Review QF: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly vs. Collingwood

[1970crow]

I am not making excuses for last night, however, what happened was another example of how the AFL media circus throws fuel on the fire with these types of incidents.

Rankine was clearly targeted by Collingwood players in that Round 23 game and the sledging and baiting ended up with him doing something completely stupid.

Rather than just letting the issue come and go, instead we're then subjected to the massive pile on from every angle of the AFL media for the better part of a week constantly bringing it up 24/7. We then had the AFL media later criticising the club for having the nerve to stand up for Rankine by raising the sleding and treatment that Rankine received during the game that led up to the inident.

The whole thing created an us versus them mentality and with the non stop barrage of it continually being brought up every five minutes, it ends up with the supporters being angry about it. Throw that in with the vision of IQ seemingly laughing at Rankine over the incident it then also creates questions over the motives of why it was raised.

Rightly or wrongly It ended up being a powder keg of emotion that exploded last night.

And the usual idiots are wanting more fuel on the fire. We’re back talking about and getting comment from rainbow crows.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/news/collingwood-coach-craig-mcrae-left-really-disappointed-after-adelaide-crowd-targets-star-pies/news-story/d2cbb2e9fe13350a15a225591eebfc9d

 

[SugarShane]

The worst of Nicks and the Crows-under-pressure were exposed on Thursday night. Every team left will know how to beat us, specifically, turn up the heat and watch us turn into the (awful) 2024 Crows.

Depressingly, I think it was West Coast that showed the world how to beat us. Speed and pressure with a loose man in defence. They just weren't good enough to do it for 4 whole quarters.

 

[davos44]

You were going so well,...until this utter bullshit.

How is it bullshit?

Booing someone for speaking up against the very thing we are trying to stamp out is moronic and backward.

Terms like the one Izak used marginalise and belittle people who have no control over their sexual preference. Same goes for race, colour and disability.

 

[SugarShane]

Yes. A goal here tho and from memory 13 pts down with 8 or so mins to go... in with a sniff

They do that millionaire shit almost every game and often get away with it. It gives me the absolute shits. I don't know if it's a team directive or not but I hate it.

In a position like that, you kick the goal. The team seems to care more about selflessness than winning. I don't know of Nicksy gives out KFC vouchers for the most goal assists but not goals but so many times this season I've seen this ridiculous handball happy bullshit 15m out from goal that takes us from a simple shot to a mess and rushed shot. We get ourselves into more than trouble than necessary and often it's not life or death, or we're against a team that couldn't make us pay, but in a final they will.

Everything about this situation does my nut in.

Our leading goalkicker and difference maker, running to an open goal, for a goal we desperately need to get us back with a chance, looks behind him and passes to the worst shot for goal on our list. If Keays was calling for it, he can get stuffed. Everyone knows he doesn't have a right foot, he's barely got a left foot. But even with Keays calling for it, Thilthorpe should've ignored it. Your 200cm arse is in the team to kick goals.

Even if he doesn't flub the pass it's still an insane decision. Hopefully they both learn from it. Finals isn't the place to be pulling fancy bullshit like that.

I don't leave games early, but if I was going to that would've been the moment to head for the gates. Put a picture of that next to Smith bombing it on Moore's head and that's the entire night summed up.

 

[CrowBloke]

Yeah of course which is what the post I replied to was based on, getting through to a PF. If indeed that happens it will have been an amazing turn around from previous seasons. Not too unexpected from me having tipped us to finish 5th after the home and away.

Thanks.
Even when we were 9-5, I never imagined that we'd finish 18-5 and Minor Premiers, so my expectations have been far exceeded. I enjoyed the ride.
I feel flat after Thursday's loss, but not devastated.

 

[SugarShane]

I was prepared to give Keays some benefit of the doubt that his call was possibly meant to draw away defenders and give Thilthorpe an even easier path to goal. But...

Stealing from Reddit again. But the similarities stick out dramatically.



It's Thilthorpe again choosing a bad short passing option. And again it's to a senior player (Dawson this time) demanding the ball when he shouldn't be.

In this case Dawson is also flat-footed, not paying attention to whether he's open enough to take the mark, not paying attention to whether he's open enough to immediately play on, facing the wrong way so he doesn't have any idea if there's anyone to kick to, and does have the knowledge that the only player who could benefit from a blind quick bomb forward is the one who just kicked it to him.

Bonus points for how switched off the rest of the side is in the periphery.

Plus, even if the kick to Dawson is marked and Dawson stops and takes it, the mark was further away from where the umpire was taking Thilthorpe. He'd taken about 20m of his 50m penalty. He could've taken his kick from the centre circle almost and set up for a F50 entry where we had a paddock insidd 50 left of screen. It's just dumb arrogant shit for the sake of doing dumb arrogant shit.

 

[Crow-eater]

My night included getting to the corner of Morphett and Hindley Street and my wife realising that she had lost her phone.

We managed to log into her google account and track her device (thankfully it was still at the ground) so we had to run back to Adelaide Oval against the flow of foot traffic to get back there before they shut the gates to get her phone which was thankfully on the ground near where we sat.

Yeah it was fun night

Funnily enough my sister lost her phone as well. Spent a good 20 minutes trying to find it, and ****ed if you could find an AO worker to help/ask about it. Thankfully I had the idea to call it and someone answered. Someone had handed it in to one of the stewards. Probably found by a Crows fan

 

[SugarShane]

Except from what I’ve seen we weren’t a player short last night we were just completely out coached and played

They played genuine finals footy and we weren't ready. Manic pressure with intelligence. I lost count of the amount of times we fumbled and fumbled and then they'd just soccer the ball 20m forward out of congestion to space and let them work their magic. We were trying to be clean and perfect because that's Crows footy, they were happy with chaos.

 

[Soggy2112]

Yep; it involved a lot of mind reading imo. Here:

Thilthorpe deferred, Thilthorpe thought, Thilthorpe assumed ...

Then finally, some sense:

... and Keays got a bad bounce from it which resulted in him being tackled.
Collingwood pressure, actual and perceived, had the Crows fumbling and second-guessing for the whole game.

I think it’s both their faults.

Thilthorpe should have just kicked it. But Keays streaming past demanding the footy would’ve put doubt in his mind. Keays should have been screaming at him to kick it.

 

[CrowBloke]

I think we destroy either GWS or Hawthorn next week.

Great optimism!
If I have to cough up $50 to my mate after losing our bet that'll be the price I pay to see us in a PF in 2025

1 week ago we needed to win 3 in a row to get the flag, but we would not have Rankine for the most important game. This week we need to win 3 in a row to get a flag, but if we get to the grand final we get one of our top 2 players back. This also gives Rachele a game before the prelim. He hasn't played since July so he can get through a bit of rust this week and be better placed to really impact the Prelim.

You don't have any misgivings about Rachele/Rankine being underdone for the pressure cooker of an MCG PF and GF? (edited)

The real pressure and bullshit surrounding the Rankine debacle is over now (for the moment). Tex's 300 is done and dusted. The AFL news cycle is all on the other finals. We have 2 days rest more than our next opponent. All we have to focus and worry about is how shit our performance and how lucky we are to have a 2nd chance.

I watched the mini-match replay on the AFL site last night which was depressing.
In this passage of play (18.06 left in 3rd quarter) starting here:


Collingwood produce 7 pressure acts in a row making us fumble until they get clear possession and goal.
That started a goal avalanche.
About 7 minutes later more forward pressure culminated in the huge Schulz tackle on Keays (ball spills, they kick to Elliot who goals, putting them 3 goals up).

With Nicks defensive mindset which has stifled our high-scoring, run-on game (reminded me of our 04 start last year), I fear a repeat of that next Saturday .

The path to glory now goes through 2 games at the MCG and one at home. Brilliant.

Your perspective is heartening .
I thought the better path was win QF and PF at home, then beat whomever on GF day. That chance has gone.

Dawson, TT, Keays, FOG can't all be bad two weeks in a row!

I can see that; they rarely have 2 consecutive bad games
BUT
Hinge, Peatling, Cumming (who was awful), Murray, RoB, Taylor, Milera all need to lift too.

I BELIEVE!

I did too, before the Mugpies' relentless pressure dismantled us at home.
I'm hanging my 2025 hat on the Minor Premiership which was a helluva rise after 15th last year.
Now, I'm hoping more than believing, ie hoping you're right!

 

[CrowBloke]

Ugly: Tex's son in a Collingwood jumper. I love Tex, but that's a failure of parenting. You're a club legend and current player and have the chance to teach your kid from birth to be a supporter of your club. But you let them support another side. WTF.

Nah, mate; Tex's son (in fact, all of his kids) is as cute as a litter of kittens and has starry-eyed hero-worship for Naicos, not Collingwood.
Good parenting is supporting your kids' choices and allowing for individual differences.
It develops their autonomy.

 

[Cromulant]

100% coaching failure for me.

I wouldn't say 100%

Leaving him unchecked was a huge failure, but some of our better players kicking it to him at will ?? You cant control that as a coach.

We had a loose in defence all night too, and yet Collingwood were able to find free players everywhere

 

[ABAB]

I wouldn't say 100%

Leaving him unchecked was a huge failure, but some of our better players kicking it to him at will ?? You cant control that as a coach.

We had a loose in defence all night too, and yet Collingwood were able to find free players everywhere

Provided the game plan wasn't just to get it inside 50 even with blindly and given this occurred for a quarter and a half, it looked like that was the initial plan.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

View attachment 2417335
(stolen from Reddit)

Why the fk is Keays calling for it

 

[FR0GGY]

Why the fk is Keays calling for it

That’s harking back to the old selfish Keays when he was trying to establish himself here.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

That’s harking back to the old selfish Keays when he was trying to establish himself here.

Not taking away from TT’s bad decision but boy.

 

[Billy Cart]

How is it bullshit?

Booing someone for speaking up against the very thing we are trying to stamp out is moronic and backward.

Terms like the one Izak used marginalise and belittle people who have no control over their sexual preference. Same goes for race, colour and disability.

Let me ask you this, if you had people scragging, pulling, and mouthing off at you for a couple of hours, what would you do? A word is just a word and should have been left out on the bloody field. Grow a pair people.

 

[CrowBloke]

Interesting. So booing an indigenous player isn't racist?

Not if the booing has nothing to do with race/skin colour, but we'll never really know what motivates people.

It's actually a good question that gets to the heart of the booing directed at Goodes and Rankine and any Indigenous player.
What's the basis, ie what's at the heart of the booing? The fact that they're indigenous? Skin colour?
If so, that's racism.

At the time, I assumed (naively) that Goodes was being booed for being perceived as a hothead and a showpony (not by me). I loved his Indigenous pride and that spear-gesturing wardance; shades of Winmar lifting his guernsey and pointing to his skin colour.

Are fans booing skin colour, or player actions/behaviour?
Surely not the former, since all teams have Indigenous AFL and AFLW players??

Last July, after Rankine flattened Starcevich off the ball (and copped 4 games for it), he was soundly booed by the Brisbane fans. Again, at the time, I didn't think the booing had anything to do with race. I still don't.
It was the same as our fans booing Houston for the hit on Rankine, in August last year.

 

[1970crow]

Doubt it was even 5% booing.

I was also top of Eastern Stand, northern side & no one was booing him.

I saw some footage and you could barely hear it over the general noise. It was there, but not overwhelming. But that was only a snippet. And my recollection of the full game is a touch hazy.

 

[1970crow]

Enough were booing him that it was plainly obvious at the ground

Could they have been Geelong supporters?

 

[1970crow]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-set-to-investigate-adelaide-crows-star-over-alleged-slur/news-story/476f1a7fa6804097ad19b1004c9d7d80

Watch the video, for those of you with short memories.

He was into Rankine all night, same as Houston, that's why he was booed.

I just watched that and surely there’s nothing irregular there. The push after the ridiculous stage was warranted, that was embarrassing from Rankine. The rest just looked like normal argy bargey. Exactly what you’d expect in a finals shaping game between top 4 combatants 2 rounds from September.

 

[Billy Cart]

You dont think losing Rankine has derailed us?

No but it wasn't Rankine's fault. It was the squeelers in black and white and the coaching who instructed them to hassle him all game long. How would you react if someone was nagging, pressuring you for 2 whole hours eh?

 

[Billy Cart]

Definitely losing the player.

I don't think the external noise had any impact on our performance.

We lacked star power and a spark badly

We could have won the game if we had kept our heads and looked at leading up forwards instead of banging up thier backsides.

 

[1970crow]

You dont think losing Rankine has derailed us?

Obviously it makes the job harder, but are you saying what he did has impacted the other players’ individual performances?

 

[1970crow]

Yeah I dislike when the AFL and AFLPA refer to the playing field being a "workplace". I can understand if we're talking about being at the club in meetings or training etc.

Once you cross the white line by all means treat your opponents with respect and with a duty of care but you can't compare anything that happens out there with standard workplace law, otherwise all 46 players would be booked for assault as they walked off the ground.

Not really because there’s rules that determine what’s legal and illegal and what penalties apply to contraventions. I agree the general view on using ordinary workplaces as a reference point though, even the military suffers this these days.