Review Good/Bad v St Kilda, Round 12

[rezagun]

Was thinking that last night. His kicking is becoming very good. Absolute MUST re-sign.

Will be a great captain of the club

Has become our quarterback. Very good decision maker.

 

[CrowBloke]

Try and enjoy the season. We are 9 and 3. The way some of you are bitching you would think we are 3 and 9. Im ok with analysing the game but the negative bullcrap posted on here with no real analysis should be cracked down upon.

YES!
I couldn't have said it better, agree totally.
All of the MEH-ers and whingers who are wailing that we "only" beat the Saints by 57 points, hell, I'd have taken a 1-point WIN, any day, any game (especially if it's the 2017 GF, hehe ).
Before the gripers move in and say I'm easily pleased, I'm not. Adelaide is responsible for more 50+ point wins than any other team this season.
We can only play the opposition who turn up. In St. Kilda's defence, they played much better in the 2nd and 3rd quarters but could not put any scoreboard pressure back onto us. Speculating about what would've happened last night IF we'd played the Dogs, or the Cats, or the MICE or anybody is a complete waste of time.
REALITY: we played the Saints, beat them 111-54, got the four points AND increased our %. We're 9-3 and Top 2 after 12 rounds.
How any Crows supporter could not be happy with that is beyond me.

 

[Bicks]

There has got to be something going on with his personal life

Has to be , he's not right

People selecting him in their all Australian side are having a laugh

Daniel was very close with his grandad Harvey Stevens the Bulldogs champion of yesteryear who passed on early in the year?

On Daniel his brother Michael is back playing some pretty decent footy in the 2's up there I hear and not getting a look in??

 

[CrowBloke]

... followed by a genuinely testing 5 week block:
WB
Melb away
Geel
Coll away
Port ......... Will get a really good picture of if we're the genuine article from that period.

Some in here won't be happy with 4-1 from those 5 games, even 5-0 (they'd find something to whinge about, especially if we don't win by 12+ goals).
The one I'm most worried about is the ferals game. They were 9.8 to 0.3 against the Hawks at half-time, which is phenomenal (*trying hard not to puke*). Who's their Defensive Coach? One Nathan Bassett, ex-Crow and Norwood twice-Premiership Coach --- we have got to get Fred asap, in any role.

 

[VSTone]

Good- 4 pts
Gov should be back from here in.
Milera Magic will become a thing.
Greenwood's work in tight is exactly what we need roving Sauces little fluffy taps
Matt Crouch's foot skill is coming along nicely.

Bad - the Saints left Douglas open all night and what a great tactic it was,
how many times did he give it straight back to them with his one step dinkies?
if it's not on Walkers chest he's all at sea... time for an eye test if he's not playing under duress.
Sauce being used as link up midfielder is hilarious at times, the big dinosaur lives at the end of the chain.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Some in here won't be happy with 4-1 from those 5 games, even 5-0 (they'd find something to whinge about, especially if we don't win by 12+ goals).
The one I'm most worried about is the ferals game. They were 9.8 to 0.3 against the Hawks at half-time, which is phenomenal (*trying hard not to puke*). Who's their Defensive Coach? One Nathan Bassett, ex-Crow and Norwood twice-Premiership Coach --- we have got to get Fred asap, in any role.

Don't lay it on too thick

 

[VSTone]

So why is Greenwood still getting the least amount of TOG (59%)? Is it a fitness issue?

My guess is to have him cherry ripe for the finals, he's going to be important!

 

[CrowBloke]

I know we are 9-3 but I recall us being minor premiers in recent history and ******* that up.

Say what?
2005 is hardly "recent" and has NO bearing or relevance to this season (different players/coach/opposition).

Has anyone considered this: Pyke is being smart by playing the kind of game that will get us into the Top-4 with strong %, maybe enough to get us 2 home Finals? He's been around long enough to know that a final is rarely a shoot-out and he m-i-g-h-t be prepping us for after the bye to play a tougher, more defensive game ie
Step One: be Top 2 before the bye
Step Two: try our best to be Top 4, preferably Top 2, after the bye + minor round, with an emphasis on a refined/improved tougher game plan
Step Three: Win the Flag (might mean winning only 3 consecutive games and if they're ALL one-point wins, I'd take that).
Time will tell. We gotta dream/hope.

 

[VSTone]

Hartigan played a bit better last night after a few poor weeks

Talia still struggling. Was getting good at taking marks one-on-one and even the odd strong pack mark last season. Backing himself in. Is dropping these now and floundering when the ball hits the ground. He seems a real confidence player. If he fumbles or drops a mark early in a game he goes into pure lock down mode. That's how he can play a whole game for only 2 possessions. As a leader we need him to have more of a presence than that. Needs to be more resilient. We've come off an era where our senior players would go into their shells at the first sign of pressure/big game. It should be the opposite of that.

make Lever VC next season

 

[CrowBloke]

Tex - has been injured for awhile. You can see it in his speed around the ground and tonight his kicking suffered.

I thought the same for a couple weeks until Tex wheeled around at speed to his right and dobbed that goal to the N end, LEFT-footed, from 48m out.
He might be tired, but I don't think an injured player could do that. Some of our blokes can't reach 48m on their dominant leg.

 

[kirky]

At the moment this part of the year is all about positioning - there has only been one other time in our history where we were 9-3 or better going into a bye and that was 2006 when we had lost only 2 games to that point - take a second to think about that.

After the bye, we have a reasonable run of games to further consolidate out position - Hawks in Adelaide, Carlton at the "G", Bulldogs in Adelaide (first time we play them here since AO redeveloped.

I keep hearing we need to do it against better opposition, sorry but I can only read that as Geelong. Reckon we have all the others covered inc GWS. GWS play a similar style of game to us and that is why we beat them - our forward line is more potent because our defence is better than theirs!

 

[hey shorty]

My guess is to have him cherry ripe for the finals, he's going to be important!

I would say he doesn't have the tank to play full AFL midfield yet. He may have played high level basketball but the aerobic demands are much higher.

 

[CrowBloke]

Lever. My god sign him. Now.

Yes!
His anticipation and defensive marking are awesome and he feeds Smith/Laird/Atkins and others to create run out of defence. His work low down is good too --- he picked one ball up off his bootlaces at speed (freakish for a 194cm bloke) last night.
When BT was roaming around like a headless chook he had a few words with Lever who hinted that he was happy at the Crows and was waiting for the pay-scale to be resolved before re-signing. Meanwhile, every week he plays like that his price goes up. WORTH every cent!

 

[CrowBloke]

Walker. Yeah he did some good things but he's still such a lazy player. His kicking is still horrible. Much more presence about him tonight but he does it far too inconsistently.

So lazy that he was credited with 10 goal assists last night! If only our other forwards were that lazy.
Did you see his L-foot goal on the run ?
Tex looks tired to me, needs the bye.

 

[kirky]

Say what? Where did you come up with those numbers?
GWS have not suddenly become THE super-team and we've all ready beaten them by 9+ goals BEFORE a few of them were injured.

Totally agree - convinced some on this board have been living in a cave and just started following footy.

We match up well against GWS and will beat them more times than not.

 

[CrowBloke]

Probably no different to blight not tagging Harvey when we won the flag

Nope.
Blight himself said (in one of those 97GF vids on the AFC website) that he put Kane Johnson onto Harvey in the 97GF and the kid did a great job.

 

[kirky]

Has become our quarterback. Very good decision maker.

Well if he can win us 5 rings (Grand Finals) like my other hero, Tom Brady, I'd be extremely happy!

 

[CrowBloke]

So why is Greenwood still getting the least amount of TOG (59%)? Is it a fitness issue?

Good question.
My guess is Pyke is still acclimatising him to the heightened pace and pressure of AFL compared to the SANFL. What Greenwood did with that 59% TOG was impressive and don't be surprised if he gets more and more with every round.
Does anyone have Beech's TOG? He looks a very likely/handy type, strong, good hands, good footy brain (eg to sell the dummy b4 his first AFL goal). I'd pick either of them in front of Mackay, any day.

 

[CrowBloke]

all it takes is one of the other mids/bigger forwards to just put a nice hard block on every now and then. Even give away a free kick, i don't give a shit.... but make those taggers know that every now and then, you'll be hit when not looking too.

Yes!!
I'd looove to see a few of them flat on their bums wondering what hit them while they were busy harassing Sloane. Even a side-on hip and shoulder would do the trick.

 

[Mismatched]

Not sure tonight dispels the notion we are flat trackers.

Was it ever? Although, I'm not quite sure how we've been landed with this tag. Our record at present is 3-1 against the other 4 sides in the top 5, and 4-1 against top 8 sides. Compare that to Port Adelaide who are 1-4 versus top 8 sides with their 1 win coming against Fremantle... How about Richmond, also 1-4 vs top 8 sides with a win against West Coast in Melbourne, yet the media can't get enough of them...

I'm not going to pretend we're playing great footy at the moment, but geez there's some crap been spoken in the media and a hell of a lot of arse kissing to sides like Port and Richmond who have done SFA but beat up on bottom 8 sides.

 

[CrowBloke]

As good as the first goal was not sure Beech holds his spot. No idea what he actually brings to the team, thing Wigg has more strings to his bow.

Beech --- good hands/strong mark, physical presence, his goal showed a cool head to sell the candy.

Like Gallucci I didn't think Beech looked overwhelmed

Beech impressed me more than Galluci.

 

[Vhaluus]

Beech --- good hands/strong mark, physical presence, his goal showed a cool head to sell the candy.


Beech impressed me more than Galluci.

You'd hope Beech would given the age disparity.

 

[RodnyDangrfield]

Must admit I thought Douglas, especially by foot was gross. But I seem to be in the minority there so maybe I was wrong. Have to be one of the most boring matches I've ever seen. This game mixed with the dons presser and I was asleep in about 5 seconds flat. Great cures for insomnia.

 

[6BTS]

Not sure if this was mentioned already (can't be buggered reading the whole thread), but BT got in a sneaky question after the game in the change rooms regarding Lever re-signing. It came across as if Lever was saying it was the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement for the players) which was holding it back and in all fairness, if they do raise the salary cap I can understand Lever wanting to get a few extra dollars on his contract, no one could say with a straight face that he doesn't deserve it.

So I'm going off that, he stated when he was first drafted that he was more than happy to play interstate, he's not a homesick child like some so I'm pretty confident him signing will be based on him being happy with the contract. My amateur analysis - He'll sign later in the year sometime after the CBA is completed.

 

[MRB37]

Hartigan played a bit better last night after a few poor weeks

Talia still struggling. Was getting good at taking marks one-on-one and even the odd strong pack mark last season. Backing himself in. Is dropping these now and floundering when the ball hits the ground. He seems a real confidence player. If he fumbles or drops a mark early in a game he goes into pure lock down mode. That's how he can play a whole game for only 2 possessions. As a leader we need him to have more of a presence than that. Needs to be more resilient. We've come off an era where our senior players would go into their shells at the first sign of pressure/big game. It should be the opposite of that.

Hartigan took a few risks zoning off his man, ones that would have resulted in easy goals if he messed them up he. He came through though, but it was good to see that even after some poor form he was willing to stay aggressive and back himself in.