Review Good vs Carlton

[adelaidecrows]

finally watched the replay.

Soligo is going to be a top 10 midfielder in the competition within the next couple of years. I'd even say top 5.

Berry is better than people give him credit for. He just needs to find consistency.

Hamill showed why he is on the list. He looks pretty solid as well. So being ragdolled like he used to will be a lot harder.

Keane is a find. It will be interesting as to how we fit Murray, Butts and Keane into our backline.

Putting Rankine into the middle is a no brainer. He is a true athlete and has a high footy iq and he will just lose his opponents all obver the field.

Cook and Nank proving they were long over due regular selections. Both very clever players.

Overall while it was an ugly game it was great to just see the players enjoy themselves.

 

[Redleg Crow]

Crouch was very important again last night. His handballs remain among the very best in the AFL. Having him being able get in and under to give it out to Rankine, Rachele, Soligo is perfect.

Laird can go spend time on the half back flank.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Will be interesting to see our midfield with only one of Crouch/Laird. I imagine Crouch will get a couple of weeks for his bump

 

[Mostyn]

The only time I think Nicks needs a slap for TERRIBLE coaching was the Geelong game. He had an absolute mare.

Stewart aside, the decision to see how clunky the midfield mix was against GCS and back it in again was just wrong.

Personally, I don't understand why coaches don't immediately throw the magnets around - but they don't. They slowly change things and replace injured players with lesser versions of someone doing the same role, instead of the next best player.

I agree with NSolis that they've been changing for a little while. Good that it's finally gotten somewhere a bit more exciting.

 

[Moonwatcher]

One negative, given the touched call, is the AFL will say that this is 'debt paid' for the Keays goal against Sydney.

 

[CrowToon]

Woke up feeling too positive this morning so here is a little nitpick to get me back into my melancholy state of mind.

Keays takes the mark with 0:24 left. His oscar-winning acting buys an extra few seconds (though N Williamson, umpiring flog-in-chief, is onto him) and he doesnt kick from boot until 0:10. This is a bomb down the line. (Shut up, Kayo doesn't let you screenshot so I took a photo on my tablet).



The drop of the ball occurs 0:08-0:07. I don't like that with 8 seconds to go, from a position like this, that we concede another F50 entry. There, i said it. Call me harsh, but that's pro sports. This isn't a complicated scenario. You may well be sore and tired but I want 8 more seconds. If Brock can death crawl a football field with Jeremy on his back then our guys can give me 10 more yards 8 more seconds.

I dont really know where the two rucks were even coming from given where the ball had been previously but since neither are there I'll ignore them.

3 players in no mans land, they may as well have stayed back in defence because they are irrelevant where they are. Then we have 3 near the contest, Tex, Fog and Rachele.



Rachele goes up with one arm outstretched (why?). Stay down man and guard the crumbers. Tex plays like he is trying to bring the ball to ground in his F50 for crumbers to get...well mission accomplished, straight to Walsh. Fog does not contest, okay he is wrestling with Weitering but that means nothing when Weitering successfully punches it to Walsh.

Not one of them thought smashing that ball out of bounds was the play. We didnt need a mark, we needed a dead ball or a contested one. They kill that ball over the line or anywhere other than the front of the pack and Walsh's kick never makes the 50 in time. That game was ripe for a bullshit free to the Blues on the siren and I hate that we gave the umpires that opportunity.

Never in a million years with 10 seconds on the clock with your team in possession should you ever concede a F50 entry.

There, change my mind.

 

[CrowToon]

A lot is being made in the media about Carlton losing by the touched/non-touched goal. Which if happened in the last 5 mins of the game I'd understand. It happened in the third qtr. With 7 mins to go Carlton were up by 16, but somehow it was a borderline decision from the third qtr. Wowee.

 

[adelaidecrows]

A lot is being made in the media about Carlton losing by the touched/non-touched goal. Which if happened in the last 5 mins of the game I'd understand. It happened in the third qtr. With 7 mins to go Carlton were up by 16, but somehow it was a borderline decision from the third qtr. Wowee.

People complaining about the missed goal don't understand the game. If Carlton got the goal, it would have gone back to the centre. Based on the game where we were equal with Carlton and they were missing shots at goal, it is more likely to have been a win for us. The missed goal played in their favour because it was further away from our goal and it should have given them the defensive advantage to lock it in.

 

[Moonwatcher]

A lot is being made in the media about Carlton losing by the touched/non-touched goal. Which if happened in the last 5 mins of the game I'd understand. It happened in the third qtr. With 7 mins to go Carlton were up by 16, but somehow it was a borderline decision from the third qtr. Wowee.

There's no way we come back if we go another goal down.

 

[CrowToon]

There's no way we come back if we go another goal down.

But at the time of the incident we were ahead by 1pt so that argument holds no weight. If that score review comes back with a goal Carlton go up by 5 and a totally new game gets played, who knows what happens in thay alternate universe.

 

[George Kramer]

The only time I think Nicks needs a slap for TERRIBLE coaching was the Geelong game. He had an absolute mare.

Stewart aside, the decision to see how clunky the midfield mix was against GCS and back it in again was just wrong.

Personally, I don't understand why coaches don't immediately throw the magnets around - but they don't. They slowly change things and replace injured players with lesser versions of someone doing the same role, instead of the next best player.

I agree with NSolis that they've been changing for a little while. Good that it's finally gotten somewhere a bit more exciting.

Lol so the go slow chippy game plan that we played for rounds 1-4 weren’t bad coaching?

You know what Nicks said last week? We were going to simplify the game plan, ie go back to what worked last year which for some strange reason he changed.

Weeks 1-4 opposition intercept defenders killed us, not yesterday. Why?

And yes we slowly got our midfield right, 4 weeks late.

But it’s not surprising to see the band of cheerleaders sticking fat in trying to downplay the horrific coaching which led to a 0-4 start and missed finals.

 

[Pugsley]

Look up Sketch.

Kids these days.

 

[ContrarianCrow]

Watching that final goal - that Crouch handball to Keays is f***ing elite. Being tackled falling forward, manages to handball in the opposite direction using his weak hand to hit Keays perfectly. Execution late in games in deep congestion is something we’re generally terrible at, so that clean one-touch chain stood out.

 

[Pugsley]

Hey, that’s The Who buddy

The original, yes.

 

[CrowToon]

Watching that final goal - that Crouch handball to Keays is f***ing elite. Being tackled falling forward, manages to handball in the opposite direction using his weak hand to hit Keays perfectly. Execution late in games in deep congestion is something we’re generally terrible at, so that clean one-touch chain stood out.

Yep, should get a lot of credit for that. Leaving Crouch in the stoppages and sending Laird to half back (and Smith to pasture) is ideal.

 

[Tex Danger]

A way more obvious and parsimonious explanation is just that they saw the need to move to a mix with more Soligo/Rankine/Rachele but wanted to do it gradually over time rather than all at once. This aligns perfectly well with the observed tendencies of the coaching group (pretty conservative, not prone to massive changes in approach overnight) and all the things they have said and done since the criticism hit the club after the round 2 loss.

I'm not even sure I understand what you think it is the club was doing. They thought Crouch/Dawson/Laird was the best mix, but wanted to move to another mix for... reasons. But only at the speed they could 'get away with' without losing? And this is while they went from 0-2 to 0-4? Why would they even bother if they didn't see a need for change? Why wouldn't they just rebound back to the preferred setup when introducing Soligo didn't result in wins? Doesn't it just make way more sense that they didn't want to suddenly change the entire makeup of the midfield at once and also they had nowhere else to put their experienced midfielders so they took a staged approach?

edit: Also Nicks said in the presser tonight that they were 'slowly' introducing new faces into the midfield mix or something along those lines. Though I hadn't seen that when I wrote the post obviously.

It’s pretty clear they thought they had the right mix but it wasn’t working. So they reevaluate and it was still wrong.

They changed it but by bit to last night

Rather than it being a sign that they identified the issue early but for some reason thought a gradual shift was best (which if is the case is also a failure) it is more an admission of guilt that they were wrong (when everyone external to the club- fans, commentators, opposition fans) were saying from last year we needed to get these kids in and go with the more dynamic mix

At least they recognised the issue and made this transition. It was just too slow to correct and that’s on the coaches.

 

[baldandbroke]

Will be interesting to see our midfield with only one of Crouch/Laird. I imagine Crouch will get a couple of weeks for his bump

Really? Under "Potential to cause injury"? Because he caused no injury and did not hit the player high.

If he got him in the head, then it's another story.

I guess McAdam got weeks last year for doing nothing wrong, so it's possible.

If Mrouch gets weeks, double it for Butters.

 

[Tex Danger]

I think Rankines post game interview on the ground was pretty telling.

He was so happy to have played midfield and the comment specifically relating to that and that “Nicks put his trust in me tonight”

I said a few weeks ago how rankine and Rachelle haven’t been backwards in publicly pushing the narrative about more kid time for them (and pedlar) and how it almost seemed they were frustrated and putting the heat on the coaches to make it happen

That interview last night in that context I think just reaffirmed that

Let the talented kids lead us

 

[Trigger13]

Really? Under "Potential to cause injury"? Because he caused no injury and did not hit the player high.

If he got him in the head, then it's another story.

I guess McAdam got weeks last year for doing nothing wrong, so it's possible.

If Mrouch gets weeks, double it for Butters.

Other way round. Crouch’ bump was worse than Butters. I’d imagine Crouch gets 1-2 weeks and butters gets off.

Also, Dawson will get one week

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

The coaches changed virtually everything because their preferred selections, set up and game style were proven to be muppet level

Yay coaches

 

[Greenfinger]

Ignoring the fact that this contradicts the messaging we've heard from the club for the first month, the change in personnel did not happen in isolation. We also saw a dramatic change in how we played - more speed, more willingness to change lanes, more possessions in forward chains resulting in deeper entries to a less crowded F50, defenders playing higher.

We've heard for a month that the "data" showed the mix was right, the gameplan was sound and it was just the players weren't executing and were out of form. Now we get this line of "gradual change" blah blah. It's bullshit spun by a salesperson who was told to change his approach or leave the premises.

100% . I would actually be ok in Nicks was open about failing and learning from the process but Nicks has just shown that he’s not capable of taking leadership and responsibility for the disaster of the first 4 weeks.

I had a growing feeling all of last year that Nicks was completely false and we now have irrefutable evidence. He’s not a leader

 

[Alwaysacrow]

McHenry is perhaps the best sub in the league.

Yes, he's a headless chook. So when he starts a game on a level playing field, he gets found out. But he's so full of energy that when he comes on later on while others are worn out, he dominates.

Didn't he have about 5 10+ disposal games last year when being subbed on at 3/4 time?

Put him into that role and leave him there, if he's anywhere else, he's either a liability to the senior team, or he's eating up valuable salary cap space while running around in the SANFL.

Best sub in the AFL???
He's probably the least skillful player in the entire system.
He's small.
Not particularly quick.
Can't kick more than 40 metres.
Has no AFL IQ.
Gives away too many frees.
Constantly ruins momentum in games as he did last night.
HE'S COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS.
I have no idea why we still persist with him.
OOC at the end of the year so surely he gets the chop.
Players like Dowling and Taylor should be getting games instead of this spud.
He's a waste of a list spot.

 

[Greenfinger]

Absolutely! Nobody is saying otherwise! But credit HAS to be given to him when he (eventually) gets it right!

He’s never admitted any wrong doing and piled it all on the players . Good leaders don’t do that

 

[Crow-eater]

Our most important centre bounce of the season so far, and it was Rankine, Soligo and Berry. Also, how was it not recalled? Missed both ruckman.

 

[AFC979810]

I think Rankines post game interview on the ground was pretty telling.

He was so happy to have played midfield and the comment specifically relating to that and that “Nicks put his trust in me tonight”

I said a few weeks ago how rankine and Rachelle haven’t been backwards in publicly pushing the narrative about more kid time for them (and pedlar) and how it almost seemed they were frustrated and putting the heat on the coaches to make it happen

That interview last night in that context I think just reaffirmed that

Let the talented kids lead us

Whats the weirdest thing to me is that the club actively released fluff pieces about Rankine and Rachele (and Peds) playing more midfield time. Then all the offseason training reports came out with Rank/Rachele/Peds spending a lot more time in the middle. Then these players also discussed publicly how they were practicing more in the midfield.

So its pretty obvious this was the clubs intention. Why spend all preseason increasing their time in the midfield and then giving them less time in than the previous year when Rd 1 kicked off.

This wasn't a Dawson situation where he was just thrown in.

Baffling.