West Coast or Adelaide - Who is better placed?

Remove this Banner Ad

Bringing it neatly back to OP - I think West Coast are in the better position.

I agree they have had a lucky draw, but this itself puts them in a good position psychologically - warming up through lower pressure wins surely sets them up for a decent showing in what remains of the season.

Put it this way: I'm a Demons supporter so pretty much approach a game from a 'how much will we lose by' perspective. It's genetic.

But in spite of Adelaides fly out of the box early season, I wasn't so distressed when the Dees faced them in round three because there are some holes in their game.

Eagles do and continue to scare the shit out of me
 

Log in to remove this ad.

I post on the Crows board as i have an interest in a few of its players, im no flog or troll and i dont hate the Crows, Im just looking at the facts. Adelaide have beaten a average Collingwood side, have beaten a bunch of crap sides and whenever they come across a half decent side they get thumped.

West Coast are proving they are a top 4 side. Adelaide are proving the case for a equal draw

and who have west coast beaten???
 
I reckon Crows are a decent side ...at home a pretty good side

On the road ...flakey ...and have been like that for very long time
 
I do wonder if Adelaide have considered copying some of West Coast's zone/team defensive patterns to try themselves and to maybe use Brodie Smith, Cheney, Talia etc in the way West Coast use McGovern and co in intercepting the ball before it can even be put to dangerous 1 on 1's inside 50.

Id Danger goes the Crows will be set back. But Jake Lever and Brad Crouch will offset that pretty nicely if they can stay on the park. A couple more good draft picks and the Crows will start to fix the depth issues that I think have been 1 big reason they've been held back.

The 2nd reason is a lack of coaching/game plan direction. West Coast are showing their wares as a Hawthorn style team with a good forward line, team defense and some spark in their ball movement. I'm yet to really get a feeling on what Phil Walsh is doing at Adelaide.
 
West Coast have beaten two teams currently in the top 8.

Interestingly, Freo have beaten 3. Sydney have beaten two, GWS two, Collingwood one. Pretty common 11/12 games in.

Really pleased with the last month. First 8 games we would've gone close to 6-2 last year, but I doubt we would've gone 3-1 over the last 4. 12 games into the season and there has only been one game where we didn't look to be any chance of winning. Hopefully we can keep it up after the break.
 
West coast are doing incredibly well at the moment. Forget about the sides they have beaten, take the best two back men out of any side and they would struggle, somehow west coast have overcome that so far.

Be interesting to see how they go next season, if they get stronger with players back or fall away.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Not sure why people keep bringing up who we have beaten anyway. No one says it about Hawthorn yet they had their first win against a top eight side just this week.
 
I do wonder if Adelaide have considered copying some of West Coast's zone/team defensive patterns to try themselves and to maybe use Brodie Smith, Cheney, Talia etc in the way West Coast use McGovern and co in intercepting the ball before it can even be put to dangerous 1 on 1's inside 50.

Id Danger goes the Crows will be set back. But Jake Lever and Brad Crouch will offset that pretty nicely if they can stay on the park. A couple more good draft picks and the Crows will start to fix the depth issues that I think have been 1 big reason they've been held back.

The 2nd reason is a lack of coaching/game plan direction. West Coast are showing their wares as a Hawthorn style team with a good forward line, team defense and some spark in their ball movement. I'm yet to really get a feeling on what Phil Walsh is doing at Adelaide.

Cheney has been a good pickup for them and does a lot of intercept marking/spoiling. Adelaide's defensive problems arise because they have too many players who don't work hard enough or smart enough defensively and that's been the case for a few years now.
Lever and Crouch both look very good (if Crouch can ever get fit) but the problem is that every other club has drafted top talent too so relative to the rest of the comp it's not much improvement for the Crows. Those years of picks lost over Tippett are really starting to hurt.
In fairness to Phil Walsh he's a year behind Simpson in his tenure and it wasn't til the end of Simpson's first season that the gameplan started to take shape - ironically, it was probably our game at Adelaide Oval last year where we showed our potential for the first time.
 
West coast ....midfield is better
West coast .....fwd line......um yeah it's better
Rucks ........west coast
Defenders ....hmm with all back on deck ...west coast
The youth .....50-50

Me thinks west coast is better placed
Would think some of that is debatable, WCE doesn't have a mid at a level like Dangerfield and Sloane is an A grader himself with Gaff only going into that level this year after stagnating the previous few, Priddis is an A grade inside type and Adelaide have Thompson and Crouch in that sort of role albeit not as good as Priddis though. Kennedy may be better than Walker but Adelaide has Betts also as another threat and Jacobs is pretty handy in the ruck himself, I guess WCE have more options up forward and in the ruck than Adelaide though.

The defenders yes WCEs are probably better there with all hands on deck. Has to come down to the coaching, this Adelaide group has the talent, but only put it together once and that was 3 years ago. They have had their injuries like you guys also etc Jaensch and Crouch while Sloane and Douglas only just came back. I think WCE adding the likes of Duggan, Yeo and Sheed into midfield while finding Wellingham a place down back has given them more versatility and more options running through midfield than the same old trio of Gaff, Shuey and Masten carrying the ball.
 
Would think some of that is debatable, WCE doesn't have a mid at a level like Dangerfield and Sloane is an A grader himself with Gaff only going into that level this year after stagnating the previous few, Priddis is an A grade inside type and Adelaide have Thompson and Crouch in that sort of role albeit not as good as Priddis though. Kennedy may be better than Walker but Adelaide has Betts also as another threat and Jacobs is pretty handy in the ruck himself, I guess WCE have more options up forward and in the ruck than Adelaide though.

Thompson's 2015 has been pretty much on par with Priddis' IMO.
Had some fantastic games this year.
 
Thompson's 2015 has been pretty much on par with Priddis' IMO.
Had some fantastic games this year.
True, but would have Priddis ahead still. Thompson reminds me of Matthew Boyd the way he goes about it, he's probably a better kick than Boyd though.
 
The big thing that West Coast has going for them this year is team defence and a forward line that is not just being prolific, but prolific and varied. We have three players who could be leading or equal leading goal kicker at Brisbane, Carlton, Gold Coast, Fremantle, Essendon... Four goal kickers in the Top 30 of the AFL atm (Kenendy, Lecras, Cripps, Hill). Now that the midfield has sorted itself out, not in any kind of sense of being a dominant midfield, but in being consistently competitive, the forward line talent is finally getting the service to let it shine.
 
I really like the look of how Adelaide are building. They are going to be hard to beat heading forward.

However. West Coast are just irresistible at the moment. (Much as it pains me.) The players are really giving it heaps and playing older than they are. Simmo is a genuine bloke by all acounts and I think the players are really willing to adopt his plan and give it a crack. I wouldn't be surprised to see them stay top 4.

Tldr: Adelaide good!
: West Coast better
 
Where I really like the crows is their young backline talent.

Talia, Smith, Laird and so on.
Really? That's easily their weakest area IMO. Their midfield and forward line are far superior.
 
Would think some of that is debatable, WCE doesn't have a mid at a level like Dangerfield and Sloane is an A grader himself with Gaff only going into that level this year after stagnating the previous few, Priddis is an A grade inside type and Adelaide have Thompson and Crouch in that sort of role albeit not as good as Priddis though. Kennedy may be better than Walker but Adelaide has Betts also as another threat and Jacobs is pretty handy in the ruck himself, I guess WCE have more options up forward and in the ruck than Adelaide though.

The defenders yes WCEs are probably better there with all hands on deck. Has to come down to the coaching, this Adelaide group has the talent, but only put it together once and that was 3 years ago. They have had their injuries like you guys also etc Jaensch and Crouch while Sloane and Douglas only just came back. I think WCE adding the likes of Duggan, Yeo and Sheed into midfield while finding Wellingham a place down back has given them more versatility and more options running through midfield than the same old trio of Gaff, Shuey and Masten carrying the ball.


Midfield these days are collective effort

Joel Selwood dominated for 5 years ...now all the stars have left him he's struggling

Sloan ....sorry priddis effectiveness is just as effective as Sloan .....so too gaff

It's about output ...I'm not into all that modern crap like A grade and B grade ....it's media spin

I would take Lecras over betts thanks ......betts can't play midfield ..Lecras can plays big minutes in the middle
 

Remove this Banner Ad

West Coast or Adelaide - Who is better placed?

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top