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

[GreyCrow]

Not from me mate. I thought Collingwood jumped us hard and out-pressured us back into 2024 Crows.
I was just reporting what Ch7 said.

Tirez pas le messager, merci.

Oh I know that just some cope from others

Put your big boy pants on this is finals

 

[CrowBloke]

Loved your ideas, especially:

The solution is to look at structures and go, okay we wanted X player on Moore with a spare in this position but so far that hasn't worked. Can we put Y player on Moore? He's spare a lot, where is our spare? Can we shift the position of that spare to be more influential? Can we instruct the players to use set plays D, E, F instead of A, B C? Can we ask for more switches instead of straight line play? What about game tempo, should we instruct slower/faster plays? Dawson is off his game, can we move him to half back or forward to make him more influential and bring in player X or Y into the contest?

ie yes! All of the above.
Likewise, the following:

When the players are off, they're off. So help them out structurally. A player isn't getting into the game? Shift them into a different position for a bit. An opposition player is too influential? Change the matchup, consider a tag. Struggling with turnovers under pressure? Adjust the tempo, change the level of press, tweak the spare.

I'm starting to think you're actually Blighty.
He would've done a lot of that.

And you want options up your sleeve to adjust in game. Brodie Smith as the sub hamstrung us from a player position perspective because our side was stacked with one type of player and the sub was the same type. Didn't allow for any creativity with the "impact" player. That's a coaching (selection) problem.

Yes; we have Nicks and we need another Blight.

 

[CrowBloke]

Oh I know that just some cope from others

Put your big boy pants on this is finals

Yeah/nah.
Am wearing old bloke soft, baggy trackies.

 

[CrowBloke]

My disappointment is we didn’t attempt to change what wasn’t working.
Did we man up DM - nope.

This!
I'd be curious to know how many intercept marks he took after about halfway through the second quarter, because that's when Nicks should have seen what was happening and made changes.
Total Coaching faliure.

Did we empty out our forward line to create pressure up the ground and leave Filthy in the goal square - nope.

Did we change the way/s we kicked into the forward line? Nope.
Even without the change you suggested, some chaos ball was worth a try.

Another poster said this pages ago, but at least Nicks didn't move Pedlar onto Moore.
If he had, I'd be on the Sack Nicks bandwagon again.
Still thinking about it ... .

 

[CrowBloke]

They also played a side that is historically prone to shitting the bed under pressure.

Didn't they play GWS; not us?

 

[CrowBloke]

IF we get past the Hawks we will enjoy being the underdog against the Cats - we don't handle expectation/favouritism at all well.

Yes.

Going in with everyone expecting an easy Geelong win will help our fragile mindset - but we certainly aren't montys this week.

Shouldn't that be "no-one"?

 

[PCORF]

I hope the club does not extend Nicks' contract again because at first let's see how 2026 goes. If we miss the finals next year, he is out of here!

 

[Cromulant]

Have the Club docs not heard of Flu shots?

Id say some players would get them, but not all.

I didnt get one this year and paid dearly.

 

[George CantStandYa]

It was your mids. They got it enough but they didn't handle the pressure with ball in hand. Not sure if it was the occasion or the Pies turning up the volume but your mids were too worried about getting tackled, they didn't take on the tacklers at all and were just dumping it forward. The intercepts were a product of that. Meanwhile the Pies mids took on the tackler every time they got it - whether it was Degoey and Long charging forward at grass or Daicos and Pendles using their tricks. They drew an extra tackler and were able to release each other for much better forward entries.

Our mids did not get it enough, their possession count was shit. We had 1 mid in the top 10 possessions, Soligo with 21. Berry 12, Peatling 9.

Our coaches knowing we were bombing it though still kept Moore as the spare. Sitting in the nosebleeds you could see Moore just stationed as the last defender with heaps of room able to do as he pleased. He was always going to clean up.

 

[George CantStandYa]

I hope the club does not extend Nicks' contract again because at first let's see how 2026 goes. If we miss the finals next year, he is out of here!

They’ll have to extend him, they won’t go into a finals series in 2026 with an unsigned coach. But they have to wait until the bye and then a 1 year deal to see how he performs in the 2026 finals if we make it. If we don’t look like we will make it, don’t sign him.

 

[George CantStandYa]

So the posters who claimed we took the game on, interestingly listen to Dillon interview Laird, our first switch was 12th minute mark of the second qtr.

Mattrox care to comment?

 

[davos44]

The flu sweeping through the club was interesting.

I don't think it had anything to do with hacking the ball from contest to Moore, spearing passes to Moore and ensuring Moore is left alone while avoiding switching the ball.

Collingwoods huge pressure and our lack thereof at contest ensured the result.

 

[1990crow]

The flu sweeping through the club was interesting.

I don't think it had anything to do with hacking the ball from contest to Moore, spearing passes to Moore and ensuring Moore is left alone while avoiding switching the ball.

Collingwoods huge pressure and our lack thereof at contest ensured the result.

Seems like a convenient leak.

 

[SugarShane]

Have the Club docs not heard of Flu shots?

Does depend on the illness too. Flu shots don't always stop you getting the flu, they may just keep the symptoms milder.

My family all got flu shots this year after skipping 1 year last year and my wife and 7yo at the time suffered dearly. After getting flu shots we instead had RSV run through us this year which knocked me and the 8yo on our arses for days.

 

[davos44]

Seems like a convenient leak.

It's definitely legit but looks more like the club was avoiding using it as an excuse. If ANB can't make a 15 minute presser it must be Influenza B, which is really nasty at the moment.

I'd like to know why they don't have the flu shot, I don't recall the clubs banning/restricting it?

 

[SugarShane]

My disappointment is we didn’t attempt to change what wasn’t working. I remember playing Geelong in the first home game of the season a few years ago. We knew that Tom Stewart (or equivalent) and their then tall backline would be intercept marking. So we constantly kicked the ball along the ground.

Did we man up DM - nope.
Did we try and even up the forward numbers - nope
Did we empty out our forward line to create pressure up the ground and leave Filthy in the goal square - nope.

Our coaching team was coaching for percentage not to win at all costs.(yes sarcasm) Their answer was to throw Laird in the middle and add to the panic. That’s it.

We played a one dimensional game (down the line) in a three dimensional ground and just coughed up possession. Only Filthy took on a 45 degree kick and that was low percentage resulting in a goal.

Spare men seem in defence to be our Kryptonite. We lack any sort of poise or intelligence to make mental notes when bombing forward that a loose man has intercepted our last 10 entries.

We don't try kicking to a different spot (wider, more central, pull our kicks shorter?), we don't try manning up, we don't try moving Filthy next to their loose man and putting a crumber nearby, we didn't try using Fog or someone as a decoy to drag Moore away and structure players to head to a different area. We didn't try anything other than bombing to the exact same spot for 2 hours.

This is our coaches box as soon as the opposition deploys a competent loose man.

 

[SugarShane]

What Gold Coast did have was a 3 time premiership coach that had the side prepared for finals football.

They also played a side that is historically prone to shitting the bed under pressure.

GC v Freo was just an exercise in who can shit the bed less. Even with a shot on goal to win it GC came within a half a finger from kicking into the man on the mark to fluff it.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I wonder what the coaches' and players' reaction was to the Thilthorpe centering kick that led to a turnover goal?

Would be quite telling I think in terms of mindset.

Forget it, move on, keep taking the game on, cost of doing business.

Or be careful, no turnovers, keep it simple, low risk

 

[AFC979810]

I wonder what the coaches' and players' reaction was to the Thilthorpe centering kick that led to a turnover goal?

Would be quite telling I think in terms of mindset.

Forget it, move on, keep taking the game on, cost of doing business.

Or be careful, no turnovers, keep it simple, low risk

Wasn't he dropped earlier in his career after such an error?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

In the final minor round game of the 1998 season Blight plucked Linden Stevens from Sturt's reserves and gave him an AFL debut.

He also played the first final vs Melbourne.

Did nothing and got dropped but how's the fearless mindset? Not scared to play a kid. No spot in the team is locked in. Just because it's a final doesn't mean we can't take risks.

Finals are nothing to be scared of.

Sure, that one particular selection didn't pay off itself but the mindset it instills in the group surely does. There's nothing to fear.

We took a bunch of risks through finals 97/98 and enough of those risks did pay off
Smart forward
James in defence
Pittman key defender
Ellen FF
Vardy played with bruised heel
Johnson to Harvey
Goodwin midfield
Dropping Modra
Etc

And it surely impacted how we approached those games.

If you have a scared coaching group going back to Smith, going back to midfield Laird, small midfield rotation etc how are the players going to react?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Wasn't he dropped earlier in his career after such an error?

There was one in a tight game vs Freo that he turned over I remember

Can't remember if he was dropped for that but those were the days we picked Himmelberg and Frampton up forward ahead of Thilthorpe/Fogarty a frustrating number of times

Would be an interesting experiment if players were dropped for dump kicking to opposition numbers

 

[moogerfooger]

Does depend on the illness too. Flu shots don't always stop you getting the flu, they may just keep the symptoms milder.

My family all got flu shots this year after skipping 1 year last year and my wife and 7yo at the time suffered dearly. After getting flu shots we instead had RSV run through us this year which knocked me and the 8yo on our arses for days.

Yeah it depends on the strains prevalent each season. The vaccine doesn't mitigate all of them.

 

[MarcusP2]

Yeah it depends on the strains prevalent each season. The vaccine doesn't mitigate all of them.

A couple of years ago I got the vaccine, then RSV and 'parainfluenza' whatever that is. Completely flattened.

 

[moogerfooger]

In the final minor round game of the 1998 season Blight plucked Linden Stevens from Sturt's reserves and gave him an AFL debut.

He also played the first final vs Melbourne.

Did nothing and got dropped but how's the fearless mindset? Not scared to play a kid. No spot in the team is locked in. Just because it's a final doesn't mean we can't take risks.

Look at Hardwick. Chose Pickett for his first senior game in a GF.

Plays a veteran everyone assumed was a charity selection because he's the last of the originals, ends up kicking the winning score.

As someone once said, this is formula one footy. If we play it safe we're going to finish last.

 

[SugarShane]

Would be an interesting experiment if players were dropped for dump kicking to opposition numbers

"In unprecedented scenes, the Adelaide Crows have forfeited their upcoming final claiming they can not find the numbers to fill a side."