Review Round 9 v North Melbourne @ Coopers Stadium (Norwood)

[cmndstab]

Anyway, the silver lining in that loss is that it didn't do much harm to our percentage. Down to 179.8%, teams have certainly lost by much more than 8 points to North on average.

Unless Richmond manage to score a thumping win over Essendon, we should remain in the top 4 by the end of this round. That then puts the ball in our court to win against Geelong.

On the other side of the coin, top 2 is now mathematically impossible.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Waterhouse with their usual game, where they looked like they were going to do something, but didn't actually do anything. Two kicks, one mark, one tackle. Admittedly, with very low TOG.

Quite a few players had very low TOG today. Martin with 53%, Levy with 44%, Waterhouse with 42%, Boyle-Carr with 35%??? Why would you keep a player off the ground for 2/3 of the match?

Please don't start with Waterhouse.

I'd delist them

 

[cmndstab]

Please don't start with Waterhouse.

I'd delist them

Pretty good chance of it after this season, I reckon.

 

[Firewalker]

Anyway, the silver lining in that loss is that it didn't do much harm to our percentage. Down to 179.8%, teams have certainly lost by much more than 8 points to North on average.

Unless Richmond manage to score a thumping win over Essendon, we should remain in the top 4 by the end of this round. That then puts the ball in our court to win against Geelong.

On the other side of the coin, top 2 is now mathematically impossible.

Only positive after that loss is if the Crows also lose against Geelong and drop to 7th or 8th and avoid having to play at that absolute garbage piece of s**t ground at Norwood, only then they might have a chance.

Edit: Dammit looking at the ladder even that looks impossible that they finish without a ‘home’ final at that shithole

 

[Coopers]

Please don't start with Waterhouse.

I'd delist them

Yeah, she just can't get near it. And when she's within 5 meters of it... she still can't get near it. Just doesn't have a weapon. Not clean, not big, not fast, doesn't tackle much.

We have 3 or 4 players in the side that just aren't any good. Bit like the mens team last season. It's a problem, because everyone has to contribute. Could hvae been the difference, really.

 

[cmndstab]

So... good matches from Marinoff, Newman, Randall. Gould dominant early but faded out of the match. Ponter showed why you have to stick with her, despite how frustrating she is - and hey, we're approaching the finals which is usually her time to shine anyway. Biddell mostly good, although a couple of uncharacteristic shanks. Kelly, Mueller and Munyard all decent, although 4 frees agains Munyard sucks a bit. Prowse decent but some bad moments late.

Hatchard had some good moments, and she really uses her strength well these days, but was just a bit too fumbly at crucial moments. Ditto Charlton. Meanwhile the Allan sisters, Levy and SLT all seemed hesitant, and Goodwin had a down match.

Martin, Boyle-Carr and Waterhouse all poor, but barely played a full game between them so what do you expect?

If we were only going to give Boyle-Carr 35% TOG anyway, we might as well have just played Ballard for that time instead.

 

[cmndstab]

Only positive after that loss is if the Crows also lose against Geelong and drop to 7th or 8th and avoid having to play at that absolute garbage piece of s**t ground at Norwood, only then they might have a chance.

Edit: Dammit looking at the ladder even that looks impossible that they finish without a ‘home’ final at that shithole

Given that I still think the most likely outcome is us playing North in week 1, I'm viewing it as a "positive" that they can't knock us out of the finals and we then get to avoid them until a GF

 

[Firewalker]

Given that I still think the most likely outcome is us playing North in week 1, I'm viewing it as a "positive" that they can't knock us out of the final and we then get to avoid them until a GF

If that plays out I reckon Crows would go out in straights sets if they played Port or Melbourne again at Norwood, might even be a struggle against Richmond as they’re hard to read. Given how the Crows play that venue would only probably have Freo and Essendon as close to certainties they could beat there.

 

[cmndstab]

If that plays out I reckon Crows would go out in straights sets if they played Port or Melbourne again at Norwood, might even be a struggle against Richmond as they’re hard to read. Given how the Crows play that venue would only probably have Freo and Essendon as close to certainties they could beat there.

I'd be very confident against Port at Norwood. They'd stick with us for a while but I doubt they would get over the line. I never know what to expect against Melbourne, but I'd be tipping us.

The bigger issue is, that then leaves us having to play away twice, most likely against Brisbane and North, if we want to win a flag. Those are two damn difficult road trips.

We really need to find a way to sneak over North (or whoever it ends up being) in the first week of the finals. It would be nice if we could have one of those matches where all of our half-chances actually come off for a change.

 

[Firewalker]

I'd be very confident against Port at Norwood. They'd stick with us for a while but I doubt they would get over the line. I never know what to expect against Melbourne, but I'd be tipping us.

The bigger issue is, that then leaves us having to play away twice, most likely against Brisbane and North, if we want to win a flag. Those are two damn difficult road trips.

We really need to find a way to sneak over North (or whoever it ends up being) in the first week of the finals. It would be nice if we could have one of those matches where all of our half-chances actually come off for a change.

I’ve changed after tonight with my thoughts on that, I think the compressed ground plays right into Port’s hands especially as the Crows have shown they won’t tag so those tough in-and-under midfielders they have like Dowrick done the last game she played there would feast out at that ground.

Port’s 2 main weaknesses are outside run and lockdown defenders, Norwood makes outside run a non-factor and the Crows sputtering attack also minimises that other weakness. Not to mention last time the Crows played them Scholz had a horror show and now she’s dominating and having a huge influence on games while Jess Allan like last season is showing all the signs that she’s running out of legs again.

Not to also mention Port like Melbourne and North like to really run the ball into 50 and the Crows have shown severe signs of weakness against that game style, Port already exposed the team’s high defensive line in round 1 by getting the ball out the back against it as did North tonight.

 

[cmndstab]

I’ve changed after tonight with my thoughts on that, I think the compressed ground plays right into Port’s hands especially as the Crows have shown they won’t tag so those tough in-and-under midfielders they have like Dowrick done the last game she played there would feast out at that ground.

Port’s 2 main weaknesses are outside run and lockdown defenders, Norwood makes outside run a non-factor and the Crows sputtering attack also minimises that other weakness. Not to mention last time the Crows played them Scholz had a horror show and now she’s dominating and having a huge influence on games while Jess Allan like last season is showing all the signs that she’s running out of legs again.

Not to also mention Port like Melbourne and North like to really run the ball into 50 and the Crows have shown severe signs of weakness against that game style, Port already exposed the team’s high defensive line in round 1 by getting the ball out the back against it as did North tonight.

I agree with most of that, but even so, I'd be confident that our stellar defence would stifle their opportunities and we would wear them down and win the war of attrition in the end.

As much as there were some disappointing aspects to tonight's match, the fact is that we matched it with North and, with even just half-decent goalkicking accuracy, would have pushed them right to the line. And even with our poor accuracy, we lost by 8 points. This is a team that has beaten their opponents by 42 points on average, including beating Port by 36. They've beaten seven teams by 6+ goals this season. Eight points against us was their lowest winning margin this season (admittedly, they also had a draw back in round 2).

We're not quite at North's level this season, but we are still ahead of Port, regardless of venue. And short of shitting the bed like we did a few weeks ago, we're ahead of Melbourne as well.

 

[Firewalker]

Just had a look at the stats and it’s probably the first time this season you can really blame the midfield for the result, again like the prelim loss last year North won the contested ball and stoppage clearances - which is a killer given that is proving to be the Crows’ only real main source of scoring. Thought it was easily the worst performance by the midfield all season.

Only 47 of 60 interchanges used again with the team showing real signs of fatigue off a 5-day break (Thompson was moving like she was a 60 y/o in the last quarter), really showing Clarke doesn’t trust any of those outside his top 15, it happened again like the Melbourne game where they hopelessly ran out of legs in the last 5 minutes and were unable to break free of the rolling-maul implemented by the opposition to close out the game.

 

[Tas]

We're showing that we can match it with North in terms of generating scoring opportunities. But North convert theirs more often than not. For all of the play we've had, we've still only actually converted two goals. And many of those behinds are from set shots or plays that should be converted - Ponter hitting the post, Gould's set shot, Randall's checkside.

Convert those and we're with North. Miss them, and we're where we are.

I don't think there is much difference between Crows, Lions and my team atm. I am not sure where Hawthorn is as they have had a pretty easy draw, I guess we will find out in finals. I expected this game to be close and had Crows converted better could have won.

I do think teams like Geelong, Fremantle, Richmond and Hawthorn are far off and perhaps Melbourne can get back up there next season. It will be good to see more of an even top half of the board.

 

[Firewalker]

I agree with most of that, but even so, I'd be confident that our stellar defence would stifle their opportunities and we would wear them down and win the war of attrition in the end.

As much as there were some disappointing aspects to tonight's match, the fact is that we matched it with North and, with even just half-decent goalkicking accuracy, would have pushed them right to the line. And even with our poor accuracy, we lost by 8 points. This is a team that has beaten their opponents by 42 points on average, including beating Port by 36. They've beaten seven teams by 6+ goals this season. Eight points against us was their lowest winning margin this season (admittedly, they also had a draw back in round 2).

We're not quite at North's level this season, but we are still ahead of Port, regardless of venue. And short of shitting the bed like we did a few weeks ago, we're ahead of Melbourne as well.

For mine the results over the past month do show that it’s more than just poor goal kicking, there’s some more issues at play and for the past 3 seasons they’ve showed all signs of a team that does lack some drive and system.

Sure you could just say “they're still having shots at goal, don’t miss as many & they win” but taking the scoreboard out of it (hard as it is), I think there’s a real breakdown in what players are being told to do in situations and what roles individuals believe they are playing for the team.

Also think players are at times struggling to be on the same page with each other on-field, I think that actually might be the biggest difference over the past 3 seasons as even in games they dominate like the 2 cellar-dweller wins the 2 previous games this season, they still struggle to put goals on the scoreboard early by missing heaps of chances and repeatedly turn the ball over, it’s just that those poor teams don’t make them pay at all.

Some individuals do look like they are still bringing that old Clarke ‘heavily contested style’; it’s a good starting base for a strong team and is a style that brought previous success but others look a bit lost, or look to be having their natural games curbed to fit this style and are just at best halving those ground ball/contested situations. As a collective the players are having periods where they really fall away quickly in quality in-game and turn to playing an ugly, fumbly, hesitant and repeatable poor decision making mess ridden game of football.

The problem also as pointed out throughout the season is a lot of these problems in-game seem to be triggered by the opposition’s tactics they implement against them and because of that the team can be easily dragged down to low quality levels by less talented teams despite controlling the game, territory and having a number of scoring shots but also on the other side of the coin when they do come up against better teams that control just as much ball, transition the ball better and control stoppages they instead play a more reactionary style and seem to be waiting for things to happens on-ground before waiting for breaks in play and looking for Clarke to implement any solution to problems they find themselves in.

The only reason they were able to close the margins in both the North & Lions games (and hit the lead in the Lions game) was because they kicked back-to-back goals in very quick succession, take out those quick back-to-back goals and the rest of those last quarters were filled with a lot of the exact same mistakes and errors that led them to be behind in the first place.

I think Clarke is still just trying to recapture something that’s just not quite there anymore, he’s probably bought a little too much into the Crows biggest strength as a team & club seemingly being their familiarity & stability and tried to keep things overly settled, however his system is still heavily reliant on the individual brilliance (and heavy lifting) of certain stars and weight of repeated forward entries eventually breaking through and finding a way to beat down the defences of most teams in the competition. Don’t get me wrong of course given the stage the league is at it’s still more than good enough to keep them up there with the best of the best in this league but it’s just not a reliable winning methodology as it once was.

That said football is a simple game, just need to; stop missing easy goals, stop dropping easy marks and stop turning the ball over so much.