Opinion Don Pyke general discussion

Remove this Banner Ad

Maybe as a general commentary on the above by kulak and at the AFC. Its a very perceptive comment this idea that we play not to win , but to not lose.

kulak said:
What I do care about is demolishing the culture expects to lose. When things don't go to plan we withdraw into our shells. Don't make a mistake. Make sure that if (when?) it all goes wrong, at least it wasn't my fault.

Lost to Hawthorn? We played well. Hawthorn were just too good in the last 5 minutes. It wasn't my fault.

Lost to Western Bulldogs? The umpires did us in. At least our players kept persisting. It wasn't my fault.

Lost to Geelong? They were just too good for us. Gee Dangerfield is a nice player. At least our players kept persisting. It wasn't my fault.

Picture the meltdown if we lose to Gold Coast. I can smell a 'sack the coach' thread already.

I would not care about the VB selection at all if we had been fighting through difficult situations this year. But we haven't. We have been curled into the foetal position, just waiting for our opponents to beat us.

Read in that context, the VB selection stinks of fear. It says the AFC is not expecting a victory. It says the AFC is fearing a loss.
Click to expand...

Having a chat with my brother and after faffing about , we talked about Melbournes tackling pressure and I made the point ' Melbourne were prepared to lose the ball to win the tackle' ie they gang-tackled , they gave away frees, they left the (Adelaide) spare man free , what they did do was make sure the person with the ball knew they were being tackled. This then creates the manic pressure to get rid of the ball without looking even when they have more time than they think.

Only a small part of the game but I wonder if we ever have a mindset of ' what have we got to lose'
 
Had doubts on pyke last year and they have been confounded this year. Walsh was our next premiership coach imo. Hope the club is on the lookout for a Clarkson or Roos. Both would be ideal for our culture.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

FantasticShirt said:
Don Pyke's plan B and ability to shift players around to counter opposition coaching has been demonstrated in previous weeks if you'd watch any crows games.

Go watch the differences between Q1 against Richmond and Q2.
Click to expand...

Can you identify the moves that were made? They weren't obvious from the TV coverage.
 
Sometimes I like to imagine I am a coach :cool:
(Sometimes I like to imagine a lot of things, but that'd be OT :$ )

And I think about what I might say or do in a situation like the Crows right now.
- Like, walking on hot coals.

This week, I'm thinking - review meeting with all the players. During the meeting, some people come in at the back and quietly bring in some props. At the end of the meeting, the players file out. And they're required to each stand in front of a mirror for 10 seconds. And look. Hard.
 
kulak said:
...

What I do care about is demolishing the culture expects to lose. When things don't go to plan we withdraw into our shells. Don't make a mistake. Make sure that if (when?) it all goes wrong, at least it wasn't my fault.

Lost to Hawthorn? We played well. Hawthorn were just too good in the last 5 minutes. It wasn't my fault.

Lost to Western Bulldogs? The umpires did us in. At least our players kept persisting. It wasn't my fault.

Lost to Geelong? They were just too good for us. Gee Dangerfield is a nice player. At least our players kept persisting. It wasn't my fault.

Picture the meltdown if we lose to Gold Coast. I can smell a 'sack the coach' thread already.

I would not care about the VB selection at all if we had been fighting through difficult situations this year. But we haven't. We have been curled into the foetal position, just waiting for our opponents to beat us.

Read in that context, the VB selection stinks of fear. It says the AFC is not expecting a victory. It says the AFC is fearing a loss.
Click to expand...
I think there's a bit of that, in a way, but in another completely different way, we don't have that fear of losing.

In that I mean when we are getting beat, we don't change our focus to stopping the other team beating us.

We had that a bit last year, not now.

What do I mean? Well I'm glad you asked.

No team should let their opposition get a 9 goal run, and certainly not 2 games in a row. When the other side kicks 3 in a row, there should be a set play. For the time being, we suck the life out of the game. Kick down the line. Create a stoppage. Mark and kick back and forth.

Do anything to stop momentum. Hell, even employ the Port Adelaide 'let's start a pissweak melee' tactic in, just to stop the other teams momentum.

We seem to have reverted to Kern Stinkley thinking. When the chips are down, do what we're currently doing, just faster and braver (read: more stupider).

Case in point in the early 3rd quarter a couple stupid kicks into the corridor created turnovers and Melbourne scored.

We get ourselves a nice 50m penalty, then Jacobs spuds away a high tackle, reverse, score.

Play conservative, low risk, boring nullifying stuff. When you don't have momentum, you aren't going to hit the pinpoint kicks into the corridor. You aren't going to sell some candy. So don't attempt it. Kick, chest mark, yawn.
 
Murray2503 said:
Had doubts on pyke last year and they have been confounded this year. Walsh was our next premiership coach imo. Hope the club is on the lookout for a Clarkson or Roos. Both would be ideal for our culture.
Click to expand...

We desperately need a coach who can teach our players a more unsociable style of footy. I'm sick of watching choir boys.

Pyke seems to have all the elements of a great coach but we're really lacking in hardness and grit. Unfortunately he's turning out to be Neil Craig mk.2 which is what I feared when he first came to the club.
 
Coopers said:
Tex doesn't give away enough 50m penalties for you?
Click to expand...

There's unsociable and then there's dumb. Tex was only one of those things.

He wasn't being tough out there, he was being a petulant child at things not going his way. It was a ******* disgraceful performance from a captain.
 
Mr_Moogle said:
Pyke seems to have all the elements of a great coach but we're really lacking in hardness and grit. Unfortunately he's turning out to be Neil Craig mk.2 which is what I feared when he first came to the club.
Click to expand...
Except in Neil Craigs first game he let the players have their way and watched as Brisbane flogged us by 140+ , then after the match told the players ' we do it my way from now on'

Took him 1 game to lay down the law and for the players to fall into line. I haven't seen that from Pyke.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

GreyCrow said:
Except in Neil Craigs first game he let the players have their way and watched as Brisbane flogged us by 140+ , then after the match told the players ' we do it my way from now on'

Took him 1 game to lay down the law and for the players to fall into line. I haven't seen that from Pyke.
Click to expand...
Pyke doesn't strike me as the "lay down law" type. He's a chess player, a level headed thinker who works from his head and not his emotions (hence why he's stone faced no matter how a game is going). Whether you want that in your head coach, or if that's better set for a head assistant I dunno, but I think players might find it disingenuous if he were to start trying to play hard ass on the players.

Assistants definitely need to be, but Campo is best mates with half the team it looks, so again, that's not gonna happen.
 
MRB37 said:
Pyke doesn't strike me as the "lay down law" type. He's a chess player, a level headed thinker who works from his head and not his emotions (hence why he's stone faced no matter how a game is going). Whether you want that in your head coach, or if that's better set for a head assistant I dunno, but I think players might find it disingenuous if he were to start trying to play hard ass on the players.

Assistants definitely need to be, but Campo is best mates with half the team it looks, so again, that's not gonna happen.
Click to expand...
And that's what I as trying to point out. Like you I'm not sure he has it in him.

That's looking from the outside of course :)
 
arrowman said:
This week, I'm thinking - review meeting with all the players. During the meeting, some people come in at the back and quietly bring in some props. At the end of the meeting, the players file out. And they're required to each stand in front of a mirror for 10 seconds. And look. Hard.
Click to expand...


Have you not seen Rory Atkins hair do? They are all feeling pretty good about themselves I reckon.. and That's the problem. They don't get it. AFC don't get it. They have never got it.

If they did get it you wouldn't see performances like we have the last 2 weeks just because we were TALKED about as premiership favourites in the media.

Embarrassing and should be a stain on the club. But I STILL doubt they get it.
 
mick500 said:
Have you not seen Rory Atkins hair do? They are all feeling pretty good about themselves I reckon.. and That's the problem. They don't get it. AFC don't get it. They have never got it.
Click to expand...
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? You were right!!!
 
Pyke was an assistant to Craig... "trust the process,trust our structures." It never changes and they never look beyond this week, Pyke certainly can send a strong message.
Being in the SANFL team must be a sapping experience, form never really matters. Jenkins was OK but he wasn't that good and Mackay, how do you regain form when you don't play?
We will most probably win but how is this setting up our season or creating enthusiasm to a squad that knows the AFL team is set in stone and can only be tinkered at the edges.
 
LC40 said:
Pyke was an assistant to Craig... "trust the process,trust our structures." It never changes and they never look beyond this week, Pyke certainly can send a strong message.
Being in the SANFL team must be a sapping experience, form never really matters. Jenkins was OK but he wasn't that good and Mackay, how do you regain form when you don't play?
We will most probably win but how is this setting up our season or creating enthusiasm to a squad that knows the AFL team is set in stone and can only be tinkered at the edges.
Click to expand...

Wigg's form dropped off around the time VB was recalled in front of him, and Mackay was dropped and recalled - and Wigg was told that he wouldn't be debuting last year; no matter how good his form was.

We were better off without our SANFL team.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

George Kramer
  • Locked
Hypothetical Trade Discussions
Replies
3
Views
624
CrowinNT
CrowinNT
dogs105
Resource 2024 AFL Draft discussion thread
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
236
Views
20K
Crow till I die
Crow till I die
Punchy Bassett
Holiday spot discussions.
Replies
1
Views
609
spenze
spenze
brucetiki
  • Sticky
Adelaide Crows 2024 AFLW Off Season discussion
2 3
Replies
73
Views
6K
Caputo
C
Mutineer
Resource 2023 AFL Draft Discussion...
240 241 242 243 244
Replies
6K
Views
363K
WaynesWorld19
WaynesWorld19
J
Fallacy or Fact - our 2023 ball movement is one of our biggest improvements this year - Discuss ( try and use evidence where possible )
Replies
18
Views
517
FR0GGY
FR0GGY
Scorpus
Opinion AUSTRALIAN Politics: Adelaide Board Discussion Part 5
250 251 252 253 254
Replies
6K
Views
158K
relapse
relapse

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top