Review Bad, Ugly, and Horrendous vs Hawks

[Rotayjay]

I'd love to see our young guns like Jones given the same responsibility as Worpel was last night when everything is going to shit.

The other problem with our game plan is that when we DO win it under pressure, which we are capable of sometimes, we didn't have anyone that could read our rushed kicks in the air. And when we did read them, it was players like Murphy and Betts getting into position. We have so few genuine aerial threats, it's very worrying

Our aerial game has been shitehouse for a decade now.

 

[Sanders]

I still think Betts has a role. He’s not going to dominate like the last but if he can get his couple of goals a game and still tackle inside 50 then he’s doing enough.

Jenkins and Tex are the worry. We can’t play both, you can’t have two immobile key forwards who don’t mark. We’ve got Himmelberg who has been on our list for a few years who needs to play. Also Fog.

Then because we can’t let go of our senior players we try to turn Douglas into a forward when we’ve got guys like Davis who should be tried.

Basically our forward line is old and stale. It needs rejuvenation.

All 3 can still have a role that’s not the problem. The potential issue is the difference between what we need from them, and what they can deliver

 

[pjcrows]

Any other year I'd wake up flat as a tack, angry, watching replays for answers. Dreading the season, etc. But I feel largely "meh".

I think walking out of the 2017 GF knowing that was basically our chance with the Talia/Jacobs/Walker/Betts core, and we blew it, has made me largely accept it.

I dunno.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Why is everyone talking about disfunctional forward structures? We moved the ball slow and butchered half our kicks. Forwards are generally shit house when the opposition can flood the 50 and the delivery inside 50 is poor. Actually it was worse than poor. I don't think any of our forwards are "cooked", especially Eddie Betts, he was as spritely as I've seen in a long time. They're never going to play well when the forward line is congested AF and kicks inside 50 may as well have been kicked by my 12 year old son.

We were slow with ball movement and rusty with posession, and couldn't handle the Hawks pressure and game plan. We had no answers whatsoever off the field or on it. It should have been a 10 goal flogging on our home deck. Atrocious.

Matt Crouch, Rory Sloane, Rory Laird, and I thought Wayne Milera, played valiantly under the circumstances.

Jones did okay in his first game considering we were playing so badly.

The voice of reason

 

[Elite Crow]

Oh and **** we missed Seeds

 

[hey shorty]

There is no role for him. We've tried him everywhere over the years and there just isn't a position where he shines. It's a struggle forward, it's a struggle inside the contest and it's a struggle outside.

He SHOULD be a good winger, like he was when he first made the side in 2015. Runs all day and has neat skills..... just doesn't have that something he used to.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

You obviously don't understand the point we're making which is why you defend the selection so easily

No, I understood the point .....it's been banged on about incessently for 6 years ....personally I think Mackay is behind the Brexit Failure too

 

[Big Crow]

Some good:
- Crouch brothers in good form.
- Brad got through unscathed, so far so good.
- Keath was a rock in defence, looked awesome.
- Sloane is still a beast.
- It didn’t click for him yesterday but Betts looks to have some spark back. Watch this space.
- Atkins cashing a weekly pay check by playing football as if he has a rare blood condition where any bruise could kill him gives all of us hope for our respective careers.

 

[Scorpus]

The most frustrating thing is it looks like we don't know HOW or WHY we are bad. I'm not talking about basic stuff like "we kicked poorly", it doesn't look like we have any clue as to the root causes and/or are unwilling to fix the problems.

Why did we kick poorly? Is it that our players just had bad days? Or is it because Hawthorn brought immense pressure and our structures couldn't cope? Players shouldn't just have "bad days" every time a team does this to us.

Why were our kicks inside 50 so bad? The coaches say "efficiency". What about our terrible structures, lack of movement and lumbering reactionary play?

They look at Jacobs. 30+ hitouts. But ignore the 8 marks and 2 goals against. They look at Mackay and Atkins and see 50 disposals, but ignore the 16 turnovers. They look at Walker and see captain, not a struggling slow shadow of himself.

I'm not convinced we have the tools at our disposal to properly identify the problems. And that's what you need before you can implement solutions

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Some good:
- Crouch brothers in good form.
- Brad got through unscathed, so far so good.
- Keath was a rock in defence, looked awesome.
- Sloane is still a beast.
- It didn’t click for him yesterday but Betts looks to have some spark back. Watch this space.
- Atkins cashing a weekly pay check by playing football as if he has a rare blood condition where any bruise could kill him gives all of us hope for our respective careers.

Atkins has Haemophilia? That would explain so much.

 

[hey shorty]

The most frustrating thing is it looks like we don't know HOW or WHY we are bad. I'm not talking about basic stuff like "we kicked poorly", it doesn't look like we have any clue as to the root causes and/or are unwilling to fix the problems.

Why did we kick poorly? Is it that our players just had bad days? Or is it because Hawthorn brought immense pressure and our structures couldn't cope? Players shouldn't just have "bad days" every time a team does this to us.

Why were our kicks inside 50 so bad? The coaches say "efficiency". What about our terrible structures, lack of movement and lumbering reactionary play?

They look at Jacobs. 30+ hitouts. But ignore the 8 marks and 2 goals against. They look at Mackay and Atkins and see 50 disposals, but ignore the 16 turnovers. They look at Walker and see captain, not a struggling slow shadow of himself.

I'm not convinced we have the tools at our disposal to properly identify the problems. And that's what you need before you can implement solutions

Of.course we have the tools, but we don't want to use them.

 

[Scorpus]

No, I understood the point .....it's been banged on about incessently for 6 years ....personally I think Mackay is behind the Brexit Failure too

If you understand the point, please repeat it to me here. Because even in that post where you suggest this issue was present 6 years ago (it wasn't) there are signs you don't actually know

 

[CrowBloke]

Walker, Jenkins, Doedee, Douglas out

Mackay?

 

[Slippery Pete]

The optimist in me says: round one, historically, always throws up some very strange results that don’t necessarily reflect what’s to come. So I’m not really worried about yesterday’s game, per se.

However...
-Brett Burton is still our footy manager
-Ben Hart, Scott Camporeale and Matthew Clarke are still on our coaching panel
-Rob Chapman is still our chairman

We could’ve won by 15 goals yesterday and I’d still be ****ing depressed about all that.

 

[CrowBloke]

I thought for a team with the talent level we all seem to believe we have, it was downright embarrassing.
Maybe it just was one of those games--but I saw enough to see stark similarities to the nonsense we saw last year.

I think Murray2503 nailed it.
They came onto the ground laughing, joking, all smiles, as if the 4 points were in the bank.
Clarko outcoached Pyke as well.

 

[Slippery Pete]

Clarko outcoached Pyke as well.

He usually does.

 

[Drewie11]

Mackay?

Yes Mackay out and Murphy out

Seedsman in and Gooch in

 

[Slippery Pete]

I’m trying to wrap my head around why people have been saying 6-6-6 will suit Adelaide?

Who are all these supposedly great contested marking forwards we’ve got that suit one on one contests? I can only think of one, and he plays for Carlton now.

 

[mistylake]

It truly is disgusting how cowardly and stubborn the club is with regard to change. There must be a very strong groupthink mentality in the senior management ranks.

Any outsider with half a brain can see obvious shit like Jacobs running out of steam but our senior coaches/management just peck at the floor like chickens 'Jacobs is best 22, Jacobs is best 22, Jacobs is best 22' 'Burton was the best person for the job, Burton was the best person for the job' 'Mackay must play, Mackay must play' 'We'll back in our structures, we'll back in our structures'

It's farcical.

Every ****er in the club are in self preservation mode and it works because it starts at the top. They make damn sure no one can vote for change with their “con”-stitution to.
It’s a ****ing dabarcle and it’s supporters are complicit in keeping it going.

 

[CrowBloke]

**** sorry that was a long rant.

... but a good one.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

It all started when we selected David Mackay. A stupid, idiotic, disgusting selection that immediately threw up red flags. Did we learn from last year? Obviously not judging from that one decision before the game even started. Can't move forward when we have pathetic decision making like that.

It looked like our players had done everything but play football over the off season. Horrendous skills. Destroyed in the air. Destroyed on the ground. Mutilated in the forward line. Annihilated by a severely undermanned Hawthorn midfield. An absolutely pathetic performance. The players should be ashamed.

Don Pyke had his pants pulled down. His pants were then taken off and thrown in the river. It was like he was coaching with his penis exposed to the players and that's all the players could think about throughout the match. He needs to take ownership, put his pants back on and learn. If I hear excuses like "we just needed to execute better" I might vomit.

Douglas is shit. Mackay is shit. Jacobs is cooked. Walker is cooked. Lynch is soft. Jenkins sucks. Betts is finished. Knight did nothing. Murphy did nothing. Milera was awful. Laird was bad. Kelly tried but he just sucks. Gibbs was useless.

And then Doedee does his ACL. Well **** me the signs aren't good

Solid melt !

Agree with good portion of it though

 

[Vhaluus]

And maybe don't be fooled by what the players are doing on the field is actually what the coaches want. Don didn't look like a happy man after the game.

If the players aren't executing his game plan it means he has lost the players so should be sacked for that reason instead.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

our forward setup and quality of entries going forward was terrible.

it's like we had no system moving the ball forward of centre

All month we prepared for the way hawks play and the fact our forwards push up ground and leave them with numbers behind the ball then we fall for it again with long high balls down the line and our forwards don’t and it can’t contest in the air

Infuriating, also thought our pressure forward of centre was horrendous on the rare occasion they didn’t intercept Mark it

 

[Johnny Rutten]

The Hawks have bullied and thumped virtually every opponent in recent times. Underestimate them at your peril.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

I think I said 2 yrs ago when our forward line was our strength that it would soon enough be our weakest line ( and I got laughed at ) - and we are definitely at that point now

Our forwards only perform on their terms when the ball movement is non Pressured , our forwards just can’t compete when it becomes a scrap to get the ball , they are just not up for that kind of fight whether it’s talent or want