First, let's have a reality check.
Adelaide started this season with severe injuries to key players – with flaws in its structure. Podsiadly and Betts were only going to be makeshift players, gaps in obvious holes until the main players returned. To their immense credit, they held a flimsy structure together for a long time and, in fact, saved Adelaide from a worse fate it would have faced if they hadn't been there.
It's been a flimflam season – winning one or two games against the odds, losing more for no reason at all. In my opinion, this hasn't been a coaching problem. Don't sack the coach. And stop asking to sack the coach. Clubs with a spineless or stupid culture demand the sacking of their coach at the exact moment they should, instead, stick by their decisons and, amongst other things, invest faith in their coach. Sanderson has the faith of the players. He's achieved that and supporters should respect that.
Don't be moronic and gutless, Adelaide. Don't turn disappointment into a crisis. Express some faith in the management of your club and accept that, right now, Adelaide is an immature squad still learning how to become an accomplished team.
Now, how best to use Round 23.
If Adelaide somehow manages to scrape into eighth spot next week, it will be a false goal.
Adelaide will then play Fremantle in Perth or Port at Adelaide Oval and Adelaide will lose. And let's not kid ourselves. We don't deserve to win. We are simply not good enough, right now. Or, to put this in another way, this year there are at least seven other teams that are much better than us, right now. And that's the simple fact of the matter.
What's the best way to use Round 23?
Two things.
Let's get the Crouch brothers into the same team and get over the Big Thing about this. Let's do it right now... and see whether it works or whether it doesn't.
And, if Nathan van Berlo is ready to play, let's get him into the team as a sub and give him a quarter and half of real footy to think about over the summer.
And a third thing. As wonderful as Patrick Dangerfield is, and has been, the thing that bothers me is that his singleminded attack on the ball has turned him into a private zone of one. I don't think that any of his coaches, so far, have worked out how to maximise his incredible talents in terms of team value.
I think that Patrick needs a position, not a role. Or, rather, a position that enables him to perform a more defined role.
I'm slipping back into the past, here, but I remember when Andrew McLeod was slotted into the halfback flank and became the most reliable break in the opposition's attack and the best launch of Adelaide's turnovers. The modern game lacks those defined positions, now, of course... it's all relative positions on shifting lines. But, in Round 23, if I was coach, and thank god I am not, I'd switch Patrick Dangerfield away from the midfield and attack group, and settle him into the defensive back six. I'd redefine his role, give him a new purpose and see what happened... with a view to season 2015.
And release one of those back six into the forward six and tell them to think about kicking goals.
In other words, experiment a little bit.
Use Round 23 to try out different things.
There is nothing to gain and nothing to lose except a little bit of new information.
Adelaide started this season with severe injuries to key players – with flaws in its structure. Podsiadly and Betts were only going to be makeshift players, gaps in obvious holes until the main players returned. To their immense credit, they held a flimsy structure together for a long time and, in fact, saved Adelaide from a worse fate it would have faced if they hadn't been there.
It's been a flimflam season – winning one or two games against the odds, losing more for no reason at all. In my opinion, this hasn't been a coaching problem. Don't sack the coach. And stop asking to sack the coach. Clubs with a spineless or stupid culture demand the sacking of their coach at the exact moment they should, instead, stick by their decisons and, amongst other things, invest faith in their coach. Sanderson has the faith of the players. He's achieved that and supporters should respect that.
Don't be moronic and gutless, Adelaide. Don't turn disappointment into a crisis. Express some faith in the management of your club and accept that, right now, Adelaide is an immature squad still learning how to become an accomplished team.
Now, how best to use Round 23.
If Adelaide somehow manages to scrape into eighth spot next week, it will be a false goal.
Adelaide will then play Fremantle in Perth or Port at Adelaide Oval and Adelaide will lose. And let's not kid ourselves. We don't deserve to win. We are simply not good enough, right now. Or, to put this in another way, this year there are at least seven other teams that are much better than us, right now. And that's the simple fact of the matter.
What's the best way to use Round 23?
Two things.
Let's get the Crouch brothers into the same team and get over the Big Thing about this. Let's do it right now... and see whether it works or whether it doesn't.
And, if Nathan van Berlo is ready to play, let's get him into the team as a sub and give him a quarter and half of real footy to think about over the summer.
And a third thing. As wonderful as Patrick Dangerfield is, and has been, the thing that bothers me is that his singleminded attack on the ball has turned him into a private zone of one. I don't think that any of his coaches, so far, have worked out how to maximise his incredible talents in terms of team value.
I think that Patrick needs a position, not a role. Or, rather, a position that enables him to perform a more defined role.
I'm slipping back into the past, here, but I remember when Andrew McLeod was slotted into the halfback flank and became the most reliable break in the opposition's attack and the best launch of Adelaide's turnovers. The modern game lacks those defined positions, now, of course... it's all relative positions on shifting lines. But, in Round 23, if I was coach, and thank god I am not, I'd switch Patrick Dangerfield away from the midfield and attack group, and settle him into the defensive back six. I'd redefine his role, give him a new purpose and see what happened... with a view to season 2015.
And release one of those back six into the forward six and tell them to think about kicking goals.
In other words, experiment a little bit.
Use Round 23 to try out different things.
There is nothing to gain and nothing to lose except a little bit of new information.
