AFL Toast RND 8: 3 Point win against the Crows

[foj1]

The silver lining is 5-2 and we've got 1/3 of our best 22 to come in

Hooker for Gleeson
Stringer for Townsend
Daniher for McKernan
Stewart probably gets a look in at battling Laverde - though will admit he's been good recently
Heppell for Hibberd
Shiel for Zaka
Fantasia for Cahill (no knock on him, but if 2017 Raz can come back....)
And hopefully Draper is the 2nd coming of Cox and we don't need TBC & Phillips so regularly.

Townsend was one of the reasons we won.he was the only competitive forward In the air once Laverne injured.

 

[DapperDon]

So I see we won. The match report speaks glowingly of the tackling pressure, midfield and Jordan Ridley. I also see plenty of unhappy campers here. Was it really that bad a performance?

Pressure was elite
Skills were below average
Scraped a win against a winless team

Could have been better for sure, but could have been much worse if we lost.

 

[blitzer]

Pressure was elite
Skills were below average
Scraped a win against a winless team

Could have been better for sure, but could have been much worse if we lost.

In fairness I suspect if Adelaide had been playing like that all year they wouldn't have been winless to begin with. That said it still stunk if you wanted a comfortable performance that established us as a team that had another gear to go to and could really crush an opposition. Which we legit haven't come close to doing all year.

 

[Mikevk123]

Mitch Hibberd Played well and especially when he was put through the guts.

 

[Lore]

That 3 point win got our percentage back over 100... just.

 

[nylexbandit]

If we are going to go handball heavy we need to improve our bloody skills. The amount of dropped balls and off target hand passes just stuffs it as a game plan

 

[Vander18]

It seems to me we are very poor at tackling as a team. Tackles are mostly either easily broken or never really made in the first place. Am I imagining this?

Against Collingwood and North it was really noticeable that they were sticking ....for the first time in years. WB game was back to the bad old days of tackles being broken at will.

I thought today was ok. Not where we were a few weeks ago but much better than last week.

 

[OsteitisPubis22]

FFS we bloody won, it wasn’t pretty, but we won. Can we stop the whinging. Sometimes you just need to win ugly! And this isn’t the first time that we have.
Adelaide came hard at ya and we held up. We were missing many of our key players and still got the job done.

McKenna and Mckernan couldn’t have played much worse and we still won!

Massive challenge next week, need to play better but enjoy the win!


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Andronicus]

Sometimes you just need to win ugly! And this isn’t the first time that we have.

I think the issue is that we only ever win ugly. We turn easy wins into close games without fail.

 

[foj1]

I reckon most here are realistic about where we are at.
zerk thatcher needs to play in front of Gleeson every day of the week. Gleesons time is surely up after this year.
Zaharakis experienced an Indian summer against the kangas but his ability to play top level football consistently is over.
aaron francis was poor today and allowed Taylor walker to have too much of an impact for mine. With Laverde out I think he has to move forward.
tbc was good for 3 quarters but I have my doubts about himhaving the athleticism required to play full games anymore.
hibberd is a big body who has a crack but his composure and ball use leave me unconvinced.
devon smiths body looks shot for mine- simply cannot cover the ground.
shaun mckernan is the definition of a rookie. Trouble shoot for a couple of games a year. That is it.

the good for mine.
snelling got smashed and the fact that he played out the game was meritorious.
cahill looks fumbly and unsure but he had every right to miss that last set shot and he didn’t. Props young man.
townsend is a competitor. If we can get him to play against the 6th best defender ala tigers in 2017 we will be pretty good.
jordon Ridley was wonderful. Intercept marking and skilful ball use. I preferred him as a forward at tac level.
mason red man was better as the game went on. Don’t mess with his confidence he plays every week.
mcgrath and parish continue to improve. If only they had a senior big body to help them.

moving forward.
we have to find a forward line structure. Tippa and Townsend are the only two reliable players atm.
langford can hopefully do a job but he is a spare parts man.
we need to see if Stewart is worth persevering with. Hopefully Jones can sneak in a game or two later in the year. I thought he was a top 10 talent last year.
is it worth trying McKenna forward?
his speed would be difficult to combat.
dylan Clarke should be played against good sides. Can he nullify opposition good players. If he can’t or will not be played he needs to be delisted.
mozzie is worth a shot when fit.

the big decisions
a backline containing hooker and hurly moving forward is not sustainable. Slow is an understatement.
hitching our wagons to Joey Daniher is fraught with danger. Even if his heart is in it his body isn’t I reckon.
Ambrose and Heppell have played their best football. Neither will play in our next premiership side.
cody brand and josh eyre are two handy talls who I think we will pick up yet we continue to scream for some big bodied strong midfielders.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Horrible. Absolutely horrid. Our form vs the 18th side is laughable. Legitimately feels like a loss.

Not quite

 

[JayJ20]

Not quite

They were missing Crouch and Doedee on top of Sloane. They should have beaten us if not for some dubious umpiring decisions going our way. I'll take the win, but I hope the club treats it like a loss because there was nothing great about that win.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Fumbles and skill and errors really make a difference

You imagine this could be fixed but it’s not really an effort or confidence issue - it’s class. Too many of our best out.

Lions, GWS, Suns, Saints coming up. Hard to see this side being competitive. Shiel in will help, but it’s not really enough.

 

[DallasCrane316]

I think the issue is that we only ever win ugly. We turn easy wins into close games without fail.

At the moment, it’s really difficult for us to kick a big score. Our forward line is pretty dysfunctional. Our mids really dominated and we couldn’t convert that in our forward line.

Really hope we bring Stewart is as another tall, and play two rucks so Mckernan can play 100% in the forward line.

Allows Walla, Townsend and Snelling to crumb a ground ball.

 

[fairbump_playon]

They were missing Crouch and Doedee on top of Sloane. They should have beaten us if not for some dubious umpiring decisions going our way. I'll take the win, but I hope the club treats it like a loss because there was nothing great about that win.

Terrible win for sure. I just know I would have been feeling far, far worse if the crows had done what they should have and converted one more chance.

 

[yaco55]

Adelaide lost it with their match ups - Why you would tag McGrath before Merrett is beyond belief - Merrett was the matchwinner in 2019 and today was the difference.

 

[BrunoV]

Townsend was one of the reasons we won.he was the only competitive forward In the air once Laverne injured.

Who is a tall not playing his first 20 games who is regularly out marked by an opponent so much so that you'd say it. I've heard plenty of guns and average player described as "never being out marked" and "bringing the ball to ground" but I don't recall the reverse being said about a player.

The emphasis on a forward being outmarked is one of the biggest myths in football.

 

[foj1]

Who is a tall not playing his first 20 games who is regularly out marked by an opponent so much so that you'd say it. I've heard plenty of guns and average player described as "never being out marked" and "bringing the ball to ground" but I don't recall the reverse being said about a player.

The emphasis on a forward being outmarked is one of the biggest myths in football.

Huh?

 

[avignon]

18 possessions and 11 tackles for a high half forward. That is better than okay.

Took that brutal bump early and still played on. We got him from the Crows didnt we? They were probably intent on making sure he didnt play well, so he did a good job considering.

 

[Dave]

But anyway the W was never in doubt for me cos I put $20 on the Crows and have a legitimate 0% betting record.

Can we fund a betting account for this guy to bet against us for the rest of the year?

 

[Dave]

They were missing Crouch and Doedee on top of Sloane.

And we were at full strength with no in game injuries? Sheesh.

 

[JayJ20]

And we were at full strength with no in game injuries? Sheesh.

I just tried to balance the “we have no one on the park” narrative with some perspective. We’re not the only side with injuries. Adelaide are 0-8 for a reason.

 

[Squeaky]

Fantasia for Cahill (no knock on him, but if 2017 Raz can come back....)

If it is 2019 or 2020 Raz I would rather stick with Ned...

 

[CBombers17]

There's good wins and good losses and bad wins and bad losses. It all depends on what you want to see in terms of team improvement and what your personal expectations are of us at the time.

With Adelaide an absolute rabble at 0-7 and about to embark on a rebuild we could expect a side like us, supposedly 18 months into a new game plan and a finals contender, to put them away in a far more emphatic fashion than we did.

Being critical of a win isn't some sort of automatic fail as a supporter. Just as a win over terrible opposition isn't necessarily an indicator the team is going anywhere. This wasn't a 'win ugly' victory for mine - that would be more than a 1 goal victory. This was a roll of the dice at the end with them having multiple shots to take the game out. Its different.

There's not much to take away from this game thats positive IMO - perhaps less than a 'good' loss next week. We will see.

Edit: I learnt that without Ridley we would be a 2 or 3 goal worse side and lose today. Not my happiest learnings from a win. Given we are supposedly becoming a system based side how could it be?

 

[BrunoV]

Ben Keays looks like a hard trance DJ from the 90s, by the way.

A terrible sound and matched by an equally bad look.