Fitness

[Boundryump]

Had a laugh reading the Advertiser

"ADELAIDE'S fitness levels remain in question while the Crows continue to fail in "red time", as highlighted in time-on of Saturday night's six-point surrender to West Coast.
The Crows were outscored 2.4 to 8.3 in time-on, with the greatest damage done in extra time of the last term when Adelaide failed to score and West Coast wiped out a 13-point deficit with 3.1 in six minutes.

All this again brings into question Adelaide's fitness.

But with defender Brodie Smith sticking to the club line that the GPS trackers at West Lakes are showing the Crows are fitter than ever, the question remains as to why Adelaide repeatedly collapses late in quarters."

Prehaps they have the setting wrong on their GPS's I bet it's saying "where possible perform a U turn" they maybe fitter than last year but looks like every other team is even fitter than last year so we are still behind the eight ball.

 

[Jack is Back]

There are many different forms of fitness and the "level of fitness" is specific to each different sport. A marathon runner would be vert "fit" but would find it difficult to play a 3 hour tennis match at high intensity.

I have no doubt that the Crows are very fit. If we ever need to challenge another team to 2 hours of boxing and wrestling I'm confident that we would be all over them in the last quarter.

 

[Skippy231]

The balance is all wrong, we have bulked up but lost speed and lateral movement as a result

 

[cmndstab]

Fitness is not the problem. The Crows have no self-belief at the moment, and too many players out of form.

Add some confidence to the current Crows group and they'll run 50% harder when fatigue sets in than they do now. They just don't believe they can win at the moment.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Didn't help having lost Riley and Vince last week either. Take two midfield rotations out of any side and they'll struggle to win these days. Whilst Ch9 highlighted our inability to catch a couple of players in the last few minutes, it could very well have been that Wright and co. were absolutely spent by that stage. That said, of the few games I've seen this year, we simply are not able to close down space as easily as our opposition does, so it does look like we've mucked up our fitness regime to some extent.

 

[hippyhippy]

I think the next pre season we are gonna see some changes. . Particularly more emphasis on fitness and tackling and fitness. I think they've been doing to much bulking up. We've been to exposed with opposition running.

 

[skoobydoo]

Didn't help having lost Riley and Vince last week either. Take two midfield rotations out of any side and they'll struggle to win these days. Whilst Ch9 highlighted our inability to catch a couple of players in the last few minutes, it could very well have been that Wright and co. were absolutely spent by that stage. That said, of the few games I've seen this year, we simply are not able to close down space as easily as our opposition does, so it does look like we've mucked up our fitness regime to some extent.

This^. This deficiency annoys the excretia out of me......why is it so?

 

[PCORF]

There has been some injuries but I think some of the players just don't have the self belief after all that hard work they did last year to come close to a Grand Final, 2013 is 2007 all over again. And even when Walker was playing earlier this season we were just as inconsistent. We excel when we play hard attacking football but the players have forgotten about this at times this year. Also our home game record, 2 wins 5 losses is an all time low at this point of the season, really struggled at home. Away record is 5 wins (all interstate) and 3 losses (2 at the MCG and the showdown earlier this year), maybe we are more comfortable playing away from the pressures in Adelaide.

 

[Wright Away]

Trigg is the problem and needs to be removed from the state.

 

[GerryTheKitten]

At the end of the Eagles game the reason why we lost at the end I think was because we ran out of steam. And they just ran it down the field a couple of kicks and they won.

 

[King Elvis]

Our fitness is clearly a massive issue.

Our players don't even run hard both ways, yet they're constantly exhausted. No second efforts, not attacking or running with any intensity.

Even VB looks unfit.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Nick Poulos responds

Interesting article.

+28 in time on periods (puts in in 8th spot).

The worry is that if it is NOT just fitness then our problems run deep.

 

[maxlilly]

Is Sando saying fitness is an issue to mask other coaching problems ?

 

[King Elvis]

Poulos, who was approached by the The Advertiser this week, says such criticism simply isn't accurate.

"Are we fit enough? Well we had 39 personal bests in our five minute run test during preseason and the five guys who didn't were in rehab," he said.

I find that really hard to believe.

 

[cmndstab]

I find that really hard to believe.

It's not really that hard to believe. Chances are the new fitness regime was focused on developing the kind of fitness that suits that running test. I'll bet you that the same 39 guys performed worse in some other test that was more suited to the previous regime.

However, I'm glad to see Poulos speak out. I'm a big fan and I don't our issue is more mental (and, an overall lack of genuine talent) than fitness.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Is Sando saying fitness is an issue to mask other coaching problems ?

Absolutely he is.

It's a favourite scapegoat at clubs. Means that blame is deflected from coaches, selections, recruitment, development, game plan, players... no problems there at all. Just not fit enough. A few sandhills next summer and we'll be fine. All is well.

Apparently the Crows got locked out of the rooms after training this week because "that idiot Tibor lost the key."

 

[King Elvis]

Speaking on Adelaide's first official day of pre-season training, Sanderson was adamant the mistakes made last summer wouldn't be repeated.

He had previously admitted the club didn't push the players hard enough last pre-season, resulting in a disappointing 2013.

Not a surprise - a lot of us had been stating this was an issue all year (not just in hindsight, BACCS ), it was so damned obvious, but at least the Club has now acknowledged it (although why they felt the need to bullshit about it during the year is beyond me).

 

[adelaidecrows]

Not a surprise - a lot of us had been stating this was an issue all year (not just in hindsight, BACCS ), it was so damned obvious, but at least the Club has now acknowledged it (although why they felt the need to bullshit about it during the year is beyond me).

To keep it positive. If the club admitted to a fault like this the players would have lost confidence in the fitness they actually had and the fans would have gone ballistic and probably stop going to games. I have no issues in believing Sando about this pre season. He seems a pretty straight up guy and that's why my advice for the players during their break was run. This pre season will be brutal.

 

[jenny61_99]

Not a surprise - a lot of us had been stating this was an issue all year (not just in hindsight, BACCS ), it was so damned obvious, but at least the Club has now acknowledged it (although why they felt the need to bullshit about it during the year is beyond me).

Sando acknowledged that (preseason mistakes) during the year. I heard it come out of his own lips. Not sure what BS you are talking about?

 

[King Elvis]

It's in this thread.

Poulos, who was approached by the The Advertiser this week, says such criticism simply isn't accurate.

"Are we fit enough? Well we had 39 personal bests in our five minute run test during preseason and the five guys who didn't were in rehab," he said.​

 

[spenze]

They missed the bikes last year

 

[Jack is Back]

It is interesting to see the change in opinions about what the "ideal" fitness program should be.

All that boxing and wrestling certainly had a dramatic impact on our tackling . The latest stat I saw in early August had Adelaide ranked 17th for tackling (there are several different ways to measure this, average tackles per game is not the best one and I prefer the champion data approach) falling from 9th at the end of 2011.

Since the game changes every year then what was best last year will not necessarily be best this year. A classic example is Sam Jacobs who was struggling to get to the contest last season due to his inadequate aerobic fitness. The quick "throw up" had a significant impact on his performance and he was too buggered to create an extra option around the ground.

The cap on rotations will be a factor in 2014. Hopefully Sando and the fitness coaches are aware of this.

 

[Mattrox]

The rotations are a good point. I think that this is being considered given the noises outside the club.

Last year the club was saying that heaps of players were getting pbs in the 3km time trial. That is -interms of a whole match- like preparing to be fast in a 1500m run rather than the speed and endurance of a 10000m race, if I can use athletics as an analogy.

We flagged in 4th quarters...... we were fast and fit, but the endurance was lacking. This will have to be addressed with cap rotations.

 

[bluebob1]

It's in this thread.

Poulos, who was approached by the The Advertiser this week, says such criticism simply isn't accurate.​

​

"Are we fit enough? Well we had 39 personal bests in our five minute run test during preseason and the five guys who didn't were in rehab," he said.​

No good comparing yourself to last year need to be comparing to others in the comp so if the pb's were 1% improvements but everyone else in the comp improves 2% then relatively you are going backwards.

 

[Wright Away]

Fatigue due to lack of fitness affects your mental application and I would also imagine the willingness to apply effective tackles.