Review R9: The Good, Bad and the Ugly vs. Port Adelaide

[dogs105]

It is honestly hilarious coming onto this site after only having talked to people in the real world since the game. You’d truly believe that we lost by 10 goals and are last on the table. I’ve read that Nicks must be sacked immediately, that our forward line lacks pizazz, that we should have dropped Taylor and Curtin before last night as well as that our midfield whoes would have been fixed if we’d kept Draper in the side.

Nicks derangement syndrome is rapidly replacing Trump derangement syndrome here, where the blind hatred of the coach doesn’t enable people to evaluate anything unemotionally. There is simply no logic to most views about last nights game.

For the record we are 1 umpiring decision against GC from potentially being equal top of the ladder, we have a brilliant percentage and have unearthed some true gems in Worrell and Peatling etc. As for last night

• giving Taylor (a young player that Nicks apparently gives no responsibility to) the job on Rozee was perfectly sound. He was just found badly wanting.
• trying to get Dawson to break his tag by going to their hottest midfielder in Butters is also a perfectly sound and creative move. The skipper simply wasn’t up to the task on the night. The player freed up by this also obviously didn’t exploit that situation.
• getting numbers back when you are 4 goals up with 10 minutes to go in a showdown is also perfectly sound, however when a senior player like Milera miskicks directly into the centre of the ground with no one between that mistake and their goal is such a terrible individual decision that I wonder how anyone could be blaming any coach for it.

All in all that was a fantastic win and has set our season up beautifully. I said before the Carlton game that if we can win 1 of the next 2 we should make finals, and if we win both then top 4 is a real possibility. We have at least 11 games coming where we would be favourites at the moment and several others that are quite winnable, anything is possible this year with this team if we can stay relatively injury free.

Taylor was very important in the 2nd half. I don't think he was found "badly wanting".

 

[AFC979810]

That's such an odd range of votes

Surely it was either Thilthorpe or Butters that should have won it

Very odd. Not to disparage Bergman, Woz and Peatling - but if you watched that game and didn't think that there was a very clear best three of Rozee, TT and Butters - you have rocks in your head.

 

[Carn The Texan]

I don’t get the umpire hate. What 50 was not warranted? All valid and brain fades. How they didn’t pay insufficient intent against Tex … amazing. We did fine from the umpires. 75% of the team play well below par and we mailed in the last 10 minutes

The first 40 minutes or so was pretty ordinary but the players were acting up. After that it settled down and the umpiring didn't make a huge difference in the second half. Certainly far less howlers than we're used to.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Very odd. Not to disparage Bergman, Woz and Peatling - but if you watched that game and didn't think that there was a very clear best three of Rozee, TT and Butters - you have rocks in your head.

I obvs had Bergman higher than most , he was the real surprise packet re role but then also execution of it

Thought he was huge without looking at stats

 

[ABAB]

Rankine walked into the protected zone .. not that hard. The one where Laird pushed a player ages after the mark when he wasn’t in the contest? Come on that is obvious.

And they usually give players a warning. I wasn't disputing that push by Laird, one of his 2 stuff up that cost goal.

 

[ABAB]

The first 40 minutes or so was pretty ordinary but the players were acting up. After that it settled down and the umpiring didn't make a huge difference in the second half. Certainly far less howlers than we're used to.

Though most 50/50 went our way in the 2nd half but their in the first half.

 

[Soggy2112]

I've been quite impressed with Berry in the last 2 games. Does he run faster now with the new haircut? He's been sub both times but how will he go if given full time minutes?

I’ve been very impressed with him too. In particular, I thought last night his impact evened up the stoppage game and was one of the key reasons we won.

I’ll reserve judgement though until he plays a full game. He looks so fast at the moment but I’m not sure how much of that is down to him being fresh against tired bodies.

 

[Carn The Texan]

Though most 50/50 went our way in the 2nd half but their in the first half.

Overall about even. If we'd lost you definitely wouldnt have said it had anything to do with it - more so allowing a million D50 entries in the last 15 minutes.

 

[dogs105]

Overall about even. If we'd lost you definitely wouldnt have said it had anything to do with it - more so allowing a million D50 entries in the last 15 minutes.

T

 

[Hodgy]

Taylor was very important in the 2nd half. I don't think he was found "badly wanting".

I agree he did some really good things, and I think his poise is outstanding. However if his job was specifically to shut down Rozee, then he did come up well short.

 

[ABAB]

I agree he did some really good things, and I think his poise is outstanding. However if his job was specifically to shut down Rozee, then he did come up well short.

Rozee wasn't as influential outside that snap on goal in the 2nd half, he had 12 disposals in the 2nd half compared to 20 in the first half where he was everywhere.

 

[dogs105]

I agree he did some really good things, and I think his poise is outstanding. However if his job was specifically to shut down Rozee, then he did come up well short.

21 disposals in first half

11 in second

 

[OldCrowBloke]

Butts deserves an honorable mention. Had his pants pulled down badly in the first half, but had some very important 1 on 1 wins against Georgiades in second half.

 

[Soggy2112]

I agree he did some really good things, and I think his poise is outstanding. However if his job was specifically to shut down Rozee, then he did come up well short.

You can’t blame Taylor for not being able to do a role that he never should have been given in the first place. Every time I saw him on the screen he was a metre or two behind Rozee and obviously gassed. He looked like a player doing everything he could but simply did not have the tank to keep up with someone with the running capacity of Rozee. We do however have Keays, who can keep up with Rozee, and is also very good at picking the right time to sneak forward into space, which would have put extra pressure on Rozee.

Nicks clearly hasn’t learnt from the Pedlar/Stewart game. He must be convinced that Keays output is too valuable to sacrifice, which is fine, but sending a player to tag someone who doesn’t have the skill set that I do so is just a waste of a player. At least when ANB was on Rozee he was making Rozee pay for not being accountable.

 

[clinto69]

Peatling with 32 pressure acts last night is pretty redic

He held our midfield together in that first half.

 

[Hodgy]

You can’t blame Taylor for not being able to do a role that he never should have been given in the first place. Every time I saw him on the screen he was a metre or two behind Rozee and obviously gassed. He looked like a player doing everything he could but simply did not have the tank to keep up with someone with the running capacity of Rozee. We do however have Keays, who can keep up with Rozee, and is also very good at picking the right time to sneak forward into space, which would have put extra pressure on Rozee.

Nicks clearly hasn’t learnt from the Pedlar/Stewart game. He must be convinced that Keays output is too valuable to sacrifice, which is fine, but sending a player to tag someone who doesn’t have the skill set that I do so is just a waste of a player. At least when ANB was on Rozee he was making Rozee pay for not being accountable.

I agree with most of your thoughts, and I would have gone with ANB myself, however a couple of things. If Taylor is not a good enough runner to be keeping up with Rozee in his fourth year at this level, then he is obviously never going to be a midfielder, so the coaching staffs decision to move him permanently forward is probably sound. The other thing is that he has had nowhere near the offensive contribution of Keays, ANB or Rachelle, so not sacrificing their output to negate a half back is understandable.

I think there is a perfectly sound debate to be had on the pros and cons of the matchup btw, I was more pointing out that those who just cannot view anything that Nicks does objectively will slam him for never trying anything outside the box, or for ever giving young players continuity or responsibility, and yet when he tries it they slam him for being stupid.

I thought his use of Dawson and Rachelle last week was very creative and effective, this week the moves didn’t work nearly as well. However he is certainly trying more things than last year and I for one am happy to see it.

 

[Apsaalooke]

The supporters on here desperately trying to convince themselves Nicks is a horrible, blundering idiot after a showdown win. Was he losing contested possession by 14 and -27 in clearances? Did he give away 4 x 50M penalties, 2 of which resulted in goals? Thats on the players.
Bottling the game up worked as they were dominating us. We ground it out. Nobody knows what would have happened if we kept attacking, they could have loaded up the backline and gotten easy entry on rebound.

Rubbish. We were all over them in the last quarter and 1 more goal would have sealed the game, until Nicks made the ludicrous decision to close down with over 10 minutes to go.

The only reason we won was that Port kicked 2.6 for the quarter.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Put me down for having Rankine kick 2 goals in the last quarter of every game.

We should move him into the forward line every time he is not having a major influence on the game.

Many of us were calling for it at half time, but at least Nicks finally got there.

 

[Cromulant]

Given the state of the game, the Keane mark has to be one of the best I have seen in a long time from a Crows player.

From any player really.

 

[John Who]

I loved last night’s game as a footy purist. Crazy how literally after every quarter, there was less than a goal difference between the 2 teams!

Good: a genuine team effort against Port in “Finals quality” mode. I think a lot on here have downplayed how great Port was last night. Usually when both Rozee and Butters have 30+ disposals, rarely do they lose.

Bad: our kicking in the first half and the umpiring was pretty poor. Though this balanced out in the end with Power kicking poorly in the 2nd half.

Ugly: playing shut-down mode with 6-7 minutes left and 4 goals up, 2 of our most experienced players gave me the shits:
1. Milera after marking in the centre, inexplicably played on, doing a short kick across the corridor, and opposition intercepted and allowed them to stream the other way, which started the avalanche for their comeback.
2. Laird in the last few minutes, scooping the ball backwards, giving away a free, which resulted in a goal.

Some of the dumbest play I’ve seen by them 2. Hope that shit never happens again!

 

[Go the Guts]

We have C Edwards who can become that big midfielder but our coaches are afraid to give him a go.

Averaging 20 disposals - solid, but doesn’t scream ‘star’ just yet.

 

[CrowBloke]

I agree with this:

When you have a whole team making poor decisions/panicking it is because they don't have trust in something. That something is Nicks and his gameplan.

If I was a Crows player with around 10-12 minutes to play in the last 1/4 last night and the word came out to shut down the game, put up the walls and defend the lead, I'd be thinking:
"You're flippingKIDDING, arencha? We hafta play keepings-off for 10-12 minutes?".
WHY stop doing what you're doing to get 4 goals up and just sit on a 4-goal lead which can often be overcome in a 10-12 minute period?
WHY not pour on the pressure, keep attacking, and try to turn it into a 6 or more goal lead?

Does anyone in here not believe that Port players knew what was going on which presented them with the opportunity to fight back and steal the game?
It was ridiculous, negative and Conservative Coaching <== and that's Nicks, in a nutshell.

AS a player, I'd want the TORA! TORA! TORA! message to come out to attack and send PA back to their rooms with a belting. PA will get more positives out of that close loss (from 25 points down) than from a 6-goal hiding.

We all loving dumping on Nicks.

No.
At least, I don't. I hate it. I hate losing and being a League joke for 5 years.

I hate having a Coach that makes me feel like Nicks does.

I'd much prefer a Coach that I can believe in, with a flexible Game Plan ( with Options B and C if needed) and Game Day manouevres/changes that show footy nous, planning and really imaginative and innovative flair.
Just one example: last night, after Rozee was clearly ON and running wild like a dog off its leash, why
OH WHY
did Nicks wait until half-time to move Taylor onto him, to quell his driving influence?
In fact, why not sool someone onto him to make him feel pressured, niggled/hassled and uncomfortable right from the start?

if you want to pretend that Milera making that error was because he didn't trust Nicks' gameplan I don't know what to tell you.

Milera, pffft.
That was a brain-fade of potentially game-losing proportions.
Do I blame Nicks for that horrible mistake? No.
But I do blame Nicks for repeatedly selecting and sticking with a player on perceived-reputation and best-potential.
Absolutely.
We see glimpses of Milera's best, even when he's having a poor game which is about half the time.
He's in and out of the game, hot and cold (or just cold). He's inconsistent.
We can expect inconsistency from an inexperienced player, a kid of <40-or-50 games, but not from someone (107 games) in his NINTH Season.
I feel no confidence when Milera is near the ball because I don't know whether he will do something brilliant or crappy and that is just not good enough for a side with Finals or even Flag ambitions.
Look at younger, less-experienced players in the same side, like Michalanney (53 games, 3 seasons) and Worrell (38 games, 5 seasons) who both keep improving, and now produce consistent excellence.
I cannot ever remember either of them centering a ball under no pressure straight to an Oppo player, when the play at that time in the game was obviously to go long and deep and wide (as you mention later).

In the same way that I don't trust Milera to perform, I feel the same nervousness about Nicks as our Head Coach.
Which Nicks/Gameplan and which team is going to turn up on any given match?
The Crows' midfield and forwards and defence that hammered Carlton, or last night's hot-cold mess?
I have no idea.

99.9 times out of 100 that ball is going long to forward pocket and hopefully a set of repeat stoppages in your F50.

Yes, you'd think.

Most u14s could pass that situational test.

Exactly right --- and under zero pressure, Milera shat the bed.

Btw, just as bad-if-not-worse was (250+ gamer) Laird's backhanded throw (score 88-70) out of a contest in their F50 = a gimme goal to them, thanks very much. Fmd.
Read Rachele's lips at the 8.09/ 8.15 mark of the Highlights replay:
"Thank **** for that", he says.
Yeah, but NO thanks from me to Milera or Laird or Nicks who made it so much harder in the last.

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[Cromulant]

Averaging 20 disposals - solid, but doesn’t scream ‘star’ just yet.

It's not about the disposals, it's what he's doing with them.

People are infatuated with disposal numbers, 20 is perfectly fine

 

[Mutineer]

Averaging 20 disposals - solid, but doesn’t scream ‘star’ just yet.

Well considereing he's playing half back and top up Jay Boyle is playing midfield and Lachie Murphy also I would have thought he's going pretty bloody well for a lad drafted as a midfielder/forward.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

The end is fast approaching for big Tex. we are now seeing the one thing old blokes do when their career reaches the pearly gates…

They go to ground.

We need to be smart about managing Tex to keep him fresh.

I would start next week.

Crazy to drop Curtin after a poor game & he will be fresh after being subbed.