Review Bad & Ugly vs Bulldogs

[craig crowing]

The midfield is a problem but KPP depth is also a major issue when Himmelberg is your depth. Horrendous list management

Beyond belief our KPP and ruck depth and we keep recruiting same type under size mids .
What was the point in recruiting Bond and Brown just as small example after losing Frampton and McAsey.
If we had a SANFL game on weekend who in the hell would have ben our KPP players and ruck.
After watching QLD game our young super stars like Rachelle ,Rankine should take note of 1st year kids Ashcroft and Humphrey intensity to ball and player
and not carrying on like they scored a World Cup goal every time they got a goal or something useful.

 

[kirky]

That doesnt seem to pass the eye test from watching..they seemed to pull away from contest after contest..not sure when we turned that around

What was the centre clearance stat

14-6 in our favour.

I’m just quoting the official stats from the AFL.

 

[George Kramer]

What this game shows is you can’t read too much into a good win, just like you can’t read too much into a bad loss unless it’s followed up with more bad losses.

That’s why you shouldn’t make calls like we’ve drafted the best young mids over the last 3 years and list guys like Berry and Schoenberg. For starters some teams drafted their gun mids prior to this 3 year benchmark like Rozee and Butters, then add a gun like JHF. Other teams have established gun mids like the Bulldogs and don’t have the picks or need to top up like we did.

Stupid posting is stupid posting.

 

[Milo Cyrus]

IMO the club as a whole threw that game. The call to rest Tex and TT to get them right for the Brisbane game with Doods also missing also sent an implicit message to the rest of the playing group that there was no point trying, and surprise surprise, no-one turned up to play. Wouldn't surprise me if there was even an explicit message that they weren't expected to come home with the win.

97 point turnaround from last week. Given 5 to 10 of the Dogs points should have been goals, should have been an extra 25-50 point margin.

Could we see the axe fall at selection and get a debut next week?

We were all over the Saints last week, and this week the Dogs were all over us.
Maybe the Saints brought a dose of the flu or covid with them and we caught it and it was our turn to deal with the flu.
It will be interesting to see if the Dogs have a downer next week and how the Saints go today.

 

[jackster83]

The midfield is a problem but KPP depth is also a major issue when Himmelberg is your depth. Horrendous list management.

It was stupid of us to not pick another tall with one of our later picks instead of throwing darts at speculative mids.

We clearly didn't rate Keeler whatsoever but there were plenty of other talls available - Marshall, Foster, Scully, Verrall, etc.

 

[kirky]

Our away form is a concern. Capitulation to the Giants, barely scraped past against the Hawks and were non-competitive today. All well and good that we're mostly performing well at home, but we're not playing finals unless we can start performing better on the road.

Well a good start is if we could at least play within say 10km of a CBD!

All four away games so far and the closest was Homebush out 14kms of Sydney.

And it gets better with Marrara (Darwin) in two weeks which is closer at 11kms from the CBD.

We don’t get to play in the city of Melbourne until Round 15 of a what is 24 round season, nearly two thirds in. How the * is that at all fair and reasonable?

How can we ever be competitive on a ground where the major finals are played if we barely play there once or twice a year?

But the corrupt AFL have no problem sending us as the French Foreign Legion to all corners of the continent.

It is a ******* disgrace!

 

[Eagleboy2011]

Well a good start is if we could at least play within say 10km of a CBD!

All four away games so far and the closest was Homebush out 14kms of Sydney.

And it gets better with Marrara (Darwin) in two weeks which is closer at 11kms from the CBD.

We don’t get to play in the city of Melbourne until Round 15 of a what is 24 round season, nearly two thirds in. How the * is that at all fair and reasonable?

How can we ever be competitive on a ground where the major finals are played if we barely play there once or twice a year?

But the corrupt AFL have no problem sending us as the French Foreign Legion to all corners of the continent.

It is a ******* disgrace!

You need to blame Olsen and Co for that. Eddie Macguire would be screaming AFL house down. Not even a boo from Olsen.

 

[1970crow]

Almost zero effort. I assume the boys were pretty tired after some hard games because if there is any other reason it's bad.

Also think selection was questionable given a wet contest requires big tough bodies and we brought along some of our softer players who bring class when the going is good but melt in the trenches.

you need speed on a greasy deck.

 

[1970crow]

Would be nice if we got to play a game under the roof as well. Any chance we don’t get the trio of Tassie, Geelong and Ballarat again next year? Probably not, but I can dream!

no comment on the effort itself? The fixture is the sole problem?

 

[1970crow]

Forward 50 tackles
WB 16
Adel 2

for a team who's coach claims has a hunger for the contest, we rank 18th for tackles per game differential.

 

[The Perfect Stranger]

for a team who's coach claims has a hunger for the contest, we rank 18th for tackles per game differential.

Frustrating as hell.

There will be some who will feel uncomfortable when they watch the replay with their peers. Can't remember so many players deviating off the line of the ball to avoid physical contact.

 

[The Perfect Stranger]

I can't sleep, so gonna melt some more .

Our miserable loss in Ballarat is compounded by:
--- the hard realisation that the Crows are unlikely to finish 7th or 8th. Might be a blessing in disguise and make them work harder: we'll see.
--- our slide back into the pack of mediocre also-rans outside the Eight.
and even more miserably
--- the good form of PA. Did we really roll over them in Round 3? They've improved since then; we have not.
I watched their game on Friday night, which was a desperate, hard-fought win over Melbourne in waves of belting rain. 7 wins on the trot now, and looking spirited.

It was impossible not to compare that to the insipid Crows of Saturday arvo and wonder wtf.

If you are Crows supporter who isn't extremely jealous of the midfield Port have built you are kidding yourself. They have a young midfield who will have them in the mix for a decade whereas we had better draft picks yet our midfield is still bottom 6 to 8. You know your midfield is quality when your 4th choice player is a Brownlow medalist. Bastards.

 

[CrowBloke]

If you are Crows supporter who isn't extremely jealous of the midfield Port have built you are kidding yourself. They have a young midfield who will have them in the mix for a decade whereas we had better draft picks yet our midfield is still bottom 6 to 8. You know your midfield is quality when your 4th choice player is a Brownlow medalist. Bastards.

I agree ... and yet we clobbered them in Round 3. Makes no sense .

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Someone else mentioned that Worrell should have been sub and this is exactly right.

Not only could be potentially have covered the taller Bulldogs players if it became a problem, but we also have defenders that potential have the flexibility to go into the midfield if required.

Instead we pick a specialist midfield tackler.

Who is making these sub decisions!?

Agreed, I was stunned when I saw Berry as an in. Even Ned has been better than him this season and played a good cameo the previous week.

 

[1970crow]

And today?

pre game we were 2nd, we're now 9th in terms of differential.

 

[1970crow]

King still hasn't got over 1998.

posters love him when he's saying Nicks is the man and we're building towards being a genuine contender.

 

[1970crow]

I don't want to dissect players or conditions.
It was a complete team failure.

The key issue was that we had zero run or tackling effort. We got the ball at the bottom of packs and it all ended there. Dogs then pounced, extracted ball and chained out unmolested. We stood around looking. Typical example was Sloane getting the ball and having air disposals as the initiator.

On the other hand, we fumbled, didn't run, and didn't attempt fast chains. Game over.

The players weren't to blame in one-on-ones, we won plenty of those. We held their forwrds.

The tone was set early for me when Parnell had a kick from fullback and looked up to see absolutely noone looking to receive his kick. Frustrated, his kick was just intercepted (goal). The lack of movement continued from there.

I think you can say that we didn't turn up for this one, at least after the first 5 minutes.

why do we persist with Sloane in the first half. Had 5 to half time, just a complete passenger out there. Deserve to lose if you're choosing to hamstring yourself like that.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

And yet we still got belted in the clearances...so it was a trainwreck all round

Stats says we actually won the centre bounce clearances 14 to 6, and 36 to 33 stoppages. It was contested and uncontested ball that we were slaughtered, and pretty much every other stat one can think of!

 

[GreyCrow]

Someone else mentioned that Worrell should have been sub and this is exactly right.

Not only could be potentially have covered the taller Bulldogs players if it became a problem, but we also have defenders that potential have the flexibility to go into the midfield if required.

Instead we pick a specialist midfield tackler.

Who is making these sub decisions!?

I'm not going to smash the selection of Berry as sub

Given the conditions it looked to be a good move. That Berry went into the game earlier than expected, or he wasnt given a role ( that I could see ) ie I would have had him sticking to Dale all game - doesnt make the selection poor.

Maybe they felt Ned needed a rest. And Crab is your next go to - so for me Berry was fine as a selection. Berry the player owns this

 

[Mostyn]

Weird game .. not sure what to make of it

At the moment I can't think of 1 player who actually stood up?

Probably a pretty good reflection of where the list is at the moment.

TBH I'm not that surprised by the result (irrespective of whether Tex or TT played or not)

I don't think the media members who last week were saying that we were premiership possibilities are right.

I also don't think overreacting to this makes sense.

We're exactly the same young 7 to 12 side that we hoped we would be at this stage of the rebuild.

 

[GreyCrow]

why do we persist with Sloane in the first half. Had 5 to half time, just a complete passenger out there. Deserve to lose if you're choosing to hamstring yourself like that.

Sloane is the best sub option

A game like yesterday he can slot in early and slot in HB or HF and run through the midfield

Other games he comes on halfway through the 3rd and goes hell for leather

 

[1970crow]

We play there. Even if back to back flags.

The club has to stand up and say no. We need 8 games a year in Melbourne, not hicks

interstate sides should only play in Melbourne when against a vic side.

 

[CrowBloke]

I guess they could punish us by adding Melb in Alice Springs and Brisbane in Cairns to add to our tour of Australia.

2 games in Melbourne in 2024 coming right up.

20th AFL team will be the Carnarvon Crabs (or maybe the Broome Pearls?) which the Crows will play (away) annually.

 

[1970crow]

Sloane is the best sub option

A game like yesterday he can slot in early and slot in HB or HF and run through the midfield

Other games he comes on halfway through the 3rd and goes hell for leather

50% game time with 5 possessions, might as well just run 21 to half time and play 2 subs. McHenry has gone past him. Play him in the stoppage rotation for all of his TOG minutes and he'd get it more than 20 times.

 

[1970crow]

That's probably a similar ratio to ball in forward half though

i50 was 54 to 41, so nowhere near similar ratio to the tackle i50 stat.