Review Bad, Ugly, and Horrendous vs Hawks

[Mismatched]

Thoughts:
Hawks played well and as always Clarko structured up perfoectly. The guys a genius. That side has no right being anywhere but bottom 4 on paper, yet they continue to perform. However it was helped by a piss poor effort from our club today, something as supporters were becoming for too accustomed to. Right from the get go, the players looked a step behind, they didn’t seem on. Once again, it appeared we believed the hype and forgot to rock up for the game.

Good news is that it’s round one. Round one has been a classic for being an absolute s**t form guide for the season proper. Hopefully coming up against the Hawks, a side we were expected to easily account for, when we have can act as an early wake up call. Fingers crossed anyway...

Unfortunately, judging by today, our gameplan is still cracks far too easily to the same strategies that it did in 2017. Our ability to score simply becomes non-existent when the balls not being brought in, unpressured off a fast break. Our forwards are simply incapable of leading up at the footy as a part of a slow play, or set up properly ahead of a stoppage for the scrambled kick forward.

Players:
Matt Crouch: Gun, one of the few who was clean and creative under pressure.
Sloane: as above really
Brad Crouch: good first game back
Keath: had his moments, but mostly positive, glad we backed him ahead of Hartigan
Lynch: I thought did some really good things early, but then impact faded, even if still finding the footy
Milera/Smith: Struggled to find the space/Position to be truly damaging.
Atkins: May have found plenty of it, but was tentative at the football all day. Showed no interest in winning the hard ball and then burned it when he shouldn’t have. Has played 78 games now, needs to be better, racking up cheap stats all day won’t cut it.
Walker: I worry about where his heads at. Looks frustrated and distracted. Too busy wrestling and trying to be an “enforcer” or “presence” and is trying to force his kicks, when he’s one of the most natural kicks of the football there is. Has forgotten what made him great. Almost needs 5 games in the SANFL to reset and find his love of footy again, to regain his strut. Don’t blame him, has lead our club through a pretty tumultuous period and has been hammered publically from pillar to post as the face of our club.
Douglas: once again “got in the way” at a crucial moment, this time hurting himself and thankfully not Walker as well. Looked unfit and disinterested today, chasing tail and just not reading the play well at all. Unfortunately the end is coming.
Gibbs: disappointing, seems to be getting too caught up in the contested stuff instead of getting on the outside in space where he can do some real damage.

 

[Murray2503]

Good
I couldn't watch the game

Was it the same as every single Hawthorn game in living memory?

Same but worse.

 

[thebirdman 24]

This is a fallacy. The night he went with Selwood, Selwood still won the battle comfortably.

I liked him getting stuck into the **** as much as anyone, but Duckwood was still very effective.

i think if we are to move forward we need to move past players like knight who dont win their position and cant break a game open

 

[Pea Nut]

Bad:

Milera. Less hype, more substance please. Dodges players well, but does it in a circle and so doesn’t end up anywhere much better than when he took possession. Also seems to have gone bruise free football style, which we clearly condone based on other selections - Contagious through the rest of the team.

The good thing about attracting several opposition players is the ability to release a team mate and then go. But he was handballing to a team mate who then handballs backwards like it's a handball drill and we're stuck again.

 

[ABAB]

It’s a game plan that relys on everything going right. And if it doesn’t then we look absolutely terrible.

I thought that's why we were practicing those short 15m kick preseason when under pressure to allow us to control the football when teams do that to us to give us time to setup instead of the dump kick down the line.

 

[Murray2503]

2018 was rubbish, both our trade and draft periods were rubbish and round 1 was awful. Notice a pattern.

Wait we have Carlton's first though which based on today's performance could be pick 6 or 7 plus pick 16 for pick 4 or 5. Great trade. Nailed it Burton.

 

[Scorpus]

Here's my full player review.

Sloane - Probably couldn't have done anything more. 36 touches, 11 clearances, 9 tackles, 4 inside 50s. With everyone else not pulling their weight, at least Sloane was in there getting stuff done. Seemed to cope with heavy attention very well. Probably BOG.

M. Crouch - Decent without being his best. Lacked composure with his disposal and relied too much on handballing, needs to get back to that short kicking he was so good at in his All Australian year. 17 contested touches from 40 is a bit low for the role he plays.

B. Crouch - The positive is seeing him play out an entire game, but he looked just a tad off his best. Lacked the explosiveness and clean ball use we've seen from him previously. I hope he can work into it more. Kicked 2 goals which was very good.

Laird - Thought he was terrible despite getting 29 touches. Burned the ball, tried to kick it to the moon, not effective as a defender. 6 turnovers. Contributed to our inability to get the ball cleanly from half back to half forward. Did some dumb stuff. Disappointing.

Atkins - One of the worst 31 disposal games I've ever seen. Terrible disposal, terrible composure, terrible decision making, zero pressure. 7 clangers, 9 turnovers. We probably would have done better had Atkins got the ball less, that's how bad he was. He also had 10 inside 50s, more than double of any other player for the Crows, which is no doubt why we had so many issues. Literally 1/6th of the time, it was Atkins kicking it inside 50. Also had 626 meters gained, which again is an issue because he was so bad yet we used him so often.

Milera - Did some nice things but also struggled at times. Thought he was below his best and again, didn't help us with our issues off half back. The positives are he had 26 touches so he found a lot of it, and managed 4 clearances.

Gibbs - Disgusting effort from a senior player. 16 touches is well below par, he looked lost out there, panicked, rushed every disposal. Finished with just over 60% DE. Seemed to play a bit off half back, but without doing much. Needs to lift massively.

Keath - Excellent. Much better than Hartigan. Can't say a bad word about his game really. Amazingly he only had 50% DE from 20 touches with 7 clangers. Not sure how that happened, he looked like the only player on the ground for us that could actually read the ball in the air.

Smith - Struggled. Looked like he was trying too hard. Disposal off, made some terrible errors in defence like that time he played on out of the goal square and nearly ran into trouble.

Kelly - I don't think he had a bad game, he's just an extremely limited player. He can rack up the ball in defence but he does nothing effective with it, he's too slow to play on smaller players and didn't seem to get in the right spots defensively. Played a lot on Gunston which I felt didn't work. I don't think he's a long term player for us but will no doubt play with Doedee out.

Jacobs - For all the blokes criticizing O'Brien for not doing enough around the ground, Jacobs was smashed around the ground today. McEvoy outmarked him 8 marks to 2, of which 5 were contested, kicking 2 goals. Jacobs only strength right now is his around the ground work because he's a merely average ruckman these days. Why does he ruck deep forward and clog it up in there with Jenkins? Has to be phased out this year.

Knight - I don't rate him. 20 pointless touches for only 129 meters gained playing mostly uncontested footy. Only 3 score involvements. I can't see a position where he plays his best football, he seems to struggle everywhere. I know he's supposed to be this hard, no bullshit player but he just doesn't do enough.

Lynch - I reckon he's our softest player, softer than Atkins. Once again he had massive attention from Hawthorn and he struggled. 103 meters gained for the match, 2 inside 50s and zero scores suggest he wasn't playing his role effectively. 20 touches massively overinflates his contribution, he was bad.

Jenkins - Invisible. Wasn't even playing on good defenders. 1 mark inside 50. No goals, although he did try and failed horribly. Looked confused out there, and was one of the main culprits of our struggles inside 50 because he just wasn't providing anything.

Talia - Meh game from him. Not the root cause of our problems, didn't do anything especially amazing. Played his role and nothing more.

Mackay - This game was typical Dmac. 19 touches at under 70% DE. One score involvement for the match. Like Atkins, he had a lot of meters gained, but that's actually a bad thing because he wasn't using the footy well. Exposed defensively as always. We can't use a panicking Atkins and a mediocre Mackay as our run and carry players and expect to win. Had 7 turnovers as well, some of them direct kicks to Hawthorn under no pressure (not that he was alone). Has no future in the side so get rid of him.

Betts - I felt he tried today and looked better than most of 2018 without getting a big reward. Feels the need to fly for huge mark-of-the-year pack marks because our forward structure is so ineffective and nothing is happening. With better support, eg. genuine crumbing opportunities I felt he could have kicked more.

Douglas - Genuinely awful. Why are we playing him as a deep forward? We have got a plethora of small-medium forward options on the list, so why are we playing a 32-year old midfielder in that position? He's not sharp enough to be playing there, he either plays as a mid/half-forward or preferably, he retires.

Walker - So it's not the injuries, it's just how he is these days. If there's one thing to say about Walker, is that he's been remarkably consistent since the 2017 Grand Final. He can't or doesn't lead, he can't take marks when he does lead, and he is way too easily muscled off the ball. If the opposition is double teaming him it should free up others but for us, that's not how it works. Opposition teams put multiple players on him knowing they can peel off at will after he fails to take a mark. His defensive pressure is awful. The only positive thing I can say about Tex these days is his field disposal is still pretty good and he has great vision. But I don't think we can carry him and Lynch in this role, leaving no one inside 50 who can properly lead and mark. Something has to give and I'm afraid it's the captain.

Jones - I like his intensity around the ground and I'd be disgusted if he was dropped. A lot to work with but didn't get a lot of the ball. Have to persist with him.

Murphy - Invisible and completely ineffective, both offensively and defensively. Can't remain in the team on the back of that effort.

From here I can only recommend a significant number of changes.

Out: Doedee (knee), Douglas (retired*), Jacobs (retired), Walker (omitted), Mackay (omitted), Murphy (omitted)
In: Hartigan, Greenwood, O'Brien, Fogarty, Seedsman, Gallucci

*he is also injured but he should retire because of it

Rocket up the Anus: Atkins, Laird, Gibbs, Jenkins, Lynch, Knight

B Laird - Keath - Hartigan
HB Milera - Talia - Smith
C Seedsman - Sloane - Gibbs
HF Lynch - Jenkins - Greenwood
F Betts - Fogarty - Jones
R O'Brien - M. Crouch - B. Crouch

I Kelly - Atkins - Knight - Gallucci

I feel that Keath would do a pretty good job as an interceptor and Hartigan isn't a bad key defender so he's next man up. Otten also considered but passed over due to speed. Toss up between Gallucci, Davis, Stengle and McHenry for the 22nd spot. I really like Gallucci and want to see more of him at AFL level, so he comes in. McHenry next up if Atkins or Knight stink it up again.

 

[Murray2503]

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

Hope he isn't there for the next 10 matches. Collingwood did the right thing and booted that bum.

 

[Jack is Back]

When you have extremely skilled footballers like Atkins and Milera missing from 20-30 metres that isn't coaching.

Sloane and Keath whilst being our 2 best IMO, were also guilty. That isn't coaching, that's just poor skill

I watched the first quarter again and it was filled with fumbles and turnovers by hand and foot by players under little pressure. This is not poor coaching or poor tactics.

Why did this happen? I have no idea, I watched all three trial games and our skills looked good. Brodie Smith dropping a chest mark, Bryce Gibbs kicking straight to a Hawk etc, etc. Hopefully it a one week thing but who knows what we will serve up next week.

 

[Murray2503]

Here's my full player review.

Sloane - Probably couldn't have done anything more. 36 touches, 11 clearances, 9 tackles, 4 inside 50s. With everyone else not pulling their weight, at least Sloane was in there getting stuff done. Seemed to cope with heavy attention very well. Probably BOG.

M. Crouch - Decent without being his best. Lacked composure with his disposal and relied too much on handballing, needs to get back to that short kicking he was so good at in his All Australian year. 17 contested touches from 40 is a bit low for the role he plays.

B. Crouch - The positive is seeing him play out an entire game, but he looked just a tad off his best. Lacked the explosiveness and clean ball use we've seen from him previously. I hope he can work into it more. Kicked 2 goals which was very good.

Laird - Thought he was terrible despite getting 29 touches. Burned the ball, tried to kick it to the moon, not effective as a defender. 6 turnovers. Contributed to our inability to get the ball cleanly from half back to half forward. Did some dumb stuff. Disappointing.

Atkins - One of the worst 31 disposal games I've ever seen. Terrible disposal, terrible composure, terrible decision making, zero pressure. 7 clangers, 9 turnovers. We probably would have done better had Atkins got the ball less, that's how bad he was. He also had 10 inside 50s, more than double of any other player for the Crows, which is no doubt why we had so many issues. Literally 1/6th of the time, it was Atkins kicking it inside 50. Also had 626 meters gained, which again is an issue because he was so bad yet we used him so often.

Milera - Did some nice things but also struggled at times. Thought he was below his best and again, didn't help us with our issues off half back. The positives are he had 26 touches so he found a lot of it, and managed 4 clearances.

Gibbs - Disgusting effort from a senior player. 16 touches is well below par, he looked lost out there, panicked, rushed every disposal. Finished with just over 60% DE. Seemed to play a bit off half back, but without doing much. Needs to lift massively.

Keath - Excellent. Much better than Hartigan. Can't say a bad word about his game really. Amazingly he only had 50% DE from 20 touches with 7 clangers. Not sure how that happened, he looked like the only player on the ground for us that could actually read the ball in the air.

Smith - Struggled. Looked like he was trying too hard. Disposal off, made some terrible errors in defence like that time he played on out of the goal square and nearly ran into trouble.

Kelly - I don't think he had a bad game, he's just an extremely limited player. He can rack up the ball in defence but he does nothing effective with it, he's too slow to play on smaller players and didn't seem to get in the right spots defensively. Played a lot on Gunston which I felt didn't work. I don't think he's a long term player for us but will no doubt play with Doedee out.

Jacobs - For all the blokes criticizing O'Brien for not doing enough around the ground, Jacobs was smashed around the ground today. McEvoy outmarked him 8 marks to 2, of which 5 were contested, kicking 2 goals. Jacobs only strength right now is his around the ground work because he's a merely average ruckman these days. Why does he ruck deep forward and clog it up in there with Jenkins? Has to be phased out this year.

Knight - I don't rate him. 20 pointless touches for only 129 meters gained playing mostly uncontested footy. Only 3 score involvements. I can't see a position where he plays his best football, he seems to struggle everywhere. I know he's supposed to be this hard, no bullshit player but he just doesn't do enough.

Lynch - I reckon he's our softest player, softer than Atkins. Once again he had massive attention from Hawthorn and he struggled. 103 meters gained for the match, 2 inside 50s and zero scores suggest he wasn't playing his role effectively. 20 touches massively overinflates his contribution, he was bad.

Jenkins - Invisible. Wasn't even playing on good defenders. 1 mark inside 50. No goals, although he did try and failed horribly. Looked confused out there, and was one of the main culprits of our struggles inside 50 because he just wasn't providing anything.

Talia - Meh game from him. Not the root cause of our problems, didn't do anything especially amazing. Played his role and nothing more.

Mackay - This game was typical Dmac. 19 touches at under 70% DE. One score involvement for the match. Like Atkins, he had a lot of meters gained, but that's actually a bad thing because he wasn't using the footy well. Exposed defensively as always. We can't use a panicking Atkins and a mediocre Mackay as our run and carry players and expect to win. Had 7 turnovers as well, some of them direct kicks to Hawthorn under no pressure (not that he was alone). Has no future in the side so get rid of him.

Betts - I felt he tried today and looked better than most of 2018 without getting a big reward. Feels the need to fly for huge mark-of-the-year pack marks because our forward structure is so ineffective and nothing is happening. With better support, eg. genuine crumbing opportunities I felt he could have kicked more.

Douglas - Genuinely awful. Why are we playing him as a deep forward? We have got a plethora of small-medium forward options on the list, so why are we playing a 32-year old midfielder in that position? He's not sharp enough to be playing there, he either plays as a mid/half-forward or preferably, he retires.

Walker - So it's not the injuries, it's just how he is these days. If there's one thing to say about Walker, is that he's been remarkably consistent since the 2017 Grand Final. He can't or doesn't lead, he can't take marks when he does lead, and he is way too easily muscled off the ball. If the opposition is double teaming him it should free up others but for us, that's not how it works. His defensive pressure is awful. The only positive thing I can say about Tex these days is his field disposal is still pretty good and he has great vision. But I don't think we can carry him and Lynch in this role, leaving no one inside 50 who can properly lead and mark. Something has to give and I'm afraid it's the captain.

Jones - I like his intensity around the ground and I'd be disgusted if he was dropped. A lot to work with but didn't get a lot of the ball. Have to persist with him.

Murphy - Invisible and completely ineffective, both offensively and defensively. Can't remain in the team on the back of that effort.

From here I can only recommend a significant number of changes.

Out: Doedee (knee), Douglas (retired*), Jacobs (retired), Walker (omitted), Mackay (omitted), Murphy (omitted)
In: Hartigan, Greenwood, O'Brien, Fogarty, Seedsman, Gallucci

*he is also injured but he should retire because of it

Rocket up the Anus: Atkins, Laird, Gibbs, Jenkins, Lynch, Knight

B Laird - Keath - Hartigan
HB Milera - Talia - Smith
C Seedsman - Sloane - Gibbs
HF Lynch - Jenkins - Greenwood
F Betts - Fogarty - Jones
R O'Brien - M. Crouch - B. Crouch

I Kelly - Atkins - Knight - Gallucci

I feel that Keath would do a pretty good job as an interceptor and Hartigan isn't a bad key defender so he's next man up. Otten also considered but passed over due to speed. Toss up between Gallucci, Davis, Stengle and McHenry for the 22nd spot. I really like Gallucci and want to see more of him at AFL level, so he comes in. McHenry next up if Atkins or Knight stink it up again.

Good analysis. If only the coaches came to the same conclusion. They won't and back'em in Don will back'em in until he is no longer coach sadly. Would give Davis a shot up forward too. Reckon Greenwood, Gallucci and Davis will transform our forward line. Today was diabolical and can't be repeated. Would also like to see Himmelberg given a shot when fit along with McAdam.

 

[arsene wenger1]

I thought that's why we were practicing those short 15m kick preseason when under pressure to allow us to control the football when teams do that to us to give us time to setup instead of the dump kick down the line.

Yea possibly but I don’t think they tried plan b today. And if they did then it didn’t look too much different than plan A

 

[Coopers]

Correct, the forwards don't play in front as our game style isn't built around it, it's based around players running towards goal with precision and fast football movement and if the forwards get a few metre head start, it's a certain goal. But if we dump kick down the line due to frontal pressure, the opposition defenders get easy intercept marks and we get exposed.

Maybe our forwards shouldn't be ******* idiots then and know the difference between a kick to a contest and an opportunity to kick over the back?

 

[CrowBloke]

Keath was not weak, he was great in defence. You need to re-view the game.

Well,
I missed it then.
I just don't think I could watch the whole horror-show again, but based on the flak I've received I think you (and the others) are right.

 

[ABAB]

Maybe our forwards shouldn't be ******* idiots then and know the difference between a kick to a contest and an opportunity to kick over the back?

That's the system they are instructed to play, play from behind.

 

[Drummond]

Been saying it for a while and looks like I still will, I can’t stand Bryce Gibbs. Collecting a pay check, nothing more. Gutless downhill skier.

 

[Weez]

Just put it down to a dirty day and move on to next week... When you are on you will still be one of the best sides in the comp.

Betts, Lynch & Jenkins will still cause a lot of headaches, Clarkson coached amazingly today not much you can do.

 

[GreyCrow]

Our forwards are simply incapable of leading up at the footy as a part of a slow play, or set up properly ahead of a stoppage for the scrambled kick forward.

I sometimes worry forwards , or natural forwards, and I consider Tex one of those , are drilled so much into patterns and positioning that they lose that instinct to get the ball.

Its an easy system to implement and it works for a reason but the Triangle Offense is the simplest one to utilise (imo) . ie all 3 forwards place themselves such that they lead into 3 different spots to put space and pressure on each corresponding backman. Your small forwards are instructed not to fly. They are there to crumb the ball.

One of the things I noticed with Richmond and again Hawthorn ( and toot toot I think I mentioned it last year) but I see more and more both teams only take the marking option when certain to mark , otherwise they aim to spoil and bring it to the ground for the smalls. Yet we have Tex, JJ AND Eddie all flying together and nobody down.

/oldmanrant

 

[mattymac]

That is a fair assessment, from assistant coaches to Board members to players.

Now the last people you want to be moving on ( for moving sake ) is the players. But by refreshing the Board and the assistant (and head) coaches you dont have alliances

Sam Jacobs openly talks about his strong friendship with Rob Chapman !!

Same reason we undersold Dangerfield because of his close relationship with Noble. Same reason we gave Thommo another contract when he couldn't run. Same reason Campo is our head assistant coach despite no one ever trying to poach him over a decade. Same reason Chapman still runs the club after overseeing 2 seasons of lost draft picks that set us back immeasurably. Imagine 2017 GF with four 1st and 2nd round picks who had been developed for 4 or 5 years. Same reason Burton is still at the club after destroying our premiership window in 2018.

The AFC is a nice paddock to feed in.

 

[mattymac]

ahh the afc mentality. many were worse so lets give everyone a free ride to respond (which never happens).

Piss off. You can't drop everyone and Knight was well down the list of this deserving dropped. Start with Atkins, Walker, Jenkins, Jacobs, Gibbs, McKay

 

[Scorpus]

Just check out some of these inside 50s. Jesus Christ.

In this one we have Jenkins kicking in. Highlighted in blue we have three players who cannot impact the game whatsoever due to their position. Two of them aren't even inside 50, and the other (I believe Walker) is boundary side in the pocket. And then we also have the Hawks players covering the dangerous paddock of space on the left side.

So Jenkins has no option but to kick into the space on the right side. He makes the right decision. But who do we have leading into that space? ******* Betts and Murphy. Why are they our deep inside options running into space with literally no tall player anywhere near them? The space gets closed down and they get monstered in the air.

 

[dylan123]

Good:
- Umpiring must have been decent as they feel blameless.
- Keath was best on, loved how he was backing himself to mark the ball, was really nice to see.

The rest:
- The movement forward of the centre was atrocious. Players hitting up Hawthorn defenders like they're our forwards, both players and coaches deserve a big wack for that, maybe coaches more so as nothing changed. Even with all of that, we had our chances in the 4th but couldn't convert which isn't anything new for Adelaide.

- Milera as good as he moves with the ball and can be a good kick, it almost counts for nothing if he fumbles the ball 3 times to collect it every second possession. Really needs to get cleaner hands when collecting it and the rest of his game will look so much better. If he does then he's just going to hover.

- Smith needs to stick tackles.

- Tex was a non-factor. I want to say he needs to go back to FF and focus on his own game, just leading and taking it on the run but I feel like it's also not fair on him. No forward could have done anything with our entry into the 50 today, not once did we really look like kicking it to the advantage of our forward, let alone one on the lead.

- Doedee is s**t news, hopefully it's Morris like and he can just heal for a few months and return rather then being set back a full year.

My god that was a frustrating game to watch, we just couldn't do s**t. Skills and brains were missing.

 

[mattymac]

and yet he offers so little in terms of any significant impact on the game. yes he plays okay when we had a huge run on 3 years ago but he makes no impact now.

Selwood is his bitch. Look Knight's not the answer, but he's also not the problem.

 

[mattymac]

When you have extremely skilled footballers like Atkins and Milera missing from 20-30 metres that isn't coaching.

Sloane and Keath whilst being our 2 best IMO, were also guilty. That isn't coaching, that's just poor skill

Its panic. Says to me that our drills are unrealistic. But who would know, since no living soul has been allowed to see our drills for years

 

[mattymac]

Bad:

Milera. Less hype, more substance please. Dodges players well, but does it in a circle and so doesn’t end up anywhere much better than when he took possession. Also seems to have gone bruise free football style, which we clearly condone based on other selections - Contagious through the rest of the team.

How you can pick out Milera from that debacle is a pretty special talent

 

[GreyCrow]

Its panic. Says to me that our drills are unrealistic. But who would know, since no living soul has been allowed to see our drills for years

I bagged the handball from FB before and my brother and I talked about it. He said '' yeah its easy at training and looks a million bucks but wheres the real pressure''

I had to agree