ROO: "Crows Are Cactus"

[Bicks]

That's what I've always liked about Roo he says it like it is, no beating around the bushes for our Mark, straight up the guts just like his football!!!

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/the-crows-are-cactus/story-e6frecoc-1225855323909

The Crows are cactus

• Mark Ricciuto

THAT'S it. Adelaide's hopes of making the AFL finals blew up in smoke against Carlton at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

History shows you simply cannot make the top eight after losing your first four games. If the Crows had lost their first four matches against highly-rated opponents, maybe there would be a way back.
But they have lost to four teams who at the start of the season were not expected to contend for the eight.
Fremantle, Sydney, Melbourne and Carlton would have been chalked up as wins when the draw was released.
One look at the remainder of Adelaide's draw highlights the club's plight.
It still has to play heavyweights the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda twice, as well as premier Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn. There are also two matches to come against the powerful new Brisbane Lions, who are being led brilliantly by Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola.

 

[amer]

You can bet when the players head back to the Alma each week though that he's telling them the thing is still on.

 

[Vader]

My favourite quote from the article:

While it's mathematically possible to make the eight, Crows coach Neil Craig must get his side to continue to focus on the finals otherwise the team could disintegrate.

There's a lot of talk about playing younger players ahead of older players but it is far too early to do that.

They must ignore popular opinion and focus on rewriting history by going 100 per cent at making the finals.

In other words, ignore the reactive panic-mongers and keep doing everything you can to win as many games as possible - until the finals are no longer an option.

 

[macca23]

My favourite quote from the article:

In other words, ignore the reactive panic-mongers and keep doing everything you can to win as many games as possible - until the finals are no longer an option.

And that's exactly what we should do.

Personally I fear the worst about actually making the finals, given that we have been through what was allegedly an easy part of our draw, and have a whole heap of difficult games coming up soon and also to finish with.

However, I'd rather go down fighting than limply acknowledge that it looks tough!!

 

[PCORF]

There is no point in making the Finals. This team plays very well and then plays nasty tricks on us by breaking our hearts year after year. 1 minute to go in semi final, 1 point lead and I could see it coming. That has affected us in 2010, after years and years of trying and failing its sure gonna hurt you. Its good to have a bad year and I'm sure once the pressure is off we will start playing better again and spoiling the fun for other sides.

 

[Cap]

Given the pointlessness of finishing low this year I think that there is a very good reason to make the finals. This I guess depends on why you think we went shit this year. For me last year was a development year and this was meant to be bearing the fruit of that, I do recall a lot of posters had earmarked this year as another “development” year prior to Craigy’s now famous “we can make top 4” statements.

The big IF comes with the idea that Burton, Mcleod, Edwards and Goodwin are paramount to our success or still remain as a safety net for the up an coming players.
Once again Craigy kinda tied his own noose on this one by stating improvement in the team would come for the exact players we need to be LESS reliant on rather than more

 

[beartoo]

There is no point in making the Finals. This team plays very well and then plays nasty tricks on us by breaking our hearts year after year. 1 minute to go in semi final, 1 point lead and I could see it coming. That has affected us in 2010, after years and years of trying and failing its sure gonna hurt you. Its good to have a bad year and I'm sure once the pressure is off we will start playing better again and spoiling the fun for other sides.

If we follow that logic then we should not bother playing finals again. At least, not with this playing group or coach.

 

[SydCrow]

Roo said this?

While it's mathematically possible to make the eight, Crows coach Neil Craig must get his side to continue to focus on the finals otherwise the team could disintegrate.

There's a lot of talk about playing younger players ahead of older players but it is far too early to do that.

They must ignore popular opinion and focus on rewriting history by going 100 per cent at making the finals.

our greatest captain, the last man to "fly the flag", thinks that we shouldn't play the youngsters

wow that's going to mess with the heads of some posters

 

[relapse]

Given the pointlessness of finishing low this year I think that there is a very good reason to make the finals. This I guess depends on why you think we went shit this year. For me last year was a development year and this was meant to be bearing the fruit of that, I do recall a lot of posters had earmarked this year as another “development” year prior to Craigy’s now famous “we can make top 4” statements.

The big IF comes with the idea that Burton, Mcleod, Edwards and Goodwin are paramount to our success or still remain as a safety net for the up an coming players.
Once again Craigy kinda tied his own noose on this one by stating improvement in the team would come for the exact players we need to be LESS reliant on rather than more

Where we finish this season will be irrelevant in a couple of weeks time, it’s more about how the club moves forward and begins to transition from our current squad to focussing on the squad that will be the crux of our next premiership. Once the season is shot it is pointless to be carrying around 34 year old player(s) playing at around 60% of their previous best hoping to pinch a couple of extra wins, if that is all Craig has to bring to table in the coming weeks then he obviously isn’t the coach to lead us forward as a club.

As for last year being a developmental year, IMO that is very debateable. We debuted 6 players, most of which only came in to replace people that were injured. We saw Smack and Sloane played 1 game, Martin come in through injury and played 2 games before getting injuried, Cook got three games at the start of the year through injury and Patrenko was given 9 games and Walker 14.

Walker wasn’t that well managed well last year and spent way too much time on the bench and was continually dropped. Most of the other players only came in just to cover for an injury for a week or two before being dropped. Otten was the stand out last year and Dangerfield was given the full year, but being a such a promising talent that it would have been criminal to leave him in the SANFL.

So lets compare 2009 to 2008. In 2008 we also debuted 6 players (DMac, Dangerfield, Jakky, Sellar, Tippett and Otten). Dangerfield, Jakky, Otten and Sellar only saw very limited time while Tippett got a reasonable stretch and DMac pretty much played the whole year. I don’t see a lot of difference between our list management in 2008 and 2009 so I don’t agree that 2009 was a “development year”. Yes it was a massive improvement over 2007 where we did very little, but the club had also told Craig that he needed to move some of the list on after 2007. It’s a start but we still have a long way to go before we reach the pinnacle again.

 

[relapse]

Roo said this?



our greatest captain, the last man to "fly the flag", thinks that we shouldn't play the youngsters

wow that's going to mess with the heads of some posters

Do you really think that with his best friend Simon Goodwin being the captain and other friends like Burton and Edwards being part of the senior group that he would publicly tell them to move on and let the youngsters play

I take stuff like what Roo said with a pinch of salt especially considering there is a huge conflict of interest regarding personal relationships with some of our senior players.

 

[Alex99]

Do you really think that with his best friend Simon Goodwin being the captain and other friends like Burton and Edwards being part of the senior group that he would publicly tell them to move on and let the youngsters play

I take stuff like what Roo said with a pinch of salt especially considering there is a huge conflict of interest regarding personal relationships with some of our senior players.

Yep, what he said.

 

[Geoffa32]

Where we finish this season will be irrelevant in a couple of weeks time, it’s more about how the club moves forward and begins to transition from our current squad to focussing on the squad that will be the crux of our next premiership. Once the season is shot it is pointless to be carrying around 34 year old player(s) playing at around 60% of their previous best hoping to pinch a couple of extra wins, if that is all Craig has to bring to table in the coming weeks then he obviously isn’t the coach to lead us forward as a club.

As for last year being a developmental year, IMO that is very debateable. We debuted 6 players, most of which only came in to replace people that were injured. We saw Smack and Sloane played 1 game, Martin come in through injury and played 2 games before getting injuried, Cook got three games at the start of the year through injury and Patrenko was given 9 games and Walker 14.

Walker wasn’t that well managed well last year and spent way too much time on the bench and was continually dropped. Most of the other players only came in just to cover for an injury for a week or two before being dropped. Otten was the stand out last year and Dangerfield was given the full year, but being a such a promising talent that it would have been criminal to leave him in the SANFL.

So lets compare 2009 to 2008. In 2008 we also debuted 6 players (DMac, Dangerfield, Jakky, Sellar, Tippett and Otten). Dangerfield, Jakky, Otten and Sellar only saw very limited time while Tippett got a reasonable stretch and DMac pretty much played the whole year. I don’t see a lot of difference between our list management in 2008 and 2009 so I don’t agree that 2009 was a “development year”. Yes it was a massive improvement over 2007 where we did very little, but the club had also told Craig that he needed to move some of the list on after 2007. It’s a start but we still have a long way to go before we reach the pinnacle again.

We wont be a genuine contender till Scott Stevens is our oldest player and Danger Walker Tip Moran Otten Mackay Cook Petrenko Davis etc have 50-100 games in them.

 

[Geoffa32]

And that's exactly what we should do.

Personally I fear the worst about actually making the finals, given that we have been through what was allegedly an easy part of our draw, and have a whole heap of difficult games coming up soon and also to finish with.

However, I'd rather go down fighting than limply acknowledge that it looks tough!!

We were 1-3 in 1997.

 

[amer]

If we make the finals from here we should consider ourselves a legitimate threat, because we'll have to beat multiple top four sides to get there.

 

[Bicks]

Update :

You were saying Relapse......


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/can-neil-craig-raise-the-dead/story-e6frecoc-1225855074182

Support embattled Crows veterans, says former captain Mark Ricciuto

FORMER Crows captain Mark Ricciuto has thrown his support behind the team's embattled veterans, describing calls to sack them as "absolute rubbish".

As Adelaide slumped to their fourth straight loss on the weekend, Ricciuto said senior players such as captain Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod, Brett Burton and Tyson Edwards were some of the team's better players this season.
"(Brett) Burton is the only forward getting the ball, Goodwin has been great down back and McLeod and Edwards played a better game on the weekend and you know they are going to lead the club out of trouble," he said.
"Let's not talk about sacking them, sacking the coach, that is absolute rubbish."

 

[Geoffa32]

Update :

You were saying Relapse......


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/can-neil-craig-raise-the-dead/story-e6frecoc-1225855074182

Great, he gets the ball (Burton) then burns it.

When we had Patty one out against the Swans he got it too, but he kicked five goals.

 

[relapse]

Well there is even more damning evidence that Roo will stick up for his mates. That's not a bad thing because that is the type of guy Roo is, he is not about to throw his mates under the bus just to get a headline.

It's definately not something credible though that I would be using to make a case to keep playing the old brigade.

 

[marvin]

We were 1-3 in 1997.

True.

And we'd beaten Brisbane easily, come from 5 goals down to draw level against Richmond at the G before dropping our bundle and being overrun, led the M+M Carlton Blues by 3 goals on their dung-heap before Matthew Allan somehow got on top of Tom Gilligan and Barry Standfield in the ruck, and tried but failed to run down Port from a mile back in Round 4. We've got nothing approaching that sort of formline now.

We also had 3 handy "ins" for Round 5 1997. Rehn, Pittman and D Jarman. As good as VB and Stevens are, it's a different equation.

 

[Crow-mo]

Roo said this?



our greatest captain, the last man to "fly the flag", thinks that we shouldn't play the youngsters

wow that's going to mess with the heads of some posters

to be fair, I don't think this is news. its clearly the way the club, and the environment he comes from, thinks.

I am not even going to argue whether he is right or wrong, but its no surprise that he thinks we should wring every last drop out of the senior players because that is what we are doing.

 

[Craigie]

There is no point in making the Finals. This team plays very well and then plays nasty tricks on us by breaking our hearts year after year. 1 minute to go in semi final, 1 point lead and I could see it coming. That has affected us in 2010, after years and years of trying and failing its sure gonna hurt you. Its good to have a bad year and I'm sure once the pressure is off we will start playing better again and spoiling the fun for other sides.

Is it good to have a bad year, when Neil Craig claimed we would make top 4? No decent drafts picks this year - so why the heck would it be good? Its sole destroying stuff being a bottom team. Honestly the reason why we lose finals is because Neil Craig just can't go the distance. Keep Craig and we are doomed!

 

[Vader]

Is it good to have a bad year, when Neil Craig claimed we would make top 4? No decent drafts picks this year - so why the heck would it be good? Its sole destroying stuff being a bottom team. Honestly the reason why we lose finals is because Neil Craig just can't go the distance. Keep Craig and we are doomed!

Seriously, find a new tune. This one's getting boring already and you've only been posting here since the weekend.

 

[ruscy002]

All of this goes away if we win this week...

Forget about the history of 0-4 teams not being able to make finals...if we win, we would have beaten a genuine top four contender away from home and performed the miraculous turnaround that we needed. Not only that, we'll probably be only one game outside of the top eight provided Port lose to the Saints, Melbourne lose to Brisbane, and Carlton lose to Geelong - all of which should eventuate.

Ticks a lot of boxes, winning never seemed like such a good idea

 

[Tas]

Given the pointlessness of finishing low this year I think that there is a very good reason to make the finals.

I am not sure about it being pointless. I'd rather win games than lose games but if you finished low you still get some decent picks.

If you finish 2nd last you will end up with pick 6 in the first round and pick 28 in the second round. If you finish 9th you will get pick 17 in the first round and pick 35 in the second round.

If anything, there really isn't the incentive to win matches unless you are pretty confident you are actually going to make the finals and do something, there is a much more severe penalty for just making up the numbers than there were previous years.

If you sneak into the 8 and don't really do anything and there is significant need to find some more good players for those retiring/departing it will be that much harder to do it mid table than it has been previous years because you were still looking at pick 9 or 10 which is a reasonable pick when you are mid table. Pick 18 or 19 for getting bundled out in the Elimination final isn't so flash.

 

[Sydney Crow]

While I can't disagree with anything that our former fearless leader has said, what I will say is that both Sydney and Fremantle will play finals football this year.

We are massive odds to be 10th or above from here. Especially on the form that we have shown in the opening weeks and simply by the fact we surely can't turn around this form in the next two weeks.

There looks to be no quick fix unfortunately.

And is it just me or do we need to show more mongrel???

 

[ruscy002]

I am not sure about it being pointless. I'd rather win games than lose games but if you finished low you still get some decent picks.

If you finish 2nd last you will end up with pick 6 in the first round and pick 28 in the second round. If you finish 9th you will get pick 17 in the first round and pick 35 in the second round.

If anything, there really isn't the incentive to win matches unless you are pretty confident you are actually going to make the finals and do something, there is a much more severe penalty for just making up the numbers than there were previous years.

If you sneak into the 8 and don't really do anything and there is significant need to find some more good players for those retiring/departing it will be that much harder to do it mid table than it has been previous years because you were still looking at pick 9 or 10 which is a reasonable pick when you are mid table. Pick 18 or 19 for getting bundled out in the Elimination final isn't so flash.

Keep in mind that the Gold Coast have already been given access to the 20 best youngsters in the land as underaged players last year (Vader, feel free to correct me on the quantity if that's wrong). So effectively, the team that finishes 15th will get picks 26 and 48, not 6 and 28 as you suggest. There may actually be no point in rocking up to the draft at all...I hope they make it a trade month instead of week this year, it should be an active one.