Review Good, Acceptable, and Putrid vs Kitty Kats

[King Elvis]

Who cares.

We’ll make the 8 because of our soft draw - but we are pretenders.

 

[hey shorty]

Nah, when our issue is delivery and skill execution, having our best outside player sitting at full forward is a shocking move.

The only reason it was made was because of Mackay.

I agree that was the reason, but he was having a mare too so lets move him around a bit.

 

[subaru]

Freely admit to not being a guru of systems and set ups but Tex and Betts covered plenty of ground last night and were either ignored or were on the receiving end of a shit kick.

I still maintain these things are our upside - and eventually , hopefully , we start nailing set shots

Not throwing any babies out with the bath water yet !

 

[hey shorty]

Who cares.

We’ll make the 8 because of our soft draw - but we are pretenders.

This is a year where I dont actually mind if we do given the way our draft haul is set to play out.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Lynch had an almost game

Could have had 3 Brownlow votes and been the match winner but was inaccurate (2.3) and missed some targets going inside 50 which is usually his strength.

26 touches, 8 grabs and 5 shots at goal though is a good sign. Cats have historically sat on him pretty close too from memory.

Hopefully some good signs from him. First time he's looked like the 2017 Lynch after that weird side injury / illness affected 2018.

 

[CrowBloke]

Is there any connection having Clarke focussing on the AFLW team and our ruck situation? ie how easy was it for Clarke to write Sauce on the board and walk out knowing Sam had the game plan in his head

Not sure what you meant by the section in bold italics. Can you elaborate, please?
How about: is there any connection with Clarke being our AFLW Head Coach and their AFLW dominance? The team spirit and their willingness to work for each other is inspiring. They didn't coach themselves to the Flag last week.

 

[hey shorty]

Lynch had an almost game

Could have had 3 Brownlow votes and been the match winner but was inaccurate (2.3) and missed some targets going inside 50 which is usually his strength.

26 touches, 8 grabs and 5 shots at goal though is a good sign. Cats have historically sat on him pretty close too from memory.

Hopefully some good signs from him. First time he's looked like the 2017 Lynch after that weird side injury / illness affected 2018.

Yeah my thoughts exactly after re-watching the game this morning.

He plays well under the roof too.

 

[Smoooothy]

i'd love to know why our forwards ALWAY PLAY ****ING BEHIND THEIR MAN!!!!!!

I swear its a directive, JJ plays behind, eddie who is 4 ft nothing plays behind, and they just don't kick to tex. what the actual ****

 

[footy4ever]

Lynch had an almost game

Could have had 3 Brownlow votes and been the match winner but was inaccurate (2.3) and missed some targets going inside 50 which is usually his strength.

26 touches, 8 grabs and 5 shots at goal though is a good sign. Cats have historically sat on him pretty close too from memory.

Hopefully some good signs from him. First time he's looked like the 2017 Lynch after that weird side injury / illness affected 2018.

I can see why the calls on this board for him to be dropped are loud and strong, but finally he looks like he's shaking off whatever it is that's been up his nose. Still one of our most important players.

 

[BRL121]

I don't care, he got beaten 1 on 1 by Gary ******* Rohan in the goal square. He is pathetic and always has been.

If that's your basis, then Keath is also pathetic.

 

[StonesThrow]

Well, what a season this is turning out to be. For some reason most of the team has forgotten how to kick a football and 2 ACLs in 3 rounds to good players. ****!

2 things are blindingly obvious and overlap:

We have at least 1 terrible disposal in every chain of play.

That disposal is usually the one going into f50.

No player seems immune from this. As good as Geelong were, we were in with a chance until crouch missed an easy snap from 20 meters out.

Skills and form can come back but our systematic troubles going into the forward line is a huge concern. There is zero cohesion.


Good:

Geelong. Their defence (we helped them a lot) was very strong and their forward line powerful. They were also methodical in the midfield. Skills were really sharp. Basically everything I thought we could have been this year.

Sloane is our best player. Often knows when to give and when not to, which is something a lot of players struggle with.

I thought Brad Crouch did some very elite movements in traffic to show he's getting the confidence of an A grader. Shame about that snap for goal. He was still pretty good though.

That's basically it.

Okay:

Milera and smith really did try and take the game on and somehow set us up for scoring opportunities despite the brain fades from others along the way. They seemed a bit desperate though, which isn't comforting.

ROB had an interesting game. I think people expected him to come in in game 3 and play as an experienced ruckman. I was surprised to see him dominated in a lot of contests so easily. I thought that was actually his strength. I'm willing to give him more experience to see how that goes. His kicking was a real mixed bag as expected. Give the handball! BUT, his work on the ground was quite good. He's aggressive and can actually win a ground ball. I'd give him time.

Bad:

Hasn't been a lot said about Seedsman. I was wondering if he was injured before that as I barely saw him and when I did he didn't look to be up and about? Anyway, devastating for him as he was really starting to blossom as an AFL footballer. Feel for him. Sucks that it's 2 important players that have gone down. Only positive of having 2 ACLs is that they won't be going through the process alone.

Betts looked like he was back in some form in the pre season but I think i can unfortunately now admit that he's cooked.

Laird was horrible?? What the hell happened to him in the off season? Never been a laser boot but he usually makes sound decisions, is clean and is good for 30 touches.

Walker and Jenkins are lost. We really don't make it easy for them though. They don't deserve as much of the blame as they're getting. Some absolutely butchered kicks to them last night.

Thought our defenders were outbodied all night. Hartigan as per usual. Keath also panics 1 on 1.

Kelly is Kelly. We already knew this.

Mackay back to standard.

I called Matt crouch to take his game to another level this year. Looked like he was going to dominate from what I saw in the pre season. He's actually down on form imo.

Can't say much about Gibbs that hasn't already been said. Really coasting. Looks average.

I really don't think personnel changes will be the fix that everyone is hoping for. Our biggest issue is that forcefield at half forward where our players seem to lose their minds. That is a coaching and structural issue imo. Skills can improve but we also look lost and confused.


Anyway, changes can go some way of helping:

Out: Seed , Mackay, Betts, Kelly
In: FOG (back line), Greenwood, Stengle, Mchenry

May as well get them exposed now. We're not contending.

 

[Scorpus]

I thought Lynch was awful. The only saving grace is he got a lot of disposals, every other facet of his game was poor

 

[Slippery Pete]

Question for the Crows hierarchy.

Why has O’Brien played three games in five years? He can either play, or he can’t. If he can’t, why is he on the list? And if he can, why hasn’t he played a few games, especially last year when it was clear the season was gone and Jacobs looked absolutely cooked at various times?

What the **** do you think is going to happen when you throw a ruckman to the wolves on a pressure-cooker Thursday night who’s played two games in five years? Honestly. What did those ****ing morons THINK was going to happen?

P.S - Our forward line right now is the most ******ed thing I’ve ever seen in my life. A trained monkey could not have our forward line functioning any worse than it is now.

 

[Geoffa32]

Lynch had an almost game

Could have had 3 Brownlow votes and been the match winner but was inaccurate (2.3) and missed some targets going inside 50 which is usually his strength.

26 touches, 8 grabs and 5 shots at goal though is a good sign. Cats have historically sat on him pretty close too from memory.

Hopefully some good signs from him. First time he's looked like the 2017 Lynch after that weird side injury / illness affected 2018.

Lynch is always an slow starter from a break.

I thought he was pretty good. If only he kicked those important goals.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[CrowBloke]

As for the kid's kick, I hate to do this but I will anyhow....pretty certain I could have managed a less embarrassing shank.

Don't hate to do it --- that kick was woeful.
Mate ... at the time last night, I texted my older sister:
"Fkme sis, you coulda kicked that" and she is in her 60s.

 

[arsene wenger1]

Seedsman up forward infuriated me

Our two best wingmen - Seedsman and Atkins - not played as a combination in their best positions solely so that Mackay can continue his masquerade as an AFL player.

We put team last.

Favoured individuals first.

Seedsman's whole night felt off as a result and now he's done an ACL so we're stuck with Mackay forever

I don’t remember the last time a senior player lost his place in the side for a considerable length of time to a young player. It’s amazing how our club doesn’t believe we have anyone on the list who would contribute more than McKay

 

[hey shorty]

I thought Lynch was awful. The only saving grace is he got a lot of disposals, every other facet of his game was poor

On first glance I did too, but not really the case. He worked really hard to create space like he does..... but we had 2 immovable objects behind him and Eddie is cooked

 

[Scorpus]

Our biggest issue is that forcefield at half forward where our players seem to lose their minds. That is a coaching and structural issue imo. Skills can improve but we also look lost and confused.

This is 100% correct.

At half forward we look extremely confused. When we have a fast break it's like we are expecting players to be in a certain position, and they just aren't. So we either kick it to space, where the opposition place a defender unmanned, or kick it directly at the forwards (who are playing behind their man), or maybe find a bloke with 1-2 meters of separation leading wide into the pocket.

Alternatively we chip it around 60m out from goal, either to re-enter the 50m with the same problem, or bomb it long from 50 out and miss.

How many times this season have we seen a player kick it to space inside 50 which a forward then gets separation, leads to and marks it uncontested? Maybe twice.

A lot of our horrible passes inside 50 are because we are putting ourselves under an immense amount of pressure trying to make a decision about where to kick the ball into a giant cluster****

 

[GreyCrow]

Not sure what you meant by the section in bold italics. Can you elaborate, please?
How about: is there any connection with Clarke being our AFLW Head Coach and their AFLW dominance? The team spirit and their willingness to work for each other is inspiring. They didn't coach themselves to the Flag last week.

With all that was going on on the womens side , Matt may not have given 100% to looking after the rucks , as its easy to leave the burden of match tactics on the experienced Jacobs.

Once Jacobs went down , Clarke was still doing media street this week , ROB comes in and its ''back the system'' philosophy

I just wondered how much preparation ROB had specifically for this game.

 

[VSTone]

Why was Don Pyke laughing at Jenkins handballing the ball out of bounds... What would Malcolm do? pathetic!

 

[Scorpus]

Why was Don Pyke laughing at Jenkins handballing the ball out of bounds... What would Malcolm do? pathetic!

He should have raced down to the boundary line and punched Jenkins in the head for being a moron

 

[VSTone]

He should have raced down to the boundary line and punched Jenkins in the head for being a moron

and given the forward coach a clip on the way back!

 

[skam85]

I didnt mind Seeds being moved forward, he got burnt 2 or 3 times.

I minded it. I minded it a whole lot.

"hey, we all know Seedsman is a damaging kick and one of our best and most penetrating disposers of the ball, but, and hear me out here... how about we don't use him in his most damaging position and hide him in a forward pocket"

Don Pyke "I love it!"

 

[skam85]

Our skills were atrocious, the guys that should have been breaking the game apart didn't, but what bugged me the most was how often the players were having a go at each other on the field. Natural considering the putrid disposal most of the time, but there was yelling and finger pointing not seen since the Lever days. Goddard would have fit in well last night.

 

[Scorpus]

I minded it. I minded it a whole lot.

"hey, we all know Seedsman is a damaging kick and one of our best and most penetrating disposers of the ball, but, and hear me out here... how about we don't use him in his most damaging position and hide him in a forward pocket"

Don Pyke "I love it!"

It's all part of the master plan to keep Mackay in the side at all costs, which incidentally most people didn't believe was an actual thing during the off-season despite posters like myself and Drugs Are Bad Mackay? continually saying it was