- Joined
- Dec 14, 2002
- Posts
- 37,871
- Likes
- 11,930
- Location
- who cares
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Sacramento Kings
Thread starter
#1
Ayres eyes top four
5:28:04 PM Wed 17 March, 2004
Alan Shiell
Sportal
Adelaide coach Gary Ayres says the Crows can return to the top four this season, provided they win more close games, score goals more easily and have a reasonable run with injuries.
“I’m quietly confident we can go top four,” Ayres said. “I haven’t changed my opinion at all of where I think we can go. We need a lot of things (to go right) for that to happen and that’s what we’ll be gearing up to do. Otherwise, what? Should we not turn up?”
Eight of Adelaide’s nine losses in last season’s 22 home-and-away matches were by margins of 18 points or less – St Kilda (eight), Port Adelaide (12 and 16), Collingwood (five), Brisbane Lions (18), Hawthorn (five), Fremantle (one) and the Kangaroos (10).
The other home-and-away-season loss was to Collingwood by 37 points at Telstra Dome in round 20. The Crows’ only other loss was to the Lions by 42 points at the Gabba in a second semi-final.
Ayres talked about his hopes and expectations for this season at a news conference at AAMI Stadium on Wednesday.
“You need to stay away from injuries,” he said. “That’s always an issue. But win the close games and score some easy goals from the turnover situations, I think, are two areas we can look at getting better at.
“I want us to take a step forward by winning the closer games. I thought we lost far too many last year, which probably in the end cost us a top-four spot.
“Obviously we need to make sure we’re keeping the scoreboard ticking over, which has never been a huge issue here, but I think we can get better. Our overall accuracy for goal has been probably a little bit of an issue – to get easy goals.
“We never had any trouble getting it in or scoring, but I just think sometimes the opposition can score easy goals. I think that’s an area we can get better at.”
Ayres said Adelaide was ‘different’ because of Mark Bickley’s retirement and the club wanted to see some emerging young players come through. They included Trent Hentschel, Nathan Bock, Hayden Skipworth, Brent Reilly, Jacob Schuback and pre-season gains Ben Hudson, Scott Stevens and Fergus Watts.
“I think I’ve seen significant improvement in those guys over the summer to say they can come in and play league football,” he said.
“I’ve tried to instill in the guys some different plays because we know we can get to a certain level here. We’re a pretty good side but we just need to take that next step by implementing things I think are fairly subtle, and hopefully they’ll come more into vogue as the year unfolds.
“We haven’t really had a lot of opposition or a lot of time to be doing it against other sides. We’ve done it against ourselves. That’s fairly easy.
“We’ve had a reasonably disjointed pre-season with a lot of our top players having injuries. Roo (Mark Ricciuto) broke his thumb, Nigel Smart and Benny Hart had tendonitis, Matthew Clarke had a recurring calf problem, Jason Torney had a bit of a setback from his ankle operation …
“So until the last two weeks we probably didn’t have the same run that we had last year. But I think we’ve got back to the full ingredients I know this team can display when it’s playing better footy. It hasn’t come together yet, but that’s what it’s about – gearing up to get the best preparation.
“Once we got knocked out of the pre-season competition, it was then about getting the best preparation. I’ve been quite comfortable with how the guys have played in the last two weeks.
“Yeah, West Coast had a lot of kids. You win by 90 points, well, that’s what you do. Port last week, you win by seven points and you have 27 scoring shots. They’re indicators to me our intensity, effort and energy are there, and the way we’re using the ball.
“I’m quite comfortable with the way we’re using the ball. There seems to be a lot of talk about how we go too wide and we’re chipping the ball around. But I ask you, how wide’s wide?”
Asked about Adelaide’s surprisingly poor rating among some interstate writers and commentators, Ayres said: “It’s motivation if people want to write all that sort of stuff. You say to yourself, well, if that’s what everyone thinks, we can turn it around.
“What we’ve got to do is concentrate on what we know we can do, and that’s get the processes right and play the sort of footy I know we’re capable of.
“Our senior core of players is an excellent, talented group. The other players will get a lot of confidence from seeing what those guys can do.”
__________________________________________________
You tell them Gary
I think he is a bit too defensive about going wide. C'mon Gary don't be a smart arse, anything that's withing 5 meters of the boundary line is too bloody wide.

5:28:04 PM Wed 17 March, 2004
Alan Shiell
Sportal
Adelaide coach Gary Ayres says the Crows can return to the top four this season, provided they win more close games, score goals more easily and have a reasonable run with injuries.
“I’m quietly confident we can go top four,” Ayres said. “I haven’t changed my opinion at all of where I think we can go. We need a lot of things (to go right) for that to happen and that’s what we’ll be gearing up to do. Otherwise, what? Should we not turn up?”
Eight of Adelaide’s nine losses in last season’s 22 home-and-away matches were by margins of 18 points or less – St Kilda (eight), Port Adelaide (12 and 16), Collingwood (five), Brisbane Lions (18), Hawthorn (five), Fremantle (one) and the Kangaroos (10).
The other home-and-away-season loss was to Collingwood by 37 points at Telstra Dome in round 20. The Crows’ only other loss was to the Lions by 42 points at the Gabba in a second semi-final.
Ayres talked about his hopes and expectations for this season at a news conference at AAMI Stadium on Wednesday.
“You need to stay away from injuries,” he said. “That’s always an issue. But win the close games and score some easy goals from the turnover situations, I think, are two areas we can look at getting better at.
“I want us to take a step forward by winning the closer games. I thought we lost far too many last year, which probably in the end cost us a top-four spot.
“Obviously we need to make sure we’re keeping the scoreboard ticking over, which has never been a huge issue here, but I think we can get better. Our overall accuracy for goal has been probably a little bit of an issue – to get easy goals.
“We never had any trouble getting it in or scoring, but I just think sometimes the opposition can score easy goals. I think that’s an area we can get better at.”
Ayres said Adelaide was ‘different’ because of Mark Bickley’s retirement and the club wanted to see some emerging young players come through. They included Trent Hentschel, Nathan Bock, Hayden Skipworth, Brent Reilly, Jacob Schuback and pre-season gains Ben Hudson, Scott Stevens and Fergus Watts.
“I think I’ve seen significant improvement in those guys over the summer to say they can come in and play league football,” he said.
“I’ve tried to instill in the guys some different plays because we know we can get to a certain level here. We’re a pretty good side but we just need to take that next step by implementing things I think are fairly subtle, and hopefully they’ll come more into vogue as the year unfolds.
“We haven’t really had a lot of opposition or a lot of time to be doing it against other sides. We’ve done it against ourselves. That’s fairly easy.
“We’ve had a reasonably disjointed pre-season with a lot of our top players having injuries. Roo (Mark Ricciuto) broke his thumb, Nigel Smart and Benny Hart had tendonitis, Matthew Clarke had a recurring calf problem, Jason Torney had a bit of a setback from his ankle operation …
“So until the last two weeks we probably didn’t have the same run that we had last year. But I think we’ve got back to the full ingredients I know this team can display when it’s playing better footy. It hasn’t come together yet, but that’s what it’s about – gearing up to get the best preparation.
“Once we got knocked out of the pre-season competition, it was then about getting the best preparation. I’ve been quite comfortable with how the guys have played in the last two weeks.
“Yeah, West Coast had a lot of kids. You win by 90 points, well, that’s what you do. Port last week, you win by seven points and you have 27 scoring shots. They’re indicators to me our intensity, effort and energy are there, and the way we’re using the ball.
“I’m quite comfortable with the way we’re using the ball. There seems to be a lot of talk about how we go too wide and we’re chipping the ball around. But I ask you, how wide’s wide?”
Asked about Adelaide’s surprisingly poor rating among some interstate writers and commentators, Ayres said: “It’s motivation if people want to write all that sort of stuff. You say to yourself, well, if that’s what everyone thinks, we can turn it around.
“What we’ve got to do is concentrate on what we know we can do, and that’s get the processes right and play the sort of footy I know we’re capable of.
“Our senior core of players is an excellent, talented group. The other players will get a lot of confidence from seeing what those guys can do.”
__________________________________________________
You tell them Gary
I think he is a bit too defensive about going wide. C'mon Gary don't be a smart arse, anything that's withing 5 meters of the boundary line is too bloody wide.
