Review R10: The Good, Bad and the Ugly vs. Collingwood

[DJ75]

He has had 115 games to move the Crows forward and he still sits at 37% win/loss .... I have watched the ineffective coaching for long enough ... Rachele 7 years is a farce, his lack of defensive action and understanding of basic skills is pathetic to watch. I am not telling you anything ... I made a statement about where Adelaide Football Club are at, this is Nicks last year.

Hi Mark. Good to see you have progressed from the troll calls to 5AA where you pretended to be a crows supporter.

 

[Rotayjay]

We used to lose to Collingwood by single-digit margins, and now we lose by 10. Going backwards - lol!

 

[DJ75]

Was obvious at the game.. we were overrunning them and had control of the ball for the last 10mins.
That little patch in the 3rd cost us the game.
We just need our players to believe that they are good enough. It’s all mental and execution under pressure.

Think our games played avg is around 70-80 each week? When we are at 100-120+ 2026-2027 we’ll be a problem for other teams. We also need to pump games into Draper asap.

I think 2027 we will contend but it’ll be a waste if Draper has 15 games to his name at the start of 2027.
Ideally he should have around 30-40.

It’s the same every time we play a good team.
We play defensive, scared to lose. To the surprise of no one (except Nicks it seems) we are losing, so at the last moment he gets desperate and attacks. Suddenly we are everywhere and look dangerous. We get close but can’t quite win.
It’s the Nicks plan.

Rinse and repeat the next time we play a good side. He never learns.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

So when we won the showdown by not only riding the pressure of the last 6 minutes, but doing enough under pressure to prevent Port from taking the lead. Was that a coaching marvel or was it the players? It just feels the theme is no matter what happens we need to sack Nicks. It’s hard to take anyone seriously when posts are continually just the same crap posted in a different way.

This is your example of mental fortitude? A game where we nearly choked a 20 point lead late in the last quarter against a side that lost by 76 points the week after and is bottom 4 on form?

 

[mcleod at 50 lines it up]

Draper: kind of glad we did not play him in this game. Collingwood are big, tough players and honestly I don't think it's safe or a good long term strategy to play an 18-year-old in that situation. Asking for long term injuries. In fact, I don't really think AFL should be allowing any 18-year-old kids to play with fully grown men in a heavy contact sport like this, but that's just my opinion.

Agree, wherever someone says put draper into the midfield it's a tick for they've never played a sport in their life. A surprisingly high percentage of the board

I think maybe you get away with a pocket or flank for a young player depending on the bloke, some are ready earlier than others, but otherwise it's the Keays, Peatling, Shoenberg, Berry, Murphy, Jones, Soligo, Rachele (if he hadn't broken ribs) types who we should be finding about who's up to it in the middle. Pedlar should be brought back in a periphery position to help overcome his injuries.

 

[CrowBloke]

We were always going to lose this one. Actually had the umpires on side in the first half but couldn’t capitalise. There was a passage of play in the d50 where 50-50 frees to collingwood were not paid but we did nothing with it.
Second half we predictably shat the bed after blowing multiple set shots on goal when we could have run away with it. Same as the story against Geelong and Port where it should have been put beyond doubt but we absolutely bottled it.

I agree with the above , but not:

Last week was clearly a dud coach but I feel like this week is just ingrained choking against Collingwood dating back to the 2002/3 PF final losses.

That's irrelevant. None of the current side played then.
Several current players were not even born then and could not possibly be affected by those losses (unlike us
long-suffering supporters ).

What is relevant is that under Nicks, we have never beaten Collingwood (0 from 7), nor Sydney (0 from 6).
Likewise, we play badly vs:
Brisbane (1W 1D from 7)
Fremantle (1 from 6)
Geelong (1 from 7)
Melbourne (1 from 6)
Richmond (1 from 5), which is a pathetic record.
That's a total of 5 wins from 44 games (11.4% ) against 7 sides and does not look like changing soon,
well, except Melbourne (AO, Round 17) and Richmond (away, Round 16) in 2025, who are currently 15th and 16th respectively. I wouldn't necessarily bank both of those.

If you take away 17 wins from 22 games against our bunnies Carlton (5 from 6)
and basket cases NM (7 from 8) and WCE (5 from 8),
then Nicks' record is 72% losses.

All up, Nicks' Crows lose a tad over 6 out of every 10 games they play. I'm sick of it .

 

[Bay62]

Spot on. 2027 should have been the goal for this list and rebuild since the start

Which means we need to have a coach capable of properly utilising a peaking list by then

It would be a disaster to re-sign Nicks out to 2028 based on a very low bar only to have him burn the list in its prime

Yep, especially since as I’ve posted elsewhere Longmire is available. Also Simpson is an option. Need to look at experienced coaches who’ve won flags and got teams to the GF (despite Longmire’s recent failures once there)

 

[MsTopG]

It’s the same every time we play a good team.
We play defensive, scared to lose. To the surprise of no one (except Nicks it seems) we are losing, so at the last moment he gets desperate and attacks. Suddenly we are everywhere and look dangerous. We get close but can’t quite win.
It’s the Nicks plan.

Rinse and repeat the next time we play a good side. He never learns.

Nicks is scared of his own shadow. That rubs off on a team.

 

[Bovo]

This is your example of mental fortitude? A game where we nearly choked a 20 point lead late in the last quarter against a side that lost by 76 points the week after and is bottom 4 on form?

nearly choking is the opposite from choking and that is the point.

 

[Cromulant]

nearly choking is the opposite from choking and that is the point.

We choked last week, we just played a side with far less talent.

 

[Samcro24]

I'm not overly concerned about missing a few routine set shots by a small margin

I'm bloody concerned that with the game on the line one of our best players in Rankine not only misses a relatively easy 30m shot, but misses entirely. Twice.

These weren't just misses. They were systemic chokes in big moments which we have been doing constantly in these sorts of games for years.

It's more than "player was bad at executing that skill at that moment"

Last week Rankine kicked two clutch goals against Temu Collingwood.

Then against actual Collingwood he turns into Temu Rankine. To spray both ootf is ridiculous.

 

[CrowBloke]

He's not. If it was dry yesterday Thilthorpe would have taken him to the cleaners.

Yes, but it wasn't dry.
Frampton (and Collingwood in general) played to the conditions very well ... and the Crows did not.

Our Crows prefer fast, dry conditions upon which they run and overlap and deliver the ball with stability and confidence. The rain was an inconvenience to which they did not adjust ==> that's on Nicks.

The 2 set shots that Rankine missed --- did anyone see him take extra care, dry his hands, dry off the ball on his jumper/shorts etc? The ball-drops and shanks off the boot must have been water-related.
Both times I was thinking, mate, slow down; dry the ball, dry your hands, make sure <== Nicks should have drilled that into him, pre-game.

He's benefited from going to a club challenging for a flag vs a club that was in rebuild mode. That environment has brought out his best but he'll never be more than a depth KPD.
He wouldn't be keeping Murray, Keane or even Butts out of our side, even in the form he showed yesterday.

Both points are true .
The key conclusion is that Frampton's played better in a better team under a much better Coach and has a GF winner's medal to show for it. Half his luck!
Likewise, Stengle! (also AA squad)

 

[Bovo]

We choked last week, we just played a side with far less talent.

Choking is when you’re expected to win, but you lose. It’s pretty black and white (and teal).

 

[Cromulant]

Choking is when you’re expected to win, but you lose. It’s pretty black and white (and teal).

We coughed up a 4 goal lead against a bottom 6 side and got A LOT of luck along the way.

The alarm bells were there, the club failed to address them

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Play Berry for a month and then make a decision.

Too many players in limbo because we refuse to commit one way or another.

Exactly.

We should be playing plenty of fringe players against West Coast, including debutantes as gives them an easier opponent to get confidence.

 

[CrowBloke]

I thought Stiffy designed this jumper?

Yep.
The poster was reading Rankine's state-of-mind from incorrect info, which is Trump-like confirmation bias ie
to draw conclusions, then invent reasons for them.

 

[CrowBloke]

I don't plan on going through 21 pages of posts to check, but is anyone still arguing that Milera is an awesome kick after that?

Sadly, a few want to retain him for next week, maybe forever.

 

[Bovo]

Exactly.

We should be playing plenty of fringe players against West Coast, including debutantes as gives them an easier opponent to get confidence.

I don’t think we can afford to do that. Playing a ton of fringe players is likely to even the scales. We need this win and can’t afford to gamble it.

 

[WeeBlake]

I don’t think we can afford to do that. Playing a ton of fringe players is likely to even the scales. We need this win and can’t afford to gamble it.

When would we ever do it then

 

[Cromulant]

I don’t think we can afford to do that. Playing a ton of fringe players is likely to even the scales. We need this win and can’t afford to gamble it.

If we aren't confident of beating the bottom side with guys like Draper, Edwards, Dowling and co playing then we have no business being talked about as a finals possibility.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I don’t think we can afford to do that. Playing a ton of fringe players is likely to even the scales. We need this win and can’t afford to gamble it.

Doubt they will be worse than playing injured or tired players...

 

[Cromulant]

Doubt they will be worse than playing injured or tired players...

It's not like we're playing Brisbane next week

 

[CrowBloke]

Sorry, I am not a fan of Nicks but those 3 misses are on the players. These are professional athletes and their execution was poor.

Coaches cannot assume that players know what to do just because they play AFL level.
Players need to be focussed on particular aspects/facets of the Opposition, their specific opponent
AND
the conditions!
It depends on whether Nicks made a point of preparing them mentally for wet-weather footy and what goes with it.

If he did, then those misses were on the players.
If he didn't, that's on Nicks.

Given the way they handled the conditions (they didn't) my guess is that Nicks didn't.
He certainly didn't select for a wet day/ground.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

It's not like we're playing Brisbane next week

If we can't debut the likes of Edwards next week, when is a good time?

 

[Cromulant]

If we can't debut the likes of Edwards next week, when is a good time?

And you cant tell me he wont perform to a level similar to Milera.

We also need to see what we look like without Tex. It looks like this is gonna be it for him, so go smaller and take a look. Or even give Curtin the role.

Play Draper through the middle