Apparently our game against the Crows is already a foregone conclusion according to most in the football world and surprisingly some Crows supporters, just a sample of what to expect on their board right at the moment -
A little surprising from a club that has gone in as favourites in their last two Elimination Finals and failed miserably.
The Crows deserve to be favourites here - but why should we be intimidated by them? We'll be missing a few from our best side for a couple of different reasons (some yet to be determined) but we have shown at times this year that can rise to the challenge against the good sides when the odds are against us, like St. Kilda a couple of weeks ago. It's even fair to suggest our form against the best sides in the competition has outweighed our form against some of the struggling sides.
Some are content with just making the finals and I guess we have achieved something not many expected of us at the beginning of the season, but that doesn't mean we should just sit back and be content with what we have achieved to date. We have performed at our best in 2009 when nobody expects anything from us and this is going to be one of those weeks where we are going to be written off by everyone before a ball is even bounced, as we are already. We led the Crows all day when we played them last and their stunning accuracy (21.4) was the catalyst for their narrow win in a last quarter revival. In our previous match with them in Adelaide in the middle of 2008 we were coming off a 7 game losing streak and they stumbled across the line against an injury depleted Essendon by a grand total of 5 points. I doubt our boys are going to be too intimidated with the prospect of the Crows. "Oh... but they are a different side in 2009" - yeah, well? So are we.
We'll go to Adelaide - absolutely nothing to lose and give it our best shot, doesn't matter who is or who isn't available. All the pressure is on the Crows to actually win a final this week. Hopefully our boys can rise to the occassion.
I'm looking forward to us thrashing the biggest, most pig headed, dirty, arrogant, cheating, sniping, old boys clubs in the competition (Carlton and Essendon) in successive weeks. Not sure if we've ever done that before but there is nothing better than sticking it up to these cocky bunch of oxygen thieving flogs. Their supporters have absolutely zero grasp of humility or sportsmanship whatsoever and are stuck living in the past where they dominated a suburban competition. IIRC they opposed us entering the competition in the first place so it will be sweet to belt the living crap out of them. Oooh I can't wait!
A little surprising from a club that has gone in as favourites in their last two Elimination Finals and failed miserably.
The Crows deserve to be favourites here - but why should we be intimidated by them? We'll be missing a few from our best side for a couple of different reasons (some yet to be determined) but we have shown at times this year that can rise to the challenge against the good sides when the odds are against us, like St. Kilda a couple of weeks ago. It's even fair to suggest our form against the best sides in the competition has outweighed our form against some of the struggling sides.
Some are content with just making the finals and I guess we have achieved something not many expected of us at the beginning of the season, but that doesn't mean we should just sit back and be content with what we have achieved to date. We have performed at our best in 2009 when nobody expects anything from us and this is going to be one of those weeks where we are going to be written off by everyone before a ball is even bounced, as we are already. We led the Crows all day when we played them last and their stunning accuracy (21.4) was the catalyst for their narrow win in a last quarter revival. In our previous match with them in Adelaide in the middle of 2008 we were coming off a 7 game losing streak and they stumbled across the line against an injury depleted Essendon by a grand total of 5 points. I doubt our boys are going to be too intimidated with the prospect of the Crows. "Oh... but they are a different side in 2009" - yeah, well? So are we.
We'll go to Adelaide - absolutely nothing to lose and give it our best shot, doesn't matter who is or who isn't available. All the pressure is on the Crows to actually win a final this week. Hopefully our boys can rise to the occassion.