Changes vs Port

[Mattrox]

Just for the record, I'd be happy to lose this game to prove a point.

I'm in the same boat. Posted it before.

 

[Mike Smyth]

I would be happy to lose this game if at least 2 of matt crouch/ramsey/obrien/wugg/lever play.

 

[chimmez]

Couple of quick notes from an outsiders perspective, I hope they are welcome somewhat :/

1) There seems to be a lot, and I mean a lot of knee-jerk reactions with regards to this game, especially with regards to Walsh. The guy certainly knows how to develop a game-plan. This is his strength, and everyone knows his weaknesses. This week is a big test to see how he copes, and how the team reacts to a big loss. These types of games will happen, simply because there is no substitute to testing strategies in an in-game environment. Look here (http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/hinkley-out-coached-again.1005002/) to see what people were saying about Hinkley in the first half of 2013. It takes quite a while for a quality coach to work out what his best team is, as well as the structures that make up that team.

2) Having said that, it can be extrapolated that there are ways and means for quick-paced teams to exploit the plans put in place by Walsh. Etihad is the 'best' stadium for accentuating these weaknesses, simply because of its size and hardness under foot. Any even slightly-skewed kick, or kick that isn't struck hard (ie, doesn't get to the teammate quickly) is far easier to intercept than at any other stadium.

3) Some players need to stand up more in a pressure environment. There is so much that I like about Jenkins, but his effort and skills were deplorable when put under pressure. Having said that, I would take him at PA, even if it was a backup to Ryder. I could count on two hands the number of times I saw a bulldogs player lose his feet, the same could not be said for Adelaide.

3) It also seems that once Sloane is out of the game, the midfield structures seem to fall away somewhat. Teams like Hawthorn bat deeply in the midfield, players who have the capacity to come into the midfield if a star is being tagged out. Sloane is a quality mid, and I feel like a players such as Crouch would be handy, even if to simply take the stoppages if Sloane is being tagged out. This is a tactic that many teams can exploit.

 

[Pugsley]

Couple of quick notes from an outsiders perspective, I hope they are welcome somewhat :/

1) There seems to be a lot, and I mean a lot of knee-jerk reactions with regards to this game, especially with regards to Walsh. The guy certainly knows how to develop a game-plan. This is his strength, and everyone knows his weaknesses. This week is a big test to see how he copes, and how the team reacts to a big loss. These types of games will happen, simply because there is no substitute to testing strategies in an in-game environment. Look here (http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/hinkley-out-coached-again.1005002/) to see what people were saying about Hinkley in the first half of 2013. It takes quite a while for a quality coach to work out what his best team is, as well as the structures that make up that team.

2) Having said that, it can be extrapolated that there are ways and means for quick-paced teams to exploit the plans put in place by Walsh. Etihad is the 'best' stadium for accentuating these weaknesses, simply because of its size and hardness under foot. Any even slightly-skewed kick, or kick that isn't struck hard (ie, doesn't get to the teammate quickly) is far easier to intercept than at any other stadium.

3) Some players need to stand up more in a pressure environment. There is so much that I like about Jenkins, but his effort and skills were deplorable when put under pressure. Having said that, I would take him at PA, even if it was a backup to Ryder. I could count on two hands the number of times I saw a bulldogs player lose his feet, the same could not be said for Adelaide.

3) It also seems that once Sloane is out of the game, the midfield structures seem to fall away somewhat. Teams like Hawthorn bat deeply in the midfield, players who have the capacity to come into the midfield if a star is being tagged out. Sloane is a quality mid, and I feel like a players such as Crouch would be handy, even if to simply take the stoppages if Sloane is being tagged out. This is a tactic that many teams can exploit.

I like your choice of basketball teams.

 

[Allefgib]

I like your choice of basketball teams.

I don't. But his post was good.

 

[Pugsley]

I don't. But his post was good.

The points raised can't be argued with.

 

[Mike Smyth]

Until Phil has the cattle and depth I don't think we can judge him too harshly, even if we get a spanking this week. Even I could coach port into a prelim with their talented list.

 

[Vader]

Agree, we looked slow today and no pressure. Cameron would have helped and feel it was a bad call, him being dropped in hindsight.

Depends which Cameron turns up. The one who played last week and managed just 3 disposals (bizarrely resulting in 2 goals - one to Adelaide, one to Melbourne) would have made things even worse. Yes, he's quick, but he hasn't been remotely close to being AFL standard so far this year. Dropping him to the SANFL was the right move. Replacing him with a much slower Lyons may not have been the right move, but there really aren't any viable quick options available.

 

[Vader]

That's why Leaver should be thrown to the wolves for the next month abd played at CHB.

We are not a premiership team and we need to develop key players for the future.

The question is whether throwing him to the wolves at this time would help or hinder his development as a player? I'm struggling to see how it's likely to help his development, given that he's miles away from being ready to play at the AFL level.

 

[Vader]

Dropping Henderson? He was serviceable.
Far from worst.

He was amongst our worst, though Tex, JJ & Hartigan all shaded him. I had Tex as our Worst on Ground yesterday. Mind you, there was no shortage of candidates putting their hands up for WoG votes.

 

[Vader]

Good players having bad games happens, and I'm not denying those players had shockers today, nor am I denying that it had an impact on the result. That said if you look at successful teams even when their best players have their bad games there is always someone who steps in fills the void and gets the team over the line, currently we have very few to do that for us, and worse yet we continue to show faith in those who continue to fail in this regard.

Last week we had Dangerfield well beaten, yet the team found a way to win. Thompson, Sloane & Douglas all stepped up to the plate. This week Thompson was the only midfielder who bothered to board the plane to Melbourne, the rest of them all sent cardboard cutouts in their place. You can win when one player is down, but not when you've only got one player who is actively trying to win.

 

[GROTTO]

Couple of quick notes from an outsiders perspective, I hope they are welcome somewhat :/
.

Welcome on here. Top post and respectfully stated.

It may actually surprise you (well it did me) that over the past 3 years that the Crows actually have a better win-loss record at the Dome. (even excluding 2012)

Good luck on Sunday.

 

[fabs33]

The two players I would like to see make way for others the most would have to be Wright and VB, to a lesser extent Jenkins but he's extremely lucky that we haven't a lot of similar sized players to replace him at the moment, although you never know with what ROB has being doing so far...

Wright is reminding me of Petrenko in 2012, somehow he's amazingly survived the axe at selection despite playing as forward without having scored a single point all season. That's right not only has he not scored a goal yet but he hasn't even registered a single behind either, and if not for his 19 possessions from yesterday he'd be averaging 8 possessions per game, and that's rounding up! He might be there for his defensive work but if he's not giving us anything in offense then he's letting his opponent know that they can double team someone else like Walker or Betts without having to worry about leaving their man. I'd much rather have someone like Lyons playing in that spot who can a kick a goal and provide some valuable relief in guts if needed.

In regards to VB I hope people haven't forgotten what Walsh said about him in the preseason when asked if he was going to be used as a tagger. Walsh said he wanted VB to concentrate on finding the ball, and possessing elite endurance you'd expect him to do fairly well in that area, but that hasn't been the case so far considering he's averaging just 13 disposals. I understand that he's good with structures and clogging up space, but at the moment I get the impression he's clogging up more space in our team than on the field. I'd prefer we use his spot to get some games into someone like Matt Crouch and try to teach him everything he needs to know about defensive running whilst he gains valuable experience at the level we want him to be playing at in the future.

The last thing I'd like point out is that if the axe doesn't thrown around once in a while even when you're winning it's possible for complacency to settle in, and when the only changes being made each week are Lyons for Grigg and Grigg for Lyons only to play as subs, then that doesn't count.

 

[fabs33]

Last week we had Dangerfield well beaten, yet the team found a way to win. Thompson, Sloane & Douglas all stepped up to the plate. This week Thompson was the only midfielder who bothered to board the plane to Melbourne, the rest of them all sent cardboard cutouts in their place. You can win when one player is down, but not when you've only got one player who is actively trying to win.

Relying on the same players every week won't get you very far.

 

[Vader]

Both Ramsey and ROB are rookies, so you can't play them both. Kelly was already upgraded for Reilly, so that only leaves another rookie spot for Otten, unless they put someone like Shaw on the LTI list too.

Or Dear... Isn't his shoulder injury supposed to be season over?

 

[Vader]

Relying on the same players every week won't get you very far.

WTF? Every team relies on pretty much the same players every week. Dangerfield, Sloane, Thompson, Douglas - that's our best midfield. No different to every other team. We can cope with one of them being blanketed just fine, but when 3 of the 4 go MIA at the airport...

 

[FantasticShirt]

He was amongst our worst, though Tex, JJ & Hartigan all shaded him. I had Tex as our Worst on Ground yesterday. Mind you, there was no shortage of candidates putting their hands up for WoG votes.

He was one of the only players who could hit a target consistently all day. I thought Sloane, Wright, Tex, Jenkins, Hartigan, VB & Mackay were all much worse. Sloane and Tex had just about their worst games for the crows.

Think all will agree there are plenty of options to be dropped on back of that performance. Issue is there isn't really anyone to come in, at least not for this week.

 

[Vader]

I really hope that Cheney is fit.. if he is, then I'd make the following changes:
Cheney <--> Henderson
ROB (promoted) <--> JJ
Grigg or Crouch (don't care which) <--> Wright

People suggesting that CC should come back into the side must have the memory of a goldfish. I like the idea of having his pace in the team, but right now he's giving us nothing and needs to spend time regaining form & confidence in the SANFL.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Just for the record, I'd be happy to lose this game to prove a point.

Don't want to read a heap of pages, what's that point King?

 

[Vader]

He was one of the only players who could hit a target consistently all day. I thought Sloane, Wright, Tex, Jenkins, Hartigan, VB & Mackay were all much worse. Sloane and Tex had just about their worst games for the crows.

Think all will agree there are plenty of options to be dropped on back of that performance. Issue is there isn't really anyone to come in, at least not for this week.

I think you're being generous, suggesting that he hit many targets. On the other hand, he did succeed in making JJ look like a "hard man"...

Henderson could easily be replaced by Cheney (if fit). I don't see ready replacements for most of the other players you've listed (which is their good fortune, because I agree that they all stank it up to high heaven).

 

[Jack is Back]

I find it amusing that the posters who are most adamant that Lever plays this week are those that have never seen him play .

Naturally when we play so poorly it is an ideal time for the usual suspects to scream for Mackay, van Berlo, Hartigan, Henderson and Jenkins to be dropped. The players that underperformed the most were Dangerfield, Douglas, Sloane, Smith and Walker (admittedly some of the other players have very little downside).

And then there are those that want to drop Thommo because he has stolen the team's mojo .

What I would like to see is for the "usual suspects (posters)" to HTFU and realise we are a long way from the top 4 teams but we have improved this year.

And then there is the "we must play Charlie" brigade. We really missed the 3 touches and no tackles. I really rate Charlie but he has to earn his spot. Do we reward him for three poor performances followed by a poor performance in the SANFL?

If we name Grigg, Lyons or Matty Crouch then they must start in the 21. Martin has not justified a spot (except for possibly as sub). Cameron did very little against Glenelg, Lever and Wigg are struggling to cope with the bigger bodies of SANFL players, Kerridge is injured and need at least a couple of weeks in the twos due to a lack of match fitness. And......that's all folks. Osborn (injured), O'Brien, Ramsey and Wilson are rookies. If we upgrade Ramsey and Sauce cops a 3 week injury then JJ is our first ruck . If we upgrade O'Brien and Tex gets a 2 week corky then we can't upgrade Ramsey.

So.... the best we can do is bring in Matty Crouch and Grigg, change about 6 other positions to enable them to play as inside midfielders and presumably drop JJ and Hartigan because they are now the number one whipping boys.

Hmmmmmmmm that should work well.

 

[jackster83]

If we name Grigg, Lyons or Matty Crouch then they must start in the 21. Martin has not justified a spot (except for possibly as sub). Cameron did very little against Glenelg, Lever and Wigg are struggling to cope with the bigger bodies of SANFL players, Kerridge is injured and need at least a couple of weeks in the twos due to a lack of match fitness. And......that's all folks. Osborn (injured), O'Brien, Ramsey and Wilson are rookies. If we upgrade Ramsey and Sauce cops a 3 week injury then JJ is our first ruck . If we upgrade O'Brien and Tex gets a 2 week corky then we can't upgrade Ramsey.

Why can't we put Otten and Dear on the LTI and elevate both Ramsey and ROB?

 

[MRB37]

Or Dear... Isn't his shoulder injury supposed to be season over?

listed as TBA on the recent injury list, so doesn't sound like he'll be back any time soon.

 

[MRB37]

Luke Lowden and Mitch McGovern listed as 2 weeks away. So Jenkins, you've got a month to prove you have what it takes.

 

[I Lost My Keays]

God I wish Kerridge was okay

I would have:
IN :Cameron and Cheney
OUT: Wright and Kelly