Review Semi final vs Hawthorn - Ugly, Historically Embarrassing and Pathetic

[kirky]

We spent all our tickets to finish top.

Had a series of challenging but not ultra hard fixtures in the run home.

We played Bulldogs, Hawks, Collingwood and Gold Coast plus a Showdown and yes two games against bottom 2 in theclast 7 games but it was just as hard as most other finals side.

What I want to know is what happened after the Bulldogs/Gold Coast/Showdown games. It all went belly up after those matches.

 

[kirky]

Everyone’s jumping at shadows. Weak draw got us the game rank. Next year is a leveller.

So Collingwood, Hawks and Gold Coast twice plus Port, Eagles and Roos twice is a weak draw. Seriously?

 

[GreyCrow]

Nicks had plenty of time to try nrw structures and players in different positions. But he mostly refused. He stuck with the same old plan even against the bottom 4, when he knew we were playing finals. Experiment when you can because we hot found out big time.

Go back over the last 8 weeks and you will see posters - who apparently dont know what goes on inside the 4 walls - say exactly this

Actually most also said this at the start of the year

 

[Minor Threat]

I blame the sax guy. 0-2 in finals

 

[GreyCrow]

Yes, in those moments, but he needs to figure out how to get more of it.

He averaged 7 disposals across 9 games this season. 11 in a game his best outing for the season. It’s not good enough.

Yes and no

As a designated small forward 3 goals from those 7 disposals is a good output

Where it does fall down is if he gets nada - its why I said in last weeks match thread - he took his opportunities - which is his job

 

[budget]

Get stuffed prick.

Real educated response.

 

[MarcusP2]

Ugly: I won't care even if we're going to finish top again next year.

Sucks the joy out of a whole season.

 

[MsTopG]

If we miss finals next year he will be gone

Why wait. Get him gone now. He doesn't know how to beat decent sides and he never will. Longmire or Buckley thanks. I would even take Goodwin over him.

 

[GreyCrow]

I think that’s the mental fragility. You make bad decisions. Someone wants to be the hero to lift the team. Those are the acts that show we crumble under pressure, not physical pressure, but the mental load of expectation

You cant be the hero if you are constantly pulled back from the fire

Nicks hates heros

 

[George CantStandYa]

That he was shit. Well beaten by Meek.

But did it matter? No. ROB hasn't mattered all season.

You tried to talk about clearances pre finals and how concerning it was. It was well proven that they dont matter.

We won the clearances last week and got beaten.

This week - we scored 5.3 from stoppages compared to Hawthorns 4.5. Where the game was won and lost? Turnovers.

Hawthorn scored 10.12 from turnovers compared to us scoring 4.3.

A lot of things we need to fix before we get to ROB.

Oh cmon, you don’t think their start had anything to do with ROB and clearances?

Speaking of turnover scores, what did you think of his kick?

If you’re happy with blokes with the skill of 7 year olds in your team and who we are now stuck with for 3 years, can’t help you

 

[MsTopG]

You cant be the hero if you are constantly pulled back from the fire

Nicks hates heros

I think he's scared of heroes.

 

[1970crow]

Had we dropped the North game we would have been playing GC tonight at home.

And they would have beaten us too.

 

[Scorpus]

The amount of times Tex starts in front position, deliberately swivels to the back, then gets out marked by the defender in front is infuriating

 

[Port_Girl_92]

Most embarrassing finals effort by anyone in the history of the competition.

Finish first and then play like a wooden spoon team

You will not find a worse effort. You can look but there isn't one. This is it. And it will never be beaten as the worst

119, bulldogs prelim.

Dude. You guys suck, but don't take our mantle. We're own the worst finals performances ever.

 

[CrowBloke]

A pathetic effort to not win a single quarter in the two finals played at home.

They played the kind of flat-footed, hesitant/fumbly, second-guess, poor-delivery footy that got us drubbed in the QF and put us in 15th last year.
We were out-pressured by both Collingwood and the Hawks.

It looked like both Finals didn't go as expected (is that hubris or lack of mental preparation?) and their Finals pressure stunned us into submission.

Against both we often had two or more players chasing the ball-carrier with no-one peeling off to defend potential recipients. That's how both opponents waltzed away from us.

Against both many tackles did not stick.
Against both we showed little composure.
Against Collingwood we reverted to hack-kicks, high bombs forward and down-the-line timidity.
Against the Hawks we kicked over leading Crows' heads, or too short, or flubbed the kick entirely; inexplicable.

Last time when we beat the Hawks, Rankine tore them a new one in the last (he and Tex got 2 goals each in that quarter), but the scoring-pattern of that game was very odd:
Hawks 5-goals straight
Crows 8 goals straight
Hawks 5 goals straight
Then Crows kicked 7 of the last 10 goals:
Crows 1
Hawks 1
Crows 3
Hawks 2
Crows 3

No such rise-and-fall goal streaks last night. After the first quarter the Hawks dominated steadily (kicking 11 of the next 16 goals) to get 46 points up then put the cue in the rack halfway through the last.
As you said, it was pathetic. A shitshow.

I'd love to know what happened internally after Round 21 (Top-2 sewn up), or maybe after Round 23.
Mental relaxation? A confusing change of Game Plan emphasis? Compounded by Rankine saga?
Whatever it was, our last 3 games were poor.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Mattrox did Nicks coach “fine” this game too?

 

[Trigger13]

The three most disappointing players of 2025:

Hinge
Soligo
Murray

All three pulled the wool over our eyes.

 

[Bovo]

Apparently we didn’t win a single quarter in any of our finals games. This has to be the toughest pill to swallow of any finals we have been part of that I can remember.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Can we please uncancel Jeff. Really want him back here having a crack at posters who don’t like “winning”.

**** I hope he has an alias account

 

[Bovo]

The three most disappointing players of 2025:

Hinge
Soligo
Murray

All three pulled the wool over our eyes.

They had their moments, but lacked consistency across the season.

 

[Trigger13]

Ugly is the club can legitimately say Draper's form doesn't warrant selection round 1 next year.

I’ll get smashed for this. And I’m going very early…

Draper won’t be a player of any real note. What was the common denominator last night with Hawthorn: skill and good decisions.

Draper is an absolute panic merchant. Always has been. I’m broken record. And I know we can’t turn back time but we missed a trick by not grabbing Langford instead.

 

[Rotayjay]

So not winning clearances is bad after all?

 

[Billy Cart]

Yes we did. There were wins where we were exposed by Brisbane, Collingwood and Hawthorne when they killed us with entries into their F50 but we still won. Then there were the close wins against West Coast and North were they piled the pressure on and we couldn't handle it but still won.

It was something our dumb coach didn't see it coming.

 

[mick500]

Trying to put a positive spin on things, the positives we got out of this finals series were...

If anyone can finish that sentence it'd be great lol.

All we learnt was how to freak out. Dawson looked like he was shitting himself from the coin toss to the final siren.

 

[CrowBloke]

Pathetic: ROBs inability to kick a football on the run after playing 100 AFL games.

Edited for accuracy.
Can add to that,
Pathetic:
--- player inability to selectively tackle the oppo ball-carrier while marking potential ball-recipients, all over the ground. Situation: ball loose, two-on-two vying for the ball. Both Crows chase one oppo player who gets the ball and feeds off to now-free teammate. Again and again and again .
Coaching shortcomings:
--- Coaches' inability to make quick, impactful changes to put out spot fires eg leaving Keane on Gunston.
--- Nicks' inflexibility in general <== this will not change until he is sacked.