Pleasant Selection Dilemma

[Elite Crow]

In the coming weeks we may have Bock, Macca, MacKay and Knights available for selection. Barring injuries, who goes out?

The only straight forward decision I can see is Armstrong out for Macca. As for the rest:

Bock, competiting with Davis and Stevens. Davis has been too good as a first year player to drop. Stevens has had an up and down season but the last 2 weeks have been good.

MacKay, competiting with a heap of players. Must come in but who for?

Knights, competiting with Henderson, Jaensch and Porps. Hendo and Jaensch have been too good to be dropped. Porps form has been indifferent. If Knights puts in some blinders in the SANFL and Porps doesnt pick up then he could be in danger.

I think against Geelong we definately need Bock and Macca back. Armstrong has been good for a kid but the bigger bodied Cats will monster him.

Given the start of the year, I didnt think it could get this hard, which is very promising for the future.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Everytime we get to the stage where picking our first 22 will involve some tough decisions we ALWAYS pick up an injury or two and the match committee are spared.

Or else the players on the injury comeback trail need another week or two.

The biggest query for mine is whether Bock will squeeze Stevens out of the team, or whether it will be one of the kids who makes way (Davis, Hendo, Walker). I really want to see what direction the club takes on this but I fear that something will happen, Hendo's calf plays up, they decide Bock needs one more week... and we will continue to wonder.

 

[Elite Crow]

Walker isnt going anywhere.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I've heard that before.

 

[adelaidecrows]

it depends on what the match committee want to get out of the year. do we play kids or make a play for the 8. I am of the opinion that while its not broke dont fix it. Stevens is playing well and was well received after the west coast game. Perhaps the pressure should be put on the squad in this way.

All those players out from injury should go back to the SANFL and all players who played against west coast should be challanged to keep their spot and hold all of them out. There is no need to rush anyone back into the side. Only McLoed imo should come back in for the Geelong game. Bock should go back to the eagles. McLoed can cause damage and I would bring him in for Armstrong. Thats the only change i can see. the games against Geelong, St Kilda, Collingwood and the bulldogs should be viewed as invaluable playing experience for the youngsters and I would be disapointed if barring injury the youngsters were dropped for no good reason other then perhaps poor form.

You cant drop hendo who has kicked multiple goals per game and you cant drop jeansch either has he is proving to be a thorn. Sloan is killing them in the midfield so for me they all stay.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

I've heard that before.

Walker has a little more team security now

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

I would give Knights 2-3 games in the sanfl, even consider bringing Bock and Macca back through the sanfl as both have missed a fair bit of footy

Stevens and Armstrong would be two on the selection edge

however given our run of injuries lets not count our chickens sorry I mean crows before they hatch

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Agree adelaidecrows on the SANFL option.

I don't understand why there is such a stigma attached to a player coming back via the SANFL. I don't know why we don't use the SANFL reserves more either. Surely it would be a good thing to be able to bring a guy back in gradually, start with 60% game time in the ressies and build from there.

It seems that you have to be either unavailable or ready to go 100%, nowhere in between.

This is especially puzzling because the club has made such a MASSIVE issue of players not having a full preseason and how detrimental this is to their performance. It even gets mentioned for guys like VB and Porps who have played basically every game but missed a chunk of the preseason.

If it is such an issue and a player misses a heap of the preseason, then why wouldn't we start their preseason later?

Eg with Porps, he was 'fit' when the season started but wasn't able to play in the NAB Cup. Why wouldn't he do several weeks of hard training, start off with Westies a few weeks later and get some miles in his legs (his equivalent of the NAB Cup) and then aim for an AFL start in Round 7 or 8?

The way Neil talks it basically sounds that unless you have a full preseason you've basically stuffed your year. Surely we need to devise some better ways of handling players who have had interrupted starts?

 

[Mismatched]

I think McLeod for Armstrong is probably a bit of a given assuming McLeod is passed fit. As for Bock, I think we might see him get a run in the SANFL just to find a bit of touch as he hasn't really played a heap of footy lately. However, when he does come back, I really do believe that Stevens will be the one under the pump. Davis has done some really good jobs lately and is starting to become our Mr. Reliable back there. Stevens does some great things, some of his defensive saving grabs are pretty special, but then he just makes some horrendous mistakes, which could quite easily cost us a game or two in the future.

As for Walker and Hendo, I think we'll find they're as safe as houses as long as their current form continues, our forward line has been working a treat the past few weeks and the only addition I'd currently be making would be that of Knights, who at the very least, is still a week away you'd think. No point mixing it all up by throwing Stevens up there.

The interesting one for mine is Maric, I was a big supporter of his early in the season, but over the past month or so his form has really started to drop off possibly as a result of being over worked early in the season. I just wonder whether they might look at giving him a couple of weeks in the SANFL just to regain some touch, whilst also having a look at either McKernan(who by the looks is starting to find a little consistency and form) or Sellar(if he can get his body right again). Not a massive drop off in form from Maric, still doing some good things, just not the player IMO he was earlier in the season.

 

[Mismatched]

Agree adelaidecrows on the SANFL option.

I don't understand why there is such a stigma attached to a player coming back via the SANFL. I don't know why we don't use the SANFL reserves more either. Surely it would be a good thing to be able to bring a guy back in gradually, start with 60% game time in the ressies and build from there.

It seems that you have to be either unavailable or ready to go 100%, nowhere in between.

This is especially puzzling because the club has made such a MASSIVE issue of players not having a full preseason and how detrimental this is to their performance. It even gets mentioned for guys like VB and Porps who have played basically every game but missed a chunk of the preseason.

If it is such an issue and a player misses a heap of the preseason, then why wouldn't we start their preseason later?

Eg with Porps, he was 'fit' when the season started but wasn't able to play in the NAB Cup. Why wouldn't he do several weeks of hard training, start off with Westies a few weeks later and get some miles in his legs (his equivalent of the NAB Cup) and then aim for an AFL start in Round 7 or 8?

The way Neil talks it basically sounds that unless you have a full preseason you've basically stuffed your year. Surely we need to devise some better ways of handling players who have had interrupted starts?

I think this is a very good point Carl and I think we might see the club do it a little differently in the future. Early in the season we were clearly playing blokes who were both underdone and not quite up to speed with team gameplans etc. On paper it didn't look like we had that bad a side, but in reality it is very different.

In an ideal world, I think we might have seen the Crows give blokes like Porplyzia a little extra time to get fit, but the problem was there was far too many of them requiring this and the faith just wasn't there that our younger players were ready to shoulder the load. As a result of us fielding an underprepared side, our season went completely arse up, then the more our season went into freefall, the more we rushed players back into the side in an attempt to save the season.

Effectively our first 6 or so weeks turned into an extended preseason and the form we're currently seeing at the moment is perhaps an example of what we would have seen, had our preseason not been ruined by injury. We no longer look quite like the undrilled rabble we looked like at the start of the season.

I agree, however, that in the future we'd probably be far better off giving blokes like Porplyzia, Bock, Vince etc. a few extra weeks in the SANFL to build up a bit of match fitness and spend time actually training with the group so as to understand the set plays, game plans and just understand each other so that they could integrate better into the team.

 

[amer]

Big test of where this club's priorities lie for sure. Armstrong is the only definite omission I can pick out. Have an awful feeling Jaensch, Davis and Sloane will have to make way for Knights, Bock and Mackay. The big strike against Davis is how tidy Stevens' stat sheet looks despite his brain dead turnovers, took a ton of saving marks; all despite Davis playing by far the more important (and impressive) role in smashing Kennedy. Would much rather we released Davo as the swing man, better decision maker.

Will we omit a Symes or Reilly or even a Doughty for Mackay? Perhaps release him off the half back flank?

 

[birdmanptr]

Knights, competiting with Henderson, Jaensch and Porps.

Well that's. Good news if you support the WWT sides

Have to laugh at the Thread heading 12-14 weeks ago we were lucky to have a fit 22 now we have a selection dilemma

15 weeks is a long time in football

 

[StillCrowing]

Will we omit a Symes or Reilly or even a Doughty for Mackay? Perhaps release him off the half back flank?

I'm not sure why you would even consider dropping Reilly. His work rendered Priddis ineffectual.

 

[amer]

I'm not sure why you would even consider dropping Reilly. His work rendered Priddis ineffectual.

Mainly because I think the tagging job is overrated in terms of its difficulty. Tagger is another way of saying "this bloke isn't much of an asset to us when he has the footy, so let's have him stop an opposition asset instead". Reilly's ability under any sort of pressure is piss poor, so I wouldn't throw away the idea of chucking him out, handing the role to someone else - Sloane - and having the silky skills of Mackay setting us up off the flank.

 

[Rave Slave]

I'm not sure why you would even consider dropping Reilly. His work rendered Priddis ineffectual.

Agree with this.

In fact I'd go as far as to say that Reilly and Symes efforts in recent weeks have played an enormous part in our teams reversal in fortunes.

Symes in particular provides a running link man with an elite ability to find space to setup the run. He may have iffy disposal at times but he's a crucial cog in our side now and his workrate is top notch.

As for Reilly well he's evolving into an exceptional defensive midfielder. I cringed at the start of this year at the prospect of him being our first choice tagger but I think he's finally found his niche and his football is showing as a result. Even his disposal is getting back to the Reilly of old.

Knights, Mackay and Bock should all come back and for mine they'll squeeze Armstrong, Stevens and Doughty out. Harsh call on Doughty but for mine he's behind Symes and Reilly in terms of recent performances and the young kids (Sloane et al) must be prioritised.

 

[TheLeftFist8]

Knights, Mackay and Bock should all come back and for mine they'll squeeze Armstrong, Stevens and Doughty out. Harsh call on Doughty but for mine he's behind Symes and Reilly in terms of recent performances and the young kids (Sloane et al) must be prioritised.

This is how i see it, despite the fact i reckon Armstrong has a future at this level, Stevens has redressed the excellent:horrendous ratio in the past 2 weeks and Doughty has certainly lifted his intensity.

In different ways, all 3 would be harsh droppings (Armstrong less so), but the other 3 are clearly better players when fit and firing.

Regarding that point, I'd stagger the inclusions and give Bock and Knights another SANFL week at least and only bring them in on a decent form base.

 

[TheLeftFist8]

The interesting one for mine is Maric, I was a big supporter of his early in the season, but over the past month or so his form has really started to drop off possibly as a result of being over worked early in the season. I just wonder whether they might look at giving him a couple of weeks in the SANFL just to regain some touch, whilst also having a look at either McKernan(who by the looks is starting to find a little consistency and form) or Sellar(if he can get his body right again). Not a massive drop off in form from Maric, still doing some good things, just not the player IMO he was earlier in the season.

As usual, the ruck spots for Adelaide continue to be a constantly intriguing merry-go-round.

Maric has certainly fallen to 2R over the past 3 weeks and despite providing a solid back-up, has dropped off a bit from his career-best early season form. I feel sorry for the rucks at time...mentally it seems a massively different role as 2R compared to the lead ruck.

We've seen over the past few years that whoever the lead ruck position goes to, they seem to grow in stature and lift before either getting injured/burnt out (Griffin, Maric, Moran have all been the favoured ones at some stage or another).

I'd love to see Sellar or McKernan come in but it would be a very harsh call on Maric at present. I could just see Maric dropping right off mentally and languishing at Port for a bit till he fired up again and became 1R by the end of the year when Griffin has hip soreness!

1R for R1, 2011...who the hell knows!

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

As usual, the ruck spots for Adelaide continue to be a constantly intriguing merry-go-round.

Maric has certainly fallen to 2R over the past 3 weeks and despite providing a solid back-up, has dropped off a bit from his career-best early season form. I feel sorry for the rucks at time...mentally it seems a massively different role as 2R compared to the lead ruck.

We've seen over the past few years that whoever the lead ruck position goes to, they seem to grow in stature and lift before either getting injured/burnt out (Griffin, Maric, Moran have all been the favoured ones at some stage or another).

I'd love to see Sellar or McKernan come in but it would be a very harsh call on Maric at present. I could just see Maric dropping right off mentally and languishing at Port for a bit till he fired up again and became 1R by the end of the year when Griffin has hip soreness!

1R for R1, 2011...who the hell knows!

we are finally seeing a ruck combination work as a team which is bearing fruit and you are considering changing the mix with players who do not have form on the board

All due respect to Sellar and SMACK lets see these lads regularly in their sanfl clubs best before we start thinking of demoting Maric

on Maric's form, IMO is form is still very good but now he is sharing responsibility and game time with Griff and as a team our ruck output has been much better

where is the logic

 

[BACCS]

Did anyone actually pay close attention to Davis yesterday? He certainly did well on Kennedy, but made some howling errors like dropped marks, fumbles etc. Certainly wasn't one of his better games, and if Stevens deserves critisicm, so does Davis.

 

[spexau]

Davis didn't have his best game but still held Kennedy and didn't concede unnecessary goals. Stevens best was good, but his worst was awful. I'd put Bock in for Stevens but we'll have to see what happens 4pm Thursday.

 

[dplggr47]

Did anyone actually pay close attention to Davis yesterday? He certainly did well on Kennedy, but made some howling errors like dropped marks, fumbles etc. Certainly wasn't one of his better games, and if Stevens deserves critisicm, so does Davis.

yes, those were actually the things i did notice from him. he dropped several easy uncontested marks, which weren't huge disasters because his opponent wasn't too close to him, but this just meant he dropped them when there was no pressure on him. he's still very skinny, so he's not a very good tackler (probably the only worst tackler on the team is Armstrong, who is the only person skinnier than he is). if Bock is in contention to return, Davis or Stevens will make way.

 

[Schulzycrow]

Team from weekend

B: Johncock, Rutten, Stevens
HB Doughty, Davis, Symes
C: Vince, Dangerfield, Sloane
HF: Henderson, Walker, van Berlo
F: Porplyzia, Tippett, Douglas
R: Maric, Thompson, Goodwin
Int: Reilly, Griffin, Armstrong, Jaensch

One's in bold that would say didn't set the world on fire, maybe a bit harsh on VB, but if we are looking at Bock, Knighta, Macca and DMac to come back in the next few weeks, maybe you could put Porps in bold as well, but he did okay yesterday.

Has been said that Maric is looking a bit stuffed and it might be worth our while giving Smack a go before the end of the year.

At this stage if Bock and Macca come back in casue Mooney will be available and will need two mobile big men. So Armstrong and Stevens go out-have had enough of Stevo giving stupid free kicks away.

Stiffy on Stokes and maybe a Reilly on Bartel, VB on Ablett and Dogga on the biggest threat Chapman. We have the better forward line, but you would think Scarlett will go to Tipp and Taylor would go to Tex.

Porps, Hendo and Jaensch are going to be the wild cards this week.

Its a great problem to have seeing that the young Crows are really standing up.

 

[TheLeftFist8]

we are finally seeing a ruck combination work as a team which is bearing fruit and you are considering changing the mix with players who do not have form on the board

All due respect to Sellar and SMACK lets see these lads regularly in their sanfl clubs best before we start thinking of demoting Maric

on Maric's form, IMO is form is still very good but now he is sharing responsibility and game time with Griff and as a team our ruck output has been much better

where is the logic

Just to clarify, while I'd like to see the other guys play, i agree that Maric should not be dropped at present.

However, let's not overstate the Griffin/Maric duo (who clearly lost to superior opponents on the weekend despite receiving deserved praise for being competitive). I wouldn't call Maric current form 'very good' but i would be happy to say it's good enough to retain a spot for now. Has clearly dropped off a bit from early season form but those efforts are brownie points he is deservedly cashing in on now.

Long term, we have 3 1R options on the list. Of those, only Moran has the capacity to play multiple positions (Maric/Griffin can pinch hit forward to change things up but they are pretty limited down there, though certainly Moran is no world beater in other roles despite his flexibility). The 2R role can be opened up to Sellar/McKernan who can play other positions which i think is important in the modern era. Sitting a ruckman on the bench for 50% game time each is a luxury. So far they are justifying it but longer term i reckon the 2R needs more decent strings to the bow.

The best part is we at least have a competitive duo again

 

[Allbetsroff]

If any changes are made it will only be one. A settled side is a winning side, you don't make heaps of changes going into a tough game especially when the players you're bringing in have spent an eternity out with injury.

Chris Knights is probably the least likely to come in. People seem to be getting 2009 Chris Knights (20 games 40+ goals) confused with 2010 Chris Knights (3 games 2 goals ravaged by injury). If he did come in he'd have 0 impact and be a waste of space, because there is no fitness base at all. We've already seen exactly that in the 3 games he did play this year.

 

[Huntercrow]

I Agree with Albetsroff
We shouldn't panic just because it's Geelong.
As good as we have been the last 3 weeks we have to be aware of the huge jump in class between playing 16th and 1st on the ladder within the space of 6 days.
We will also be coming of a Perth trip.
If we play underdone players they will get hammered.
I think the best team we could put on the field is the team that has won its last 3 games.
Would they be good enough to beat Geelong?
Not in a million years but at the moment this combination is our best chance.

This being a Friday night game will put us on the national stage (for better or worse) so a good showing is very important to gain some lost respect.