pass against the Demons that cost us the game and a spot in the finals.

Well my view of the ream so far this year has been that it has been 'unconvincing' and my mind has not changed.

Today I think a lot more players played to teh lower end of their abilities and this managed to coincide with a below average goal conversion ratio.

Net net this meant that Adelaide were always in the game.

The Saad injury was the cherry on top - forcing a reorganisation of the on ball brigade which was having ( as usual) below 2023 levels of pressure and ground ball win capability - which then just helped Adelaide expose teh structural weaknesses in defense ...

but even with all that - the game should still have been won if it wasn't for Owies....

The significance of losing this game is underlined by the upcoming matches - and now in bold the injuries to Saad and McGovern....whose absences won't make the tasks ahead any easier.

Once again - the perennial unreliability of McGovern/Marchbank/Cuningham and Martin is now a major stumbling block to get over.

I think this means that the list is far from complete - making finals will be a good result from here - my feeling is that the team ( because of the extent of injuries both medium and season ending is now just another at best middling side battling it out week to week.

Walsh needs Cerra playing alongside him - because as good as Cripps is in getting the ball to someone- we need a 1-2 give off to players who have something more than just a straight line run in them.

Unless there is a drastic improvement in teh ground ball game - the team isnt going to win against GWS/Melbourne/Sydney or Geelong.

 

[dumb]

you can't flub how we flubbed and take home the points. adelaide deserved that one.

lids back on, peepees back in pants and work/think on turning things around before we take on some even better sides next few weeks.

 

[luke livingston seagull]

Good to get the annual ‘Weiters gets destroyed’ game out of the way

 

[DirtyLeeds]

Someone mused as to how this board would handle the inevitable loss, and it's not that bad after all! We seem like that team that is a flash in the pan one season, doesn't achieve as much in the next, yet comes from nowhere to win the flag in the third!
Still would prefer to snag one this year, but can see the missing pieces of the jigsaw, and the maybe pieces to bring in...

 

[Sam The Doc]

In positive news - i can’t believe how unbelievably good Walsh is. The drop mark by McKay nearing the end of the game was an absolutely amazing kick…

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Average night at the footy, absolute nightmare getting out of the Marvel precinct, topped off by the standard Melbourne experience of random verbal abuse from a junkie. Remind me to only go to games at the ‘G from now on.

(A big bowl of pasta, part of a Lindt bunny, and booze have eased the mood somewhat)

We were going to lose one of those close games sooner or later. But as a former South Australian (with a Crows-supporting BIL), why did it have to be to this mob

Hope we learn from this.

 

[Bamboo Harvester]

Well my view of the ream so far this year has been that it has been 'unconvincing' and my mind has not changed.

Today I think a lot more players played to teh lower end of their abilities and this managed to coincide with a below average goal conversion ratio.

Net net this meant that Adelaide were always in the game.

The Saad injury was the cherry on top - forcing a reorganisation of the on ball brigade which was having ( as usual) below 2023 levels of pressure and ground ball win capability - which then just helped Adelaide expose teh structural weaknesses in defense ...

but even with all that - the game should still have been won if it wasn't for Owies....

The significance of losing this game is underlined by the upcoming matches - and now in bold the injuries to Saad and McGovern....whose absences won't make the tasks ahead any easier.

Once again - the perennial unreliability of McGovern/Marchbank/Cuningham and Martin is now a major stumbling block to get over.

I think this means that the list is far from complete - making finals will be a good result from here - my feeling is that the team ( because of the extent of injuries both medium and season ending is now just another at best middling side battling it out week to week.

Walsh needs Cerra playing alongside him - because as good as Cripps is in getting the ball to someone- we need a 1-2 give off to players who have something more than just a straight line run in them.

Unless there is a drastic improvement in teh ground ball game - the team isnt going to win against GWS/Melbourne/Sydney or Geelong.

I watched the game from the back of the top tier, so got a perfect birdseye view of what unfolded. We just couldn't handle their run and spread once the ball was turned over especially in their back half, they always had the player in position for the outlet kick or handball, and we were chasing arse the rest of the ground.

Which is why they were kicking into space in the forward half cos they were moving it with such precision, our defenders were caught out of position or just didn't have time to organise themselves - and Weiters was one of the key offenders. Your right though, losing Saad just threw everything out of wack.

Imo, we were completely outplayed today, and realistically had no right to be even as close as what we were. The fact that we nearly pinched it at the death would almost have been an injustice. But the fact that we nearly did pinch it is probably a good thing....I guess.

 

[Irish BlueBagger]

Hmm perhaps this might be the kick up the backside that we badly needed.

GWS, Geelong, Collingwood, Melbourne and away to the Sydney Swans are the next couple of games.

We quite simply have to put this one behind us, and stand up to be counted in the next couple of games imo.

 

[jooce8891]

i havent read through this thread so i dont know if its been answered, but can anyone smarter then me explain why keays always turns into gary ablett snr when he plays us?

 

[Gethelred]

Their kicking game was on because we allowed them to.

I mean, we had more time in possession than they did and won the tackle count with 62 tackles.

Fact is, sometimes your opposition are going to be up for the fight.

 

[DangerousD]

I was really negative on our performance for most of the day, kicking 3.7 in the 3rd really hurt our chances of winning this game.

I can’t comment on the why, but Adelaide seemed to move the ball with ease from end to end and were getting shots at goal at an alarming percentage per 50M entry.

I’m not sure if it’s Weits fault but Walker was paid stuff all respect today and it really hurt us, he is a good player who is a beautiful kick.

I was really annoyed with Pittos inclusion and it still annoys me, I thought TDKs game suffered today and he was getting in the way up forward and I think Harry was poorer for not taking some ruck duties.

Our small forwards managed 19 touches and 3 goals between them and imo were poor again, carrying the three of them is a mistake and we should have played another mid.

I’m well aware that if Owies doesn’t butcher that 20M shot on the run we would be all positive but the issues are there regardless.

I thought McKay had some real good moments today but in the 3rd and last, dropped some easy marks that would have relieved some pressure, Harry’s spacial awareness was off today, in the lsst quarter after we score a point he is jogging away from the goal square, the Adelaide defender plays on and runs in Harry’s direction, yet Harry doesn’t even turn around, he did similar in the 3rd and didn’t seem switched on defensively.

A disappointing day, mostly of our doing in front of goal.

 

[Rustica]

Beating a dead horse but our 2 small forwards in Owies and Durdin are a serious concern. If they arent hitting the scoreboard there is hardly any pressure coming. Durdin is inconsistent. Sorely missed Fogarty today and need Motlops class desperately.

 

[KnaveyBlue]

Beating a dead horse but our 2 small forwards in Owies and Durdin are a serious concern. If they arent hitting the scoreboard there is hardly any pressure coming. Durdin is inconsistent. Sorely missed Fogarty today and need Motlops class desperately.

You’ve forgotten all about Fantasia, but I can absolutely understand how that could happen.