Review Bad/Ugly vs Fremantle, R5 2020

[CrowBloke]

There is one other major point that you are missing. We were playing against a side that is nearly as bad as we are. Had that been against say any of the sides in the top eight everything thing would look so much worse. My wife hates footy and I have to say at the moment I am so embarrassed to say I follow the Crows. It is truly embarrassing. She asks why I am so upset and I say it's not that we lost its how we lost that makes us look like the laughing stock of the competition.

Nailed it.
After the third quarter fightback, we had momentum and an opportunity to run over the team sitting 17th., then barely fired a shot in the last. Since the bye last year, the Crows have been rubbish. As you said, a non-competitive embarrassment.

 

[Thetrader15]

I think Brad is showing the right determination but Matt has been dead ordinary. I reckon Pohlke will be the next Jarryd Lyons if we keep playing him like we are.

Poholke seems to have something. I didn't see it previously in his AFL games in previous years, but it appears to be there now. Good overhead, and could be that Lyons type who is relatively cheap and won't lose too much if Matt gets another offer

 

[Betts are off]

Agreed. Always needed time to settle, and the high footy IQ IMO supercedes the awkwardness of his kicking, meaning he should develop into a reliable ball user.

And agree x 2 - love Crockers aerial ability but just so much of a tweener for me - doesn't seem to have a position that makes sense for his skillset. Not good enough by foot to play wing, bit too skinny to be a lead up forward.

With Crocker, I honestly still don't know what his strengths are 4 games in. He was suppose to be an Elite runner which I haven't seen much evidence of. He's got some goal sense, but I wouldn't say its much higher then average. And physically i'm always a bit taken back by how small he seems when standing next to other players.

Very much a tweener

 

[Betts are off]

Poholke seems to have something. I didn't see it previously in his AFL games in previous years, but it appears to be there now. Good overhead, and could be that Lyons type who is relatively cheap and won't lose too much if Matt gets another offer

This is a very salient point. What he has is very useful as a midfielder i.e. a strong body, good in tight space, reads the ball well, clean hands, great mark, goal kicker.

What his doesn't have is a bit limiting as a small/medium forward i.e. Speed at ground level. Forward Craft

That's why no-one saw what he can bring before because we played him almost exclusively as a small/medium forward. I.e We literally played him to his weaknesses!!

It was evident in that last quarter when he was a sole lead out forward (because we had to accomodate Matty in the middle). As soon as the ball went to ground the Freo defender had him easily covered.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Geez, Laird was horrible. Has been all year.

frampton, Keats and Murphy aren’t AFL quality.

Really liked McAdam and Hamill, thought Keays has been improving, Talia, Smith and Doedee are probably the only senior players who I thought played at an acceptable level. The rest is just not good.

Until Keays learns to hit a target, he’s a no for me. Does a good lock down job though.

 

[dogs105]

I can’t remember if we had a bid on him?

We'd used our 2 picks on Milera and Doedee by then

 

[ams4crows]

My concern is we just can't score, in almost every match since the long break we've only had 1 1/4 in which we've scored multiple goals and in the others it's either 1 goal or none.

 

[Thetrader15]

Until Keays learns to hit a target, he’s a no for me. Does a good lock down job though.

Why are you marking Keays any differently to the rest of the midfield who can't hit a target. Perhaps he was paired up with Rory Sloane during iso

 

[Thetrader15]

My concern is we just can't score, in almost every match since the long break we've only had 1 1/4 in which we've scored multiple goals and in the others it's either 1 goal or none.

Have a look at the way the ball goes down there. Delivery is Div 5 stuff 9 times out of 10, and it's not from our younger players either

 

[BrissyCrow]

Poholke seems to have something. I didn't see it previously in his AFL games in previous years, but it appears to be there now. Good overhead, and could be that Lyons type who is relatively cheap and won't lose too much if Matt gets another offer

From memory I always thought that Poholke was really light weighted. He also got little opportunity. I think he played only a couple of games. But when he played in the Brisbane game for some reason he looked taller compared to some of the players around him and his body looked like it had muscled up. I remember him taking a mark in the pack and kick a goal that day. I thought I liked the look of him. So my comments about him have been positive since. Now that you mention Lyons I think you might be right. I just hope we perservere with him.

 

[Mutineer]

Have a look at the way the ball goes down there. Delivery is Div 5 stuff 9 times out of 10, and it's not from our younger players either

Not yesterday......It was all down to blokes that in the past were good kicks that are now missing easy set shot goals and the same applies to some of their field kicking as well. You don't just lose your kicking ability overnight it has to be a confidence/mental thing going with these guys. Both Murphy and McHenry had better than average foot skills as juniors and Murphy in particular in his 1st season in the SANFL was way above average.....where that ability has gone I'm truly puzzled, yesterday a prime example.

 

[Ripcity]

Sloane looking more and more like a Hannebery situation. 200+ games as a combative midfielder who lacked a little athleticism as it is, seems to have hit a brick wall at this point with a contract through to 2023 on big $$$. Big yikes.

Hoping it's more the cork from the Showdown or the ankle against Brisbane but he looks miles off it and needs a week off.

 

[BlackGun1]

Geez, Laird was horrible. Has been all year.

frampton, Keats and Murphy aren’t AFL quality.

Until Keays learns to hit a target, he’s a no for me. Does a good lock down job though.

Nearly 90 percent DE yuesterday and would have set up multiple goals if his teammates could kick it through the big poles.

 

[BlackGun1]

Sloane looking more and more like a Hannebery situation. 200+ games as a combative midfielder who lacked a little athleticism as it is, seems to have hit a brick wall at this point with a contract through to 2023 on big $$$. Big yikes.

Hoping it's more the cork from the Showdown or the ankle against Brisbane but he looks miles off it and needs a week off.

Needs a spell to see if its injury or just age thats causing this.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Ugly:
Dwayne's commentary was broadcasted on prime time in the US.

 

[hey shorty]

Nearly 90 percent DE yuesterday and would have set up multiple goals if his teammates could kick it through the big poles.

DE is misleading, a 40m kick in any direction is an effective disposal, as is a 1m handball

 

[BlackGun1]

DE is misleading, a 40m kick in any direction is an effective disposal, as is a 1m handball

Well I didn't see any howling turnovers yesterday. Saw plenty from others

 

[feenix67]

Well I didn't see any howling turnovers yesterday. Saw plenty from others

Kicking a high floater to a 1v2 is an effective disposal statistically. Laird's bread and butter these days it seems.

 

[Lach72]

Yep, I know the feeling all too well. We get Mundied quite often.

While I have you, would you agree with the sentiment that he's one of the most underrated mids in the AFL? I can't remember watching him ever have a bad game.

I think so...He did take a while to hit his straps as he starts off half back but he looked great on the weekend

 

[Thetrader15]

Ugly:
Dwayne's commentary was broadcasted on prime time in the US.

Good:
Dwayne's commentary was not broadcast on prime time in AUS.

 

[Mismatched]

Some interesting discussions re Crouch brothers. I think some are going a bit over the top in their criticism of them, however I believe there is a significant issue when it comes to our midfield.

I've put a lot of thought into why the Crouch's really aren't succeeding, despite both now being in their supposed "prime" and relatively injury free.

The key issues as I see it:
1) Both are in the side as our prime contested ball/clearance midfielders, yet neither are genuinely elite clearance winners. They're currently the best we have. Sloane at his best is better, but currently a long way off this. Gibbs at his best their equal, again well past his best. There's a couple of young guys who may improve, but are a long way off it yet too.
2) Whilst both are solid contested ball players, they tend to pad their numbers with minimal impact uncontested possessions. It means they have these big number games with minimal impact and makes it easy to over-rate their efforts.
3) Neither are strong defensively. They're not strong tacklers and don't work hard defensively. Contested midfielders need to be able apply strong defensive action when losing the clearances. You can carry one mid who doesn't offer much in this regard, but two can really hurt you.
4) I don't think they work well together. They tend to seek each other out and know where to get the football off of each other, but this hurts team and gameplan.
5) I think both are the type of mids you want as your 3rd/4th best mid, not as 1/2 so much. Get them in the right set up and both will be extremely valuable to a side. I don't see us having the right set up for 2-3 years at least.

Number 5 for mine is our biggest issue. How do we find a couple of genuinely elite midfielders to lead our midfield for the next 8-10 years? At present, we're not attracting ready made elites, so realistically we need to go to the draft, but to do so we need more picks.

My belief at present is that probably we need to be letting both Crouches go at the end of the year, pressing hard with the AFL to give us Band 1 compo for Brad. To do so though, we'd need to bring in 2 players, on the relative cheap who we can immediately plug into the "inside mid" role, which is where I think talk of Hately and a few others hits the mark.

At present though, we need the Crouches in the side, I think we perhaps could be rotating them through the flanks a touch more to give opportunities to others, but ultimately we need them racking up heaps of touches to maximise value.

 

[BlackGun1]

Kicking a high floater to a 1v2 is an effective disposal statistically. Laird's bread and butter these days it seems.

Haha fair enough. Despite my connection to Ben I am not sitting in here beating a drum saying he's going to be a 10 year midfielder. But I reckon there could be enough there to elevate him from 'stop-gap' to 'potential role player in a competitive team' down the line.

 

[Mutineer]

Well I didn't see any howling turnovers yesterday. Saw plenty from others

Keays was quite good yesterday despite what the nuffies on here are saying, runs hard and gives it everything he's got, would have been in our bests yesterday IMO.

 

[feenix67]

Haha fair enough. Despite my connection to Ben I am not sitting in here beating a drum saying he's going to be a 10 year midfielder. But I reckon there could be enough there to elevate him from 'stop-gap' to 'potential role player in a competitive team' down the line.

Sorry, I thought your comment was in relation to Laird. I thought Keayes was pretty decent yesterday FWIW and I agree, a good workhorse cog in a cohesive midfield.

 

[Betts are off]

Sorry, I thought your comment was in relation to Laird. I thought Keayes was pretty decent yesterday FWIW and I agree, a good workhorse cog in a cohesive midfield.

Yep, Ben Kaeys is far from our biggest problem, i'm actually quite liking his trajectory TBH. Started off all effort, but was pretty wild and missing some touch. But as each game progresses he seems to be tuning that in, without losing any of that effort.

I mentioned above that I wouldn't be surprised if he plays every game this season, and really look forward to seeing what that continuity does for him by the last 3rd of the season.