We can. but only just. I think if we lose this week, we won't make it. Even if we win 13 and a half games this year, we may not make it. NM, WC and Richmond all stink this year, giving more wins to teams. It may be that it is a close call between the 4 teams that were involved in a draw, providing we win this Saturday. My expectations have gone down though with the team selections.
If Nicks keeps coaching for KPIs, anything can happen
Probably, because Nicks is our Coach. It's a false dawn. 2023, that loss to Sydney, convinced most that the Crows were Finals-bound. Nicks certainly assumed that and decided the Crows needed to have a Top 4 defence, forgetting that it's Minor Round wins PLUS strong defence that gets you there. That emphasis on defence drained the mids amd forwards of their scoring flair ==> 0-4.
0-4, but yes, probably.
I wanna say NO, but Hardwick reinvented himself so I suppose there's a slight chance Nicks might do the same.
.Win some away games and then anything can happenI'm not sure how serious you're being with the "Make the 8 ... etc", but
Probably, because Nicks is our Coach. It's a false dawn. 2023, that loss to Sydney, convinced most that the Crows were Finals-bound. Nicks certainly assumed that and decided the Crows needed to have a Top 4 defence, forgetting that it's Minor Round wins PLUS strong defence that gets you there. That emphasis on defence drained the mids amd forwards of their scoring flair ==> 0-4.
Nicks might be good at bringing people together in a warm-fuzzy, kumbaya way but Nicks has no tactical nous, no imagination, no flair, no I-just-wanna-win toughness.
Worse, his player-favoritism is obvious and counter-productively polarising within the group, I'd suspect.
0-4, but yes, probably.
Nicks' tendency to play rookies in positions that do not suit their abilities (as well as the abovementioned favoritism) hinders their development, crushes their confidence and would be creating a lot of resentment. I can't imagine how, say, Curtin feels watching super-experienced, 250-game Leader Smith and others spud it up.
It could be argued then that young players would not be re-signing/extending their contracts if they were disenchanted.
I think the feel-good atmosphere is responsible for that, rather than any real or hard awareness of what it takes to win a Flag.
I wanna say NO, but Hardwick reinvented himself so I suppose there's a slight chance Nicks might do the same.
Very slight. I think Nicks lacks the introspective self-awareness and imagination required to do that
Blaming the players is the ultimate in not taking responsibility for his selections, player positioning and gameday actions (or inactions, in his case). As long as Nicks blames the players for not executing, he has an excuse not to change anything he does. In his mind, they have to change/improve, not him.
In actual fact, they all have to.
"Make the 8 and anything could happen"?
I think that's a Myth of Hope created by Adelaide (1997/fourth and 1998/fifth at end of minor rounds) and the Bulldogs who pulled it off amazingly from 7th in 2016. I only went back as far as 1995, so 2 only in 30 years from 5th to 8th, but since then all the other Premiers have come from Top 4.
A better way to put it is probably "Make the Top 4 and anything could happen".
It's depressing when I think about how far from Top 4 the Crows under Nicks are.
Cheers Nicksy
Nope.
5 more wins for the season then?
And we have Nicks
It's been a tough draw. Certainly playing GC, Freo and Carlton away plus Geelong and Melbourne at home was an extremely tough first 5 weeks. After playing Collingwood tomorrow we have three easier games. If we win all of those after losing to Collingwood we'll be 6-1-6 which I think is probably a fair representation of where we are at as a club and the difficulty of our draw will have evened out. And I guess if we don't win them then we don't have much to complain about anyway.
and with the teams going so bad at the bottom, 13.5 wins may not be enough....we have little if any chance. So I agree, developing the team is the goal now...but will they develop younger players or players that already have xp. I suspect it will be a balance.
Last two are winnable but we have always saved our worst performances for Essendon at Marvel.
We haven't beaten Essendon in years!
We've played in a Grand Final more recently than we've beaten Essendon.
