Ayres eyes top four

Stiffy_18

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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 :D

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.:rolleyes: :mad:
 

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DaveW

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#2
Originally posted by Stiffy_18
“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?”
Well when you never have possession of the ball in the centre square, save for just after centre bounces, then I would say you're probably going too wide.
 

Stiffy_18

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Re: Re: Ayres eyes top four

Originally posted by DaveW
Well when you never have possession of the ball in the centre square, save for just after centre bounces, then I would say you're probably going too wide.
Add to that if 95% of your shots at goal are at an angle greater than 45 degrees, the chances are you are going wide.
 

ant

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#5
Yep, that's the most troubling thing about what Ayres said today. I like the confidence about the side and I agree with him that all things being equal, a top 4 spot is possible and that's what we should strive for, otherwise why even bother? However, the lack of acknowledgement, at least publicly, that we're currently playing too wide and not enough in the central corridor is very disconcerting.
 

PAfolwr

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#6
Don't get me wrong, but just looking at how much you lost by doesn't always tell the true story.
Adelaide has had a remarkable ability lately of not letting scores blow out.
Some of those "just" losses in fact were never ever going to be Adelaide wins.
 

Fergus

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#7
Originally posted by PAfolwr
Don't get me wrong, but just looking at how much you lost by doesn't always tell the true story.
Adelaide has had a remarkable ability lately of not letting scores blow out.
Some of those "just" losses in fact were never ever going to be Adelaide wins.
True, but I think you have missed the point of what Ayers was saying.
We lost to Collingwood after the siren and Fremantle in the last minute of the game. The Hawthorn game went down to the wire and we probably win if there is 10 more seconds. Even if we won just these three I have mentioned, then we are sitting 16-6 at the end of the minor round in 2nd spot with a double chance and the associated benefits. That's a massive difference to being 13-9 and being 6th with an elimination final to play.
 

napsyd

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#8
Ayres eyes top four...

On the list of all time worst game plans.

In all seriousness, I like that he is confident and if we can get form and confidence back to something like 2002 or early 2003 we are in with a shot of top four. Get there and we might just pull it off. The first eight to ten rounds will be critical.

Enough talk! Bring it on!! (Grrr, brrr, rrr lousy rest week!) :mad:
 

Stiffy_18

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Thread starter #11
I have been doing a bit of thinking (surprised myself really ;)). In the time Ayres has been our coach we have been a long kicking attacking side (apart from his first year) so one would say we know that game plan back to front. Maybe what we have practiced in the off-season is something that we will ADD to our long kicking game plan.

Brisbane's game plan is a mixrute of long kicking down then corridor and shorts chipping style down the wings. The thing is Lions mix it up to perfection. They are so unpredictable with the game they play. One minute they are going long down the centre corridor the next they are chipping it down the wings.

Maybe we are justt practicing the short chipping part of the game plan. This game plan is harder to master than the simple long kicking gameplan.

Hopefully come round 1 we will mix it up which would be usefull come the business end of the season. I don't expect us to be very efficient with it early but towards the end of the year we should be better at it.

I hope I am onto something anyway because if waht we have seen this pre-season is our new game plan we are in real trouble.:(
 

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maccas_no1

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#12
Originally posted by PAfolwr
Don't get me wrong, but just looking at how much you lost by doesn't always tell the true story.
Adelaide has had a remarkable ability lately of not letting scores blow out.
Some of those "just" losses in fact were never ever going to be Adelaide wins.
Very true they are games that we have finally decided to play decent footy in the last quarter but we should have really played that sort of footy all day and won the game:(

Ayres know's for sure there is a problem with this wide gameplan and to continually dismiss it all the time just tells us as supporters that he obviously has no way of fixing it or simply doesnt know how to fix it:rolleyes: I am very concerned with this gameplan and honestly believe against a good dominat side i.e Brisbane we are going to get slaughtered, he says he wants to improve in areas such as bounce downs and get easy clearences but how can you do that when you have a gameplan that is wide and indirect:confused: Im not liking this one bit:mad:
 

maccas_no1

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#13
Originally posted by Stiffy_18
I have been doing a bit of thinking (surprised myself really ;)). In the time Ayres has been our coach we have been a long kicking attacking side (apart from his first year) so one would say we know that game plan back to front. Maybe what we have practiced in the off-season is something that we will ADD to our long kicking game plan.

Brisbane's game plan is a mixrute of long kicking down then corridor and shorts chipping style down the wings. The thing is Lions mix it up to perfection. They are so unpredictable with the game they play. One minute they are going long down the centre corridor the next they are chipping it down the wings.

Maybe we are justt practicing the short chipping part of the game plan. This game plan is harder to master than the simple long kicking gameplan.

Hopefully come round 1 we will mix it up which would be usefull come the business end of the season. I don't expect us to be very efficient with it early but towards the end of the year we should be better at it.

I hope I am onto something anyway because if waht we have seen this pre-season is our new game plan we are in real trouble.:(
Thats my exact point Stiffy is that we done mix it up we are to predictable other clubs know exactly what we are going to do and they are one step ahead of us already:( If we dont mix it up we are not going to finish top four that's for sure, 2004 IMO could be a major disapointment:(
 

maccas_no1

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#14
Originally posted by napsyd
Ayres eyes top four...

On the list of all time worst game plans.

In all seriousness, I like that he is confident and if we can get form and confidence back to something like 2002 or early 2003 we are in with a shot of top four. Get there and we might just pull it off. The first eight to ten rounds will be critical.

Enough talk! Bring it on!! (Grrr, brrr, rrr lousy rest week!) :mad:
For The AFC to finish Top 4 we need to win at least 6 of our first ten games maybe even seven we can only afford to drop 3-4 games if we lose anymore it will be a struggle even with our good finish to the year!!!!!!!!

napsyd enjoy the V8's matey:D :D :D :D :D :D
 

ok.crows

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#15
How wide's wide Gary ?

I looked it up for you.

Adverb: wide
1 - with or by a broad space.
2 - far from the intended target.

Adjective: wide
1 - having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other.
2 - not on target
3 - as wide as Adelaide is going.

Hope that helps.
 

maccas_no1

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#16
Originally posted by ok.crows
How wide's wide Gary ?

I looked it up for you.

Adverb: wide
1 - with or by a broad space.
2 - far from the intended target.

Adjective: wide
1 - having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other.
2 - not on target
3 - as wide as Adelaide is going.

Hope that helps.
I think Gary thinks wide is when we are having a shot from nine rows back in the stands:rolleyes:
 
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#17
No doubt I got a sick feeling too when Ayres mentioned that he didn't think we were going too wide. Hope he isn't being stubborn again & That Stiffy is correct in saying that he is working on a plan B to mix things up when needed. Plan A should always be to go long & direct where possible. We can't find out quick enough. Bring it on!
 

crowmyzone

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#18
Your'e paranoid the lot of you.
Tell me a side that doesnt play wide.

What matters is where we shoot on goal from:rolleyes:

I know a side that went wide in 97 and 98 and won 2 flags.
 

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Thread starter #19
Originally posted by topjars
I know a side that went wide in 97 and 98 and won 2 flags.
Yes but that side didn't have 95% of their scoring shots at angles greater than 45 degrees.:rolleyes:
 

Stiffy_18

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Thread starter #20
Did anyone see that report on Ch10??????

Of the other 15 club captains only 7 had us in their top 8. We are at 16/1 to win the premiership and I forgot what are the odds on us to make the 8.

Probably the more susprising odds are with the brownlow betting. Mark Ricciuto is at 50/1 to win it again. i don't know about you but I think this is a pretty good bargain bet. What do these people think that Roo didn't deserve the Brownlow??????:rolleyes:

I'll be putting some of my hard earned on Roo thats for sure. Another one that would be a good bet is Johncock. If he plays 60% of the time in midfield he will catch the eyes of the umpire for sure.
 

crowmyzone

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#21
Originally posted by Stiffy_18
Yes but that side didn't have 95% of their scoring shots at angles greater than 45 degrees.:rolleyes:

Id like to play more in the corridor too but the turnover risk increases our chances of being burnt on the rebound.

Im happy to win by playing wide more than Im happy to lose playing skinnier.


As I said ;) ..What matters is where we shoot on goal from!!
 

crowmyzone

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#22
Originally posted by Stiffy_18
Did anyone see that report on Ch10??????

Of the other 15 club captains only 7 had us in their top 8. We are at 16/1 to win the premiership and I forgot what are the odds on us to make the 8.

Probably the more susprising odds are with the brownlow betting. Mark Ricciuto is at 50/1 to win it again. i don't know about you but I think this is a pretty good bargain bet. What do these people think that Roo didn't deserve the Brownlow??????:rolleyes:

I'll be putting some of my hard earned on Roo thats for sure. Another one that would be a good bet is Johncock. If he plays 60% of the time in midfield he will catch the eyes of the umpire for sure.
My good odds smokey is Simon Goodwin.
 

crowmyzone

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#24
Ill take either of the 4.
In fact Roo must be quietly confident of going again. I read somewhere that he may be paid more attention this year but hes
one bloke that can shun the attention!
 

Stiffy_18

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Thread starter #25
Originally posted by Kane McGoodwin
Reckon Goody is a decent chance for AFC Club Champion, but not really a proven vote-getter for the Brownlow. Reckon out best chances would be Macca, Roo & Stiffy.
I agree, Goody is not a proven vote-getter.

McLoed and Roo are consistent vote-getters while Johncock polled well last year.

As I said if Stiffy plays 60% of the time in the midfield and the rest in forward line, I think he will poll well as he is set for a ripper of a year.

Reilly is also a very good chance for Rising Star award.

But honestly, Roo at 50/1 is a bargain. You never know he might go back to back.
 
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