Neil Craig

[jenny61_99]

Geez you [and your husband] are such experts,with the gift of hindsight we all are, if Roo had a blinder it would have been gold he didnt move on. It was one of AFLs best games this year, I understand your dissapointed but don't play the blame game, take it on the chin, supporters like you can find another team.

What's my husband got to do with this???? And Hindsight nothing, I have been saying this for weeks!

I am a passionate supporter like everyone else in here... and disappointed like everyone else. End of season reviews are commonplace, no different to any other team.

 

[jenny61_99]

NO! Too slow and not enough agile for Franklin!

I have said before that Craig is no different to Ayres as a match day coach. In fact he is an Ayres clone on match day. I made that calls a couple of years ago when we were the crowbots but got shouted down by Craig ass lickers!

Craig is a fantastic teacher and manager of man. He can get the absolute best out of players and for that he gets a HUGE tick from me. However, his match day coaching leaves a lot to be desired. Craig's approach is fine if you have the cream of the crop talent to carry you there. If we had the pure genuine talent then Craig could do wonders in leading the team to the flag. The thing is, we don't have that cream of the crop talent. We have some good talent but we don't have superstars.

Craig needs to take a good hard look at himself. Not the stuff he does out of match day coaching because I think in that aspect he is as good as anyone. He has had the job for 3 and a bit years and there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING that has suggested to me he has improved on match day.

I mean FFS, he said today in the match conference that he thought Massie did a good job and was the best match up for Franklin. FFS, just about EVERY possesion Buddy had was a shot on goal. Lucky for us he fumbled a few he would normally swallow or he could have had 10!

Lack of match day nous is his biggest short coming and could well be something that is standing between him and the premiership cup as a coach. Just as he expects the players to improve, he needs to have an expectation of himself to improve as a coach!

Result aside, it was a ripping game of footy!

I dispute that Craig and Ayres are alike in style. Ayres took 3 weeks to make a move. Craig takes 3 quarters. Slight difference, but there none-the-less.

 

[King Elvis]

Craigy needs to take the SAS Motto as his own;

'Who Dares Win,'

 

[jenny61_99]

No regrets what so ever about playing Roo.

A number of things we had control of today cost us the game, and were more foreseeable or correctable than Roo not being fully fit.

Roo wasn't just not fit... he couldn't even play! Last week, he was "not fit" but still managed a good portion of the game on the ground, and he had an impact. This week he played - what... 10 minutes? Playing with only 21 blokes has to have a deliterious effect on our team. An extra pair of running legs. An extra attacking/defending player. IMO that could have made a difference. Anyways, too late now. I think Roo would be very disappointed going out like that. Would have been much better last week when his impact helped us into the finals.

 

[King Elvis]

Roo wasn't just not fit... he couldn't even play! Last week, he was "not fit" but still managed a good portion of the game on the ground, and he had an impact. This week he played - what... 10 minutes? Playing with only 21 blokes has to have a deliterious effect on our team. An extra pair of running legs. An extra attacking/defending player. IMO that could have made a difference. Anyways, too late now. I think Roo would be very disappointed going out like that. Would have been much better last week when his impact helped us into the finals.

Don't care, glad he played.

Roo wasn't the reason we lost today.

Criticise poor match-ups, poor selections or poor decision making before you start on Roo.

 

[Markthirtytwo]

Roo wasn't just not fit... he couldn't even play! Last week, he was "not fit" but still managed a good portion of the game on the ground, and he had an impact. This week he played - what... 10 minutes? Playing with only 21 blokes has to have a deliterious effect on our team. An extra pair of running legs. An extra attacking/defending player. IMO that could have made a difference. Anyways, too late now. I think Roo would be very disappointed going out like that. Would have been much better last week when his impact helped us into the finals.

So you would have dropped a player who in your own words helped us win last week?

All teams have players going in sore and slight niggles.

PS 3 points.

 

[Stiffy_18]

I dispute that Craig and Ayres are alike in style. Ayres took 3 weeks to make a move. Craig takes 3 quarters. Slight difference, but there none-the-less.

Rubbish!

 

[jenny61_99]

So you would have dropped a player who in your own words helped us win last week?

All teams have players going in sore and slight niggles.

PS 3 points.

I would have dropped him only when it was clear he couldn't come up. He had his knee drained 3 times this week for heavens sake. He couldn't train. Figure it out, it's not rocket science.

PS. Season over.

 

[jenny61_99]

Don't care, glad he played.

Roo wasn't the reason we lost today.

Criticise poor match-ups, poor selections or poor decision making before you start on Roo.

That's bullshit. You can't criticise match-ups and poor selections without criticising the decision to play Roo. ALL of those things contributed to us losing today.

 

[King Elvis]

That's bullshit. You can't criticise match-ups and poor selections without criticising the decision to play Roo. ALL of those things contributed to us losing today.

And your focussing on one, which was a worthwhile risk, yet you're ignoring the ones which were blatantly obvious, or ones that could have actually been rectified during the game.

 

[jenny61_99]

Rubbish!

Which bit was rubbish exactly? It's true, Ayres never made a change... or when he did, it was a few weeks after the fact. Craig does make changes, but he is far too slow to react. Moving Massie only after Buddy had kicked 5 was just ridiculous. We all saw it, why didn't he? Ayres wouldn't have made the change at all. That's the difference.

 

[Slug]

All arm chair experts! Neil coached me for a few years when i played at Norwood (inc a premiership). Of all the coaches I have had (including parkin and pagan) I would rate Neil as good as any.

 

[King Elvis]

All arm chair experts! Neil coached me for a few years when i played at Norwood (inc a premiership). Of all the coaches I have had (including parkin and pagan) I would rate Neil as good as any.

Most of us love Craigy mate, and want him here for a long time, but that doesn't mean he's perfect.

How would you rate his game today?

 

[Boundryump]

Is Neil craig the man to guide the crows to our next premeirship? After today i dont think so.

I don't think Neil he will either. I don't think it was our best game , vey dissappointed with some of our senior players in the disposals. thought there was too many lose hawks players,
after there performance of this year they shouldn't of had played finals , as today prove it , we have a long way to go yet , unfortunatly.

you think they would've of changed the game plan and gone one on one , also thought they should of have put Mc Leod in the centre early in the game , instead of been heavly tagged like he was.
Massie tried very hard give him credit.
always next year I guess !!! Go Crows !!!

 

[Markthirtytwo]

I would have dropped him only when it was clear he couldn't come up. He had his knee drained 3 times this week for heavens sake. He couldn't train. Figure it out, it's not rocket science.

PS. Season over.

Neither did Thompson. Go figure.

 

[jenny61_99]

Neither did Thompson. Go figure.

Yeah but Thommo just had general soreness. Roo clearly had a significant problem seeing as he had fluid drained from his knee for three days. That's a really, really big difference. Thommo said he was right to play and he did (lots of possies, lots of clangers - but he contributed)... Roo should never have said he was right to play. Craig should never have let him.

 

[sapaul]

Neil coached me for a few years when i played at Norwood (inc a premiership).

He never coached Norwood to a premiership.

 

[-CG-]

He never coached Norwood to a premiership.

Has he ever coached anyone to a premiership?

 

[crowman_23]

Has he ever coached anyone to a premiership?

Premiership is a long long long way away now!

 

[Throughandthrough]

All arm chair experts! Neil coached me for a few years when i played at Norwood (inc a premiership). Of all the coaches I have had (including parkin and pagan) I would rate Neil as good as any.

Peter Rohde coached Norwood's last premiership.

 

[macca23]

NO! Too slow and not enough agile for Franklin!

I have said before that Craig is no different to Ayres as a match day coach. In fact he is an Ayres clone on match day. I made that calls a couple of years ago when we were the crowbots but got shouted down by Craig ass lickers!

Craig is a fantastic teacher and manager of man. He can get the absolute best out of players and for that he gets a HUGE tick from me. However, his match day coaching leaves a lot to be desired. Craig's approach is fine if you have the cream of the crop talent to carry you there. If we had the pure genuine talent then Craig could do wonders in leading the team to the flag. The thing is, we don't have that cream of the crop talent. We have some good talent but we don't have superstars.

Craig needs to take a good hard look at himself. Not the stuff he does out of match day coaching because I think in that aspect he is as good as anyone. He has had the job for 3 and a bit years and there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING that has suggested to me he has improved on match day.

I mean FFS, he said today in the match conference that he thought Massie did a good job and was the best match up for Franklin. FFS, just about EVERY possesion Buddy had was a shot on goal. Lucky for us he fumbled a few he would normally swallow or he could have had 10!

Lack of match day nous is his biggest short coming and could well be something that is standing between him and the premiership cup as a coach. Just as he expects the players to improve, he needs to have an expectation of himself to improve as a coach!

Result aside, it was a ripping game of footy!

Snap Stiffmeister - snap.

Tht's exactly my sentinments on Craig, and IMO it is imperative that the club employ a proven match day strategist as an advisor to the coaching panel on match days.

We have lost 3 finals due to incompetent match-ups and this season up to 4 to 5 games for exactly the same reason.

If we don't hire someone to assist in this position we will still manage ways to lose the unloseable games.

 

[jenny61_99]

Snap Stiffmeister - snap.

Tht's exactly my sentinments on Craig, and IMO it is imperative that the club employ a proven match day strategist as an advisor to the coaching panel on match days.

We have lost 3 finals due to incompetent match-ups and this season up to 4 to 5 games for exactly the same reason.

If we don't hire someone to assist in this position we will still manage ways to lose the unloseable games.

Send an email off to Triggy.

 

[macca23]

Send an email off to Triggy.

Seriously jen, I will be sending him an email on exactly this topic next week.

I like virtually every aspect of Craig as our coach bar one - match day incompetence.

If we are to maximize our game we need a shrewd strategist in the box - not intransigent, non-flexible stubborn fools who will not admit they have made errors in their match-ups.

 

[Tas]

Contain Franklin and Roughead and Hawks do not have a lot of other avenues to goal. It was pretty obvious even early in the game when Crows were on top that the matchups on those two were not working out, both were not really prevented from getting the ball a whole lot.

In the end, Roughie was kicking like a lepper and that let the Crows off the hook a bit, but the structure was not working. Even if he went back to it, he had to try something else. As it was, it was fortunate due to poor converting that the Crows were in it late in the game.

Changing things might have not have done any good but I think everyone knew where doing nothing was going. If you make changes and nothing you do works you can say at least he tried something different. Not making changes leaves you with an empty feeling of "what if". What if Rutten or someone else on Franklin could have cut back a few goals, what if switching a few players around shut down the two key forwards... It could have changed the whole flow of the game.

IFs dont really mean squat now, but it is better to try and fail than to be left wondering in my opinion.

 

[Geoffa32]

Great Teacher and good training techniques...Even an Adequete match day coach

However we are 2/6 in finals in three years...

In NFL there are head coaches then Strategists...Could Adelaide go down this Path...

If we sack Craig we cant get the next best going round. he is at Alberton...So why sack him...I dont rate many of the other coaches in AFL.

Maybe we should Hire Bilght For September