Well, as I've been saying, I think the lack of experience we've had has been the biggest factor in our so called under performance so far.
As the pic below shows we've been far more like 2023 and 2024 (around or just below 90 games) in terms of experience than 2025. Yes we were inexperienced early in 2025 but we also got a run against weaker teams and had a lot more continuity that year. Given our inexperience and the lack of continuity, then one could say we've performed ok, good even in 2026. This is perhaps what Olsen and Kelly are referring to.
I'll also add that, once again, that our average games figure is heavily distorted by our two most experienced players in Tex and Laird who bring the figure up 10 games each. So we're really just a 70 games team running around most weeks (Look at round 3 for 2026 when tex and laird both weren't playing for an example).
Quick trivia challenge. Who do you think are the 5 next-most-experienced crow players behind Tex and Laird? I was able to get 3 out of the 5. Many of you would probably consider most of the next 5 pretty lowly for various reasons (that I wouldn't necessarily agree with) and so the actual good ones after tex and laird are mostly either around or below 100 games (hence why I say it is a 70game average team running around) (this is also why I use our count of players under 100 games as a better indicator of our experience level - and in that regard we've, at times, been the second least experienced team in the comp this year). Our performances for a 70 game team are nothing short of phenomenal.
I think there's a lot of upside people don't realise from the way things have panned out this year. We've got games into depth players and a lot of them have been standing up (I'm thinking Taylor or Borlase here) or even if not standing up, could play a role to level adequate enough to allow the team to win against finalists (I'm thinking Bond or Toby Murray here). Other players, Pedlar is a good example, though he gets panned on here, has really stepped up and kept us in games by himself at times. Having someone like him, or Rachele, or Milera, or Cook, or McAndrew, or Toby Murray adding themselves to our group of players that can and have carried the team for parts of a game is a real amount of progress we should be happy with. We've also, probably partly intentionally probably partly out of our control have really shared the load around amongst our group. Much moreso than last year where we seemed to crash in performance at the end of the year. I don't think that will be as likely this year.
The big question is can we get the injuries and weird events to go away and stay away so we can get a strong team out on the park in the second half of the year and can our strong team players get some continuity together (and if they do can we beat the good teams)?
The other thing I think has affected us a lot, that I don't see many mid season reviewers mentioning, is the rule changes. The ruck rule change might as well have been called the anti-Reilly-O'brien rule. So what was a strength of ours was turned on its head and we now have one of the least experienced ruckmen doing a job for us (doing very well I'll say but he's still only several games in and has a lot of improving to do). Hopefully with the tricks he's learnt in the first half of the year he can come out and help us go much better in the second half.
Anyway, I'm much more positive about our results this season than a lot of people on here and I think that a lot of other clubs will be looking over their shoulder hoping we fall right out and go even below tenth because if we get into the finals and are fielding even close to our best side at that time we have the capability to thump even the best sides.
As the pic below shows we've been far more like 2023 and 2024 (around or just below 90 games) in terms of experience than 2025. Yes we were inexperienced early in 2025 but we also got a run against weaker teams and had a lot more continuity that year. Given our inexperience and the lack of continuity, then one could say we've performed ok, good even in 2026. This is perhaps what Olsen and Kelly are referring to.
I'll also add that, once again, that our average games figure is heavily distorted by our two most experienced players in Tex and Laird who bring the figure up 10 games each. So we're really just a 70 games team running around most weeks (Look at round 3 for 2026 when tex and laird both weren't playing for an example).
Quick trivia challenge. Who do you think are the 5 next-most-experienced crow players behind Tex and Laird? I was able to get 3 out of the 5. Many of you would probably consider most of the next 5 pretty lowly for various reasons (that I wouldn't necessarily agree with) and so the actual good ones after tex and laird are mostly either around or below 100 games (hence why I say it is a 70game average team running around) (this is also why I use our count of players under 100 games as a better indicator of our experience level - and in that regard we've, at times, been the second least experienced team in the comp this year). Our performances for a 70 game team are nothing short of phenomenal.
I think there's a lot of upside people don't realise from the way things have panned out this year. We've got games into depth players and a lot of them have been standing up (I'm thinking Taylor or Borlase here) or even if not standing up, could play a role to level adequate enough to allow the team to win against finalists (I'm thinking Bond or Toby Murray here). Other players, Pedlar is a good example, though he gets panned on here, has really stepped up and kept us in games by himself at times. Having someone like him, or Rachele, or Milera, or Cook, or McAndrew, or Toby Murray adding themselves to our group of players that can and have carried the team for parts of a game is a real amount of progress we should be happy with. We've also, probably partly intentionally probably partly out of our control have really shared the load around amongst our group. Much moreso than last year where we seemed to crash in performance at the end of the year. I don't think that will be as likely this year.
The big question is can we get the injuries and weird events to go away and stay away so we can get a strong team out on the park in the second half of the year and can our strong team players get some continuity together (and if they do can we beat the good teams)?
The other thing I think has affected us a lot, that I don't see many mid season reviewers mentioning, is the rule changes. The ruck rule change might as well have been called the anti-Reilly-O'brien rule. So what was a strength of ours was turned on its head and we now have one of the least experienced ruckmen doing a job for us (doing very well I'll say but he's still only several games in and has a lot of improving to do). Hopefully with the tricks he's learnt in the first half of the year he can come out and help us go much better in the second half.
Anyway, I'm much more positive about our results this season than a lot of people on here and I think that a lot of other clubs will be looking over their shoulder hoping we fall right out and go even below tenth because if we get into the finals and are fielding even close to our best side at that time we have the capability to thump even the best sides.
