Preview Changes: R2 vs Richmond, Saturday March 25, 4.05pm ACDT @ Adelaide Oval

[Brett Cummings]

Brisbane going not too bad.

Yep, melbourne having a crap night. Pretty boring game though.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

They’ve got an awesome but developing midfield with ?s over the front and back. Reckon they’re probably where we were in our prelim days under Craig and couldn’t quite get there without a genuinely strong KPF. But what I rate about them is that even if they get the player wrong, they identify what they think will help and work out a way to get them.

Spot on … they always try and get better

Work out what they need and then make it happen in totality

Cripps would be one of the best operators in afl , no wonder st Kilda been chasing him for years but now ended up with SOS instead

 

[ABAB]

They’ve got an awesome but developing midfield with ?s over the front and back. Reckon they’re probably where we were in our prelim days under Craig and couldn’t quite get there without a genuinely strong KPF. But what I rate about them is that even if they get the player wrong, they identify what they think will help and work out a way to get them.

Forward, back and ruck. I'm not sure why they got Lycett on big contract when Ryder was there who then he ended up leaving after trying to play him forward, a better option was to develop a ruckman with Ryder as the lead ruck. Fantasia was always going to return to SA and supposedly we also "interested in him" lol and then there was Rockliff who they got him as a FA on a big contract (why?). Only Dixon was understandable as why they recruited him as the initial missing link since they needed a key forward but paid a lot for him so all the players they've recruited seemingly like they just took them as they wanted to join Port Power.

 

[spenze]

We obviously learned nothing from getting Fog to 50 games.

Every game Himmelberg plays in front of Thilthorpe is a waste of time and resources

 

[Gtowncrow]

Ask Freo how easy it is to win games consistently with a very good midfield and average forwardline. Since when are forwardlines easy to patch on the fly?

Port’s midfield will win them a lot of games, but their lack of dominant key forwards could cost them some too. Will need to rely on a decent number of goals from the midfield, which Rozee, Butters and JHF are all capable of.

I wonder if rozee, jhf and butters combined will out score Jeremy Cameron or Charlie Curnow?

Or Darcy Fogarty?

 

[CrowBloke]

We obviously learned nothing from getting Fog to 50 games.

Every game Himmelberg plays in front of Thilthorpe is a waste of time and resources

<< sigh >> 40-game Himmelberg is enigmatic/underwhelming, like Fogarty was until last year, so it certainly seems that way (bold above).
Drives me crazy, along with Jones, Milera, Schoenberg, and other players in The Mediocre Zone, resulting in these Crows' mediocre years.
EH hardly ever does, but can play like this:


I thought his breakout game vs PA last year would make him, but no. Not yet. So far, EH has played more good games than Thilthorpe and is clearly favoured by the Coaches over Thilthorpe at this stage. We're still waiting for him to show consistency.
Will another 10-15 games do it? We'll know this year.

 

[1970crow]

Of course it doesn't. You've missed the point. Nothing we say here makes any difference. So you may as well enjoy yourselves.

And endlessly supporting coaching decisions is meant to somehow be enjoyable? We're here to discuss footy, which includes posting our personal views. What the point of doing anything different? Being a BACCS or a Bicks and coming in to just criticise people without ever providing your own opinions until selection is where the true mental health issues lay. Sane people have no need to align to every club decision, they're here to discuss a topic they're passionate about and are happy to be right and be wrong. Those that just support every decision made by the club are the ones you need to worry about.

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Haven't seen any credible argument as to why TT shouldn't be playing in the senior side.

We are a bottom rebuilding team with very few elite prospects.

The club really staggers me at times....

 

[1970crow]

We obviously learned nothing from getting Fog to 50 games.

Every game Himmelberg plays in front of Thilthorpe is a waste of time and resources

it's simple, we think that Berg improves our chances to win this week's 4 points. Every selection decision is based upon that single premise. It's true when we're contending and it's true when we're rebuilding. It's who we are. VB even said it last year, 'the best way to rebuild is to win games now'. That's our selection philosophy and we just retrofitted rebuilding into it.

 

[Redline]

Haven't seen any credible argument as to why TT shouldn't be playing in the senior side.

We are a bottom rebuilding team with very few elite prospects.

The club really staggers me at times....

Agreed, it a rebuilding team sometimes you have to just make room for guys. That can't be hard in our team.

 

[DJ75]

Haven't seen any credible argument as to why TT shouldn't be playing in the senior side.

We are a bottom rebuilding team with very few elite prospects.

The club really staggers me at times....

Because he doesn’t compete. At all. He won’t fly for marks when he’s the only tall there. He avoids body contact when rucking and just doesn’t have any competitive instinct. He has all the talent, but lacks desire.
You can’t just keep on picking a guy if he keeps on not doing what you have asked. Eventually he has to get the message.

 

[moogerfooger]

We obviously learned nothing from getting Fog to 50 games.

Every game Himmelberg plays in front of Thilthorpe is a waste of time and resources

I still think the club is hoping longer term that Thilthorpe and Himmelberg can be rotating ruck/forwards at the expense of ROB. This would mean ROB will be the one to drop out of the side, not Himmelberg. ROB is the bigger liability IMO and has already hit his ceiling. RT's ruckwork is already superior around the ground.

 

[arsene wenger1]

Haven't seen any credible argument as to why TT shouldn't be playing in the senior side.

We are a bottom rebuilding team with very few elite prospects.

The club really staggers me at times....

I don’t even wanna hear their argument to this tbh because I know they’ll come up with some BS reason

 

[GreyCrow]

Because he doesn’t compete. At all. He won’t fly for marks when he’s the only tall there. He avoids body contact when rucking and just doesn’t have any competitive instinct. He has all the talent, but lacks desire.
You can’t just keep on picking a guy if he keeps on not doing what you have asked. Eventually he has to get the message.

Is this an issue since joining the Crows or was he like this at Westies?

I understand there are different rules at u18 level but he played seniors a lot.

Surely there was body contact there?

I would hate to read " hates body contact" in a scouting report

 

[Mutineer]

I still think the club is hoping longer term that Thilthorpe and Himmelberg can be rotating ruck/forwards at the expense of ROB. This would mean ROB will be the one to drop out of the side, not Himmelberg. ROB is the bigger liability IMO and has already hit his ceiling. RT's ruckwork is already superior around the ground.

Are you talking actual ruckwork as in the actual ruck contest? If you are I beg to disagree.

 

[ABAB]

Because he doesn’t compete. At all. He won’t fly for marks when he’s the only tall there. He avoids body contact when rucking and just doesn’t have any competitive instinct. He has all the talent, but lacks desire.
You can’t just keep on picking a guy if he keeps on not doing what you have asked. Eventually he has to get the message.

I haven't seen him "avoid body contact when rucking" and "won't fly for marks", I've seen him drop mark when he got first hand to them though.

 

[Vader]

God knows why.

He was the only second 5 year contract (Sloane was the first) and reckon club has learnt never to do it again.

It gave Milera security however we have not got our value and doubt we ever will.

AFL Tables - Wayne Milera - Stats - Statistics

afltables.com

Tell me what stands out if anything, from the above. I got nothing.

Do you seriously think that he would have been gone inside 5 years, if he didn't have the 5-year contract? Whether it's a 3-year contract (which was justifiable), plus a 2-year extension (which he definitely would have got), or a 5-year contract outright - the result is the same. He was never likely to be delisted during this window, so why not just bite the bullet?

I don't agree with 5-year contracts, because they represent too great a risk to the club - the club is tied to the player for a long period, even if their form falls off a cliff, or they suffer a career-ending injury. It's a bigger problem for older players, which is why giving one to Sloane was particularly stupid - less so for younger players like Milera.

It's easy to forget that he missed 2 whole years due to injury, and then spent the whole of 2022 getting himself back up to speed. Judging his lack of performance over this 3-year window is harsh.

As I said, I don't like 5-year contracts - but if you're going to give them to anyone, then a younger player who is unlikely to be a delisting candidate in that 5-year window is the player you should be giving them to. The fact that said player then suffers severe injury problems is bad luck, but it's not something that the list manager can reasonably foresee.

 

[George Kramer]

It really is beyond belief that RT isn’t playing

 

[Bearded Clam]

It really is beyond belief that RT isn’t playing

Especially given Himmelburg‘s game last week where he did sweet **** all..

Himm is an incredibly inconsistent player. Even during games. He can play a great game one week and then 3 ordinary one‘s after it.. he can have 3 ordinary quarters in a game and then pop up for a great last quarter..

unbelievably unreliable player.

 

[GreyCrow]

Do you seriously think that he would have been gone inside 5 years, if he didn't have the 5-year contract? Whether it's a 3-year contract (which was justifiable), plus a 2-year extension (which he definitely would have got), or a 5-year contract outright - the result is the same. He was never likely to be delisted during this window, so why not just bite the bullet?

I don't agree with 5-year contracts, because they represent too great a risk to the club - the club is tied to the player for a long period, even if their form falls off a cliff, or they suffer a career-ending injury. It's a bigger problem for older players, which is why giving one to Sloane was particularly stupid - less so for younger players like Milera.

It's easy to forget that he missed 2 whole years due to injury, and then spent the whole of 2022 getting himself back up to speed. Judging his lack of performance over this 3-year window is harsh.

As I said, I don't like 5-year contracts - but if you're going to give them to anyone, then giving them to a younger player who is unlikely to be a delisting candidate in that 5-year window is the player you should be giving them to. The fact that said player then suffers severe injury problems is bad luck, but it's not something that the list manager can reasonably foresee.

Valid points but you don't allow for flexibility

In terms and length.

Let's look at the injury argument. Correct you can't foresee that and some would argue you can't dump a player just because of their injury.

But you have flexibility to adjust the terms for the extension.

Sloane could have had a 3 year contract with KPI that trigger an extra 2 - his injury could be factored in by a 1 year extension with his 2 year still in play. Better for the player and club

Clubs don't have flexibility with long term contracts

 

[1970crow]

Because he doesn’t compete. At all. He won’t fly for marks when he’s the only tall there. He avoids body contact when rucking and just doesn’t have any competitive instinct. He has all the talent, but lacks desire.
You can’t just keep on picking a guy if he keeps on not doing what you have asked. Eventually he has to get the message.

shit, that sounds terminal. Or perhaps we could design a role that is more suitable. I don't recall Tom Lynch being a competetive beast that lived for the contest. Otherwise, we're looking at another McAsey, becsuse what you just described is unfixable if not corrected by year 3. And it's not like he hasn't played his share of 2s.

 

[cleanhands]

s**t, that sounds terminal. Or perhaps we could design a role that is more suitable. I don't recall Tom Lynch being a competetive beast that lived for the contest. Otherwise, we're looking at another McAsey, becsuse what you just described is unfixable if not corrected by year 3. And it's not like he hasn't played his share of 2s.

The Lynch roll would be good for him

 

[n4sir]

I had to laugh at last nights game which bought back memories - specifically the Adelaide v Richmond game round 9 1999 at Football Park (AAMI Stadium) when the light towers went out due to a lightning strike at three quarter time, The Crows were barely ahead and the umpires walked over to acting captain Nigel Smart

Nigel Smart

Age

55

Ht

188cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.7

4star

K

8.1

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.8

4star

No current season stats available

D

19.2

5star

K

12.6

5star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.2

3star

and offered him the option of stopping the game, and he didn't - Smart by name and not by nature; the Tigers ended up winning by 11 points. Oh, and Richo (who last night continually said he's never seen anything like this) was playing in that game!



I tried to find any kind of reference to that event, and google searches turned up nothing, like it never happened! Luckily someone posted the game on youtube, and you can get the event about 1 hour 43 to 44 min into the footage. It doesn't really show unfortunately, but the last quarter was played under the emergency lighting which was a lot darker than it looks on the TV broadcast.

Will this be some kind of omen for tonight's game against the Tigers? Or maybe the future? Brisbane were on their way to a flag two years later (under a different coach), it would be nice to think that's going to flip around and happen for us.

 

[1970crow]

It really is beyond belief that RT isn’t playing

bad Talent ID or bad selection? One way or the other, a pick 2 in year 3 should be playing 1s. Especially one that debuted in an away loss with 16 disposals and 5 goals to their name. How does that kind of talent get surpassed by Elliot Himmelbeg?

 

[MsTopG]

Should have been in the team anyway. Time to trade Wayne. Whoever decided it was a good idea to give an injury prone player that had done nothing onfield a long contract should be fired