Preview The Most Boring Preview of the Year. Dockers v Crows Sunday 18th April 11:10am

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Aug 16, 2009
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Adelaide vs Fremantle

Sunday 18th April 2021

Adelaide Oval

11:10



I feel like I cannot live up to the amazing previews we have had so far. I have decided to go in a different direction. I was dredging my mind for footy memories about playing Adelaide and this is what popped up. Interestingly (or maybe not) it is not about playing Adelaide.

In 2001 in the depths of winter, I went on holiday over east with hubby. We flew into Melbourne, picked up a hire car, drove the Great Ocean Road and then on to Adelaide. We had a great holiday, made even better by the finale.

I was a Dockers’ tragic, even in those days. It was Round 18 and we hadn’t won a match yet for the season. Even though I was on holiday in Adelaide, I resolutely found a pub showing the match. (This was well before the days of everything on the Internet etc). We played Hawthorn (who finished 6th at the end of home and away, and got thru to a Prelim) at Marvel. A 20yo ruck/forward called Justin Longmuir kicked 5, Peter Bell had 38 possessions and we won, kicking over 100 points. I was so happy I had gone to the trouble of finding somewhere to watch the match and (trigger warning) I can remember regaling the barman about what a star JLo would be.

Our only other win for that year came in Round 22 and was against Adelaide at Subi. We kicked over 100 points then too. I am hoping that there is some kind of good omen in this little memory surfacing.


Last Time They Met

2020 Round 5 Metricon Stadium Dockers 8 6 54 Adelaide 4 10 34

Our first win of 2020. Andy, Cez, Barra, Ryan and Logue were our best. A good performance from our youth against an Adelaide outfit in a deep hole at the time.

Line-ups

The Dockers will be without best 22 players Lobb, Hamling or Pearce (I think we need one of them to say we have our best defence on the park) and Switta (I wouldn’t have counted him as clear best 22 before this year but he was one of our best over the first 3 rounds). Logue is underdone but may play. Other players who are unavailable / underdone are Tucker, Crowden, Schultz and Young. I don’t count Stephen Hill.

The Crows are without Sloane, Talia, Matt Crouch and Milera.

This Week’s Battle

Adelaide have performed well at the back end of last season and so far this season, winning 6 of their last 8 games.

This year they have:

  • Beaten Geelong in Adelaide, a performance that looked unbelievable at the time, but maybe looks a little less impressive now
  • Performed OK losing to a rampant Swans in Sydney
  • Made fairly heavy weather of getting over the Suns in Adelaide
  • Had a comfortable win against a slightly more competitive Roos at Marvel
I would assess their draw as being harder than ours so far, though it depends a lot whether Geelong are a top 6 team.

They have been fielding teams of a similar average age to the Dockers, and with fractionally less average experience.

They have the 3rd best points for and are 16th for points against in the comp. We have the 11th best points for and 7th best points against.

Taylor Walker has been the Crow’s standout player this year with 20 goals from 4 matches, and has probably been the standout player of the competition.

I have looked at the Crow’s stats and nothing stands out to me to give a picture of what is important to their game plan. It seems like Walker is a huge factor in their wins. Rory Sloane has only missed 1 game so far (against the Roos) and he is a significant loss to their midfield.

Big forwards are Brennan’s bete noir, although Tex, at 193 cm, is not the type of super tall that has really worried my buddy. We haven’t seen the smooth synergy from our defence that we saw last year IMHO. Logue may come in, he gave Tex a bath last year, but Tex is currently a very different prospect.

Prediction

It is a match we need to win, if we want to be in any kind of final’s contention. We will need midfield dominance, I think, to give ourselves a chance. We are probably capable of that, but maybe not to a sufficient extent.

Crows by 20, unfortunately.
 
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theGav56

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I am looking forward to this game, and as has been mentioned, see it as a litmus test. Of course in a true litmus test the more alkaline we can make the game, the more it leans to the purple end of the spectrum. The more acidic, the closer to Adelaide’s egg and bacon color range.

So I am thinking Longmuir is going to bring some chemistry to bear in his game plan. Fyfe and his
atoms to apply the old Bunsen burner to the Crows midfield and torch them. We’ll be heading home with the full glass and a half while Nicks is still wondering “Why is it so?”

1618314557257.jpeg
 
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Great, great preview (and very exciting!!).

Unlike your lucky trip, one of mine was the losing final against the Crows in 2010. At shitty Westlakes, not wonderful Adelaide Oval.

Not as bad an experience as the Ryan Murphy one goal wonder wet game, but only because Seppo and the Melbourne banner crew were at the final.

The wet one goal wonder (try saying that five times fast) has been erased from the memory bank. At least until I have had half a bottle of Suntory, then the flashbacks start...

Don't care who wins, no injuries, more than one goal please.
 
Aug 16, 2009
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Great, great preview (and very exciting!!).

Unlike your lucky trip, one of mine was the losing final against the Crows in 2010. At shitty Westlakes, not wonderful Adelaide Oval.

Not as bad an experience as the Ryan Murphy one goal wonder wet game, but only because Seppo and the Melbourne banner crew were at the final.

The wet one goal wonder (try saying that five times fast) has been erased from the memory bank. At least until I have had half a bottle of Suntory, then the flashbacks start...

Don't care who wins, no injuries, more than one goal please.
I am glad you enjoyed the preview so much.
 
May 2, 2017
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Adelaide's midfield doesn't read too well on paper. If we win that battle we are creating enough chance to win the game, it'll come down to our goalkicking.
Sloane and Crouch out is definitely in our favour. Laird will have 40 though.

I think we should be able to get on top there.
 
May 2, 2017
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Will the Crows tag Brayshaw? Clearly it has been effective the last 2 games, but I don’t think they will.
Yeah been wondering that. Not sure who they have to do it and not sure if it is in their best interest to let Mundy and Fyfe do what they please. Andy was quiet v the Hawks but those two + Cez tore them a new one anyway.
 

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theGav56

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Yeah been wondering that. Not sure who they have to do it and not sure if it is in their best interest to let Mundy and Fyfe do what they please. Andy was quiet v the Hawks but those two + Cez tore them a new one anyway.
Depth through the midfield is one of the best weapons in defeating a tag, and once Tucker gets back on the park we have a pretty decent hand to do this. The other thing is having the ability to play in another position. Often that means drifting forward, but with Brayshaw wing could be an option.
 
May 2, 2017
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Depth through the midfield is one of the best weapons in defeating a tag, and once Tucker gets back on the park we have a pretty decent hand to do this. The other thing is having the ability to play in another position. Often that means drifting forward, but with Brayshaw wing could be an option.
I think Andy will work through it in time.

If he was in better form, I would just swap Andy with Walters and see if they are happy to let Sonny run around free kicking the ball i50.
 
Our midfield should annihilate theirs
it better, can't afford to have a repeat of what Carlton did to us in there, otherwise Fred Fanning's record could be broken by Tex the way he's been going
 

mattis117

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On paper, Freo win this. No Sloane, Crouch, or Talia is huge. It will all come down to the team sorting out this performance drop when playing away. Freo should have the better midfield.

If they restrict Walker and kick straight then Freo collect their first away win and line up a 4 and 2 start to the season.

I think it's important to note that Melbourne have turned out to be better than expected, so maybe a reassessment of that game is required.
 
Mar 2, 2010
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Great, great preview (and very exciting!!).

Unlike your lucky trip, one of mine was the losing final against the Crows in 2010. At shitty Westlakes, not wonderful Adelaide Oval.

Not as bad an experience as the Ryan Murphy one goal wonder wet game, but only because Seppo and the Melbourne banner crew were at the final.

The wet one goal wonder (try saying that five times fast) has been erased from the memory bank. At least until I have had half a bottle of Suntory, then the flashbacks start...

Don't care who wins, no injuries, more than one goal please.
Footy park still haunts me to this day. have only had a few good trips there against Port when they were a rabble. Putting banners over the bays feels a lifetime ago!

The best memory of a game against Adelaide was the Fyfe V Dangerfield expo that pretty much came down to whoever got the 3 votes on the day was going to win the brownlow that year.
 
Great OP dockerfemme, nothing boring whatsoever about a trip down the Great Ocean Road!!

Kick straight and we win. Simple.
 
May 2, 2017
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On paper, Freo win this. No Sloane, Crouch, or Talia is huge. It will all come down to the team sorting out this performance drop when playing away. Freo should have the better midfield.

If they restrict Walker and kick straight then Freo collect their first away win and line up a 4 and 2 start to the season.

I think it's important to note that Melbourne have turned out to be better than expected, so maybe a reassessment of that game is required.
Whilst I agree we may have underestimated Melbourne, that game was of such poor quality you wouldn't be suprised to find out it was 17th vs 18th. We would have struggled to beat North playing like that. Fumbles, missed handballs and kicks... gross.
 
Aug 16, 2009
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I really liked your preview dockerfemme, wasn't a boring word in it so I'm with Snuffy, don't sell yourself short 🙂🙂.

I suspect the crows may roll us frankly but I'm clinging to my positivity regardless. Freo by 8 points, Treacy to kick a couple and hopefully cements his spot.
Great OP dockerfemme, nothing boring whatsoever about a trip down the Great Ocean Road!!

Kick straight and we win. Simple.

Thank you for the kind words.
 

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