Review R10: The Good, Bad and the Ugly vs. Collingwood

[1990crow]

It has happened to other teams as well, Sicily last year against Port. GWS in 2023 preliminary final and others.

Those teams have been more successful then us though.

 

[FR0GGY]

Anyone got rankines set shot accuracy vs in play shots?
Feels like he regularly misses set shots.

 

[1970crow]

Anyone got rankines set shot accuracy vs in play shots?
Feels like he regularly misses set shots.

FWIW wheeloratings provides some stats on it. About 240th league wide.

 

[1970crow]

Anyone got rankines set shot accuracy vs in play shots?
Feels like he regularly misses set shots.

Has a positive rating overall, so fair to think his set shots are a bit of a weakness in his game.

 

[AFC979810]

Good:

IMO - we aren't too far off. There are two clear favs, but the next 10 teams you can almost throw a blanket over. Get fit and in form at the right time and the flag is anyones.

Soligo's 2nd half. Looked like first month Soligo. Pulled the finger out massively. Had 3 kicks, 3 handballs in that first half, then turned it around with 17 disposals and 2 goals in the 2nd half.

ROB continues his outstanding season. To think there were those concerned about our ruck list management strategy.

FOG - So damaging.

Bad:

Our goal kicking.

Nicks.

Ugly:

Cumming. Has been in my cross hairs all season. His output is not worth his massive contract. Was acceptable when I thought his floor was the first 8 weeks. Last two weeks he has been deplorable in close games.

Our selection sucks. We should have rested Tex against Freo. Why the hell isnt Draper in this side. Went in too tall.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

The problem with Nicks philosophy is it leads to situations like this. He continually holds onto guys playing poorly because he has a set 22 he wants to roll with all year and then suddenly out of form players start piling up and if he had of been rotating throughout the year where required we wouldn't be in a situation where you can point to 4-5 guys and say "They're not currently up to it".

It’s even more acute than this. It’s not just a set 22 but a set 22 by position. There is minimal change up on game day or week to week on roles if players are out of the game.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Having calmed down and reflected on the game. This was won and lost in the coaches box again.

McRae forced a long slow game down the line and we took the bait hook line and sinker. Apart from the last 10 minutes, we did nothing to change the game up.

McRae knew we had a forward line that would kick a big score if we moved the ball quickly so he made sure the game was a nice and slow boundary line long bomb tussle.

Nicks just has no answers the second a change of thinking is required.

We should be doing everything in our power to open up play in every single game we play. That should be our MO

 

[Barneythecrab]

I’m not a Nicks fan, and would like him to be walked, but 1.7 from centre clearance, that’s not coaching, that’s execution by players.

 

[BRL121]

There were times today where I thought, is Hinge playing in the guts? But, I think he was just pushing up. Seriously, though he was super clean at times, makes pretty good decisions in not a lot of space, he's harder (at the ball) than any midfielder we curently have in there AND he has a very penetrating kick. I don't know why we aren't playing him in the middle - plus the deepest part of our squad is our half-back line, it just feels like a no brainer to me.

This has been brought up before, but I disagree: he's a straight-line player who is best suited to his current role.

 

[earlsta]

Rachelle should be playing more midfield. He’s got good agility in there and is a clearance machine.

 

[BRL121]

The missed goal from 35 straight in front was compounded when collingwood went end to end from the kick in for a goal

The same was true for the Fog miss, which was a momentum-changing event.

 

[1970crow]

Good:

IMO - we aren't too far off. There are two clear favs, but the next 10 teams you can almost throw a blanket over. Get fit and in form at the right time and the flag is anyones.

Soligo's 2nd half. Looked like first month Soligo. Pulled the finger out massively. Had 3 kicks, 3 handballs in that first half, then turned it around with 17 disposals and 2 goals in the 2nd half.

ROB continues his outstanding season. To think there were those concerned about our ruck list management strategy.

FOG - So damaging.

Bad:

Our goal kicking.

Nicks.

Ugly:

Cumming. Has been in my cross hairs all season. His output is not worth his massive contract. Was acceptable when I thought his floor was the first 8 weeks. Last two weeks he has been deplorable in close games.

Our selection sucks. We should have rested Tex against Freo. Why the hell isnt Draper in this side. Went in too tall.

Nothing wrong with our form line. As I said after the Suns loss, I reckon it'll look pretty ok by the end of the year. Pies a good form line, Cats ok too, Freo final score flattered us, we weren't ever in that game. Nicks is an ok coach too, but it's not enough to get a 'nearly good enough' list to salute in September.

The problem is that you can't handicap yourself at selection come September. 3 wins in a row at the hottest time of the year against the hottest teams. We need to improve, we need to push a couple of players out of our best 15. I don't think it's coming from inside the current 23, so we need to rotate some kids through to see whether we have them already. The key problem is that we have exactly zero appetite to do this. We focus 100% on this week and we even do that poorly. How do we not rest Tex in poor conditions at the G when he's clearly struggling to get around the ground.

I have little doubt we'll make the 8 and even win a final. Reality is though that we've not shown we understand or are interested in doing what's required to win the 3 in a row that's required to win a flag.

 

[earlsta]

Was obvious at the game.. we were overrunning them and had control of the ball for the last 10mins.
That little patch in the 3rd cost us the game.
We just need our players to believe that they are good enough. It’s all mental and execution under pressure.

Think our games played avg is around 70-80 each week? When we are at 100-120+ 2026-2027 we’ll be a problem for other teams. We also need to pump games into Draper asap.

I think 2027 we will contend but it’ll be a waste if Draper has 15 games to his name at the start of 2027.
Ideally he should have around 30-40.

 

[BRL121]

You have twisted the situation so you can post your agenda. Let it go mate, it’s stopping you from just enjoying our club playing footy. I’ll tell you what I believe rattled Rankine. I watched an interview with him leading up to Sir Doug Nicholls round. He designed the jumper and put pressure on himself to perform. I just feel the occasion just got to him. Any other day he would goal from those set shots. But he will learn from it. As for the other “culture” parts of your post. That’s complete nonsense and you’re just desperate to pin everything on Nicks.

I don't agree with that assessment of Rankine's kicking. I pointed out soon after Rankine's recruitment that set-shot goalkicking from medium to long distances was a real weakness, eerily similar to Eddie. I haven't changed my opinion.
He is not reliable from distance. Having said that, the wet conditions probably put him over the edge, rather than any perceived mental pressure.

 

[1970crow]

It’s even more acute than this. It’s not just a set 22 but a set 22 by position. There is minimal change up on game day or week to week on roles if players are out of the game.

I've been posting this for ages, not only are we philosophically wedded to continuity (currently referred to as 'building cohesion') at selection, it also extends to in-game. It's the foundation principle of the shallow midfield rotation. And this is why we won't bridge the gap between being a 5-10 challenger and a 1-5 challenger over multiple years.

 

[1970crow]

This has been brought up before, but I disagree: he's a straight-line player who is best suited to his current role.

Mitch arrived in 2021 after a spoon year, has played 70 of about 90 games. All of these in a deliberate rebuild and we've never thrown him in there for a couple of squirts? He did play up on a wing for a bit and wasn't much chop from memory.

 

[1970crow]

Was obvious at the game.. we were overrunning them and had control of the ball for the last 10mins.
That little patch in the 3rd cost us the game.
We just need our players to believe that they are good enough. It’s all mental and execution under pressure.

Think our games played avg is around 70-80 each week? When we are at 100-120+ 2026-2027 we’ll be a problem for other teams. We also need to pump games into Draper asap.

I think 2027 we will contend but it’ll be a waste if Draper has 15 games to his name at the start of 2027.
Ideally he should have around 30-40.

Thought I heard that Freo played with league wide lowest age and experience yesterday. Blaming games played is simplistic, there's many more factors at play.

 

[Multiballz]

Having calmed down and reflected on the game. This was won and lost in the coaches box again.

McRae forced a long slow game down the line and we took the bait hook line and sinker. Apart from the last 10 minutes, we did nothing to change the game up.

McRae knew we had a forward line that would kick a big score if we moved the ball quickly so he made sure the game was a nice and slow boundary line long bomb tussle.

Nicks just has no answers the second a change of thinking is required.

We should be doing everything in our power to open up play in every single game we play. That should be our MO

It so bad that Nicks could be twice the Coach he is by simply switching on Fox and following Garry Lyons free in-game advice.

 

[pjcrows]

Was obvious at the game.. we were overrunning them and had control of the ball for the last 10mins.
That little patch in the 3rd cost us the game.
We just need our players to believe that they are good enough. It’s all mental and execution under pressure.

Think our games played avg is around 70-80 each week? When we are at 100-120+ 2026-2027 we’ll be a problem for other teams. We also need to pump games into Draper asap.

I think 2027 we will contend but it’ll be a waste if Draper has 15 games to his name at the start of 2027.
Ideally he should have around 30-40.

Some fair observations but Nicks and co won't get us contending. The list profile is good enough, the coaches aren't.

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Still a mentally weak side IMO.

Had our chances but squibbed it.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I’m not a Nicks fan, and would like him to be walked, but 1.7 from centre clearance, that’s not coaching, that’s execution by players.

It's a weird argument that keeps bobbing up on here. Part of coaching is helping players to develop the psychology of a winner.

 

[CrowBloke]

In the 'Changes' thread I said to moogerfooger and this falls under the category of
BAD:
Curtin, Rankine (twice, inexplicably) and Rachele all missed very gettable shots for goal . In fact, even the normally deadeye Fogarty missed a very close to goal hooked snap, but I'll bet he'll be practising the hell outta those, this week .
If 3 or more of those out of 5 were converted and nothing else changed, we'd have won . I'd wager if those shots had all been taken by Fogarty, we'd have won well.

It's worth asking/wondering why they missed them all and why Fogarty is such an outstanding and reliable kick for goal.
In Cricket, nobody intends to drop a catch, especially a sitter, well, unless they "know" a Bookie somewhere . Likewise, nobody intends to miss a shot at goal.

For a player like the brilliant Rankine, those 2 misses were especially puzzling; he kicks goals from impossible angles but both of his misses were horrible.
I think it has to do with player mindset/determination/will + the fact that they seemed to forget they were kicking with a wet ball on slippery ground.
The former is on the player, but I reckon the latter is squarely on the Coach.

Not only did Nicks fail to select well for the predicted conditions (he's inflexible and inept at forward-planning), but I'd speculate he forgot to prepare the players for wet-weather footy which, by the way, Collingwood did very well. They tapped and soccered and knocked-on and grubbed the ball forward chaotically all game (**see below).

Maybe Nicks thinks he didn't need to remind the players:
--- to have a small player behind packs to crumb the ball off slippery hands
--- to move the ball forward, forward, forward (**as above) by any means possible, and
--- to NOT bomb the ball in high to our F50,
all of which Collingwood did with professional, well-Coached ruthlessness.

To that end, I'd suggest that at training Nicks could have soaked an area of ground to make it slippery underfoot, then made Rankine, Cummins, Rachele and others take shots at goal from 15 to 40m out, with a heavy, wet ball, while drenching them with hoses to simulate (light, moderate, heavy) rain at the same time:
1) to get them used to a kick-for-goal ritual under wet conditions and
2) to remind them what to do under wet conditions
and not just assume they'd get it right.

It's called Coaching, based on the 5 P's --- "Prior preparation prevents poor performance".
On the basis of preparation alone, disregarding all the other flaws he has, the Club needs to SACK NICKS.

 

[Crow till I die]

As others have mentioned, the last 10 minutes of the last quarter need to be studied as a blueprint for what we should be trying to do over the entirety of the game. Collingwood at the G is about as tough as it gets and we again ran them close but what we did in that last stanza may be the way we can get the job done next time.

The other point about missing shots at goal and skill errors, can't hang them on the coaches but what you can do as coaches is change personel for the following game and milera made a few real howlers again and needs a spell in the SANFL to get his confidence back. Let those who have been banging the door down and not already had a chance, get a chance so that there is some sort of accountability at selection.

We are not a million miles away but we need to get more right than we are currently to really become a top 4 challenging side

 

[Scorpus]

Was obvious at the game.. we were overrunning them and had control of the ball for the last 10mins.
That little patch in the 3rd cost us the game.
We just need our players to believe that they are good enough. It’s all mental and execution under pressure.

Think our games played avg is around 70-80 each week? When we are at 100-120+ 2026-2027 we’ll be a problem for other teams. We also need to pump games into Draper asap.

I think 2027 we will contend but it’ll be a waste if Draper has 15 games to his name at the start of 2027.
Ideally he should have around 30-40.

Spot on. 2027 should have been the goal for this list and rebuild since the start

Which means we need to have a coach capable of properly utilising a peaking list by then

It would be a disaster to re-sign Nicks out to 2028 based on a very low bar only to have him burn the list in its prime

 

[Bovo]

It's a weird argument that keeps bobbing up on here. Part of coaching is helping players to develop the psychology of a winner.

So when we won the showdown by not only riding the pressure of the last 6 minutes, but doing enough under pressure to prevent Port from taking the lead. Was that a coaching marvel or was it the players? It just feels the theme is no matter what happens we need to sack Nicks. It’s hard to take anyone seriously when posts are continually just the same crap posted in a different way.