Adelaide Crows v Brisbane Lions. Round 16, Saturday 3rd of July, 2021. Adelaide Oval, 4.05pm (ACST)
Weather for Adelaide at this stage: high chance showers, moderate winds and a predicted max of 13.
Fasten your safety belts.
The Crows have shown some positive signs this season beating the highly fancied Cats and the in form Melbourne Demons, while being competitive in most other games, with the exception being the one versus GWS. Despite these positive signs there have unfortunately been some worrying signs. There are patches where a side gets a run on against the Crows and the Crows seem powerless to stop the haemorrhaging. This was certainly evident in the second quarter against Carlton. If the Crows could have limited Carlton then, they would have been a chance. Clearly there is much more work to do and new players need to be unearthed.
The challenge. Make no mistake about it, we are coming up against a quality, red hot, form team, this Saturday. The skipper Dayne Zorko has been back in the middle for them over the past couple of weeks giving them some hardness and leadership while we may be loosing our captain and a somewhat similar player and hard nut in Sloane due to a finger injury. Add to their midfield mix the accumulator Brownlow medalist Lachie Neale and ex Crow Jarryd Lyons, and there is a hardened and experienced midfield, especially when one considers they can even push a Charlie Cameron through there for very short bursts just to mix things up and give some added explosiveness. Add the wingman Hugh McCluggage who is competing with our Paul Seedsman for all Australian honours. Down back is the very tall, intercepting and agile multiple all Australian fullback, Harris Andrews and the very creative Daniel Rich with his penetrating and devastating left foot kicks. Joe Daniher, the hipster Hipwood and Charlie Cameron up forward combine with a balanced team of contributors all over the ground, well coached by Chris Fagan. Here we have a team who are worthy contenders to be this years AFL premiers.
Are we now Prepper’s? I am not talking WW3, peal oil, the next economic collapse, environmental disaster or a post apocalyptic world, but 2022 (and who knows what next year will bring). I believe our eye has been on this for a while. Getting Talia, Lynch and Crouch right (if all three stay), along with the season ending injured players in Milera and Hinge will give us a nice blend of youth and experience. Now that any hope of making the 8 is gone and with Sloane a possibility to miss a fair bit, I believe we really need to concentrate on developing the younger players and getting set for next year. If we can limit injuries we should have a nice blend of youth and experience come 2022. The two big areas as as I see it is a second key tall down back and a larger, quality, genuine midfielder. Milera should give us some x factor, evasion and explosiveness in the centre, but the bigger, quality mid probably has to come in by means of a trade or free agency. Worrell showed a bit when sent back to the SANFL last week and the big fish McAsey needs to be quickly groomed.
My preference is for McAsey who should be able to complement Butts nicely. Up forward still needs tweaking. Fogarty has been given a block of games now. I still think Himmelberg might be the better option and should be given another block of games. Fog can bide his time and eventually be Walker's replacement. In short, we need to and probably are prepping for next year and injuries permitting we should eye an attack on the top four as our goal for 2022.
Are we up to it? Even though at home (COVID permitting), and despite having taken a couple of big scalps in Geelong and Melbourne, being on the rebound and Brisbane struggling a bit recently against North Melbourne in Tasmania, I do not think we are a snowflakes chance in hell of beating one of the emerging favourites for this year's flag. Brisbane by a fair bit (30 plus). Having said that, showing some fight, developing players and minimalizing those bleeding frustrating reckless turnovers would be nice. Perhaps if wet we will try and turn the game into a scrap and attempt to win ugly. I think they have too many contested ball winners for that. Miracles are very much the exception. Lets hope its our turn Saturday. We will need it!
Weather for Adelaide at this stage: high chance showers, moderate winds and a predicted max of 13.
Fasten your safety belts.
The Crows have shown some positive signs this season beating the highly fancied Cats and the in form Melbourne Demons, while being competitive in most other games, with the exception being the one versus GWS. Despite these positive signs there have unfortunately been some worrying signs. There are patches where a side gets a run on against the Crows and the Crows seem powerless to stop the haemorrhaging. This was certainly evident in the second quarter against Carlton. If the Crows could have limited Carlton then, they would have been a chance. Clearly there is much more work to do and new players need to be unearthed.
The challenge. Make no mistake about it, we are coming up against a quality, red hot, form team, this Saturday. The skipper Dayne Zorko has been back in the middle for them over the past couple of weeks giving them some hardness and leadership while we may be loosing our captain and a somewhat similar player and hard nut in Sloane due to a finger injury. Add to their midfield mix the accumulator Brownlow medalist Lachie Neale and ex Crow Jarryd Lyons, and there is a hardened and experienced midfield, especially when one considers they can even push a Charlie Cameron through there for very short bursts just to mix things up and give some added explosiveness. Add the wingman Hugh McCluggage who is competing with our Paul Seedsman for all Australian honours. Down back is the very tall, intercepting and agile multiple all Australian fullback, Harris Andrews and the very creative Daniel Rich with his penetrating and devastating left foot kicks. Joe Daniher, the hipster Hipwood and Charlie Cameron up forward combine with a balanced team of contributors all over the ground, well coached by Chris Fagan. Here we have a team who are worthy contenders to be this years AFL premiers.
Are we now Prepper’s? I am not talking WW3, peal oil, the next economic collapse, environmental disaster or a post apocalyptic world, but 2022 (and who knows what next year will bring). I believe our eye has been on this for a while. Getting Talia, Lynch and Crouch right (if all three stay), along with the season ending injured players in Milera and Hinge will give us a nice blend of youth and experience. Now that any hope of making the 8 is gone and with Sloane a possibility to miss a fair bit, I believe we really need to concentrate on developing the younger players and getting set for next year. If we can limit injuries we should have a nice blend of youth and experience come 2022. The two big areas as as I see it is a second key tall down back and a larger, quality, genuine midfielder. Milera should give us some x factor, evasion and explosiveness in the centre, but the bigger, quality mid probably has to come in by means of a trade or free agency. Worrell showed a bit when sent back to the SANFL last week and the big fish McAsey needs to be quickly groomed.
My preference is for McAsey who should be able to complement Butts nicely. Up forward still needs tweaking. Fogarty has been given a block of games now. I still think Himmelberg might be the better option and should be given another block of games. Fog can bide his time and eventually be Walker's replacement. In short, we need to and probably are prepping for next year and injuries permitting we should eye an attack on the top four as our goal for 2022.
Are we up to it? Even though at home (COVID permitting), and despite having taken a couple of big scalps in Geelong and Melbourne, being on the rebound and Brisbane struggling a bit recently against North Melbourne in Tasmania, I do not think we are a snowflakes chance in hell of beating one of the emerging favourites for this year's flag. Brisbane by a fair bit (30 plus). Having said that, showing some fight, developing players and minimalizing those bleeding frustrating reckless turnovers would be nice. Perhaps if wet we will try and turn the game into a scrap and attempt to win ugly. I think they have too many contested ball winners for that. Miracles are very much the exception. Lets hope its our turn Saturday. We will need it!
Attachments
Last edited:
