Strategy How we can improve in 2018?

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I'd like to see us get angrier. Play on the edge, unsociable if you will.

We are heading in the right direction ... but no way Hawthorn cop that Grand Final the way we did after half time. They would have caused a scene in anyway they could ... just to stop the run-on.

I want ruthless aggression at the ball and player. The Crouch boys get it, hopefully a player like Gibson teaches our boys that we aren't out there to make friends.
 
OutofTownCrow said:
I'd like to see us get angrier. Play on the edge, unsociable if you will.

We are heading in the right direction ... but no way Hawthorn cop that Grand Final the way we did after half time. They would have caused a scene in anyway they could ... just to stop the run-on.

I want ruthless aggression at the ball and player. The Crouch boys get it, hopefully a player like Gibson teaches our boys that we aren't out there to make friends.
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It was the harder and more defensive edge that lifted us out of our mid-season malaise, finally beat Geelong, made me believe we were true contenders, and got us to GF day. If we want to get anywhere next year - as the rest of the comp improves - that physicality and pressure needs to continue.
 
Rotayjay said:
It was the harder and more defensive edge that lifted us out of our mid-season malaise, finally beat Geelong, made me believe we were true contenders, and got us to GF day. If we want to get anywhere next year - as the rest of the comp improves - that physicality and pressure needs to continue.
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The whole comp will improve, teams like Bulldogs,Melbourne, hawthorn even collingwood can make it. Some teams last year had horrendous injury runs and collingwood was one, Port and ourselves had reasonable injury runs to key players. Every team has 4 or 5 players that you would hope you get at least 18 to 20 games out of, last year ours were Tex, Sloane, Jacobs Talia laird and we succeeded with all. This year Mcrouch and maybe Gibbs might be included Tex may drop out and be replaced by Lynch who knows.

Depth players that can step in and do a job are so important we had Otten apart from the negative nellies who bag him, it was one reason we finished top of the H and A, if Gov and smith didnt cop injuries he wouldnt have played finals but we need players like him to keep us in top 4 contention throughout the year

I would expect to use around 30 to 31 players this year who are they?
 
OutofTownCrow said:
I'd like to see us get angrier. Play on the edge, unsociable if you will.
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This is what we need. We are at our best when Tex is mouthing off and scaring the s**t out of everyone near him.
And when the crouches are starting fights, Lynch is pointing fingers and Rory is giving death stares.

Imagine if we can get Jenkins on the angry pills and have Rat and Knight get lippy and dish it out.
 
I know everyone on here likes to do a straight up + or - review of the team at this time of the year, but to me the source of improvement is much more multi faceted then that.

Straight up addition and subtraction wise of course we are down in defense losing Smith and Lever, but in reality I see us covering Lever without too much hassel. The guy was a 3rd tall who often played on the 4th or even 5th most dangerous forward, Doedee, Cheney or Keath will be able to nail down that spot. 0% worried about that

Smith is trickier, but in reality Smith has never been lockdown defender, so we have a great opportunity to trial some of our multitude of running midfielders back there (Milera, Seedsman, Mackay, Douglas, Hampton, Gallucci, Knight, Atkins). HBF is an awesome position, and midfielders often thrive playing there when sent back, especially if they don't need to play hard lockdown. We could be all down in the dumps about losing Smith, but in reality if we uncover another player who thrives back their then we are only solidifying our back 6 over time, and potentially freeing up Smith to develop his midfield game. Short term loss for long term gain in my eyes.

Lastly the midfield improvement will be substantial, and will definitely help out the defensive, and offensive lines. 1 more offseason in young mids such as Atkins, Knight, Greenwood, Hampton, Milera will certainly bring these guys more consistency, especially against the big bodied, contested ball teams (which I think we all know was a major shortcoming in 2017 for these guys). Gibbs reaks of class, and brings the added benefit of taking the spotlight off our current star Mids in the Crouch Bros and Rory, and makes our mid rotation almost impossible to shut down. Gibson is a tough nut, hard running mid who always finds the footy, even when playing the negating role (which he may share the honors with Scott Selwood as the AFL's best). I don't think he plays every game, but wouldn't be surprised if Pykey loves what he brings to the table.

I actually love the Midfield blend we have now, we have players with the vision, the grunt, the contested, the polish, the mongrel and the speed. The organic growth out of our 25-80 game players will be the cherry for me, if they take the step up we expect then that midfield will be scary and the team as a whole will substantially improve!
 
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Good, sensible analysis Betts are off. I think people tend to do a straight up + or - review of the team (which is what I will do) because it is easier to do than to discuss how structures and player roles may change. Obviously, there is a lot more to it though than who replaces who in the best 22.

I agree that Lever is replaced quite easily. Lever is no doubt going to be a very good player but he isn't one yet and his placing in our best and fairest is a true reflection of that. The fact that Lever made the AA squad (and the constant overrating of Rance) is an indictment on the way defenders are viewed currently by the football media - but that is a discussion for another time. I think Doedee will get first crack at Lever's position but as a worst case scenario, Otten can provide a pretty similar output to what Lever did this year - both play similar game styles (eg. strong in the air, plenty of football smarts, average kicks, unable on play on genuine key forwards).

Cameron is also a pretty easy replacement output wise. The thing that we will miss from Cameron is his ability to create a scoring opportunity from just about anywhere on the ground if he has half a meter of space. I would like to see Gallucci replace Cameron as I think having the speed and hardness in the forward line is important and Gallucci will go closest to covering that. His replacement could just as easily be any of Hampton, Milera, Douglas or Greenwood though (Gibbs would replace Douglas or Greenwood in the midfield).

Like you stated, Smith is going to be difficult to replace and I am not quite as optimistic about it as you are. Smith is one of the premier rebounding defenders in the competition and in my opinion, his importance to our side is hugely underappreciated. There is no denying that whoever we replace Smith with, we will be at a net loss. Will that loss be enough to push as out of the top four? I doubt it, and there is a fair chance Smith will be back in the side come finals, although probably not at his absolute best. In the meantime I think Douglas will be the one to replace him with Gibbs moving into the midfield to push Douglas out. I anticipate that Douglas will play as a near full time half back flanker with only occasional stints elsewhere around the ground. In order to make up for some of the lost rebound capacity, I can see us rotating our mids and half forwards through the backline more often next year than we have in the past with Gibbs, Sloane, Atkins, Hampton and Mackay the most capable.

We should get more than enough improvement from the likes of Milera, Greenwood, Keath, Crouch's (Brad in particular), McGovern and potentially the young guys in the SANFL to offset the above losses. We will also add Gibbs and Gibson to the mix. Having Walker and Talia fit will also help but we will no doubt have other players carrying injuries instead.
 
Bring back Bas said:
Good, sensible analysis Betts are off. I think people tend to do a straight up + or - review of the team (which is what I will do) because it is easier to do than to discuss how structures and player roles may change. Obviously, there is a lot more to it though than who replaces who in the best 22.

I agree that Lever is replaced quite easily. Lever is no doubt going to be a very good player but he isn't one yet and his placing in our best and fairest is a true reflection of that. The fact that Lever made the AA squad (and the constant overrating of Rance) is an indictment on the way defenders are viewed currently by the football media - but that is a discussion for another time. I think Doedee will get first crack at Lever's position but as a worst case scenario, Otten can provide a pretty similar output to what Lever did this year - both play similar game styles (eg. strong in the air, plenty of football smarts, average kicks, unable on play on genuine key forwards).

Cameron is also a pretty easy replacement output wise. The thing that we will miss from Cameron is his ability to create a scoring opportunity from just about anywhere on the ground if he has half a meter of space. I would like to see Gallucci replace Cameron as I think having the speed and hardness in the forward line is important and Gallucci will go closest to covering that. His replacement could just as easily be any of Hampton, Milera, Douglas or Greenwood though (Gibbs would replace Douglas or Greenwood in the midfield).

Like you stated, Smith is going to be difficult to replace and I am not quite as optimistic about it as you are. Smith is one of the premier rebounding defenders in the competition and in my opinion, his importance to our side is hugely underappreciated. There is no denying that whoever we replace Smith with, we will be at a net loss. Will that loss be enough to push as out of the top four? I doubt it, and there is a fair chance Smith will be back in the side come finals, although probably not at his absolute best. In the meantime I think Douglas will be the one to replace him with Gibbs moving into the midfield to push Douglas out. I anticipate that Douglas will play as a near full time half back flanker with only occasional stints elsewhere around the ground. In order to make up for some of the lost rebound capacity, I can see us rotating our mids and half forwards through the backline more often next year than we have in the past with Gibbs, Sloane, Atkins, Hampton and Mackay the most capable.

We should get more than enough improvement from the likes of Milera, Greenwood, Keath, Crouch's (Brad in particular), McGovern and potentially the young guys in the SANFL to offset the above losses. We will also add Gibbs and Gibson to the mix. Having Walker and Talia fit will also help but we will no doubt have other players carrying injuries instead.
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Thanks, I agree on Cameron as well. Gallucci is substantially more skilled, but Charlie's confidence in his pace is what made him stand out. I think it's a net positive with an astrix.

HBF my first choice right now is actually Hampton. Has played there before, and has shown is a tackling machine this year, he doesn't have the weapon kick of 1 step, but is pretty decent through traffic and has some toe. I would also like to check out Milera back there but more for his decision making and footskills. Jury is out on his defending though, some of his chasing efforts in 2017 were putrid.
 
Milera is an interesting option for a HBF and not one that I have considered. If his defensive work is up to scratch he would make a very nice half back flanker for the reasons that you stated. Whoever gets the gig cannot be a purely offensive player, which is why I am leaning towards Douglas, as we tend to have different players playing the spare to suit different situations - sometimes Smith, sometimes Laird, sometimes Lever.

Hampton is a player who I would like to spend some time as a half back because he is confident to take the game on which could be a real weapon in the right circumstance. I do however, wonder if his composure and decision making are solid enough to play as a permanent defender. My concern may be unjustified as it is not based on anything that Hampton has done on the field that have made me doubt this area of his game, more just a gut feel.
 

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How can we improve in 2018?
More games at the MCG, which is what the club has requested from the afl. I doubt we'll get it and if we do it will be 1 more at most. We were the best team for most of the year and have improved our MCG games there recently but to be honest none of our wins there (and our draw) were convincing. Learn to play that ground as good as AO or close to it and we'll be a lot closer to a flag.
 
Coopers said:
This is what we need. We are at our best when Tex is mouthing off and scaring the s**t out of everyone near him.
And when the crouches are starting fights, Lynch is pointing fingers and Rory is giving death stares.

Imagine if we can get Jenkins on the angry pills and have Rat and Knight get lippy and dish it out.
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Knight already is lippy. Tex is at his best when he is leading at the ball and taking marks, definitely not when pushing players under the ball and giving away frees. Jenkins i'm sorry will never be a hard player, it's just not in him.
 
Murray2503 said:
Knight already is lippy. Tex is at his best when he is leading at the ball and taking marks, definitely not when pushing players under the ball and giving away frees. Jenkins i'm sorry will never be a hard player, it's just not in him.
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Talk is cheap unless backed up with action.

Atkins and Knight talk way too much for what they actually produce.
 
To improve in 2018, they'll need to consider things within coaches' and players' control --- I thought we were stiff with the Betts and Sloane appendectomies as well as the injuries to Gov and even worse, Smith (who's a bigger single loss than Lever or CC imo), but all teams are subject to the whims of the Injuries Gods.
Injuries aside, what was the Crows biggest problem in 2017 and can it be fixed?

I think the mental side of their game needs to toughen up. Unfortunately, it's one of the most difficult aspects of a player's arsenal to address.

By "mental", I mean their tendency towards complacency/hubris both before and during a game. It shows itself in some fancy lairising like over-the-head handballs, one kick or give-off or handball too many, tricky little floaty kicks to teammates which set them up to be clobbered. It seems to happen often enough to be a problem, eg
--- it looked like we went down to Tassie vs NM thinking "We-should-win-this" on the back of 6 consecutive, powerful wins. Clearly, we underestimated NM who were 15th, but finally had their first win over GCS after 3 close losses. With luck, NM might have been 4-2 and not 1-5. NM knew the ground and played the conditions with a well-constructed and well-executed plan, so well in fact that they led 10-4 to zip at 1/4 time. End of game. No doubt the Scott brothers conspired to manufacture that win.
--- against Melbourne the following week the Crows led by 29 points in the second quarter. It looked to me as if they relaxed mentally, as if they thought they had done enough. We-should-win-this-now. From memory, the Dees kicked the next 13 goals <== and the problem there was that the Crows seemed to have no clue or plan B as to how to stem the flow.

Conversely, the Crows sometimes showed flashes of mental toughness eg to come back against Collingwood, grind out a win against Carlton, and their best win for the Minor Round was the way they comprehensively beat the Cats at AO when they showed mongrel/aggro. Even then, they were held goalless in the final term which makes me wonder if Pykey told them to take their foot off the pedal to not risk injury. I'd prefer it if we went on to demolish good teams when we're on top, foot on the throat stuff and increase our lead to humiliating proportions. The mongrel and mental toughness needs to be consistent. Every game.

The Crows look a much better side when they stay focused and throw their weight around --- I suppose all sides do, really --- but I'd like to see more of it in 2018 with Tex leading the aggro and getting JJ and others to follow suit. I don't mean with scuffles and jumper-pulling. I mean nasty, unsociable footy with hard bumps that knock the wind out of opponents, and sit opposition players on their bums often enough that they hear footsteps and fumble from hesitation and second-guessing (<== which we did, nearly every time we lost)

Finally, there's the problem of team unity. It's all very well for Tex and others (even the new chum, Gibbs) to take a pay cut to keep the group together but unless they're all on the same page (salary-wise and game-wise) it's going to create resentment, and factional disunity. If we'd taken Richmond's single-minded unity into the GF (the Dogs did it in 2016, as well) I'm sure the result would have been different, but there's no doubt that we were fractured by CC's mind-in-Queensland attitude, Leaver's money-first attitude, and unsettled by losing Gov and Smith.
(Edit: the issue of Sloane's Free Agency has to be solved asap. They have to go to the season's end with Sloane signed on. Pay him what he's worth. Any "I'll-decide-at-the-end-of-the-season" will divide and unsettle the team. I'd go so far as to say that if he's "undecided" by mid-season, drop him and go with Gibbs and Crouch Bros Inc and focus on Greenwood or another young blood in there. That sounds reckless, or harsh. I respect Sloaney immensely but we've got to have a team with every player playing for one reason, to win a Flag for the AFC. Will-he-won't-he-re-sign? is a distraction they don't need).

We're a red-hot chance for the 2018 Flag, but only if the issues of complacency/mental weakness and team disunity are addressed and overcome. Pyke strikes me as particularly self-possessed and mentally strong. Hopefully after 2 years he will finally make the group his own and take them a step further.
 
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So when we are talking about improvement I assume we are taking our Grand Final team as the base point. Generally our improvement comes from only a few areas. One is the individual players, another is our game plan and our attitude which covers desire, aggression and determination.

For me part of our game plan should revolve around our ability to get more aggressive. Hitting the opposition player so that it hurts or at least so they know they have just been tackled. To do that we need some bigger or stronger bodied players. Greenwood is a guy that can step up here as he has a strong powerful body. The addition of Gibson also adds to addressing this part of our game. I dont see players like Seedsman, Brown, Atkins, MacKay, Lynch, Knights, Milera giving us that type of aggressive pressure. So we need to improve our aggression. By the way I dont see aggression as being tackling the opposition illegally or standing up and having a fight when you think you have been aggrieved. Thats a different type of aggression.

Game Plan....well I dont think I have the knowledge to really comment on that. I'll leave that to some of the other guys here.

Then there is player improvement. Who can grow, who will stay as is and who may drop off.

I see strong levels of growth coming from Laird, Kelly & Seedsman. I also see some improvement from Talia as I feel he was down a little in 2017 but I feel that Hartigan, Brown will not show any real improvement. (Brown is a good contributor already)

I believe that Jacobs will not get any better. He may continue as he is or he may actually start to drop off a bit. He is 29 and the demands on him as our main ruckman will continue to take their toll.

I believe that both the Crouch boys will give us improvement especially Brad. I dont think that Brad is anywhere near his best and that Matt will simply continue to develop. The addition of Gibbs should result in improving the team. Even if Gibbs as an individual doesnt improve his own standards his current standards will exceed the player he replaces. The addition of Gibbs should also give opposition teams more headaches when it comes for them to decide who to tag. For this reason I believe that Sloane will deliver more for us in 2018 than he did in 2017. Atkins should also improve over 2017 but there is something about Atkins that creates doubt. He appears to have the goods but only on a few occasions. He not reliable or dependable to bring his "good" game week on week. He will sometimes bring a great game but not often but I would be happy if he could bring his "good" game every week. So Atkins has the room to bring more but I am not sure he will. Knights to me is a little similar to Atkins. At times he can do brilliant things but he just doesn't do it often enough. So he has room to improve and I suspect that he will improve in 2018. Douglas showed us during 2017 that when he is on he can be a great contributor. I like him but I feel his role during 2018 might change. Running off half back might see him as a fix for the loss of Smith. Hampton is a player that to me has only one way to go and that is up. He hasnt delivered (yes I know he has had injuries) but if he does then he can offer us some significant improvement. Greenwood I believe will continue to grow especially as his footy smarts grow. McGovern just by being available all year will be a plus.

Tom Lynch will not give us additional improvement but he will be extremely important to us. I am hoping that Tex has been playing with injuries and that these get fixed and he plays to his full potential...so room for growth from Tex. Eddie I think will be the same..no worse and no better but still exciting. I am not sure about Jenkins. Perhaps he will be like Eddie and give us the same as 2017.

So that means I see improvement from Laird, Kelly, Seedsman, M & B Crouch, Gibbs, Knights, McGovern, Sloane, Hampton, Greenwood and Tex with some small improvement from Talia. So for me there is still plenty of room for improvement.

However some of the biggest opportunity is to get games into players like Gallucci, Milera, Doedee, Davis and Poholke.

So for me the potential for improvement is definitely there.
 
BrissyCrow said:
For me part of our game plan should revolve around our ability to get more aggressive. Hitting the opposition player so that it hurts or at least so they know they have just been tackled. ...
So we need to improve our aggression. By the way I dont see aggression as being tackling the opposition illegally or standing up and having a fight when you think you have been aggrieved. Thats a different type of aggression.
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Really good post, especially above. :thumbsu:
 
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