2020 midseason review

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John Who

John Who

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
Apr 16, 2017
8,746
7,116
AFL Club
Adelaide
With more than half the minor rounds completed, what has been your overall impression of the AFLW Crows thus far?

For me, 5 main issues:

1. We’ve been cursed with the injuries this year:
- Randall
- Phillips (only 1 game played)
- Cramey (only 1 game played)
- Scheer
- Button (formerly Martin)
- Varnhagen
- J. Foley (played 3 full games)

This really does feel (to me) like the men’s team back in 2018, where we could barely fielded a full fit team!

2. Lack of leadership.
With the injuries, I think it’s important to realise that we’ve been hit hard with the amount of (referring to above names) leadership/experience/natural ability. There certainly seems to be a lot of fumbling this year, perhaps to do with the opposition’s increased pressure, but also likely less leadership presence to keep the team calm.

3. Not many are progressing forward.
The team seems to have stagnated, meanwhile other teams have appeared to improve out of sight (North Melbourne, Carlton, Fremantle). Our kicking has remained average, and handballing skills are abysmal!

4. Hatchard the clear improver and likely BnF this year. Allan has remained relatively strong with her defensive role. Then there’s the rest.

5. Our gameplan isn’t working.
How many times have we witnessed a blind kick as a forward entry, often kicking to an opposition spare man? Even worse, there are times when kicks go to a group of 3 opposition defenders! WTF?!
 
I think the failure to fix the hole across half forward has been the biggest issue

If its about having the extra numbers behind the ball then change it - because getting the ball in that loose defenders hand is no good if the ball is kicked to where that defender usually stands!

If its a lack of talent then that needs to be fixed ie kicking 25m instead of 30m or not pinpointing it

If its a failure of communication by the leaders in that area of the ground - half forward - then fix it
 

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We're definitely missing the likes of Randall, Phillips (for all but one match where she was rusty), Varnhagen and Scheer (and Button, to a lesser extent). They've created massive holes in our side that our new recruits simply have not been able to fill. Randall and Varnhagen with quality use out of the backline would have helped enormously, not to mention Randall's ability to stop the likes of Tayla Harris. Phillips is obviously super class, and Scheer would have given us a much better focal point up forward rather than relying on Gould or Biddell who are not really up to it yet.

For me, our biggest failing this year has been clean ball handling. It feels like every time we get a chance for some fast ball movement, we seem to fumble the ball. In contests, it means the next player ends up being drawn to the contest to help out, creating extra pressure, and breaking our structure down. If we do end up winning it, there's no free player to give it to. And if we lose it, we're completely out of position to defend the other way. And when we fumble outside of contests, it means that we end up having to rush the kick (usually to nobody) rather than lowering our eyes and doing something constructive with it. Last year it felt like we never fumbled. This year, it seems to be the norm.

Very similar to the Crows men's side, teams have worked out that if they can pressure the ball carrier, we'll just pound it forward, and have set up loose defenders a kick ahead of play accordingly. We have been unable to deal with this all year.

We've still got the nucleus of a quality side. The likes of (Sarah) Allan, Ponter, Hatchard, Marinoff (for all her failings, she's still a quality ball winner and tackler), and Scheer if she can get back, are all super young and super talented. I'm not convinced Metcalfe is the answer going forward, so hopefully McKinnon can mature in the ruck in time for Jess Foley to retire. Randall should still be around for a while. That's your spine sorted. Then the likes of Cox, Mules, Varnhagen, Racjic etc are all good enough to act as role players until such time as we recruit superior players. We just need to get our hands on some clean ball to take advantage of their talents.


One thing this year has definitely shown us - we cannot afford to lose our best players. We need to hold onto them tight, particularly if Port is allowed to enter the comp.
 
Scorpus said:
Disagree. He implemented a successful advanced structure that was ahead of the competition
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Disagree. He benefited from inheriting a talented group that included 2 of the best half dozen in the comp. good run with injuries and a fit group. We’re seeing his actual coaching performance with numerous injuries and a diabolical system. He’s not a good coach, never has been and the only evidence to the contrary is the 2019 AFLW premiership. and that was just a spike.
 
1970crow said:
Disagree. He benefited from inheriting a talented group that included 2 of the best half dozen in the comp. good run with injuries and a fit group. We’re seeing his actual coaching performance with numerous injuries and a diabolical system. He’s not a good coach, never has been and the only evidence to the contrary is the 2019 AFLW premiership. and that was just a spike.
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I think the stark difference between our 2018 performance and our 2019 performance shows that he deserves some credit. Maybe others could have come in and had the success he did, but there's no way to know. All we can say is that he came in, and we had massive success. He was the guy up top when that happened.

That doesn't necessarily mean he's still the right person for the job now. Sometimes, someone is a perfect fit for a particular time. Time will tell is Clarke is able to reinvent the group again.
 
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1970crow said:
Disagree. He benefited from inheriting a talented group that included 2 of the best half dozen in the comp. good run with injuries and a fit group. We’re seeing his actual coaching performance with numerous injuries and a diabolical system. He’s not a good coach, never has been and the only evidence to the contrary is the 2019 AFLW premiership. and that was just a spike.
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I think it’s both. Clarke was definitely good last year as the gameplan and structures definitely evolved from the earlier years. The issue how I see it is that the advanced gameplan suited us last year because of our core group of natural footballers (Phillips, Randall, Scheer, Cramey). This year however, we’re left with our second-tier players to take over the injured elites, and a bunch of young players who are probably struggling with the advanced gameplan.

So basically, I feel Clarke needs to devolve instead of evolve (keep it a bit more simple) the gameplan to better suit our current crop of players.
 
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