Review Bad, Ugly, and Horrendous vs Hawks

[Elite Crow]

Nah he's right, Knight isn't, or shouldn't be best 22. He's a good runner, provides some pressure but not much, and doesn't do enough when he gets the ball.

He's another who has had his career ruined by injury.

Nah he’s wrong.

We had players stinking it up everywhere and I mean everywhere.

To single a guy out who I thought in the first half was one of our better players is a joke.

We are far bigger fish to fry than Knight.

 

[CrowCro]

We will never, ever be successful until we ACCEPT at an organizational level, that players such as David Mackay are not good enough.

It's not just about him as a player. It's about the chain of decision making that leads to his selection. It's all wrong

David was one of our better players today, problem is as always he is one of our few run n carry players. The kick on the wing that looked like he fluffed up was not his fault. It was actually a good kick it’s just that our player was standing flat footed whereas Hawthorn were always on the move. We cannot play with three talks with turning circles of whales

 

[mattymac]

View attachment 640575So Jenkins has no option but to kick into the space on the right side. He makes the right decision. But who do we have leading into that space? ******* Betts and Murphy. Why are they our deep inside options running into space with literally no tall player anywhere near them?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say because Ben Hart. The guy we tried to offload from defensive coach but couldn't find a replacement for so shoe horned into forward coach. Probably the same reason Lynch spent so much time playing deep forward.

 

[Scorpus]

Here's another one. Obviously a clogged forward line, this is a repeat entry. Kelly is kicking into 50 and there's an obvious bit of space between these players.

But as you can see, the SEVEN players we have inside 50 in that zone are not in any position to lead into that area! This includes Lynch and Walker who are close together on the left of screen. Jenkins is out of screen on the left. Lynch literally does not bother whatsoever to make a contest, Walker can't get there, and then we have a bunch of other blokes closer to the 50 mark who are never going to be effectively utilized from this kick. And there was a period of time that it was obvious the ball is coming back inside 50.

Why are all of Walker, Jenkins and Lynch within 20m of eachother inside 50, but none of them lead into the obvious space available for a kick inside 50? The Hawthorn player knows this is exactly where the kick is going. But not a single player leads into the space or is even in a position to do so despite having plenty of numbers in the area.

The result is a Hawthorn player takes an uncontested mark in a paddock

 

[Elite Crow]

Not many times you can walk away and be ashamed by your team, but today was one of them.

The players and the coaches read the hype all preseason, we are fit, the fun is back, everyone tips us to bounce back, we will bounce back.

They strolled into that game thinking it would happen, but they were showed up by a well drilled team that was focused and determined.

We were fumbly from the get go, we made fundamental skill errors all game, we were stagnant, there was no run, really if you read a playbook on how not to play footy that was it.

A ducking shameful pathetic performance by a bunch of bigheads who thought it would just happen, shame Crows shame.

 

[Elite Crow]

Good
I couldn't watch the game

Was it the same as every single Hawthorn game in living memory?

Worse

 

[Pea Nut]

David was one of our better players today, problem is as always he is one of our few run n carry players. The kick on the wing that looked like he fluffed up was not his fault. It was actually a good kick it’s just that our player was standing flat footed whereas Hawthorn were always on the move. We cannot play with three talks with turning circles of whales

No he was one of our worst. By a long way. We needed our run and carry players to put speed in the game and cut up Hawthorn. Instead Dave Mackay dawdles along and then butchers the footy.

 

[Scorpus]

This one is from the end of the match when we were having a number of repeat inside 50s. This ball had been rebounded and within 10-20 seconds, Keath was kicking it back in long.

So in this situation we have four players on the right side I've circled in green. Included in this circle are all of Walker, Jenkins and Lynch. How is this an effective structure to have? That area is way too congested and we have ALL of our tall options in there. Are we just praying that players not known for contested marking will magically clunk one?

Not only that, but we have Jacobs just on the tip of the 50. So he's coming in to make us TALLER inside 50. But then guess who is the one player who is sort of, maybe, a little bit free to do anything? It's once again ******* Lachie Murphy who is immediately faced with a two on one and is shut down because he is 176cm tall.

What the hell is Keath supposed to do here? All of our forwards are in a massive clump and can't lead into space, Murphy is the only player remotely free and Jacobs doesn't get into the space in time. There are zero good options in that 30-40m out range.

It's s**t stuff. Seriously s**t.

 

[Elite Crow]

As for Jacobs, he is beyond cooked, he’s burnt to a crisp.

McEvoy killed him.

Jacobs taps went nowhere. He can’t move around the ground. He is next to useless.

How we didn’t address our rucks in the off-season when we knew what he had and what we are aiming for this year is a shocking piece of list management.

 

[StillAtLarge]

Pardon the intrusion but it appears to me that your forward line is the crux of most of your problems. There is no x factor down there- an ageing Betts and the absence of Cameron and McGovern means a hopeful bomb inside 50 won't bear any fruit. On a positive note your midfield is well above average but Jacobs desperately needs some support.
Just an observation from afar

 

[AmericanCrow]

Still waiting to hear from the cry baby players over what lame ass excuse caused their piss poor performance.

Surely there was something in camp that didn't agree with them

Please let's not wait until week 10 to dream up a preseason excuse for their poor play.

 

[Elite Crow]

Pardon the intrusion but it appears to me that your forward line is the crux of most of your problems. There is no x factor down there- an ageing Betts and the absence of Cameron and McGovern means a hopeful bomb inside 50 won't bear any fruit. On a positive note your midfield is well above average but Jacobs desperately needs some support.
Just an observation from afar

Did you see how our midfield delivered the ball to our forwards? Bombing to Hawks players was just dumb.

 

[Elite Crow]

Still waiting to hear from the cry baby players over what lame ass excuse caused their piss poor performance.

Surely there was something in camp that didn't agree with them

Please let's not wait until week 10 to dream up a preseason excuse for their poor play.

What a stupid post.

 

[AmericanCrow]

What a stupid post.

Right, cause they didn't spend week 10 on last season excusing away the same poor play we saw in the opener on "camp"

It was a bullshit excuse then to cover up lack of effort, poor decision making on the field and general poor play

Funny, that's exactly what we saw in the opener

So what bothered them this year? Simple question

 

[Pea Nut]

Right, cause they didn't spend week 10 on last season excusing away the same poor play we saw in the opener on "camp"

It was a bullshit excuse then to cover up lack of effort, poor decision making on the field and general poor play

Funny, that's exactly what we saw in the opener

So what bothered them this year? Simple question

That loss was down to coaching. Plain and simple.

 

[StillAtLarge]

Did you see how our midfield delivered the ball to our forwards? Bombing to Hawks players was just dumb.

I did- our midfield pressure was as good as I've seen for 3 years but there wasn't a solitary aerial threat in crows colours.
It's going to be an incredibly even season but you'll need to find someone who can provide a contest in the air if you want to compete in 2019

 

[AmericanCrow]

That loss was down to coaching. Plain and simple.

Yes, but surely the coaches did something to cause them to play poorly and make bad decisions

I just want to hear what has so disturbed them from camp now--so let's have it.

 

[Jcpdragonx]

Been saying it for a while and looks like I still will, I can’t stand Bryce Gibbs. Collecting a pay check, nothing more. Gutless downhill skier.

Try him forward. We have enough wing/hb players, in the guts he's a downhill skiier only.

 

[Pea Nut]

Yes, but surely the coaches did something to cause them to play poorly and make bad decisions

I just want to hear what has so disturbed them from camp now--so let's have it.

C'mon man you're making yourself look silly. The coaches got them to play to a game plan that simply will never stack up against Hawthorn if you want to count that. It plays to their hands. A number of our players were good and tried their guts out. But they were handcuffed

 

[Elite Crow]

Right, cause they didn't spend week 10 on last season excusing away the same poor play we saw in the opener on "camp"

It was a bullshit excuse then to cover up lack of effort, poor decision making on the field and general poor play

Funny, that's exactly what we saw in the opener

So what bothered them this year? Simple question

Last year was a failure off field, they ****ed up our fitness program, they ****ed up our preseason.

The club and Pyke has been so focused on correcting last year, why? Because he admits they ****ed up.

This year is so far one game. They played like crap. They thought they would just win and the coach has a lot to do with that mindset. As the saying goes, they weren’t ready to play and the Hawks were.

 

[GameofSloanes]

Try him forward. We have enough wing/hb players, in the guts he's a downhill skiier only.

Don't really agree he had 6 tackles in the first half the most on the ground before pykes masterstroke if sending him to defence to cover for doedee

 

[GameofSloanes]

Last year was a failure off field, they ****** up our fitness program, they ****** up our preseason.

The club and Pyke has been so focused on correcting last year, why? Because he admits they ****** up.

This year is so far one game. They played like crap. They thought they would just win and the coach has a lot to do with that mindset. As the saying goes, they weren’t ready to play and the Hawks were.

That performance reeked of bathwater drinking

 

[Pea Nut]

That performance reeked of bathwater drinking

I don't agree. If you are constantly being forced to bomb long to an outnumber going inside 50, something is very wrong with your ball movement.

 

[Elite Crow]

I don't agree. If you are constantly being forced to bomb long to an outnumber going inside 50, something is very wrong with your ball movement.

It was, but they panicked and butchered the ball.

 

[Samcro24]

We’ve struggled for atleast 5 years entering inside 50 when the opposition set up the way they did today. It’s a combination of pathetic kicking, trying to do the perfect kick instead of just placing it to advantage. Secondly due to the big forwards refusing to provide a strong aerial contest. They don’t play in front. Everyone wants to crumb a goal instead of doing what a key forward is meant to do. Jarman impey took way too many unchallenged marks in defensive 50 today. All we needed was a simple kick to advantage and just compete

Every club is rusty and fumbly in round 1 so hawthorns direct play suited a round 1 match, while we were trying to play perfect football and were just way to rusty to execute it

This.

It’s how all of our terrible losses play out. We get stifled, we panic, don’t know what to do.

Long kicks down the line to useless talls that don’t take their share of marks, or even provide enough of a contest to advantage a crumber.

We never look like winning at any stage when it goes this way.