Review Bad, Ugly, and Horrendous vs Hawks

[CrowBloke]

... despite the fact that at the moment he couldn't mark a pair of undies with diarrhoea.

Ugly image , but apt.
Jacobs peaked in 2017. His deterioration in effectiveness last year was plain for all to see, except for the Crows Coaching Staff. He was injured, they said, but continued to play him to the detriment of the team and ROB's development. Yesterday wasn't just an 'off' day.

I watched Grundy (wouldn't we love to have him, now?) and McEvoy (not the ALF's best) who gave Jacobs a bath yesterday, in despair. I've always loved the bloke --- Sauce is a team man and a decent man, but he's cooked.

Worse, I can't see a short-term solution.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Good:
We didn't put in the worst performance this round - Essendon and North are vying for that title.

 

[Murray2503]

You're mistake is thinking every team has a plan B.

But some teams have better coaches than others.

 

[Murray2503]

Ugly image , but apt.
Jacobs peaked in 2017. His deterioration in effectiveness last year was plain for all to see, except for the Crows Coaching Staff. He was injured, they said, but continued to play him to the detriment of the team and ROB's development. Yesterday wasn't just an 'off' day.

I watched Grundy (wouldn't we love to have him, now?) and McEvoy (not the ALF's best) who gave Jacobs a bath yesterday, in despair. I've always loved the bloke --- Sauce is a team man and a decent man, but he's cooked.

Worse, I can't see a short-term solution.

Would rather a ruck that is an absolute prick who can play rather than a great bloke that can't.

 

[hey shorty]

Watching the last qtr and we blew a chance for a come behind win. We got to within 21 points with 16 inside 50s to 5, but we kept missing. Wasted shot after wasted shot and then they went bang and got 2 goals.

Jeffcrowe I didn’t see Smith with one centre square appearance, he must have been on the wing if we moved him into the midfield.

This is the thing, as bad as we were we still had a chance to make it very very close. Now a fair slice of that was Hawthorn being poor at goal like most teams this round.

When you have Milera and Atkins missing shots they'd normally kick with their eyes closed, Eddie too, you know it's not your night.

Probably also means are fitness is actually pretty good.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Walker is a huge concern for your coaches. Some are saying he's cooked, but he's not cooked; he's a liability. A cooked player still has class and contribute, but a liability benefits the opposition.
For some strange reason, the coaches made him the focal point of the forward setup.

He's a liability because he cannot change direction. When the ball wasn't delivered on his tit, he couldn't change his direction to compete, allowing a Hawk to take an uncontested mark. As soon as Sicily, his opponent, saw he wasn't getting it on his tit, he changed direction and provide an option on transition and lost Walker.
With the inability to change direction, the few times he got the mark on the lead, he couldn't turn quickly and fire a quick, flat pass to a dangerous target inside the F50. He had to stop, prop, have a look at the play and then make a kick from a standing start. In this time, the Hawks had setup defensively and he didn't have the velocity in his movement to deliver a fast, flat kick to a target.

Every team is going to take advantage of that.

 

[FAITH]

Walker has been cooked for a while.

I'd send him to chb

 

[Samcro24]

Tex looks finished at 28.

**** me that’s depressing.

 

[Murray2503]

FFS its round 1! Comments like “worst result since 2017 GF” “ we are going to be the new Gold Coast”, “the Crows have been the hardest team to follow over the last 20 years” “I don’t know why I support this team”etc etc
are absolutely absurd.
Bunch of sooks.


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Disappointed supporters are not absurd. There is a right way and wrong way to go about it but when you have an arrogant organisation that feels they are not answerable to anyone and have delivered no ultimate success on the field for 20 years people get rather irate especially when they are financially supporting that club. Many supporters are frustrated by this ground hog 20 year period they have been subjected to. What is absurd is the litany of mistakes the club has made over the last 10 years . Guess what? Most of the people who made them are still there.

 

[King Elvis]

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

Mate, the problems are the same they have been for years.

We had a belter season in 2017, but we are so heavily reliant on individual performance.

Our kick ins - absolute joke, and have been for years.

Ruck - Jacobs an issue, head in sand.

Forward line movement and structure - terrible for years, with odd good patches, but we disguise it due to the strength and talent we have there (which is waning).

Shit selection - comment not needed.

Midfield structures remain terrible - and we still constantly get sucked into the contest and then belted on the outside.



What had changed?

 

[Murray2503]

Tex looks finished at 28.

**** me that’s depressing.

Some players are finished at 22 especially if they have a bad knee injury or concussion. Tex has done quite well out of the game and has been a good servant but there comes a time from Andy Macleod to Tony Modes to hang them up when the game passes you by. It serves no ones interests to keep sending him out there Sam Jacob's style to be made to look silly. I'm sure deep down Tex wouldn't want that either. I feel when the time is right the club and Tex will come to some financial agreement which could involve working at the club in some capacity.

 

[King Elvis]

Ben Hart on ABC radio this morning “you’ve lost 9 of the last 10 against Hawthorn what will you change to win this week?” ....... “I wasn’t there for 8 of them” what a shitty response

You’re ****ing kidding me?!

That’s a disgraceful comment!

 

[Elite Crow]

You’re ******* kidding me?!

That’s a disgraceful comment!

Loved him as a player but I cringe whenever he opens his mouth.

You only had to listen to him with Kane to know he had shit football opinions. What must the players think when he speaks?

We sacked him once. Collingwood sacked him. He couldn’t get another gig until we gave him one. We then tried to sack him again but couldn’t find a replacement so we move him to the forward line.

There’s no point banking profits if you’re not going to get decent coaches.

 

[Mike Smyth]

FFS its round 1! Comments like “worst result since 2017 GF” “ we are going to be the new Gold Coast”, “the Crows have been the hardest team to follow over the last 20 years” “I don’t know why I support this team”etc etc
are absolutely absurd.
Bunch of sooks.


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LOL. How often do we see Muppet comments like this and then we all write our post season review as "another wasted year".

 

[Scorpus]

FFS its round 1! Comments like “worst result since 2017 GF” “ we are going to be the new Gold Coast”, “the Crows have been the hardest team to follow over the last 20 years” “I don’t know why I support this team”etc etc
are absolutely absurd.
Bunch of sooks.


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It's definitely not the worst result since the 2017 GF.

Us supporters have had to deal with:

1. Getting smashed by Richmond at the MCG in the Grand Final replay 2 to the tune of 47 points
2. Getting smashed by Hawthorn at the MCG by 56 points
3. Getting smashed by Melbourne in the NT by 91 points
4. Getting smashed by Collingwood at home by 48 points

So it's the fifth worst loss since the GF. There is nothing in common about those losses whatsoever though so there is no reason to be worried

 

[Mismatched]

Just watching some games over the weekend. Very little congestion in the forward line. Why did our game look like the entire Hawthorn side was parked in our forward line?

I felt the game went a similar way to the Carlton/Richmond and Geelong/Collingwood games.

So Clarkson just gave the entire comp the blueprint on beating the 2019 Crows.
.

It’s nothing new though, the same game plan had a bog average north Melbourne side beating us when we were flying in 2017 and Richmond ultimately knocking us off in the GF. The thing we have going for us is it’s actually quite difficult to maintain that level of defensive pressure and adherence to zones.

It’s how Clarkson manages to keep one of the worst sides on paper so competitive when far, far more talented sides struggle. The guy just knows how to drill it into his players and they have absolute faith in him, for good reason.

Clubs will continue to try to do this to us, the trouble is it takes a whole team effort and all it takes is one or two lax efforts, 1 or 2 guys messing up the zones and suddenly we’re through. Once that happens, doubt keeps into the opposition, we get our confidence up and away we go.

The major concern isn’t so much that clubs have worked us out, it’s that they worked us out 2 years ago and we still react the same and you can almost tell from early in the 2nd that we’re simply incapable of turning it around. With Cameron and McGovern gone, Tex clearly suffering mental/physical demons, Betts is the only guy now capable of pulling something out of nothing for us.

 

[Mismatched]

Loved him as a player but I cringe whenever he opens his mouth.

You only had to listen to him with Kane to know he had shit football opinions. What must the players think when he speaks?

We sacked him once. Collingwood sacked him. He couldn’t get another gig until we gave him one. We then tried to sack him again but couldn’t find a replacement so we move him to the forward line.

There’s no point banking profits if you’re not going to get decent coaches.

Unfortunately is starting to sound like a guy who knows his career as a coach is reaching a terminal point and getting jaded at the result.

I really do worry about our ability to attract, and then retain, decent assistant coaches. I suspect there’s an element of it simply being difficult to uproot assistants from the eastern states at the best of times and then the guys in WA won’t move over lightly either. Unfortunately it appears we’ve taken the view that this shouldn’t matter and we won’t then make adjustments to counter this, ie offering more coin or certain roles.

 

[CroCop]

Our tall forwards Jenkins and Walker are not high leaping forwards who can take aerial grabs but that should mean they should always play in front of their man. Today they were always behind and Jenkins especially needs to learn to use his big frame . When fit put in McAdam , Davis to our forward line along with Keath as our leading target cause he at least knows how to lead & has a good leap plus all have good agility unlike the 3 talls we r playing at the moment. Pity about Doedee as he’s our best attacking tall defensive player . I would put Fogarty there now maybe not as quick as Doedee but he is talented . Put Hartigan back and Keath forward and Jenkins can ruck. Jacobs to be dropped , ruck taps alone are overrated if u dnt do much else .
Also Matt Crouch you may get 40 possessions but if 20 of them are little dinky 15 metre kicks what’s the point. With the 6-6-6 you need to be kicking the ball 40 plus metres and putting opposition defense under pressure cause all your little kicks are doing is allowing the opposition time to get extra numbers back.

 

[CroCop]

We have to try something different as that forward line ain’t gonna win is a premiership especially when Eddie Beets is the only one that can leap and crash a pack to take a mark.

From here on in the forward line I would go with is .
Davis. Keath. Betts
McAdam (when fit) Walker Jones

That forward line is a lot more agile than what we have now . Keath is a good mark as yesterday showed and he would be difficult to man up. He is very quick and nimble for his height.

Jenkins and Himmelberg can be our rucks.
Tom Lynch can go back and play Doedee role . Fogarty can go back in defence . With Hartigan and Talia they can be our talls in defence . Out with Kelly . He slows us down back there and his skill set is not up to this level.

 

[Mike Smyth]

Disappointed supporters are not absurd. There is a right way and wrong way to go about it but when you have an arrogant organisation that feels they are not answerable to anyone and have delivered no ultimate success on the field for 20 years people get rather irate especially when they are financially supporting that club. Many supporters are frustrated by this ground hog 20 year period they have been subjected to. What is absurd is the litany of mistakes the club has made over the last 10 years . Guess what? Most of the people who made them are still there.

Its not just the past 20 years that grates. i have seen nothing change in the club that doesnt suggest the next 20 years will be exactly the same.

 

[Elite Crow]

So the Crows girls in a shortened game where they flogged their opponent laid 83 tackles, to the boys 57 in a game they were being beaten easily.

How the hell did the coaches not have them fired up? Tackling is a basic skill which all comes down to intent. Slack ****ers.

 

[FR0GGY]

So the Crows girls in a shortened game where they flogged their opponent laid 83 tackles, to the boys 57 in a game they were being beaten easily.

How the hell did the coaches not have them fired up? Tackling is a basic skill which all comes down to intent. Slack ******s.

I feel like don would be the sort of coach that would leave motivation up to the players.
He doesn’t seem like a motivation type of coach.

 

[Crowboto]

Charlie Camerons depature has made a much bigger impact than people realize.

 

[mistylake]

Right so after a nights sleep I've collected my thoughts on yesterday.

I'm very grateful I've made changes to my life over the past 18 months or so that mean I don't hold onto the losses as much as I used to. It still hurts, but you get over it quicker. The one thing I am still flat about is Tom Doedee, gutted in fact. Even Richie Douglas, that should be his last AFL game, and no one deserves to go out injured.

Round 1 losses aren't the end of the world, indeed 5 of the 6 favourites have been done over. Difference with us though, is we shouldn't have been undercooked. Who is the one man you KNOW is going to have something up his sleeve ?? That's not an excuse for our coaches, rather an indictment.

I'm hesitant to chalk this one down as just a bad day, but when your 3 gun rebounding defenders fumble all day and miss targets, skilled players missing easy shots at goal (been a round wide trend), that's just what it was.

The issue we have isn't those players, they'll get better and probably won't all play that bad again. Even Mackay is unlikely to play this weekend. It's the captain, it's the ruckman and it's 2 small forwards who don't kick goals.

The midfield collective, they're all good players and they're all proactive.... issue is they can't be when they have a ruckman who taps 3 inches away from the contest. We have to have such a defensive setup up, so when we do actually win one we are on the back foot. It's at the point now where it doesn't matter how ROB plays, but he has to play...... but he won't.

The defence, 3 guys were worried about getting their own ball and not where their opponents are. Again, they won't fumble all day and miss targets again but they did us no favours. Keath was great and will only get better, Talia looked solid if a little underdone.

Forward line is our biggest issue. The mix is right, the players are wrong. Eddie still looked dangerous but delivery was poor. Lynch started brightly but needs to cut those dinky 15m passes to nowhere. Jenkins is in a tough spot, with Tex lumbering into what space he found he was never going to have a good day. Murphy is not a forward, nor is Knight. Pressure is one thing, but you actually need to have forward nous and be dangerous around goal. Time for Davis and Stengle.

The captain gets his own paragraph. It's time Tex, it's time. The injuries have taken their toll on the big fella and it's now not fair to have him out there. We didn't just give Sloane the captaincy to help out, we gave it so he could take over if this very situation arose. We have a 20yo Tex clone sitting in the 2s, he's big, he's aggressive, he kicks like a mule and he isn't afraid of the tough stuff..... just like Tex used to be like. We won't do it, but it's the biggest thing holding us back this year.

Our side is going to look so much better with Seedsman, Greenwood, Stengle/Davis and ROB in it..... So do it.

I would suggest if anyone bumps into Taylor out in the street they with their best manners in place, ask Tex to retire forthwith. He needs to be the bigger man and take it upon himself, as the weak management and coaches are incapable of hard decisions.

 

[mistylake]

I speak to my mates who support interstate teams but live in SA, and they all say crows fans are way more unbearable than port. I thought they were just trying to wind me up, but then I came onto big footy.
Port fans are just deluded. Where us crows fans seem more bipolar.

It goes hand in hand with the team.
They are Jekyll and Hyde like.
We’ll likely be a different team this week. No consistency of attitude at all.