Review Rachele, Bad & Ugly v Fremantle (Round 1)

[Jeffcrowe]

Murray looks like he’s improving every game, if he can get better at one on one. We have found another very good backman.
Sholl was good but he has no hit factor at all, just don’t know if he will make it. Has the talent but he needs to become more involved going forward and creating play.
I think it was workrate as much as skills in that first half because Freo always had an extra player or 2 free .

Rachele may have just saved us because he has Betts like qualities and will give us highlights for years to come

I thought McPherson getting injured and Sholl coming on and Dawson going back got us back into the game as much as anything

 

[Redleg Crow]

ep, I hope the haters were listening to a Brownlow medalist no less in Gerard Healy rapping him up all day, reckon Gerard has a few clues.

It's such a just a weird criticism when he has been a superb pick up.

How we'll go with Keays, Crouch and Laird is a diffrent issue

 

[Mutineer]

It annoys me every single time Rowe gets the ball loose in play he stops, props, then the tackler closes in on him and he is rushed.

Is this something he got away with at lower levels?

And then generally hits a teammate on the tit by foot or handballs to a running player, I think you need to look more at where the ball goes at the end of all that.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

I don't think we can blame umpires today, if anything we had a decent run with them over the duration of the match.

I was surprised frees were so heavily in our favour. Felt like they missed a few clear ones for us.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

you’ve gotta feel for Port. All these recent years and their young guns like Rozee and Butters and Jones making promising starts, and after 1 game Rochelle is already the biggest afl superstar in the state.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Stupid:

Not learning a damn thing from the Zac Williams situation at Carlton. The arrogance to think you can take a half back flanker and turn him into a midfielder in one preseason. Dawson was terrible in that first half but excellent when moved back. They say Matty Nicks is good at strategy but I don't believe it. At least he had the sense to see his mistake.

******* Putrid:

Crows selection policy. fu** Matty Nicks for selecting Milera & Himmelberg. One is horribly underdone and rusty and will need a few months in the SANFL, the other is a spud who doesn't deserve to wear the guernsey. Our coaches should know better than this.

Dawson hasn’t trained for a month

Just watch this space on that

It was a bridge too far today but I think he can do it well occasionally and we need some different looks

Also he played his best football last year on a wing so he’s very flexible and more than just a half back

 

[Jeffcrowe]

And then generally hits a teammate on the tit by foot or handballs to a running player, I think you need to look more at where the ball goes at the end of all that.

Rowe was superb today until he missed that last goal ( which I thought he’d nail )

21 possessions , 3 goals and the sealer would have been a match winning effort

Instead it’s almost

 

[CrowToon]

Good:

• Rachele obviously- a genuine star.
• Rowe was important in the first half. He kept going. As did McHenry.
• I thought Dawson settled into the game nicely.
• Sholl did his selection chances no harm.
• Smith with his smother was just great.
• We fought back into the game well. Got into a winning position. Should have won but in the end a few players got some great learning material from various plays that let Freo steal it. Rd 1 2022 you take the positives. Rd 1 2023? Better not be dropping that kind of game again.

Bad

• Watching Sloane is concerning. I'm not saying ugly yet but our next captain better be mid-20s and not in the midfield because this isn't useful for our team if he can't turn things around.
• Schoenberg was pretty average. Nothing awful but just not what we are used to. He'll get it sorted.
• Milera didn't seem ready to go. 64% DE isn't why he is in the side. Assess.
• Jones, come on. Your disposal off half back gave us hope for your career. Again, DE in the 50s ain't it.
• ROB is not a complete ruckman we know that but there seems to be too large a gulf between his best and worst.
• TT needs to continue to build. It'll happen.

Ugly

• that first half was shocking. We should've been buried by HT. Against a fit team away from home we would likely have been. That truly was 2020 stuff. Yuck.
• Himmelberg experiment has to be over. He has had opportunities pver the past few years and only once, toward the end of 2020 looked anything half-resembling a semi-competent maybe-SANFL footballer. Gollants chance now. I'd honestly rather we played Strachan in to help out ROB than carry Himmelberg.
• Missed opportunities late. We didn't learn from Freo and ended up paying the price. We apso resorted to panicky, stop-start then take on the tackler stuff which led to more errors. We have played that game before and it never works out. When we win those close ones it's because we took the game on.

This one will feel like yet another game we should've won. I think we will tolerate a few more of these this year but ultimately whether you think finals are on the cards in 2023 or not, teams building toward it shouldn't be dropping those games anymore. By then we are 4 years into our proper rebuild and you need to be getting back into the middle 6 by then.

 

[kirky]

Himmelberg has to go.

No more games please - been in the system for 5 years and still nothing.

 

[SellarStardom]

After that Himmelberg out - Gollant in
Soligo out - Pedlar in

Not sure there are any other changes

May need to work Straughan into the mix as Rob is nothing if he isn't marking it

 

[Scorpus]

Why was Himmelberg even in the side over Gollant when we chose to use Thilthorpe as second ruck?

 

[Rotayjay]

I was at the ground (seeing the Crows play for the first time in person since 2019). The things that stuck out (and pissed me off) the most were the loopy handballs to no one, continually losing one-on-one contests, and poor skills.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I thought McPherson getting injured and Sholl coming on and Dawson going back got us back into the game as much as anything

An underdone Dawson looked happier at HB.

Sholl also gave us energy & run we lacked.

 

[Damp Squarie]

Good:
Rachele WTF!
Murray
Rowe
Crouch

Bad:
Field kicking - lost count on OOFs
Both Himmelberg and Thilthorpe need a big dose of urgency!

Ugly:
My behaviour when the siren went

 

[Jeffcrowe]

An underdone Dawson looked happier at HB.

Sholl also gave us energy & run we lacked.

Yep underdone it was a good move for Dawson to go to his happy place and we needed some kicking out of there

Sholl was fantastic , of course he has some weaknesses but so do most

 

[dogs105]

After that Himmelberg out - Gollant in
Soligo out - Pedlar in

Not sure there are any other changes

May need to work Straughan into the box and Rob is nothing if he isn't marking it

McPherson - Sholl

Sholl - Cook

 

[Jirkago75]

I thought McPherson getting injured and Sholl coming on and Dawson going back got us back into the game as much as anything

Macpherson was having a shocker in my eyes and cost us a few easy goals with dropped marks and fumbles. Sholl is a good runner and is skilled but needs to develop his game forward of centre

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Macpherson was having a shocker in my eyes and cost us a few easy goals with dropped marks and fumbles. Sholl is a good runner and is skilled but needs to develop his game forward of centre

I was relieved when Moose went off. He was garbage today.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Why was Himmelberg even in the side over Gollant when we chose to use Thilthorpe as second ruck?

I think it’s the kick down the line

They must think Gollant Fog TT can’t bring it to ground enough

TT will be able to but not yet

Other than preventing some intercept marks Himmelberg doesn’t add value so I assume that’s it

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Macpherson was having a shocker in my eyes and cost us a few easy goals with dropped marks and fumbles. Sholl is a good runner and is skilled but needs to develop his game forward of centre

Puts a bit of doubt on McPherson’s future

Thought the end to his season last year was good then he’s regressed again

 

[BRL121]

I was relieved when Moose went off. He was garbage today.

That's because he was too close to the oppo goals: he's not a good defender. He needs to be closer to wing, rather than the goals. I don't know why the AFC has been unable to see this.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

I was surprised frees were so heavily in our favour. Felt like they missed a few clear ones for us.

We got a great run in second half , not so much the first

 

[thebirdman 24]

Good
Rachele - wow
Keays and Mcrouch - both put in great shifts
Brown - underrated game
Fog - competed well, goals and pressure
Butts - steady in defence and clean with the ball
Rowe - great game with a poor miss at the end
Dawson - poor first half, elite second half.
Scholl - I've been getting stuck into him due to his strenth and hardness but he didn't put a foot wrong today. It was rhe best I've seen him play for ages.

Bad
Mchenry - so fumbly with the ball. He has a great kick inside 50, assuming it isn't kicked into the man on the mark or he drops it inexplicably. I counted 3 fumbles in a few second period, needs to work on his ball take bigtime and work on his ball retention so he isn't so easily stripped of the ball.
Milera - good to see him back but was rusty
RT - Thought he might win it for us with that late shot, then that huge mark on the wing..He is young and hugely talented. I have faith he will turn it around.

Ugly
Sloane - awful game. I can't remember anything positive from his game and he was costly at the end showing poor leadership with a 6-6-6 infringement and calling for a short chip from RT.
Schoenberg - I'm a huge fan but he was dreadful. I have never seem him kick so poorly.
Himmelberg - delist, next.

On SM-A325F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Nige_Bix]

After watching and refelecting that overall we were beaten by a better side on the day, I couldn't help wondering on how the presence of Tex could have influenced this result!

 

[mulz]

Just got home from the game, our team is so small, watching the man on man at the bounce freo players dwarfed us. Rachele brilliant tho, how Nicks can have us prepared to serve up that crap round 1 in the first half jesus christ, getting outnumbered in our defence is unforgivable and it happens time and time again, i like Nicksy but im definitely not convinced in him yet.
Long season ahead but no surprises there .