2013, Success? Or failure?

[Dirty Bird]

Just been thinking about this today, as well as during the season when the doom and gloom posters were making it sound like we would be lucky to win a game.

For some reason, I view 2013 as a success under the circumstances.

ps. this topic is not to include TIppett or Trigg crippling the club in the offseason. If you want to discuss that, go to one of the other threads dedicated to that. (You can discuss Melbourne tanking though as I feel that contributed a little)

Anyway, I do agree that we got off to a slow start at the beginning of the season due to a shithouse pre-season on the track. I don't believe it affected us too much over the entire course of the season, but it certainly did slow us down in the first few weeks.

By the time things are starting to click, injuries strike.

We're then playing kids all over the park. We're getting experience into the likes of Hartigan, Laird, Brown, Crouch, Kerridge, Grigg etc.
This experience will help long term. And with the exception of the Sydney game and maybe the Richmond game. Who blew us off the park? We were competitive with all before us!

We claimed a 4th quarter lead vs Hawthorn before squandering it.
We outplayed Fremantle (twice)
We pushed Collingwood for 3.5 quarters.
We beat Geelong.

Yes, the results didn't go our way, but with key players out injured (Walker/Jenkins/Reilly) and some out of form (Jacobs/Porplyzia) we still managed to push our way to almost a finals campaign. Heck, if the AFL banned Essendon players indefinently (such as Monfries) the off break doesn't happen and we finish 7th. That's how close it was us to finals.

We gained experience, still were competitive and instilled a winning culture into the club. We could've rolled over and died like West Coast when finals were out of the equation, but we didn't, we fought right to the end.

This experience will help the core group of youngsters going forward, plus hopefully Sando learned from his mistakes this past offseason and he should improve on that.

In the end, I view our season as a Geelong even year. Things just didn't go quite right for us but we reloaded, got experience into youngsters, ready to make an assault on the next season and ready to come back better than last.

 

[Mattrox]

I agree with much of what you say. But the season was not a success.

We were successful in some of the things we did, but that doesn't make the season a success. However, I will take the small mercies in what was otherwise a dire year.

 

[WAG]

It was the recession we had to have!

 

[Niximus]

There were some good parts of course, but the year was a disaster.

In 2012 we were a bee's dick from the Grand Final, we were on the up and looking to push it that bit further this year. To miss the GF again would have been disappointing, slipping out of the top 4 a step backwards, just scraping into finals a failure. Missing finals completely is a disaster.


The 'silver lining' we took from the Hawthorn PF loss was that it would burn in our bellies all off-season, and we'd hit 2013 with a determination and focus to do better. Now we're hoping the same thing, that missing finals has caused hurt that will fuel us next season.

I hope that is true, but I'm not very confident of it.

 

[MRB37]

I guess it's a success if you look at it from the point of view where he found out a lot about the team, that there are some very talented youngsters in the group and also there's some senior players who maybe don't have as much juice left as thought and some others who need to pick up their games. Now it's a matter of using that information going into next year and making sure the coaching group get everything right from the start of pre-season.

Overall though, it's not a success, didn't even make the finals. With the expectations on the team going into the start of the year, there's no way you could pat yourself on the back and say "hey, we did alright".

 

[cmndstab]

The year was a failure, no question.

However, from the ashes of that failure we may be able to forge future successes. Some very nice kids were either debuted, or started to hit their straps. Hopefully Sando is able to learn from his coaching, selection, and training mistakes and we can move forward from here.

 

[Skippy231]

This year was the worst in our history. I can't remember a season where so many experienced players had such a significantly lower output than previous seasons.

At the start of the year I would have never expected that we would have Van Berlo, Reilly, Porps, Jacobs, Thompson & Mackay all having average seasons. This may be a combo of fitness and form and the coaches have admitted that they made some serious errors in pre season preparation.

The silver lining has been the kids coming through, to have Crouch, Laird, Brown, Kerridge, Grigg, Jenkins, Lynch, Johnston & Lyons all exposed to AFL footy and the majority look like they will make it at this level is massive for the club going forward.

This is the year we needed to have, we have learned plenty about our list and found that the kids are alright. If we can get the pre season right and learn to tackle, along with the natural improvement of our younger players and hopefully the return to form of some of our senior players we should be playing finals next year. Add a couple of new players / free agents to the squad and remove some dead wood and we should be good.

 

[King Elvis]

Julia Gillard had a better 2013 than we did.

 

[SugarShane]

Big failure, but laid some good foundation that could help in future in the playing of Laird, Brown, Crouch, etc.

 

[Magma]

overall it was a failure, but there were of course circumstances, such as the walker injury, the pre season saga's that would've affected the team. the team was just down on output for the most part. at least it have the chance for guys like laird, crouch and grigg to get good game time and build a very solid base for seasons to come.

 

[cmndstab]

This year was the worst in our history.

Reckon 2010 and 2011 rank as worse years than 2013. At least in this year we had some amount of hope for the future. In '10 and '11 we were looked like going absolutely nowhere.

 

[mattymac]

Crap year

 

[Freddy Bassett]

The only good thing about our season is it is over....

 

[knobby]

This is on AFL website

When will your club play in a Grand Final?

ADELAIDE
The Crows appear to be two to three years away. The club's preliminary final in 2012 was an exaggerated view of its true position in the scheme of things, as 2013 showed. The Crows' 11th placed finish this year wasn't an accurate reflection either and, while they looked a fair way off the top sides, they should rebound into the eight next year. Adelaide's midfield needs a boost to support the likes of Brad Crouch, Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane, who will form one of the League's most potent trio within three years. The side looks better positioned defensively than in attack, with Kyle Hartigan looking like he could forge a long career down back. Young attacking talent needs to be brought in ASAP though, with stocks thinning quickly after the current options of Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch, Josh Jenkins and Lewis Johnston. - Harry Thring

Kind of hard to argue against most of it, could reflect our upcoming trade/draft targets.

 

[Elite Crow]

It was a successful year by Melbourne standards but for a side that finished 1 kick from a PF it was a shocker. The only consoliation was the development of the kids, besides that this season sucked.

 

[Golumless]

Honestly. IF what this year showed, there is a lot to be excited about. Midfield looks like it could easily be the best in the league in the next couple of years and i don't say that lightly. However a lot of this hinges on both Grigg and Smith. If they come on as expected, that is 5 elite players in our midfield rotation (Assuming danger, sloane and crouch don't suddenly become B grade players)

Not many sides can match that, and with building a very good and young defense, this side is going to be very successful in the future.

Get Walker fit and fix our forward problems whilst accelerating the development of most of out incumbent kids as well as a few others to fix holes (looking at CEY, Kerridge and maybe Atkins here) and we have the makings of a golden era. Draft penalties be damned.

In saying that, this season was an absolute failure. Inability to close out games and missing the finals..well finals were the non negotiable with our goals. However i do like how we are tracking our youngsters. Got to work out what we are doing with Kerridge though and how we are developing him.

 

[Hank93]

A failure with a lot to look forward too. We won't return or be competitive in finals if the same group of senior players are disappointing again in 2014 though.

The youth looks very promising, but we still need great output from the B-C grade players.

 

[headache1]

The younger players were a highlight, but on the whole, it was a disaster.

 

[weekend at bernies]

Didn't play finals and should off.. Big Failure

 

[Niximus]

Didn't play finals and should off.. Big Failure

should *have*

 

[sbenno]

Yep, 2013 was definitely a failure.

There were aspects that were successful, such as development of youth, which sweeten it a bit, but the rosiest way I can see it is as a learning experience.

After 2012, not even making finals is a massive failure.

 

[Tex200]

Epic failure - not even sure why we have this thread

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Julia Gillard had a better 2013 than we did.

I disagree - at least the Crows can rise again after a crap year

Julia is gonesky for good.

 

[Bicks]

I disagree - at least the Crows can rise again after a crap year

Julia is gonesky for good.

Hallelujah to that brother!!

 

[Mr_Moogle]

One of the most infuriating seasons I've ever witnessed and it started the second the prelim ended last year. Just disaster after disaster then Walker does his knee. Seriously I don't know how it could have gone any worse.

On the upside we did unearth some talented youngsters. Laird, Crouch, Brown, Kerridge and Lyons all showed a bit.