Review Round 4 v Essendon @ Thomas Farms Oval (Unley)

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Brooke Smith was tough in that contest, has previously had shoulder issues from memory. Had a few positive plays in her best game for the club… not a high bar it has to be said
 

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I’ve switched to Martin after Waterhouse’s 2 games this season 🤮
they're both easily replaceable as they don't do much. Rachelle gets more involved, but if she is the one doing the chasing, she is pretty much ineffective due to her size and lack of speed. If she has possession, she is almost always caught. The only thing she has going for her is her tenacity in the contest which wins her free kicks sometimes because she is too small to tackle correctly.

Waterhouse is the better player but doesn't get involved enough. Not sure if it's a fitness thing. Only had 57% tog.
 
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Waterhouse is the better player but doesn't get involved enough. Not sure if it's a fitness thing. Only had 57% tog.
Not sure it is fitness, as she posted a video running a 40+ K cross country marathon a few months back. Seems to expend a lot of energy getting physical with opposition though.
 
Not sure it is fitness, as she posted a video running a 40+ K cross country marathon a few months back. Seems to expend a lot of energy getting physical with opposition though.
If she's allowed time and space she's talented enough to do damage.

You don't get that at AFLW with her lack of speed.
 
Pretty professional performance in the end. It was the usual Crows "stalemate for 1-2 quarters, then break away, then hold the lead" match we seem to play against every team outside of the top few.

Decent performance from Boyle-Carr in her debut. Has the defensive side of the game down pat, it's refreshing to see someone with pace actually use that pace to create pressure around the ball. Almost invisible offensively in the first half but got going in the second with a couple of very nice disposals.

Shame about Smith's shoulder injury, but without meaning to sound cruel, she shouldn't have been playing next week either way. She's just not up to it at this stage of her career. Three touches from almost a full game of football. Missed one target as well, so that 100% DE is finally gone.

I like the concept of a Jess Waterhouse, but the reality just isn't there. At least Martin creates some pressure up the ground, Waterhouse provided almost nothing.

Tonon looked good up forward again, when she was there. Randall through the midfield worked pretty well.

I'm really impressed with how Goodwin has improved this year. I'd love to see her used through the middle a bit more.

That was probably Kelly's best game of the year, but she still has a bad habit of dropping uncontested marks, or not disposing of the ball when she has the option to do so. Two great goals made up for it though! Probably Levy's best game as well.

Sarah Allan in the midfield wasn't a horrible move, but surely she is more value down back? Only 7 touches today, and only two marks.

Marinoff's worst game of the season, and yet still probably best on for us. If I was giving votes to the Crows players, I'd probably go:

5. Marinoff
4. Randall
3. Gould
2. Newman
1. Kelly
Apologies to Hatchard, Thompson and Biddell. Really nice to see SLT having a quality season again.
 
Wins a win, last 2 weeks have shown at different times this team is not infallible though. 2nd Quarter bursts in both games has covered some other wasteful quarters.

Review;

Positive:

Imagine Clarke will be most pleased with fighting back & winning the contested ball at the end of the day, especially after the start of the game. Getting the contested ball turnaround meant Bombers were never able to make any inroads really.​
Kelly the biggest positive, might not reflect it in the stats but got back to her 2023 self and was able to hit the scoreboard as well, her run and ability to eat up metres was exceptional but showed some toughness today. Seemed buoyed by Boyle-Carr’s inclusion.​
Thought Randall again had the biggest impact especially early with propelling opposition attacks when the Bombers were on top in the middle, did give away some sloppy frees early but after quarter time was huge.​
The ‘new’ Newman also deserves some praise, am really not used to this ‘contested beast’ version of Maddie Newman but she came out and cracked in so hard she was probably the best Crow around the ball early. Still managed to clear some of Essendon’s heavy numbers and high press with her long accurate kick. Teammates definitely looked for her to do that again more often this week.​
Marinoff going ballistic in that 2nd quarter iced the game, her ability to never be beat for more than a quarter just shows her brilliance as she was heavily targeted early.​
Gould is such a difference maker, had to do even more heavy lifting today and just controlled the air and space around her inside 50.​
Liked Charlton’s game a lot, looked a class above, if she’s fit enough to be out there she should be fit enough to be put in the middle, a little wasted today up forward despite all her good work.​
Sarah Allan’s 5 minute midfield burst in the 2nd Qtr proved oddly effective in breaking up Essendon’s stoppage dominance, led to 2 goals then that was it.​
Probably not as many standouts in the game as previous weeks, in terms of players Biddell, Tonon & Thompson best of the rest for mine.​


Negative:

Really didn’t like the setup around stoppages and they were rightly smashed in there at times especially early, sure Essendon have some tough players in there but to allow that extra number they brought up to block and allow the likes of Nanscawen & Prespakis the amount of easy ball they got from stoppage was poor.​
Thought the defence looked a little off today compared to previous weeks, Essendon really set out to force them to be a lot more responsible by playing closer to goal, by doing this they forced some mismatches at times.​
After super aerial performances the previous 2 weeks that was a let down today, maybe it was the swirly conditions but there were a lot of dropped marks today, some unforgivable ones as well.​
Not the biggest fan of Hatchard’s game today, thought other than some moments in the 3rd she had little impact, some absolute hospital disposals and her positioning around stoppages was poor all day. Have a worrying feeling like I mentioned last week she’s carrying an injury again.​
The Waterhouse & Martin crapshoot duo on display yet again, horrible, just horrible, didn’t think they could combine worse than the Port game but here they were. Never should have gone back to it after that game, Waterhouse’s 3rd quarter one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.​
While on the subject of players just not good enough, shame on me thinking that pre-season match showed Hannah Munyard had turned a corner, 2 nothing performances and a horrible 3 quarters today before some usual late junk, keep ABC in the team & maybe look to move on.​
Minus Boyle-Carr team selection was total garbage this week, Mueller not getting a game in this current setup which forces Goodwin or Tonon to play deeper in defence when they shouldn’t be and having Gould as good as she is having to deal with so many defenders by herself as she’s the only tall marking option there, you either try Tarlinton or you swap Charlton into the middle with a not-100% Hatchard going forward instead. Clarke needs to make the change soon to have a settled forward setup for finals.​
Nitpicking:

More a slight worry but Jess Allan’s caught some of the ROB disease in recent weeks, had absolute brutal dominance in the ruck today but serviced the Essendon mids more than the Crows today, also she has a good booming kick & she needs to use it more often rather than instinctively handballing it to the likes of Martin and Munyard 😬
 
What are people's thoughts on how we're playing Sarah Allan. She is the co-captain.

Plays mostly down back, but was thrown into the centre and at times was in the ruck? I feel like she's wasted getting thrown around like that. I'd rather Prowse do the backup rucking and Allan stay down back with Biddell.
 
What are people's thoughts on how we're playing Sarah Allan. She is the co-captain.

Plays mostly down back, but was thrown into the centre and at times was in the ruck? I feel like she's wasted getting thrown around like that. I'd rather Prowse do the backup rucking and Allan stay down back with Biddell.

With Biddell and Prowse both playing down back, they seem happy to use Sarah around the ground if there isn't a third tall forward to play on.

I'd rather she just play as a loose defender in that scenario, but at least her foray into the midfield was effective for what it was today.
 

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Review Round 4 v Essendon @ Thomas Farms Oval (Unley)

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