Review Good/Bad vs Geelong

[WetCrow1991]

Nicks loves putting a young player into a very difficult role (eg Pedlar on Stewart) then crucifying them when it doesn't work

Why the f*** did he put Pedlar into that role? That failure is on Nicks but you know who will get dropped? Probably Pedlar.

There's ample senior players in the team who should be experienced enough at AFL level to shut him down or impede him.

He can't do that to his best Buddy Smith, can't make him look even more like the cooked footballer he is, so he has to do it to someone else.

 

[MsTopG]

Subbing Smith would've made a statement.

Pissweak that we didn't, reflected in our performance.

Nicks is scared of upsetting the apricot slicers. Why do you think Sloane is still on our list?

 

[GreyCrow]

The Good
Signing Daddy Nicksy
Gifting milestone games to cooked players
Smith plays a milestone game next week

The Bad
Why are we so fumbly? What is going on at practice?
Why is there a disconnect between all areas of the ground?
Where is the imagination from last year?

The Ugly
One good thing was the crowd were in a mood - some comments coming down the escalators was interesting with Smith the main name
There were no happy clappers heard cheering the boys off
It was a strange atmosphere

We are very likely to be 0-5

 

[George Kramer]

Complete coaching failure. Nicks is a dud and a loser. His contract extension right before this is an embarassing joke.

Smashed by what could be the worst midfield Geelong have fielded in 30 years.

And zero plan for Tom Stewart AGAIN. Groundhog day

WaynesWorld19 thoughts?

 

[George Kramer]

Not clean. Stop start play ain’t going to cut it when you don’t have the skills.

The club should slack itself.

 

[ABAB]

Not clean. Stop start play ain’t going to cut it when you don’t have the skills.

The club should slack itself.

Well, one of the chip-play through Geelong's zone ended up as a goal in the 4th when we switched up the play instead of bombing the ball and then we went back to bombing after that goal.

 

[GreyCrow]

I'm not sure Chris Scott even broke a sweat that match. That was like watching a grandmaster play an amatuer at chess. Just picked apart our "tactics" and had 90% of the match on their own terms.

Sitting up high it was amazing to see us stop and try and work out the zone Geelong was employing - and of course this brings Stewart into the game.

When we tried to move it forward through handball we would either handball to someone under pressure or miss that 1 extra handball and let them gain possession

 

[Geoffa32]

He was in the top group of midfield kicks in the league last year. He was elite and the equal of many club's best mids

I guess being better than maybe 8 other clubs best mid is statistically many.


Would struggle to have been better than any of these clubs best mids last year.



Bont
Cripps
Butters
Daicos
Neale
Petracca
Tom Green
Gulden
Anderson
Taranto









On SM-A325F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[spenze]

Hey guys,

Sorry to intrude, just wanted to ask whether this game will be a catalyst for Nicks to shuffle the midfield mix and accept that Crouch, Dawson, Laird and Berry cannot play on the same field?

Soligo was probably your best tonight I thought, and really loved what he offered when he went into the middle. Rachele with only 1 CBA strikes me as really strange too.

I said before the match 'congrats on the win', as I saw no way that we could win this with our patchwork midfield. Guthrie, Bowes, Bruhn, Atkins and Duncan all missing, and you guys with Dawson, Laird, Crouch, Soligo, Berry, Rachele and Rankine...seemed like a lay down misere.

So I guess that brings me back to what I was saying - is it time to put feelings aside and drop one of Laird or Crouch and move on? Either that or return Laird to the backline and play Crouch and Dawson in the mids with one of Soligo, Rankine or Rachele always rotating through? Can't see how this could go on much longer, despite Crouch being one of your best tonight. Can't see how Berry plays either, as he's basically another Crouch or Laird with a bit more speed.

Interested in thoughts from you guys on if any of this will even be considered?

I was worried last year when we came close that they'd think with a bit of luck...

Last year was our bit of luck year and we refused to believe it.

That was the best we were going to achieve with this group, we should have made the 8 with an early finals exit but the loss in the second last game amongst a bunch of close losses made us think we were progressing instead of thinking it was the best we were going to do with our set up.

I said last year that Van Berlo was not the right guy to coach our midfield and it stands true today...we should have murdered you guys in the midfield tonight but we broke even at best. There seems to be a huge reliance on mid field extraction without any flair at all.

I watched the Pies last night and Tom Mitchell, a deserved winner of a Brownlow a few years back...game has absolutely gone by him, it won't be long until the Pies move him out until deep winter and I feel the same now, we had Berry ( who I do not think we missed last year), Crouch and Laird at CBAs. In my mind you need one extractor but our midfield coach is keen on bigger bodies...which is understandable, that is what he grew up with but it will kill us.

We will do the same thing but harder, that is our philosophy, we will not under any circumstances, change things up. I'm not one of those ECO supporters but I find it weird we do not want to do things differently.

The club said we were rebuilding but we went with a rebuild light, when media commentators said we should go to the draft one or two more times, we were adamant we just needed to top up and FA our way forward.

All this is without explaining how someone who should barely be a fringe player is in our leadership group

 

[Firewalker]

Just catching up on Fox Footy’s review post-game, Buckley showed some damning footage of Keays playing on the wing in the 3rd quarter & absolutely getting sucked into the contest and getting torched by Dempsey who held his width that led to 2 of their goals in that quarter.

I can handle Keays being in the side if he’s playing that high half-forward running back to goal to burn an opponent role but that’s his limitation now, to start him on the wing and for him to get the UNO reverse card and get absolutely burnt by an opponent running towards their goal that he doesn’t even bother worrying about their whereabouts is just garbage play from Keays and yet more poor coaching to put him in that role in the first place.

 

[George Kramer]

Just catching up on Fox Footy’s review post-game, Buckley showed some damning footage of Keays playing on the wing in the 3rd quarter & absolutely getting sucked into the contest and getting torched by Dempsey who held his width that led to 2 of their goals in that quarter.

I can handle Keays being in the side if he’s playing that high half-forward running back to goal to burn an opponent role but that’s his limitation now, to start him on the wing and for him to get the UNO reverse card and get absolutely burnt by an opponent running towards their goal that he doesn’t even bother worrying about their whereabouts is just garbage play from Keays and yet more poor coaching to put him in that role in the first place.

Keays has had one good qtr out of 8. He’s been s**t otherwise. Our leadership group is on fire.

 

[George Kramer]

Anyone still thinking Berry has A grader quality?

Complete waste of time developing him.

There was one piece of play, I think it was in the third, deep forward and we should have scored but he produced a dumb play. Exactly what I said during the week. Doesn’t have footy smarts.

 

[Firewalker]

Nicks was not even asked about any individuals in his presser post-game other than Fog hitting the post, sure the answers to the questions he was asked were his typical gobbledygook crap answers but the journo questions to him were trash, almost makes you miss Rucci actually putting some pressure on him to come up with something unique to say.

A journo to have the balls to question him about Smith and also Crouch and Laird not being sustainable in the midfield together would be nice.

Also totally contradicted himself by saying early in his presser that he didn’t think the starts were that big an issue but then near the end he says next week they need to look into their starts as playing from behind obviously isn’t working

 

[George Kramer]

It was amateur hour ......and made a mockery of all the pre-season garble

"We were able to train with footballs, and hone our skills"

1. Well, there was only one side one grabbing the ball tonight
2. There was only one side that continued to slip over
3. There was only one side, whose players didn't keep spoiling and running into teammates
4. And there was only one side who moved the ball quicker than treakle
5. And there was only one side, whose head wasn't big enough to drink their own bath water ....and believe they were destined for Finals

AND IT WASN'T THE CROWS !

Crouch got 39 possessions, but back to his old ways ....slowing us down ...we are a worse midfield with him in it .....and either he or Laird has to go

Smith ....WOW, how bad can a player play

Berry ....or should I say fumbles Berry ....how many turnovers did he present to GEEL

Hinge ....forget the possession count ...he was caught in no-man's land defending time & time again .....another bath water drinker

ROB ....again not marking anything ....you simply cannot rely on his output

Fogarty ....another who clearly demonstrated his inability to focus on the game for 100 min

NICKS
In what world does any coach allow Tom Stewart to run around like an unregistered dog ....game losing move #1

In what world do you have your Captain tagging a 34 YO Danger ....he was never going to tear us a new one ....and we lost all drive from Dawson, our most direct MID ....game losing move #2

Congratulations on manning Stewart up in the last 10 min of the game .....just WOW !

There's no words to describe how bad that coaching performance was tonight

Wow, so you’re finally coming round to Nicks not being a good coach. After all the bullshit you’ve sprouted after the last 2 years, I hope you are man enough to admit you’ve been a dickhead.

 

[AFC979810]

Good:

Crouch has been really good so far through 2 games.
Burgess showed he is handy backup for TT
Worrell / Max continue to build. Love watching both of them.
Hinge has brushed off that preseason.
ROB has had a very good start to the year.

Bad:

Team really lacked chemistry / confidence tonight. Simply cannot carry Crouch, Laird, Berry in that midfield.

Ugly:

Murphy - absolute disgrace. Have said it in the other threads.

Pedlar's confidence. Blazing away when we had a wave of crows players next to him and Tex 15m meters clear on a lead and the ball goes out of bounds. Later on had it 45 meters out and instead of taking a shot kicks it to a disadvantaged FOG 1on1 by the boundary. Need to leave him in the side though.

 

[forlols]

Dawson was absolutely an elite mid last year thats not up for debate. Even with his form dipping after crouch worked his way back in. (Crouch and laird cant co-exist in the midfield).

 

[adelaidecrows]

Dawson was absolutely an elite mid last year thats not up for debate. Even with his form dipping after crouch worked his way back in. (Crouch and laird cant co-exist in the midfield).

If only we drafted another talent to force one of them out.

 

[Brett Cummings]

Dawson was absolutely an elite mid last year thats not up for debate. Even with his form dipping after crouch worked his way back in. (Crouch and laird cant co-exist in the midfield).

and crouch is the better mid of the two by far. Knowing nicks' footy iq though, he'd disagree

 

[adelaidecrows]

and crouch is the better mid of the two by far. Knowing nicks' footy iq though, he'd disagree

Murphy gets the nod here as the best player at the club.

 

[Sanders]

We dont make statements

We don’t ask questions either

 

[Sanders]

Anyone still thinking Berry has A grader quality?

Put a fork in him

 

[CrowBloke]

Interesting stat: "... the Crows had four less scoring shots despite having an extra 13 inside 50s than Geelong."

Kudos, Coach Scott for having one, sometimes two extra defenders in the Crows F50 to clog up space and intercept.
It also meant the Cats worked harder than the Crows to repel or stifle attacks, helped by the Crows' fumbles, poor delivery and getting in each others' way.

Nicks' inability to give this simple instruction:
"Do not kick to within 10 metres of wherever Tom Stewart is" did not help.

Nicks was outcoached and the Crows were outplayed by the Cats who had a plan to win (clog Crows F50 then run hard out of defence).
Geelong seemed to have more players at contests all over the ground. That's workrate and something Nicks and the Crows need to emulate.

 

[Sanders]

Interesting stat: "... the Crows had four less scoring shots despite having an extra 13 inside 50s than Geelong."

But according to noted club critic BACCS there are no system problems up forward.

He knows that because that is what the group email says

 

[moogerfooger]

Rahilly is proving to be a massive loss.

 

[CrowBloke]

But according to noted club critic BACCS there are no system problems up forward.

He knows that because that is what the group email says

Fellow insomniac, or are you at some wild, late night social function like a rave?

" ... noted club critic ...", hilarious!

I have more interesting posters than him on 'ignore', because of amusement value.
His word-mangling reminds me of semi-illiterate Year 12 English students who had been kicked upstairs year after year by enabling-parents and a p1ssweak Education system that rewarded squeaky wheels. What those parents wanted, they got. Long story.

My personal favourite, from a 17yo boy:
"The whiches profits made Macbeth think he was invisible". [witches'/ prophecies/ invincible]
Even funnier, he sat the Year 12 Exam and ended up with a D .
The next year, I stopped teaching English (in despair) to focus on Year 12 Maths, but I could not escape out-of-their-depth dyscalculia there. 16-18y.o. students, in Year 12, needing a Calculator to do 30 x 10. I kid you not.