The Good, The Bad, The Atkins

[Southerntakeover]

LOL so much over reaction in this thread. Sit the **** down, it's only round 1

It's not like winning games actually matters.

 

[haydo]

It's not like winning games actually matters.

Of course it matters, we lost 6 games last season (with a draw) and still finished top. I look forward to only losing 5 more games for the rest of the season

 

[dogs105]

Geez only a troll would use this picture as their avater

Thats Ugly

Well caption comp is sorted for the week...

 

[jirkago]

Good. Was the first game and its a marathon. Doedee looked good after a shaky start. Looks a real prospect.
Fog is a huge talent, unfortunately i was right in thinking he will tire quickly.
Murphy showed glimpses of talent with a hard edge.
Bad. Our fricken midfield, down hill skies last night ( like the gf).
Once the ball got ahead of em, no chase at all. They as a whole need to work so much harder.

Ugly, the effort all round was poor. Had the bombers kicked straighter, it could have been ugly.
Hampton is the most frustrating player we have, ball in hand no one knows what he will do except stuff it up.

On a side note, ive never seen a game where we have smothered the ball this much and never come back to us. The bounce of the ball didnt go our way, shit happens i guess but better now then in a final.
Although it didnt affect the game , the umpiring was frixken awful and ravor is a complete knob

Our forwards were really young or not used to playing there. No way we would have loat or let them take that many marks if we had our full squad.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Vhaluus]

There is no role that dumb footballers excel at.

He just doesn’t have a footy brain.

GWS learnt that lesson, which is why they got rid of him.

 

[dylan123]

I really want to start seeing some constantly from McGovern this year. He needs to become more than an x-factor who seems to struggle to get 10 touches a game.

He's an exciting talent, don't get me wrong but I hope he's not someone sitting at the bottom of the stat sheet every 5 out of 6 games he plays. Want to see him breakout and take a hold of the comp a lot more this year.

 

[mistylake]

There is no role that dumb footballers excel at.

He just doesn’t have a footy brain.

I think he might actually have a footy for a brain. Poor bastard.

 

[CrowBloke]

The umps were putrid all night, inconsistent and lazy. Sucked in by the rabid injector supporters.
BT can piss off to an old folks home, I am so sick of his bullshite.

This.
Umps and commentators sucked in by pro-Vic bias. I muted Ch.7 halfway through the second quarter, put sound back on for the last, muted again after 5 minutes. Jeez, they get excited when a Vic team does something good.

 

[Murray2503]

Gonna be an interesting year, a lot of upsets i feel. I guess we just need to make the 8 and as the bulldogs showed you can win from outside the top 4. The positives:
Once fogarty gets fit, bloody look out.
Doedee is not lever but nor does he have to be. Feel keath is better suited to that role ino. Hopefully back soon. Doedee has courage, that mark was a highlight.
Betts will get better, cant play much worse to be honest.
Gov is also out of form and will improve drammatically.
The forward half looks better with tex, lynch and knight/milera. Jenkins needs to come out for tex or fog imo once fogarty is fitter or even earlier.
We will get back lynch, walker, knight, bcrouch, keath and hopefully b smith.

The negatives:
Sauce looks old and slow. Not a premiership ruckman. Sorry he is not. Need to use a draft pick end of year to get a young mobile ruck.
We look slow at times chasing. Losing b smith and cameron are huge losses.
Jenkins, i dont know what to say anymore.
Hartigan and talia. Talia lacks offensive ability in his game. He has peaked and on the downward trend imo. Hartigan seems out of form and is a limited footballer. I prefer alex keath, has more upside and time will show that.
I feel that we neeed more out of kelly, seedsman, mackay and especially atkins. I think i saw atkins in the winter olympics.
Hampton is a limited footballer, not physical ability but his thinking on the field. He will not make it and will not be on the list next year. Cey will most likely go the same way imo.
Anyway, don needs to make some tough decisions but 13 is the magical number. Make the 8 and you never know.

 

[maxlilly]

I thought Seedsman played pretty well and surprised me with some of his physical work

 

[1970crow]

I think CEY is overawed when playing real games - his brain goes foggy and he panics - he has had multiple chances I think he is done.

He really hadn't. He played well under Walsh until injury and then Campo dusted him. He got 2 games off a HFF in 2016. One covering for a 20 possession full time cooked stoppage mid and the other when Sloane was out. He's had little chances.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Of course it matters, we lost 6 games last season (with a draw) and still finished top. I look forward to only losing 5 more games for the rest of the season

We played some pathetic games last year, but starting the season with such a meek capitulation is hardly something that should inspire confidence that we're on our way to the top four. Essendon have gone past us. Who else has?

 

[Bicks]

I thought Seedsman played pretty well and surprised me with some of his physical work

Yeah, but his kicking has gone to shit...

 

[Ramify]

There is no role that dumb footballers excel at.

He just doesn’t have a footy brain.

Not true.

There is always a position in chanel 7s commentary box.

 

[CrowBloke]

Teams have figured out a clear blueprint for beating us and we don't have an answer.

aka
The Blueprint Simplification.

Here it is, "the blueprint" again. If there was "a blueprint" (there isn't), we'd never win a game.
Two of the games we lost last year (Sydney, then WC near season's end) were from player management/injury. In the other losses we were out-pressured, or beaten by teams who had a plan and executed it really well (eg NM in Hobart clearly had a plan for playing down there in that hurricane). Ditto, the GF.
The Crows were top (18 weeks), or second, for the whole season. Why didn't the oppo just roll out your "blueprint", week after week, and beat them?
It's just not that simple. Pressure alone won't do it.

On any given day, in ANY AFL game, the team that applies the most pressure most consistently wins, provided they also execute well (which is why Essendon were not up by 5 goals at half-time last night, poor finishing). Also explains why there were so many upsets last season ie when teams not expected to apply that pressure and skill execution did just that and their more fancied opponents lost.

 

[Scorpus]

Yeah, but his kicking has gone to shit...

Aside from a few kicks, I didn't think so

 

[Ramify]

aka
The Blueprint Simplification.

Here it is, "the blueprint" again. If there was "a blueprint" (there isn't), we'd never win a game.
Two of the games we lost last year (Sydney, then WC near season's end) were from player management/injury. In the other losses we were out-pressured, or beaten by teams who had a plan and executed it really well (eg NM in Hobart clearly had a plan for playing down there in that hurricane). Ditto, the GF.
The Crows were top (18 weeks), or second, for the whole season. Why didn't the oppo just roll out your "blueprint", week after week, and beat them?
It's just not that simple. Pressure alone won't do it.

On any given day, in ANY AFL game, the team that applies the most pressure most consistently wins, provided they also execute well (which is why Essendon were not up by 5 goals at half-time last night, poor finishing). Also explains why there were so many upsets last season ie when teams not expected to apply that pressure and skill execution did just that and their more fancied opponents lost.

Exactly. Well said.

The only thing even vaguely resembling a "Blueprint" is the way in which Chris Scott has structured up against us over the past few years.
Take Enright out of the equation and it no longer exists as a blueprint.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Giving up a lead like that was so Sanderson-like it wasn't funny.

Don't want to jump the gun too early, but food for thought: Damien Hardwick was on the edge of getting sacked at the end of 2016. Richmond replaced all the assistants around him and he won a flag. David Teague and James Podsiadly helped get us into a grand final (as favourites) in the forward and defensive coaching roles respectively. Now both are gone.

We are never going to flush out our Neil Craig era rejects.

 

[CrowBloke]

CEY - lack of awareness and poor disposal
Curtly - see CEY

Yes!
It was noticeable from the start, especially in traffic. Hampton in particular was fumbly, panicky. Maybe overawed?
Doedee settled well, then showed AFL composure.

 

[haydo]

We played some pathetic games last year, but starting the season with such a meek capitulation is hardly something that should inspire confidence that we're on our way to the top four. Essendon have gone past us. Who else has?

Essendon have not gone past us. What a shit thing to say. Essendon were better on the night only because they had 3 more weeks pre-season than we did and weren't missing 3 of their highest goal scorers from last season. Us supporters have been crying out for kids to be played. We debuted 3 young blokes last night all in which had good/great games and yet we still have uproar from the supporters saying the season is over. Give me a ****ing break. 1 game doesn't defy a season, sit back and watch us smack Richmond around next week and we'll automatically (according to our supporters) be premiership favs

 

[JP Sauce]

I thought Dads did a couple of nice things and had a good third quarter. After being out for so long it was an okay first game back. Was far from the worst Crow out there.

 

[rocket18]

I like how our mens and womens teams shared our fitness staff.

 

[CrowBloke]

really starting to bother me with Eddie, ground ball is what he gets paid to do not impede our talls..

THIS. Or he gives away a free kick .
I tired of his attempted speccy-leaps last year. Time and place, Eddie ie maybe when we're ten goals up with 10 minutes to play.

 

[maxlilly]

Yeah, but his kicking has gone to shit...

I didn't think Seedsman's kicking was that bad

 

[Slippery Pete]

I really want to start seeing some constantly from McGovern this year. He needs to become more than an x-factor who seems to struggle to get 10 touches a game.

He's an exciting talent, don't get me wrong but I hope he's not someone sitting at the bottom of the stat sheet every 5 out of 6 games he plays. Want to see him breakout and take a hold of the comp a lot more this year.

He’s an impact player, not an accumulator, and that becomes really apparent when the two highest workrate forwards are out of the side.

Too harsh on Mitch in here. Much too harsh.