Review R5: The Good, Bad and the Nicks vs. Geelong Cats

[jenny61_99]

Completely outcoached.

Most disappointing, was the lack of composure by our senior players at crucial times. ROB was horrendous. Dawson. Sholl. Hinge. Worrell. Crouch!!! Just ugly. Should have changed it up in the fourth. Play Filthy in the Ruck. Have Taylor, Draper, Soligo and Peatling rotating through the middle. Dawson in defence Rob on the bench. DO SOMETHING! So frigging disappointed.

 

[WeeBlake]

I don’t understand why this is on Nicks.

 

[Danger in Texas]

It all comes back to on ground leadership. When the going gets tough, we lose our heads, which has been the story of this group.

One example that stands out was the Fogarty pass in the third (and I'm going to be honest, this is when losing becomes a real possibility to me). Darcy is on fire, 4 goals and we have been swamped. He gets a set shot from a position that he is borderline automatic, and what does he do? Pass it, and underhits it at that (and gets lucky with an umpires call, which Soligo doesn't convert). When we needed a leader to step up, he shirked it. As much as good moments can galvanize a team, moments like undo it.

Hinge had plenty. That minute of madness where he kicks a point, gets smothered running out defense and then, when it looks like he may recover it, he fumbles. Another one, gets a rough call on the 15 m and just casually strolls back, allowing a turnover.

We've battered down the hatches for two minutes, absorbing Geelong attack until Laird gets a free kick. What does he do? Gets close enough to the man on the mark to let it be smothered, and concedes a goal.

We have an attack on the wing with 5 minutes to go, which Keays wins with a free kick. Instead of taking a second, and setting up for a corridor kick, he tries to force the play by handballing to a man-marked Curtin, wasting an attack.

Rankine gets a turnover in space with 4 minutes left, and just kicks it straight to a Geelong player when Adelaide have two out of the back.

And it goes on, and on. This team is careless under pressure.

Yep, we lost this game based off of simple mistakes. The talent is there (except in ruck), the composure is absolutely not

 

[Scorpus]

Would love to know the ground ball and hard ball stats. I expect we were smashed in that area

 

[aabp1978]

Back to feeling deflated. How many times can you honestly make selection mistakes and be out coached and not lose your job? Sholl awful, Laird pathetic, Hinge’s worst game I can remember, ROB a liability, Max terrible. Dawson did bugger all.

I would say bring in Dowling, Edwards etc but they wont. Will be Murphy..

Rinse and repeat…

 

[6BTS]

Bad: the amount of errors
Ugly: the amount of errors when there's zero excuse, like kicking into the man on the mark

Don't worry, the important thing is Nicks, the players and the club will say all the right things in the media, which is very important for the AFC corporation.

 

[Anzacpaul]

Remember that time Hugh Greenwood called us out for our focus on stats over impact?

That is Matt Crouch to a tee

He makes our midfield worse in tough games like this

My favourite part is when he sets up at centre bounce on the right rear but he's a left footer with no right foot.

 

[redandblack]

Long season and we're not far off, but we have a few players who make dumb decisions.

Sholl isn't good enough, Keane is a worry with the ball and our defence is poor under pressure.

But time to fix a few things.

 

[pjcrows]

I don’t understand why this is on Nicks.

He's the coach...

 

[SugarShane]

Get smashed by GWS next week as is tradition and we'll be right back in the pack.

 

[Moonwatcher]

Can't believe I got fooled into changing my tip at the last minute. Knew all week we were never winning this.

Would have been happy 30 points up

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Fogarty, Walker, Keays, Peatling, Cumming and Milera our best players.
Always believe someone who can football > someone who runs all day/important for the culture.
Players I'm talking who can football are Pedlar, Cook, Jones.

Jones would have been awful in this game. Dude has no footy IQ. I doubt those other two would have helped either. Maybe Peds if he's fit but he almost never looks fit.

 

[Firewalker]

A lot of squares ticked off in the traditional Crows bingo game.

Playing under done players
Senior players dictating things
The Ruckman being absolutely dog shit and contributing nothing
A Crouch playing injured and being ass
‘Outside’ players providing zero run and carry
Continual soft efforts from those outside players
Senior players wilting under pressure with poor decision making
Paying no respect to an opposition midfield and allowing them to do what they like
Defence being on a total different page to each other
Being destroyed by an opposition team bringing an extra up to stoppages
Nicks being totally destroyed by a more experienced coach in the box

 

[spenze]

The hide of us not trying to trade or draft a ruckman last season, to think we had to get Strachan to fall on his sword to get the last one in the window.

Who the **** in our coaching group thinks Rob is good, he was pantsed by Stanley, near 35, almost retired Stanley

 

[Redleg Crow]

Scholl’s card should be marked. We know what he is. Very good SANFL.

 

[CrouchPowa]

Yes Nicks' coaching / lack of ability to respond within the match was rubbish, but lets not sugarcoat it, so many players were garbage tonight. Geelong walking on water and the Crows were on bloody ice. Some really bad skills out there tonight, even with our best players. Probably one of Dawson's worst games for the club. 42% disp efficiency is a damning stat.

 

[Cromulant]

We are just far far too easy to score against.

The amount of easy ball that came into D50, no defence stood a chance, let alone ours.

 

[King Elvis]

Having talent is irrelevant if your coach is a boiled turnip

We smashed them early, Scott countered and destroyed our gameplan.

What did Nicks do in return - did we change structures, tactics etc?

Or just sit there looking confused.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Good: players put in the effort and there is no question about our desire and willingness to work.
Bad:
Ugly: Where do I start...

Game Plan - blind kicking to talls is a 90s era game plan that hasnt existed in any winning teams game plane in nearly 30 years.
Coaching - inability to read the game, make necessary adjustment. A good coach would have won this game by 10 goals. Instead Nicks allowed a well coached side of plebs beat us by simply being stupid.

The umpiring was a disaster area and im not sure how the afl can be happy with that.

 

[n4sir]

Cannot dislike Dangerfield.

I can't either. He did everything he could for us when he could, and he had a brilliant game tonight. Good for him.

Yeah you can choose to hate him, but it's an internal poison that will kill you a whole lot quicker than it will him. Get over any jealousy and just move on FFS.

 

[Scorpus]

I don’t understand why this is on Nicks.

What did Nicks do to counter the way Geelong were playing?

They set up a wall, closed off our exits, worked hard defensively to shut down our forward line. Not to mention our horrendous midfield structure that was torn apart

 

[jenny61_99]

I don’t understand why this is on Nicks.

Really? Even I can see that much of this was on him.

 

[Lawrst]

I know kicking long down the line isn't ideal against Geelong.

Neither is getting smothered because you took too long and them kicking a goal.

 

[pjcrows]

The hide of us not trying to trade or draft a ruckman last season, to think we had to get Strachan to fall on his sword to get the last one in the window.

Who the **** in our coaching group thinks Rob is good, he was pantsed by Stanley, near 35, almost retired Stanley

A 5AA caller said that O'Brien is a liability, and Camporeale was bemused and said he thought O'Brien won the night, and has had a great year...

 

[SugarShane]

Would have been happy 30 points up

Half time rule. Game's never over before half time and Crows gonna Crow. As soon as they kicked the 2 in a row dread set in.