Analysis Where we sit in the next 5 years

[Slippery Pete]

In the past 17 years there's only 1 year, 2006, where I thought at the start of the year we are one of the favourites for a flag this year. We are not a strong club.

An extended period of incredibly poor drafting and recruiting cost us the shot at a premiership in the second halves of the careers of the "planets aligning" stars, McLeod, Ricciuto, Goodwin, Edwards, Hart et al.

Those out-and-out superstars ran around with "backbone" players in the second half of their careers because we'd wasted draft pics on Angwins, Watts' and Meesons.

When we finally got to see the fruits of getting our s**t together at the draft and recruiting table (thanks Matty) the old superstars were finished.

Accountability at the AFC from around the year 2000 to about 12 months ago would range somewhere from zero to a Greek finance department.

 

[Cleric]

With their draft picks in recent years, it's not hard to draft well... you'd almost have to be at Melbourne-levels of bad recruiting to stuff up the leg up they've gotten as reward for being crap and the cheap F/S picks they've received. Incidentally, even Melbourne are starting to show the fruits of the AFL's adage of throwing enough draft picks at something and it'll eventually improve, they've just had an inordinate amount of them compared to others.

I hate the way the AFL operates. Yeah, ok we don't want an EPL-type situation where some clubs will just never win a title but the AFL is too far the other way in rewarding failure. There's got to be a better way of rewarding clubs like ours who strive to be competitive instead of expecting us to tank/be s**t like so many other sides have/do... I can't stand the thought of a club like Melbourne eventually being rewarded with success in finals in the long run for their combination of tanking/mediocrity.

Thats our problem going forward. Loss of draft picks, no compensation for Tippett, and not bottoming out have hurt us no end. We are actually lucky to have the talent we do.
As everyone has said, to lose Dangerfield for half what he is worth will set us back even further. The club cannot allow it. If they do the supporter base should finally stand up and say enough is enough.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

We have too much of the 'same type' when it comes to young talent and we need to offload some of those players for pace and skilful disposal.

Charlie Cameron stands out like dogs balls on our list because his skill set is so unique to the majority of our youngsters.

Yes. Team profile is a major issue at the Crows. Too many slow medium types.

 

[buzz rothfield]

this club needs some left field thinking to restore its fortunes. Looking at some of the young Poly boys from Fiji, Samoa etc would be as good an option as the ZERO currently being suggested by club management. All the other codes do it, why not us? They are all natural athletes who could make a go of tiddlywinks if they chose to. C'mon who's with me??

 

[Mr_Moogle]

this club needs some left field thinking to restore its fortunes. Looking at some of the young Poly boys from Fiji, Samoa etc would be as good an option as the ZERO currently being suggested by club management. All the other codes do it, why not us? They are all natural athletes who could make a go of tiddlywinks if they chose to. C'mon who's with me??

No I'd prefer to stick to people who have grown up playing football from an early age. Drafting people on athleticism alone hasn't worked for us in the past.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Round 1 2016

F: Betts - Walker - Cameron
HF: Lynch - Jenkins - Kerridge
C: Douglas - Crouch sn - Knight
HB: Smith - Lever - Henderson
B: Laird - Talia - Brown

Ruck: Jacobs - Dangerfield - Sloane

Interchange: Crouch jn - Cheney - CEY - Grigg

No VB, Wright, MacKay, Thompson, Hartigan, Martin,

 

[DJ75]

I reckon if you look back 7-8 years the same concerns back then are being raised again now i.e. not enough talent due to mid table finishes, nice club, poor selection policy, conservative trading, really s**t list mgmt..

Spot on. And yet the vast majority of the people responsible for those decisions are still in place.

I suspect Walsh's strength of character would have had those people striving for something greater than mediocrity. His death however will allow them to settle back in to old habits.

Would need an exceptional coach to change it in the future.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Spot on. And yet the vast majority of the people responsible for those decisions are still in place.

I suspect Walsh's strength of character would have had those people striving for something greater than mediocrity. His death however will allow them to settle back in to old habits.

Would need an exceptional coach to change it in the future.

We need Roo to follow through with his intended mission. To weed the joint of mediocre people and remove anyone who is only willing to put in the short yards.

If you are going to accept mediocrity, you will be shown the door and wasn't that part of Mark Ricciuto mission?

 

[Mike Smyth]

An extended period of incredibly poor drafting and recruiting cost us the shot at a premiership in the second halves of the careers of the "planets aligning" stars, McLeod, Ricciuto, Goodwin, Edwards, Hart et al.

Those out-and-out superstars ran around with "backbone" players in the second half of their careers because we'd wasted draft pics on Angwins, Watts' and Meesons.

When we finally got to see the fruits of getting our s**t together at the draft and recruiting table (thanks Matty) the old superstars were finished.

Accountability at the AFC from around the year 2000 to about 12 months ago would range somewhere from zero to a Greek finance department.

And now "it's in Nobes we trust".

Nobes: I cant answer that graham

AFC supporter base: Nobes is a gun.

 

[Golumless]

Who knows, i want to see who we get in as a coach and how they are going before making a judgement.

 

[JPetro83]

We will still be where we are.. a team that will be no better than a 5-10th side. Not good enough. W will once again lose an elite player this year. Talia after his next contract will want to go home and play for the Dogs... the crouch brothers will want to go back to Victoria. FA will ruin the game for teams like us.

 

[Cleric]

We will still be where we are.. a team that will be no better than a 5-10th side. Not good enough. W will once again lose an elite player this year. Talia after his next contract will want to go home and play for the Dogs... the crouch brothers will want to go back to Victoria. FA will ruin the game for teams like us.

Maybe we do what West Coast has done and go after SA lads.

 

[Racing To Win]

We can't even tip teams to win correctly from week to week let alone guess where all teams will be in 5 years. Everyone said West Coast wouldn't play finals this year and Port would be premiership threats. So much can change.

Most thought Adelaide would go on with a good year in 2012.

Incredible amount of speculation, not just on Adelaide but all other teams.

 

[Iron]

Some really poor posts in this thread. We've had direction, purpose, tangible improvement this year. And then our coach was murdered.

Who is surprised we lack direction right now? So many people forgetting the progress we've made this year on the back of what...one game? Some questionable selections?

In 5 years time, for better or worse, we could be anything. And I'm backing Roo and Fages to get us another gun coach.

 

[BACCS]

Some really poor posts in this thread. We've had direction, purpose, tangible improvement this year. And then our coach was murdered.

Who is surprised we lack direction right now? So many people forgetting the progress we've made this year on the back of what...one game? Some questionable selections?

In 5 years time, for better or worse, we could be anything. And I'm backing Roo and Fages to get us another gun coach.

This board always goes into meltdown after a bad loss, I predict another couple of doom and gloom threads before weeks end.

 

[skoobydoo]

But going on what has happened over the last 10-15 years, it seems likely that 2-3 teams will win multiple flags while another couple will jag one here or there. Even with all of their top ten draft picks, do you honestly see the chances of teams like WB, Melbourne or Port winning flags as any better than ours? GWS perhaps, simply by sheer weight of numbers of top picks. But GC, who were supposed to be in the same boat look an absolute mile off it.

At the start of the year, the Bulldogs were going to struggle to win a single game, let alone push for the eight. The Eagles, following pre-season injuries were likewise going to struggle. Port were top four certainties, and one of the flag favourites. GC were going to go from strength to strength and play finals footy... My point being, things change pretty bloody quickly. We really do have some good, young talent in our squad. A couple of decent trades, savvy draft picks and a couple more players stepping up I think sees us pushing hard for the top 4-6. It's not to say we couldn't also bomb, but the chances of this are no more than a tonne of other clubs in similar positions to ours.

Today was disappointing, but we were playing one of the top teams in the comp, on their home deck, in a week they were looking to rebound from a couple of bad weeks and pay tribute to one of the legends of their club. We were always going to be up against it. Take a couple of deep breaths and move on to next week.

Yes re your last para, and we were always going to be up against it. BUT it wasn't how Sydney turned their game around, their ladder position, or home ground advantage - it was the fact that we were not competitive. Not up to standard with gaining possession, tackling, defensive pressure, hand and foot delivery, physical presence etc etc etc. We allowed them to free play.

 

[Jarman3]

We can't even tip teams to win correctly from week to week let alone guess where all teams will be in 5 years. Everyone said West Coast wouldn't play finals this year and Port would be premiership threats. So much can change.

Most thought Adelaide would go on with a good year in 2012.

Incredible amount of speculation, not just on Adelaide but all other teams.

Exactly. Trying to predict this competition 1 year ahead is a pretty random exercise, never mind 5 years.

Like you said, look at Port this year - everybody tipped them to play in a GF.

In 2006, Geelong finished 10th. Everybody was screaming for Mark Thompson's head. But they held fast and the next decade after that speaks for itself. That same year, Hawthorn finished 11th. This competition can turn on its head in a heartbeat.

Our next senior coaching appointment is crucial. Good recruiting is crucial, but looking at the number of Rising Star nominations we've had in recent years, as well as some prudent work with trades / free agency (Betts, Cheney, Lynch, Jacobs, etc), I've got a reasonable amount of confidence that we'll do OK there with what we've got to work with. Hopefully, if Danger goes, we'll match the offer and force a trade for a couple of first round picks to accelerate the process.

There's no guarantee of success, but nor is there cause for such pessimism, either.

 

[I Lost My Keays]

Round 1 2016

F: Betts - Walker - Cameron
HF: Lynch - Jenkins - Kerridge
C: Douglas - Crouch sn - Knight
HB: Smith - Lever - Henderson
B: Laird - Talia - Brown

Ruck: Jacobs - Dangerfield - Sloane

Interchange: Crouch jn - Cheney - CEY - Grigg

No VB, Wright, MacKay, Thompson, Hartigan, Martin,

That's perfect

 

[Crows4Eva]

We have too many slow, inside types (Thompson, Sloane, CEY, M.Crouch, Lyons, Grigg, Kerridge) and not enough more outside pacey types.

Probably because its tougher to find quality outside types who dont get snagged in the top 10-15 picks, those who are left after that are usually speculative or not up to it with their skills.

It's not an unfixable situation due to the young age of our list but we need to remedy it quickly.

If we have learnt anything this season its that we are not up to scratch against the best sides, we can beat most of the bottom 10 but struggle with the rest. That can be fixed with experience and better balancing our pace/inside grunt ratios but hard calls need to be made to give us the picks we need to get the players we need.

 

[splat868]

This.

We're 3-5 genuine class players of being a premiership threat.

Still positve myself.

If Danger stays, and our youngsters continue to improve, I think we can plug the holes in our list in 2 years.

With the right trading and game day selections I'm still with Walshy.

Top 4 in 2017.

 

[Sanders]

More likely than not we'll spend the next 5 years where we spent the last 5 years.

Lost draft picks, conservative attitude to trading and a pathological addiction to overstating the position of our list.

 

[headache1]

Maybe we do what West Coast has done and go after SA lads.

If they're good enough, then sure. But, you've got to remember that despite WA having the same amount of AFL teams as SA, their population base is nearly 1m greater than ours.

 

[Cleric]

If they're good enough, then sure. But, you've got to remember that despite WA having the same amount of AFL teams as SA, their population base is nearly 1m greater than ours.

However we produce better jr talent than WA.

 

[Cleric]

Still positve myself.

If Danger stays, and our youngsters continue to improve, I think we can plug the holes in our list in 2 years.

With the right trading and game day selections I'm still with Walshy.

Top 4 in 2017.

So how are we going to push out teams like GWS, GC and WBs from the top 4. All three have way more talent than us at this point.

 

[dogs105]

We'll be top 4 next year. Bookmark it.