Game Day Crows vs Saints, Rnd 9, Happy Mother's Day mothers

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

4-4 and it feels as though this is the fork in the road stage of the season for our team.

Win... and we could finish 8th or 9th
Lose... and we could finish 10th or 11th

It's all on the line here.

Great news that the club gets their annual mother's day lunchtime clash back. Today's game was compensation for losing our Easter Sunday lunchtime fixture.

 

[Peter Doherty]

Saints have had the least amount of points kicked against them this year, averaging giving up just 59.25.

We can't afford to be inaccurate today.

I'd love to be saying after the game, 'our forwardline was the difference'.

 

[Stephen2]

Lovely timeslot for me maybe a little late for AmericanCrow who I think is a couple hours later than me.

I'd like to see:
- Walker surprise out for Gollant
- intelligent use of the sub
- increased forward sharing, as we did against Geel
- one of our matchwinners to win us the match

My bet for matchwinner is Rankine, who gets busy after we revert to bombing in to 50 due to Saints game plan and pressure

 

[pjcrows]

When was the last time we had a genuine "must win" game? I mean, in the last four years there was always games we wanted to win and games against scrubbers that we should win. But this feels like a pivotal game in this squad's trajectory, if we're talking about playing a final.

How will we go with a must win game?

 

[1970crow]

Saints have had the least amount of points kicked against them this year, averaging giving up just 59.25.

We can't afford to be inaccurate today.

I'd love to be saying after the game, 'our forwardline was the difference'.

This a game where we must throw caution to the wind and return to the overlap run like we did early. Waiting for risk free options or hacking from stoppages will be playing straight into their hands.

 

[AmericanCrow]

Lovely timeslot for me maybe a little late for AmericanCrow who I think is a couple hours later than me.

I'd like to see:
- Walker surprise out for Gollant
- intelligent use of the sub
- increased forward sharing, as we did against Geel
- one of our matchwinners to win us the match

My bet for matchwinner is Rankine, who gets busy after we revert to bombing in to 50 due to Saints game plan and pressure

Nope, an 8:10pm time-slot on a Saturday evening is just about perfecto

Hopefully the lads show up

 

[CrowToon]

Win this and we take spirit into Ballarat next week. Wins there set us up for a slightly softer patch of games and a real chance to attack a finals spot.

Lose today and next week and we may as well start window shopping the picks in the 5-8 range of the draft.

 

[jenny61_99]

Happy Mothers day to my fellow mums (and those dads that do both roles).

Looking forward to this…my last game on Aussie soil for a while. Hope I can get access while in Europe. Go you Crows!

 

[betterthanu]

Happy Mothers day to my fellow mums (and those dads that do both roles).

Looking forward to this…my last game on Aussie soil for a while. Hope I can get access while in Europe. Go you Crows!

The international AFL app worked better for me 6 years ago than Kayo works here in Aus in 2023

 

[Danger in Texas]

Win this and we take spirit into Ballarat next week. Wins there set us up for a slightly softer patch of games and a real chance to attack a finals spot.

Lose today and next week and we may as well start window shopping the picks in the 5-8 range of the draft.

Yep, feels like a do-or-die game. IMO we need to win two of the next three to be in with a real chance for finals, and this feels like the most winnable out of all of them

Need to not kick the ball to Wilkie every time like we did with Ratugolea last week

 

[George Kramer]

Saints have had the least amount of points kicked against them this year, averaging giving up just 59.25.

We can't afford to be inaccurate today.

I'd love to be saying after the game, 'our forwardline was the difference'.

As opposed to losing the clearances which worries me. We need to win or go close to breaking even to give the forwards a chance.

 

[moogerfooger]

Always worry about these early games particularly with a smaller than average crowd. The start will be telling.

 

[Danger in Texas]

As opposed to losing the clearances which worries me. We need to win or go close to breaking even to give the forwards a chance.

By pure numbers per game, we are pretty even as centre clearance teams, and just better at stoppage clearances

They have more guys that consistently impact at the coalface though in Crouch/Steele/Ross/Marshall, all average four a game or more. Only Laird does for us (Dawson just misses out, if you count his games since being moved into the middle)

Laird and Dawson need to have blinders

 

[inkabella]

Happy Mothers day to my fellow mums (and those dads that do both roles).

Looking forward to this…my last game on Aussie soil for a while. Hope I can get access while in Europe. Go you Crows!

Watch AFL - it's how I get access to all of the games. From memory it's around $40 a month

 

[FullyBigKPro]

I want to see TT, Rankine and Rachele all playing mainly forward and being threatening.

They have been sucked up the ground too much last few weeks.

 

[dogs105]

In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrase "Second Sunday in May, Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, Founder", and created the Mother's Day International Association.[26] She specifically noted that "Mother's" should "be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."[27] This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his 1914 presidential proclamation, by the U.S. Congress in relevant bills,[28][29] and by various U.S. presidents in their proclamations concerning Mother's Day.[30]

 

[CrowBloke]

I'd like to see:
- Walker surprise out for Gollant
- intelligent use of the sub
- increased forward sharing, as we did against Geel
- one of our matchwinners to win us the match

My bet for matchwinner is Rankine, who gets busy after we revert to bombing in to 50 due to Saints game plan and pressure

Any Nicks' surprise would be a surprise; he's not the surprise-type (Team selection tells us that, among other things).
+

Nope, an 8:10pm time-slot on a Saturday evening is just about perfecto

Hopefully the lads show up

Fwiw, in the SANFL loss to undefeated Sturt yesterday,
Crouch had "... a game-high 31 disposals, seven tackles and 10 clearances".
Worrell "... recorded 23 disposals, nine marks and five rebound-50s".
Hately laid 10 tackles.

I hope today's game is worth watching for you blokes .
0900 here, clear/fine and dry (Autumn-perfect); should be about 20C at game-time.
It's going to be interesting to see how we score against the Saints' 16-man defence .

 

[dogs105]

Crows by 81 points

 

[CrowBloke]

When was the last time we had a genuine "must win" game?

I thought the Collingwood game at home 2 weeks ago was must-win, when the Crows contrived to kick themselves to that 1-point loss .
A few posters think today will be season-making, but I think no more than the last 2 weeks, today and next week.

The Crows must-win @ home vs. anybody.

 

[CrowBloke]

Happy Mothers day to my fellow mums (and those dads that do both roles).

Looking forward to this…my last game on Aussie soil for a while. Hope I can get access while in Europe. Go you Crows!

Bon voyage; travel safe!
Great time of year to go. Visiting rellies?

 

[Rotayjay]

I am completely convinced that it's the second, not the first, Sunday in May because it gives all the dads and husbands time to say 'oh s**t, it's May, so it's Mother's Day next week' and organise something. Father's Day is the first in September because mums and wives are seen as more organised.

 

[Hell Boy6669]

When was the last time we had a genuine "must win" game? I mean, in the last four years there was always games we wanted to win and games against scrubbers that we should win. But this feels like a pivotal game in this squad's trajectory, if we're talking about playing a final.

How will we go with a must win game?

IMO the showdown was a genuine must win game. Go 0-3 and the season was gone/confidence shot.

Think we can do it today but wouldn't be surprised to see a frustrating loss

 

[CrowBloke]

Saints have had the least amount of points kicked against them this year, averaging giving up just 59.25.

but I love the optimism of this:

Crows by 81 points

Or was the "81" a typo, dogs105 ??

 

[dogs105]

but I love the optimism of this:

Or was the "81" a typo, dogs105 ??

Oh, sorry. Thank you.

Crows by 91 points.

 

[1970crow]

As opposed to losing the clearances which worries me. We need to win or go close to breaking even to give the forwards a chance.

i happened across a good stats site today. Posted in SANFL thread, we're 6th for hitouts, 9th for hitouts to advantage and equal ladt with Eagles for clearances. Our elite mid Laird is about 50th mid in the league for AFL player ratings which factors in quality and degree of difficulty. The bloke that our coaches liked seeing dragged to a back pocket is 6th. We have very serious midfield and coaching problems. VB's solution, get Sloane back in there full time and keep the continuity credits going.