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

[Cromulant]

Not 90 metres out. He had Cumming all alone. It was dumb move and not what experience is supposed to buy you.

Probably couldnt see Isaac as he was invisible most of the night.

 

[Thylacinus]

Was last night an anomaly, or was the reality of where the Crows truly sit exposed? I guess we will find out in a week or so, but what was clear to me is that without Rankine's zip and x-factor which is so creative, distracts the opposition as well as lifts and brings his teammates into play, we fall away. We do need to find another classy player with some similar traits. Last night I was feeling like I was watching a game from last years Crows.

 

[The Karma Bus]

Was always so strange how Tex was booed for a while there after our GF because he was the so called instigator of the power stance in 2017, even though he wasn't.
Became a villain over it. We lost so it all got bundled up in "how embarrassing" and opposition weirdly started booing him over it.

 

[rocket18]

This is where Brodie Smith thought he could kick a goal from, with 6 minutes to go, with free players inside the 50

View attachment 2417176

Experience, **** you Nicks.

 

[CrowBloke]

The teams that are happy to allow players like Moore or Stewart sit back are smart with how the use the footy. They don't blaze. They spread, chip to players running out into space from stoppages, use it laterally, use it short..

Agreed; they also don't panic hack-kick to his chest.

Blinkered, moron bomb it in teams (like we've reverted to being) have to keep even numbers ahead of the footy

Both Nicks and our Senior players are to blame.
Moore can't take uncontested intercepts if he's not alone, but no-one manned up on him.

 

[1970crow]

GOOD: We won the inside 50s 50 to 49

And clearances.

 

[ABAB]

Was last night an anomaly, or was the reality of where the Crows truly sit exposed? I guess we will find out in a week or so, but what was clear to me is that without Rankine's zip and x-factor which is so creative, distracts the opposition as well as lifts and brings his teammates into play, we fall away. We do need to find another classy player with some similar traits. Last night I was feeling like I was watching a game from last years Crows.

Rachele.

 

[The Karma Bus]

He was a good poster before he became a flog after a win.

Last night was proof why some of us were sceptical and why gloating after minor round wins and carrying on like a tool was a flog move.

He’s closed his account now so he’s not here to cop it back. Hope he comes back one day to face up to it.

There was a few. I simply tried saying about our mids and our sleep time we have in games and in big games vs big teams where it will get us.. don't you dare say that.

Reality check last night. Warts on full display.

 

[CrowBloke]

Not sure Nicks can go another gear

Maybe if we get in another 3 experienced players and another Davis-like advisor for him ...?

 

[CrowBloke]

Outworked, outsmarted, out-skilled. They were simply better in every single facet. And like a good football side, they learned from their loss. Keane and Worrell chopped everything off last time? No more bombing. Hit up leads. They picked us to shreds.

Tonight was like watching the Crows of 2024.

This, depressingly; all of it.

Very good post.

 

[GreyCrow]

He was a good poster before he became a flog after a win.

Last night was proof why some of us were sceptical and why gloating after minor round wins and carrying on like a tool was a flog move.

He’s closed his account now so he’s not here to cop it back. Hope he comes back one day to face up to it.

Jeff closed his account?

Thats cromulent

 

[1970crow]

Unfortunately that's the difference to how a good coach operates compared to the philosophy of our coach.

Philosophy of our club. It pre-dates Nicks by well over a decade.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

The booing - this is a long post but hopefully one worth reading if people want to give this issue more thought than just to be outraged in one direction or the other.

This is an topic that has a level of nuance that goes beyond what anyone who speaks publicly about it (coaches, media) etc will be willing and maybe even able to understand.

The thing is, fans may have animosity towards an opposing player for any number of reasons.

Quaynor

To take Quaynor as an example, it seems to have got out such that it is generally accepted public knowledge (whether it is actually true or not) that he was the subject of Rankine's slur. So there may be - and these things overlap to a large extent:

• genuine homophobia and a perception about his sexuality. I would assume this is rare if it exists at all.
• a perception that he snitched.
• a perception that he overplayed the offence taken to any comment for a sporting advantage in finals.
• a perception that he played a material role in the events that led to Rankine's loss of control.
• anger that Rankine is not playing and scapegoating.
• victim blaming.
• generalised dislike of Collingwood in the current heightened atmosphere between the two teams.
• unthinking joining in of booing by others.
• just a visceral reaction to the whole thing.

And any combination of those things in unknown proportions. I think most sane people would think that booing for these reasons is not a very tasteful thing to do. Right minds might differ on whether that should stop them. I didn't boo him. I would have preferred if nobody else did but I am not judging anyone for it... I get it.

I reckon it's probably the case that if all the people who boo'd Quaynor last night were really honest, they actually could probably not articulate why they did it. They just did.

Houston

To take Houston as a different example, it's a bit clearer:

• he knocked Rankine out in the first place.
• the media has reported that he taunted Rankine about it.
• the perception is that he played a central role in the events that led to Rankine's loss of control, and in a way most people think is unacceptable.
• the perception (rightly or wrongly) of injustice that Rankine is suspended for what he said but Houston got away with saying something that was actually nastier and more personal.

I think most sane people would think that booing for these reasons is perfectly fine and all part of the game.

Fan reaction

The thing is, from a fan perspective, there is really only one way to tell a player you don't like them. BOOOOO.

So then everyone who does that one singular action is taken - in the public discourse - to have the same motivation in booing a player. Which, and particularly in the case of Quaynor where there are so many different things at play, is just not right.

And then suddenly everyone who does that one singular action is taken - in the public discourse - to have the same motivation in booing various different players. Which, and particularly here in the case of Quaynor v Houston v Frampton v Daicos is really obviously not right.

And suddenly, the whole city of Adelaide is homophobic.

It's reductive and ignores nuance that is so obviously present that you have to question (I would go further - assume) whether the ignorance of that nuance is deliberate.

The AFL's role in this

One thing that is central in all of this is that the only reason any of the above information is in the public domain is that the AFL leaked like an absolute f-ing sieve throughout the whole Rankine process.

Have the recipients of Finlayson, Powell, Collard, Graham or Andrew's slurs been booed or otherwise treated badly by anyone? You only have to ask the question to realise the answer - we don't even know who they are. Just as it should be.

The AFL runs a "confidential" process which in 5 cases, worked just fine. Press release. Player X has been suspended. Fans of that team will be annoyed, fans of teams that play them next week will be happy, the lefties will say how important it is to denounce homophobia in the strongest terms, the righties will say it's woke and the AFL shouldn't impose its moral agenda on the world. That's all fine, people are allowed their opinions and feelings.

But the story doesn't become about the "victim", and it doesn't become about why it happened.

Here, the AFL could not keep its house in order. By the Sunday night, everyone "knew" Quaynor was the victim. By the Tuesday, the media had reported on Houston's comments.

I have some inside info - not about the details - but enough to be confident the Crows did not want anything about Houston becoming public. They did not want him cited or punished. Their position was that it was just an important part of the context to be taken into account when assessing a proportionate punishment for Rankine.

The outcome: a semi-informed public and an inability to correct

I'm also pretty confident that the media reports had bits that were true, bits that were not true, and bits that were somewhere in the middle.

You end up with two fan bases at an absolute fever pitch, coming into a game that was super important anyway, who think they know what went on but actually don't really. It would be better, for obvious reasons, if the whole thing really was confidential.

But the problem is because it is "confidential", the Crows can't really come out and say anything about it. So when Nicks is asked in a pre-match presser what he would say to the fans, he's pretty neutered. He gave a bit of "Come and enjoy the game" nothingness.

If the AFL was going to leak everything to the press, it may as well just be an open process so that then Nicks can come out and say "hey fans, we know you're angry, we know you'll be passionate, but as a club we do not support and do not condone anyone getting stuck into Quaynor - please don't do it".

I think that would have had a serious impact on the booing happened last night. There would have still been some. But what I would describe as the "group think" booing, which I actually suspect is probably most of it, might not have happened.

It also might have been more targeted at Houston, who frankly deserved whatever he got.

TLDR

I think the booing of Quaynor was bad. I wish it didn't happen. But I don't cast any moral judgment.

It's the AFL that needs to have a good hard look at itself here. They knew what they were creating when they fed the media everything about the Rankine investigation from beginning to end.

 

[CrowBloke]

Didn’t he kick a goal from 55 2-3 weeks ago?

Noooope.
It was his first kick (from a handball) after being subbed on and well within the F50 arc.

 

[maxlilly]

This is where I felt our composure went missing

There were times when a player had clear air and instead of kicking - looked up saw nobody - then handballed into pressure

I feel this is more a game plan issue than composure.

Playing so many behind the ball that when we do win the ball back, we have no one to kick to.
I think this is where we should be looking for and using our wingman a lot better than we do.
You need your wings to be attacking players as well
But you have such a defensive mindset, everyone focused on stopping goals and then we have nothing when we need to go forward

 

[Cromulant]

Jeff closed his account?

Thats cromulent

Not to be confused.... obviously

 

[chazwazza]

With some of the attitudes and comments on here it’s no surprise Quaynor was booed all night.
For whatever reason people chose to or whatever reason they hide behind in doing so it’s a pretty poor look for the club and its supporters, it’s giving many in the media a free hit that they’ll salivate over and write lazy click bait articles.
If you can’t understand how poorly it presents the club then there’s not much to say.

I was sitting next to a mum, she was a passionate, loud and at times swearing, we got on great as I can be just as bad. She was booing Quaynor all night along with many other players, opposition supporters and umpires. Did she fully understand the whole Rankine issue? Did she give a thought of what it looks like if you’re booing a player who was on the back end of a homophobic taunt who really hasn’t done anything wrong?
Is making a choice not to boo him too PC or woke or any other lazy term you want to use to lazily back up your stance? Or is making a choice not to do so just being a bit more aware of how it’s going to look and come across to other people?

I’d suggest if you booed him relentlessly then don’t complain how people are seeing your actions the day after.

 

[glengowan]

The Good: Collingwood.

The Bad: Adelaide.

The Ugly: It was like men vs boys. Our smalls didn’t compete. We refused to man up on Moore, who I thought was over the hill, but he killed us last night. Our use of the ball into F50 was terrible.

The Optimist: Our chances of making the Grand Final take a dip, but our premiership chance increases if we do make it. We’ll be better for playing an extra final. We’ll be better for having Rankine back. We’ll be better for having Rachele back. We get confidence back next week at home, and then take on Geelong at the MCG (in an ideal world).

 

[treeman]

Can someone explain to me what Murray brings that means he plays in front of Butts?

I'd drop him and pull Butts out of the sanfl.

 

[johnnypanther]

Just read about the booing. Disgraceful and embarrassing. The Club should condemn it out of hand.

How about they just concentrate on how to win the next game

 

[CrowBloke]

jenny61_99 , the Smith goal:

ESPN Video

null

www.espn.com.au

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

He had someone up his arse all night, so to speak. Normally, he gets into a lot of space.

I wonder if Collingwood see Keays as a barometer for us?

He only had 7 touches vs them at the MCG

0.0, 0.0 and 0.1 in the three Pies matches this season

 

[Slippery Pete]

The club’s record against Collingwood, not only recently, but historically… wow.

0-4 in finals too.

Extraordinary hoodoo. One of the worst in professional sport.

 

[Thrillthorpe7]

Brisbane 2019 - first finals series in a decade. Home Qualifying Final against Richmond (flag winners from two years prior, and written off earlier that season due to form lapses). Brisbane got absolutely smashed. Went out in straight sets. They lost 3 Prelims after that, before getting to a Grand Final, losing it, then winning a flag. That flag was a ten year project and took 6+ years of finals. They're contending again this year too, obviously.

This is why we need to be Top 4 contenders, for multiple years. Random lightning-in-a-bottle flags very rarely happen.

We need a better midfield to do this.

Very well said. Could even go back to the Hawks in 08 and they got the flag, but it then took a while to get back there as it came a bit ahead of time for their group.

 

[Coopers]

I was sitting next to a mum, she was a passionate, loud and at times swearing, we got on great as I can be just as bad. She was booing Quaynor all night along with many other players, opposition supporters and umpires. Did she fully understand the whole Rankine issue? Did she give a thought of what it looks like if you’re booing a player who was on the back end of a homophobic taunt who really hasn’t done anything wrong?

How do you know she was a mum? Was she there with her kids?