Preview Changes v Adelaide Crows (R2)

[Mojorisin]

Time on Ground for Adelaide's 3 KPFs were:

• Thilthorpe - 89%, which also included a small amount of centre bounce attendances
• Walker - 80%
• Fogarty - 76%
• Total - 245%

Compared to our 3 KPDs which were:

• Lobb - 94%
• Buku - 94%
• JOD - 82%
• Total - 270%

So there will most likely be a lot of game time where they only have the two talls up front and we have one of our defenders playing more of an intercept role. The structure and matchups when they're all on the ground will be very interesting though and might have English pushing behind the ball a bit more.

Our three tall defenders played a fair bit more game time in R0
Lobb 100%
Khamis 93%
JOD 89%
Total 282%

Time on ground for our KPF's for both rounds
R0
Naughton 81%
Darcy 81%
Croft 43% (8% less than Jones although both were injured)
Total 205%

R1
Naughton 81%
Darcy 77%
Lewis 50% (18% less than Baker's second least TOG)
Total 208%

Pretty clear early our plan is to use our third tall forward/second ruck as the pseudo sub.

 

[fargy]

Just having a look at the fixture because the lid is starting to get eager to go for a spin. Playing seven out of nine of last year’s top ten in the first eight weeks sure is something. This includes playing two teams which are expected to spike (Swans & Dockers, who we play twice) as well as last year’s grand finalists and minor premiers. It also doesn’t include the Pies which is the team most expect to slide a bit, that’s probably offset by not playing the Suns until late in the year. Getting to 5-3 or above would be a great result.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

R0
Naughton 81%
Darcy 81%
Croft 43% (8% less than Jones although both were injured)
Total 205%

Croft was 79% in the 1st half of the Brisbane game before his injury.

Davidson played slightly more minutes in 2nd half, and then more than Lewis, in the second game, to cover for that sort of 3rd tall role (though he was still playing wing too).

Pretty clear early our plan is to use our third tall forward/second ruck as the pseudo sub.

I'm not so sure this is true with how Croft was properly being used 1st half of 1st game. I think we just adjusted on the fly to adjust for injuries and that weak depth would be coming in for injured players.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Just having a look at the fixture because the lid is starting to get eager to go for a spin. Playing seven out of nine of last year’s top ten in the first eight weeks sure is something. This includes playing two teams which are expected to spike (Swans & Dockers, who we play twice) as well as last year’s grand finalists and minor premiers. It also doesn’t include the Pies which is the team most expect to slide a bit, that’s probably offset by not playing the Suns until late in the year. Getting to 5-3 or above would be a great result.

Being able to play Swans twice before Gulden comes out is a bonus, though Swans play North, Essendon and Port for their last 3 games so it's not as if another finals-bound team might be forced to play him on his return.

 

[Mojorisin]

I'm not so sure this is true with how Croft was properly being used 1st half of 1st game. I think we just adjusted on the fly to adjust for injuries and that weak depth would be coming in for injured players.

Well I guess the jury is still out then! I thought Davidson also picked up more time with the Jones injury although that may have been more against GWS where he spent more time on the wing.

Hopefully a fully fit Croft clears up any confusion over the next few weeks.

 

[bresker]

In his first couple of games in 2025 , Croft averaged 81% TOG . Those are unicorn numbers for a 200cm in his first games, and partly why he's such an exciting prospect .

 

[doggiesin08]

Our three tall defenders played a fair bit more game time in R0
Lobb 100%
Khamis 93%
JOD 89%
Total 282%

Time on ground for our KPF's for both rounds
R0
Naughton 81%
Darcy 81%
Croft 43% (8% less than Jones although both were injured)
Total 205%

R1
Naughton 81%
Darcy 77%
Lewis 50% (18% less than Baker's second least TOG)
Total 208%

Pretty clear early our plan is to use our third tall forward/second ruck as the pseudo sub.

I was less drawing a comparison to our own forwards, but rather our KPDs to their KPFs, and that this allows us to still use one of our 3 primarily as an interceptor rather than 1-1 accountable for large parts of the game.

With out own forwards the strategy on the weekend seemed to be that Tim would come off around the 12 minute mark (around same time as Naughton) of each quarter for a spell and Lewis would come on. Darcy would shift up into the centre bounce but then immediately swap with Lewis to the around-the-ground rucking. I don't think Lewis actually spent any time as a 3rd tall up forward, but will be interested to see how that differs to Croft over a full game.

 

[Mojorisin]

In his first couple of games in 2025 , Croft averaged 81% TOG . Those are unicorn numbers for a 200cm in his first two games, and partly why he's such an exciting prospect .

I don't understand why we gave Davidson so few minutes round 0 and had him as sub last year for similar reasons. Obviously he isnt as tall as croft or have the same ceiling but tall guys who can run all day should be used to work down the opposition. Imagine having to run up and down with Croft for 20 minutes before shifting over to Naughton.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I think there's a very reasonable chance that Adelaide bring in O'Brien to work with McAndrew and give themselves ruck (and this tall forward) flexibility. Putting an inexperienced ruck duo - McAndrew is 26 but was still only playing his 3rd AFL game - and Murray, although also 22 years old was who was on debut - could be suicide against English, Darcy and even Croft.

 

[bobs head soup]

Our three tall defenders played a fair bit more game time in R0
Lobb 100%
Khamis 93%
JOD 89%
Total 282%

Time on ground for our KPF's for both rounds
R0
Naughton 81%
Darcy 81%
Croft 43% (8% less than Jones although both were injured)
Total 205%

R1
Naughton 81%
Darcy 77%
Lewis 50% (18% less than Baker's second least TOG)
Total 208%

Pretty clear early our plan is to use our third tall forward/second ruck as the pseudo sub.

We seem to use the 2nd ruck to give English a chop out earlier in the game, in order for him to maximise his athletic advantage over most opponents late in the game. He is dominating second halves.