Roast Negative AFC supporters

[Mike Smyth]

Pass the popcorn.

 

[StonesThrow]

Adelaidecrows you are complaining about people on one end of the spectrum (rightly so in some cases) but you are on the other end of the spectrum. You never question anything to do with the adelaide crows and can't stand when anyone does.

Question, if we go through and do okay for the rest of the year and finish 6 to 8, are you content with this? If so, why?

 

[kulak]

Ah the ol' post-loss shitfight.

Season summary so far

Things that went wrong
- AFC recently lost a genuinely elite player
- AFC lost a series of winnable games by making mistakes under pressure

Things that went right
- Our coach has us trying to play a game style which papers over the cracks on our list (precision kicking at speed through the midfield because we are rubbish at winning midfield contests).
- Player development continues to be above average. Our vaunted forward line is Walker plus players other teams thought were disposable. As bad as our midfield are compared to the elite like Geelong and Bulldogs, they are better than you would expect from a random group of players picked up around their point in the draft, and will get better.
- Genuinely promising young players like Milera, Atkins, Lever, Crouch*2

There isn't much we can do to stop our best players leaving to go home / get out of Adelaide, other than recruiting primarily South Australians.

As for losing winnable games, especially in Melbourne...think that is the 'history repeating' aspect to this season which tends to overshadow all the positives...and the sense that maybe it isn't going to change. If we make finals, I already know what will happen. I just watched the preview. We will be leading early in the 4th quarter, then Jacobs and Thompson make some stupid errors and we lose by 4 goals.

Still, Pyke has had 8 games. It took Blight about 5 minutes to unleash the classic pathetic tirade, and Pyke hasn't shown any signs of doing that. Let's see what happens next time the going gets tough.

 

[Anzacpaul]

I think I'm disappointed because we've been so close. Every game we've lost against what is likely top 4 we've been in it and then couldn't finish. In front of Hawthorn with 4 minutes to go, 3 points down WB with a couple to go, a 15m set shot missed from going ahead of the cats in the last.

We haven't even played well in those last two yet we've been close.

 

[Sam_Malone]

Question, if we go through and do okay for the rest of the year and finish 6 to 8, are you content with this? If so, why?

This questions offers so many different permutations.

If we win 1 final and lose the second, we have matched last year and on paper, that would be acceptable. However, if that team includes VB, Thompson, MacKay, Ottens, Henderson - in reality, it will be very Disappointing.

However, if we give major game time and important roles in the team to Milera, Doedee, McGovern, knight, Lever et el and we just scrap into the finals - IMO, that will be ok as we are building a team for the future. We are looking up and growing. Younger teams will have growing pains but IMO we are still too reliant on Scott Thompson and this is hindering the Crouch boys development.

But those younger players have to develop and they have to be held to account foir their performances but giving them 1 and done is not acceptable either.

I want to see a plan for the future and slowly we are seeing that put into place.

Last night and against the Western Bulldogs was disappointing but we are growing as a team. We have some more pain with finals losses and regular season games before we get very consistent but I feel we are walking in the right direction.

18 months ago under Sando, I don't thing I say the same thing.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Adelaidecrows you are complaining about people on one end of the spectrum (rightly so in some cases) but you are on the other end of the spectrum. You never question anything to do with the adelaide crows and can't stand when anyone does.

Question, if we go through and do okay for the rest of the year and finish 6 to 8, are you content with this? If so, why?

Everything in context. If we end up losing a lot of players to injuries then yeah, I probably would be thrilled. If we virtually have a full strength side but play poorly with average skills for the remainder of the year and we limp to 6-8, of course not. What this thread is about is that after 2 losses in a row the sky has hardly fallen in like some want us to believe and some of us like myself are just trying to put some perspective into the argument. Nothing wrong with demanding changes like some are suggesting although some of the changes are chucking the baby out with the bath water type stuff. Lets just cool our jets and see how the club responds in the next few weeks.

 

[Mego Red]

I came into the season thinking we were a 6-10 team. Now I think we're 4-8. Hopefully by the end of the year, as the game plan settles and becomes more natural, we're genuine top four.

 

[footy4ever]

I think I'm disappointed because we've been so close. Every game we've lost against what is likely top 4 we've been in it and then couldn't finish. In front of Hawthorn with 4 minutes to go, 3 points down WB with a couple to go, a 15m set shot missed from going ahead of the cats in the last.

We haven't even played well in those last two yet we've been close.

Which is a good sign and bodes well.

 

[Cleric]

The inference is we are physically and mentally tired as a whole. Its bound to happen with young sides after a tough run.

Its round 8....
Whats the excuse for the older players like Douglas, Smith, Jacobs etc being s**t?
Its low expectation s**t like this which allowed our club to turn into the rubbish it did for 10 years under Trigg.

 

[Mike Smyth]

I came into the season thinking we were a 6-10 team. Now I think we're 4-8. Hopefully by the end of the year, as the game plan settles and becomes more natural, we're genuine top four.

We have 1-4 forward line (with a fully fit Tex), a 5-8 defense ( with a fully R Laird) and a 7-12 midfield (with a fully fit/playing his besT B Crouch).

What we do in the off season to improve that midfield will show how hungry we really are for that elusive 3rd premiership. Or will we be content to continue to just coast along.

Edit: Our defense could be top 4 if hartigan/lever continue to improve. The building blocks are already there Imo.

 

[Iron]

But will it happen? .... We have flirted with success for a long time. I thought we were on our way back up last year. I thought a 4-4 start to this season would be good if we were to make the finals, but right now we should be 6-2. I think we lost our confidence badly after throwing that game away vs Hawthorn, we win that and it is a morale boost and I think we would be 6-2. In the first 5 games I think we performed very good.

Very frustrating the way Seedsman blew it (I knew he was going to miss) and then Adelaide gave up that easy goal when they were trying their guts off since halftime. Good teams don't quit in games. Geelong are a very good team full of confidence, have recent success and are the premiership favorites for sure right now, we are not a good team right now and we lose focus easily in games and we need to fix this soon.

Go back to 2005, we started 4-4 and then went 13-1 for the rest of the season only losing to Geelong on their home ground so nothing is impossible and if we can get back to playing with attack and focus we should win most remaining games with the exception of West Coast at Subi and Geelong in Geelong. I think we can finish the season 15-7 at the very worst if we get back to the basics and get the belief back.

The teams we have lost to are clearly just better than us at the moment. That doesn't mean we aren't improving.

If we'd won last night people would be singing our praises saying we're top 4 contenders. Now we're going to struggle to make the 8.

Our midfield is really average. That hasn't changed over night.

 

[hippyhippy]

sorry for intrusion but ill just put it here yous also won the best game ive seen so far this year..

i had a look through here and i swear the negativity here after two bad losses is worse than over at the Tigers board..and our start to the season was putrid. Yous started well, just haven;t been at the best last two weeks.

Being a good/great side doesn't mean you have to be perfect week in week out

With all respect... we dont want to be perenial 7th to 10th club like we have been. However i do agree that the posts after a loss are quite dramatic lol.

We are missing a mid speedster defender.. speedy smalls are killing us this year. And also another quality mid would complete us imho.

 

[footy4ever]

The teams we have lost to are clearly just better than us at the moment. That doesn't mean we aren't improving.

If we'd won last night people would be singing our praises saying we're top 4 contenders. Now we're going to struggle to make the 8.

Our midfield is really average. That hasn't changed over night.

It really is that simple. I don't understand all the teeth gnashing. I understand the disappointment and to certain degree, the anger, but some of the doomsday crap....

 

[Iron]

It really is that simple. I don't understand all the teeth gnashing. I understand the disappointment and to certain degree, the anger, but some of the doomsday crap....

Constructive criticism is fine. But if some posters are being honest with themselves they'll realise they're offering nothing by saying we're mentally weak and that nothing has changed since the Sando era. I mean what a joke.

Times gone by we'd have been beaten by a lot in games like the last fortnight. We played attrociosuly which will probably happen every now and then. But we're so efficient going forward that we're still able to keep ourselves in it. Yes Geelong missed their chances, but we took ours.

If we keep playing that way every week yeah there's something to worry about. But it's early days. Can't stomach posters throwing their skirts up criticising the club without actually saying anything. Bunch of sooks!

 

[adelaidecrows]

Its round 8....
Whats the excuse for the older players like Douglas, Smith, Jacobs etc being s**t?
Its low expectation s**t like this which allowed our club to turn into the rubbish it did for 10 years under Trigg.

Come on cleric, surely you are better then this bag of rubbish you posted.

 

[Mattrox]

I came into the season thinking we were a 6-10 team. Now I think we're 4-8. Hopefully by the end of the year, as the game plan settles and becomes more natural, we're genuine top four.

I really think last night showed me one thing.

We stuck to the "possession" game. We made mistakes, but we stuck to the plan.

The flow of play when we were in control was different that previous games. To me it had the feel that Pyke was doing something slightly different.

Previously when we where under the pump we completely went to water. I don't think we went to water last night.
We made skill errors and we were beaten by a better team on the night.

Eliminating skill errors and getting familiar with game plans will show improvement. We'll learn from last night.

 

[subaru]

Richmond and port the only non top 8 sides from last year we've played
Start of the year with that draw I take 4/4 all day every day

 

[adelaidecrows]

Constructive criticism is fine. But if some posters are being honest with themselves they'll realise they're offering nothing by saying we're mentally weak and that nothing has changed since the Sando era. I mean what a joke.

Times gone by we'd have been beaten by a lot in games like the last fortnight. We played attrociosuly which will probably happen every now and then. But we're so efficient going forward that we're still able to keep ourselves in it. Yes Geelong missed their chances, but we took ours.

If we keep playing that way every week yeah there's something to worry about. But it's early days. Can't stomach posters throwing their skirts up criticising the club without actually saying anything. Bunch of sooks!

Exactly. We are playing an inexperienced side still trying to find their feet. 4 players in last nights side played under 20 games. Too much hysteria has gone on about dropping senior players. It just isn't warranted after a loss to the best side in the competition at present.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Richmond and port the only non top 8 sides from last year we've played
Start of the year with that draw I take 4/4 all day every day

Richmond finished 5th last season. Geelong were the other side not in last years 8.

 

[Mike Smyth]

It really is that simple. I don't understand all the teeth gnashing. I understand the disappointment and to certain degree, the anger, but some of the doomsday crap....

Agree to a certain extent but it will be 18 years and counting since we played in a GF along with Richmond and wdogs. It may not be here yet but "doomsday" is fast approaching.

 

[footy4ever]

Agree to a certain extent but it will be 18 years and counting since we played in a GF along with Richmond and wdogs. It may not be here yet but "doomsday" is fast approaching.

There're 18 teams in the competition. We've already won more than our allotment.

 

[Iron]

Agree to a certain extent but it will be 18 years and counting since we played in a GF along with Richmond and wdogs. It may not be here yet but "doomsday" is fast approaching.

Yep. But the club itself only acknowledged the drought when Fagan came in. That was 18 months ago give or take. You don't turn around a club in that time. We're on the right path and not every step back means we've changed course.

 

[6BTS]

There has been a lot of negativity on this board recently. I'm keeping my 2 cents to myself, I don't see how me making any comments can possibly be helpful in anyway, shape or form, so despite how strongly I feel about this, I will refrain from entering this heated discussion.

 

[Southerntakeover]

That's a dumb comment.

You consistently play top sides week after week while those sides are also getting games against weaker team, then you get physically smashed without any lighter weeks, unlike the teams you're playing.

It progressively gets more difficult.

Think before you post.

It's mere assertion without evidence. Fabricated excuses. It's not even true in fact that our draw's been that difficult. It looked far more difficult on paper than reality.

We played two rubbish teams in the three weeks before we played Hawthorn, they'd been off a far harder run than we had. We played a winless Freo before being smashed at the contest by the Bulldogs at the contest.

The inference is incredibly obvious.

Noone is saying it's not obvious. It's just that it's absurd.

'Yeah, like, you smashed us, but we're actually better than you becuz of the draw'.

What a ridiculous thing to say. Has anyone actually said "every team is a tough match" or are you just interested in empty strawman arguments?

It's just that the list of teams beating us gets longer and longer, and we keep adding them all into the list of 'super elite teams that it's just too difficult to have to play every week'. You know, the argument that you advanced earlier.

It's hard for him to rise to debate you, when your comments are as dumb as "we've lost for decades".

Honestly, that's so stupid and empty it's hard for someone to know where to start or if there's even any point wasting your time.

It's factual. How long since our last grand final?

How long since Geelongs? How have they rebuilt faster than us? Why do you not care?

That is one of the laziest comments you see on a board like this. Lazy and intellectually dishonest.

As opposed to mere ad hominem? I guess if anyone can recognise lazy.

 

[Ramify]

I came into the season thinking we were a 6-10 team. Now I think we're 4-8. Hopefully by the end of the year, as the game plan settles and becomes more natural, we're genuine top four.

It concerns me that after the Hawthorn game We seemed to have gone back to old habits. In the Freo game we tried to take it up a notch but ended up over using the ball and making countless skill errors.
From then we've lost the pressure on the ball carrier and have gone back to negative football. Slowing the play, kicking backwards, sideways into the guts as opposed to forward into the guts.Long bombs out of the backline and into the forward line. Uptick in skill and disposal efficiency has halted and starting to go backward.
Laird is a massive out for us. Henderson taking the kick outs is just so painful to watch. And our outside players aren't being used.