Adelaide a threat in 2017?

[Jakksynn]

If our midfield wasn't, we would have been in the bottom half of the table even with our forward line.

Nah I disagree. Your forwardline is extraordinary. Purely on paper, you have the worst midfield. Paper means little though.

 

[Slax]

Whilst the Crows have a great forwardline it goes downhill from there. Midfield is average, worst of the top contenders, backline also a real worry.

Will make finals can't see them being top 4

 

[Crowbots are dead]

Whilst the Crows have a great forwardline it goes downhill from there. Midfield is average, worst of the top contenders, backline also a real worry.

Will make finals can't see them being top 4

Totally disagree about the backline. We have a very strong and settled back 6. Our weak midfield sometimes means the ball goes in there to often leading to relatively high scores against sometimes

 

[Crowbots are dead]

Adelaide's forward line is on par with GWS as being one of the most lethal in the league. They are near the top or top of goals kicked, inside 50 contested marking and goal assists.

Now we all can point to Adelaides midfield talent as an issue but i think an improvement is quite simple.

They need to simply play more midfielders. Now Sydney got the jump on them in the semi final last year.

And yes their midfield dominated all stats. But its not necessarily because Adelaides is less talented. Its literally because there are less of them.

Conversely Sydney had Nankervis/Naismith rotate ruck and forward. Buddy roaming the wings and fwd and then a medium in Xavier Richards who swings up and back.

But the Crows played 4 key position sized defenders in their defence in Hartigan, Mcgovern, Lever and Talia. Far too static and slow to combat Sydneys mass of mids and small forwards. Remove two of those key position players and play two more mids and your midfield will have had a much better time of it.

I think the Crows have enough talent through the middle and certainly the fire power upfront to be there abouts. Simply need more actual soldiers in the middle to do the grunt work like run and carry, tackling, harassing, guarding space and simply contesting the opposition ball carrier. The kind of work that makes it easier for other mids to be effective. The type of effectiveness a static key position player cannot provide.

This is bang on but sadly our list is somewhat uneven. All the depth is in defender or forward line ( Troy Menzel can't get a game!) . It's like we forgot to recruit midfielders

 

[StillAtLarge]

Imo this is the weakest midfield that Adelaide have fielded since their inception. And the jury is still out on their forwards who routinely bully sides during the h&a season but go missing in the heat of september.

 

[ok.crows]

Nah I disagree. Your forwardline is extraordinary. Purely on paper, you have the worst midfield. Paper means little though.

Whilst the Crows have a great forwardline it goes downhill from there. Midfield is average, worst of the top contenders, backline also a real worry.

Will make finals can't see them being top 4

Totally disagree about the backline. We have a very strong and settled back 6. Our weak midfield sometimes means the ball goes in there to often leading to relatively high scores against sometimes

Statistics tell a very different story:

Midfield performance in 2016

Crows ranked 4th. Fourth is not "average", is not "weak", is not "worst of the top contenders" and is certainly not "the worst midfield".

 

[Cleric]

Crows do the opposite to what I think.
1. 2012 I didn't think would be a good year, we made a preliminary.
2. 2013 and 2014. Thought we would make the top 4, but bombed out.
3. 2015 with the coach getting murdered I thought we would fade away, but we made the finals.
4. 2016 with the loss of Danger, a tough draw and a new coach I thought we would just miss out. We made the finals.

Now 2017 I'm thinking that I don't know what to think.

 

[Cleric]

Whilst the Crows have a great forwardline it goes downhill from there. Midfield is average, worst of the top contenders, backline also a real worry.

Will make finals can't see them being top 4

Say what? Talia multiple AA. Lever is a young gun. Hartigan is a good defender. Laird is one of the best small defenders in the game today. Smith is one of the best attacking halfback flankers. Brown is an excellent small defender and then you have Cheney, Seedsman as well.

 

[Crowbots are dead]

Statistics tell a very different story:

Midfield performance in 2016

Crows ranked 4th. Fourth is not "average", is not "weak", is not "worst of the top contenders" and is certainly not "the worst midfield".

Do you truly believe we have the fourth best midfield? I think that may be true for the first half of last year but it fell away as thommo slowed down. I would have our midfield as 7th. The only team we were stronger than from last years too 8 in that regard would be north Melbourne. Now Hampton, Cameron etc. could positively change this , this season and if they do we will be extremely hard to beat.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Imo this is the weakest midfield that Adelaide have fielded since their inception. And the jury is still out on their forwards who routinely bully sides during the h&a season but go missing in the heat of september.

No doubt this is true currently .....however the season is long and lets make another assessment mid year

 

[Bokonon_]

Do you truly believe we have the fourth best midfield? I think that may be true for the first half of last year but it fell away as thommo slowed down. I would have our midfield as 7th. The only team we were stronger than from last years too 8 in that regard would be north Melbourne. Now Hampton, Cameron etc. could positively change this , this season and if they do we will be extremely hard to beat.

I do see Crows as a threat, there's a fluency in the outside run that makes me reluctant to rubbish the midfield. Interesting you see Hampton as an outside mid though. Always had that potential but we used him as a running half back. Might just be the holes that needed filling in both clubs at the time.
Always admire.Cirtly's balls. When he left us disappointed he couldn't cement a spot he nominated the Crows who were never going to be the easiest bestt 22 to make.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Totally disagree about the backline. We have a very strong and settled back 6. Our weak midfield sometimes means the ball goes in there to often leading to relatively high scores against sometimes

Agreed ....the backline gets put under pressure, due to the lack of two way running by our midfield

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I do see Crows as a threat, there's a fluency in the outside run that makes me reluctant to rubbish the midfield. Interesting you see Hampton as an outside mid though. Always had that potential but we used him as a running half back. Might just be the holes that needed filling in both clubs at the time.
Always admire.Cirtly's balls. When he left us disappointed he couldn't cement a spot he nominated the Crows who were never going to be the easiest bestt 22 to make.

And we'll use him "sometimes" off half back thru the midfield ......fact is GWS just had too many classy midfielders on their list to fit them all in ....look how many ex GWS midfielders have left and been successful, yet you still have arguably one of the best midfields

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Funnily enough I thought missing Gibbs was not a bad thing for the crows. Wrong age bracket big salary helps short term but better off trying to lock up Lever, McGovern on long deals

Think most sensible footy watchers would agree with you ......we have enough midfield options on the list, it's just they haven't become household names yet .....and how it all develops will be up to Don Pykes skill as a tactical coach

 

[Bokonon_]

And we'll use him "sometimes" off half back thru the midfield ......fact is GWS just had too many classy midfielders on their list to fit them all in ....look how many ex GWS midfielders have left and been successful, yet you still have arguably one of the best midfields

Some truth in that although he was in fromt of Kelly, Williams and Wilson in 2015. May have seen the writing on the wall, as they developed.
He chose to leave but Leon may have indicated his prospects weren't good, we'll never know.

 

[Crowbots are dead]

I do see Crows as a threat, there's a fluency in the outside run that makes me reluctant to rubbish the midfield. Interesting you see Hampton as an outside mid though. Always had that potential but we used him as a running half back. Might just be the holes that needed filling in both clubs at the time.
Always admire.Cirtly's balls. When he left us disappointed he couldn't cement a spot he nominated the Crows who were never going to be the easiest bestt 22 to make.

Hampton has been trailed here well during the practice games but time will tell. Crow fans are frustrated with the conservative team selections on our midfield. I think we have to work out ways to bat deeper in this area quickly and stop picking plodders like McKay.

 

[Bokonon_]

Hampton has been trailed here well during the practice games but time will tell. Crow fans are frustrated with the conservative team selections on our midfield. I think we have to work out ways to bat deeper in this area quickly and stop picking plodders like McKay.

I get the frustration with McKay. People see us as a team of stars but remember we played Sam Reid last year, delisted from the Bulldogs. I'm not an expert on your list but every team needs solid reliable types methinks.

 

[Apsaalooke]

I get the frustration with McKay. People see us as a team of stars but remember we played Sam Reid last year, delisted from the Bulldogs. I'm not an expert on your list but every team needs solid reliable types methinks.

That's true but 'RagDoll' Mackay is neither solid nor reliable, especially in finals where he goes missing every time

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Some truth in that although he was in fromt of Kelly, Williams and Wilson in 2015. May have seen the writing on the wall, as they developed.
He chose to leave but Leon may have indicated his prospects weren't good, we'll never know.

Hampton has made no secret of the fact he see's himself as a Mid / Forward ......reading between the lines IMO he believes he was played out of his natural position ....but then again GWS may have been teaching him the defensive aspects of the game, as Hampton is a naturally attacking player ?

As you say, we'll never know the real reasons

 

[Bokonon_]

Hampton has made no secret of the fact he see's himself as a Mid / Forward ......reading between the lines IMO he believes he was played out of his natural position ....but then again GWS may have been teaching him the defensive aspects of the game, as Hampton is a naturally attacking player ?

As you say, we'll never know the real reasons

He is a very attacking player. Seems look at the sticks every time he takes posession and try to find a path there. We were a bit weak at half back at the time so that way well have been the reason.

 

[Slax]

Statistics tell a very different story:

Midfield performance in 2016

Crows ranked 4th. Fourth is not "average", is not "weak", is not "worst of the top contenders" and is certainly not "the worst midfield".

Yeah and you lost one of your midfielders so a drop off from there will occur.

 

[Ray Donovan]

Yeah and you lost one of your midfielders so a drop off from there will occur.

Which midfielder did they lose ?

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Yeah and you lost one of your midfielders so a drop off from there will occur.

Hampton should be a handy replacement for Lyons.

 

[GrommoT]

Which midfielder did they lose ?

Jarryd Lyons.

 

[Ray Donovan]

Jarryd Lyons.

Not exactly list changing stuff. They tried to throw him in 4 deals and got knocked back by Carlton and Adelaide wouldn't up the contract offer and flicked him to GC