On The Couch

[cmndstab]

I keep wondering why people complain that we haven't beaten many top 4 sides when, in reality, we've beaten one, St. Kilda are undefeated, and Geelong have only been beaten by one side other than St. Kilda.

I watched Footy Classified today, Lyon made a really strong point that we were playing a terrible gamestyle in the first half where we tried to kick long and went to the wrong side of the ground - but then said that we changed at half time and played very well. Thomas gave Craig a big wrap saying it's really difficult to change your gamestyle at half time. Lyon implicated that if we'd played that style the whole game we'd have won.

No other mentions of the Crows (though Hutchy claimed that Brisbane hadn't beaten anyone above them on the ladder, even though we're above them).

 

[Texas Danger]

There were actually quite a few mentions of Adelaide this week, not all directly related to us but still the most coverage we have received all year on Footy Classified.

Aside from analysis of the Geelong game, the panel spoke about Jason Akermanis' comments from the weekend revealing that the Western Bulldogs were currently undergoing a heavy training phase in preparation for finals to correlate with perceived easier games against Fremantle/West Coast, and how this approach was a major contributing factor in the Adelaide Crows successful premiership assaults in 97/98 under the tuition of then head fitness coach turned current senior, Neil Craig.

[youtube]oTlNeXHkUn0[/youtube]

 

[RoosterLad]

Bugger that.

Turn on Fox Sports 1. Classic Grand Finals and it is 97.

 

[WALL-e]

haha thanks for that update. 97 it is, start of the 2nd.

 

[DirrtyBee]

haha i got it on now

 

[Mong]

I keep wondering why people complain that we haven't beaten many top 4 sides when, in reality, we've beaten one, St. Kilda are undefeated, and Geelong have only been beaten by one side other than St. Kilda.

Exactly. I've been wondering the same thing. Apart from the one game where Geelong were decimated by injury, no one has beaten the top 2. Of our games against the other top 4 teams, Western and Collingwood, we are 1-1.

Admittedly, we also lost our one and only game to Brisbane too, who are fifth.

 

[chickawah]

Bugger that.

Turn on Fox Sports 1. Classic Grand Finals and it is 97.

Much appreciated.

 

[RoosterLad]

How different is the Holding the Ball rule?

 

[Elder van Berlo]

In one of Michelangelo Rucci's articles this morning (I still read them ) he pointed out that our record against the other clubs in the top eight is 3-7 which is less than impressive.

I guess I'll feel a lot more comfortable about our chances if we can knock off Collingwood this week!

Take out 0-4 against St Kilda and Geelong and that becomes 3-3 against other top 8 sides. Which is about right, we can beat those other sides, but are not good enough to do it every time, otherwise we'd be where St Kilda and Geelong are.

As stabby said, noones beaten St Kilda, and they are the only team to have beaten Geelong (Brisbane's win over Geelong VFL doesn't count), and the games against those teams really skew that stat. Geelong and the Saints make up 28% of the other teams in the 8, but we have played 40% of our games against other top 8 teams against them.

 

[smoovy]

Bugger that.

Turn on Fox Sports 1. Classic Grand Finals and it is 97.

When are the Crows going to build a statue to Fud. Of course they would need to model it from his playing days. There is no room for a present day Fud statue.

 

[WALL-e]

That was bliss

 

[birdmanptr]

haha thanks for that update. 97 it is, start of the 2nd.

Testing my memory but when Jars kicks his last

THAT WILL DO THAT WILL DO

 

[WALL-e]

Testing my memory but when Jars kicks his last

THAT WILL DO THAT WILL DO

hahaha, you can't actually see how the ball got to him either, just ended up in his hands, right foot snap 35 out 55 degree angle, wrong side. No problems!

 

[WALL-e]

Anyone watch tonight? I missed.

 

[NTRabbit]

Anyone watch tonight? I missed.

Talk of who has been a recent convert, and who has been on from the beginning.

Mike can't split the top 5 for contention, with Adelaide and the Dogs carrying the best form into September. His only reservation about us is that we haven't taken a big scalp recently.

Gerrard thinks we have the most potent forward line in the final 8 with Dangerfield "a gun in the making" and the biggest wildcard, all remarked on how at the start of the season our forward line was seen as our biggest weakness.

 

[WALL-e]

Talk of who has been a recent convert, and who has been on from the beginning.

Mike can't split the top 5 for contention, with Adelaide and the Dogs carrying the best form into September. His only reservation about us is that we haven't taken a big scalp recently.

Gerrard thinks we have the most potent forward line in the final 8 with Dangerfield "a gun in the making" and the biggest wildcard, all remarked on how at the start of the season our forward line was seen as our biggest weakness.

Where abouts on the show was the Adelaide talk? 0-15 15-30 30-45 45-60?

 

[RoosterLad]

Big test whether we can kick a big score against a top 4 side as well despite our awesome looking forwardline.

Brad Johnson was on as well, what a champion that man is. Really enjoyed his interview.

 

[magtrev]

anyone watch one week at a time? miss anything there?

 

[graps]

anyone watch one week at a time? miss anything there?

They had Matthew Knights on the panel, and obviously looked at the upcoming game from an Essendon point of view. They spent more time talking about Lloyd's bump than anything else though.

The other panelists just went through the Crows forward-line, saying there's now 6-7 players who can play as genuine forwards.
Mentioned our finals record, "abysmal" was the word Walls used to describe it I believe, but none of them seemed to give the Bombers a hope in hell to beat us.

 

[Glenno23]

Anyone watch tonight? I missed.

Yeah

Gerard made a quick mention on us before he was meant to and Mike was saying how much love Gerard had for us, but has had so since pre season. They then did the interview with Brad Johnson before talking about us

Going into it they showed Burton's mark and basically said that the contest is over, give him the keys. "One week at a time" did the same thing, but in a rather funny way. They showed the 3 contenders, but left Burton's till last. They showed Ling's and raved about it, then showed Clarke's, to which Quarter's says "No-one's gonna beat that surely" then they show Burton and say well, they did beat Clarke's. It was quite humorous and obviously set up

Gerard stated we have the best forward line ever, to which Mike scoffed (funny that) and said we were right in the mix. Hird said it was funny that pre season everyone was wondering how we could kick a score, but now its our biggest strength. Same old same old really. Gerard showed us much love, Hirdy agreed and Mike scoffed and said we have not beaten anyone of note yet (recently)

Went for a couple of mins, but nothing new was said

 

[NTRabbit]

Where abouts on the show was the Adelaide talk? 0-15 15-30 30-45 45-60?

Pretty sure the majority of it was after Brad Johnson, so after the halfway point

 

[McCavity]

Mentioned our finals record, "abysmal" was the word Walls used to describe it I believe, but none of them seemed to give the Bombers a hope in hell to beat us.

How ironic. Abysmal is the word I would use to describe Walls' contribution to contemporary sports media.

 

[macca23]

anyone watch one week at a time? miss anything there?

Apart from Burton's mark, it was a very Vic-centric show aimed at a Vic market.

The Hawthorn/Essendon match, Campbell Brown's threats. Lloyd's offence and penalty, the big rumble, how they hate each other etc dominated the show IMO.

On the Couch was an infinitely better balanced show, apart from the old Vic geriatric Sheehan gradually being dragged kicking and screaming to realize that Adelaide are a good footy team - and they're not Victorian.

General mood on both shows was that Essendon have little or no chance against us and that we are being heavily advantaged by the 8 day break vs our next opponent's 6 day break if we do beat Essendon.

Wall-e, I genuinely can't remember when the talk on Adelaide took place but I think, stress think, that it was after the chat with the personable and natural Brad Johnson, which would put it either at the end of the 30 to 45 or 45 to 60 segment.

 

[WALL-e]

Big test whether we can kick a big score against a top 4 side as well despite our awesome looking forwardline.

Brad Johnson was on as well, what a champion that man is. Really enjoyed his interview.

Top bloke off field, had a chat to him in the Adelaide airport on the way back to Melb, great bloke.

On the field, w***er, stager, polar opposite.

 

[pjcrows]

I'm still baffled at how the Pies are so highly rated at the moment, but Adelaide aren't as much because we "haven't beaten anyone of note". Sure. But the Pies lost to the Cats, got belted by 15 goals vs St Kilda, and just lost to the Bulldogs.

No one has pointed out that they've played St Kilda and Geelong once, whereas we played them twice. If we get Richmond and Melbourne twice like Pies did, we replace them on the ladder.