Autopsy Round 20, 2023 vs Adelaide

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Hinkleyball has returned. No one leads and kick it in high.
Should drop one of Marshall or Finlayson, give them a boot up the date before finals, and bring in Lord who does know to lead for the ball and demands it.

Just his bloody goal kicking is horific.
 
If Charlie Dixon was paid every mark that was awarded to Sloane last night (you know the one I mean) he would break Peter Hudson's goal kicking record.
 

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I watched it again. He uses the back of Boak’s head to ‘propel’ himself.

Not that it makes any difference, but they did get away with a couple of those. I don't think we would ever get such leeway in a marking contest.
 
Yeah, look, we're always gonna cop the raw end of the 50/50s, but I think we can park any discussion around umpire impartiality until we've addressed our own serious shortcomings when up against any kind of expectation.

Our problems were profound but there were a couple of decisions that went against JHF in the first five minutes that set the tone for the game. So, it wasn't just the 50/50s but also, often the 30/70s that went Adelaide's way.
 
The thing is right, it’s not just that we get outplayed in big games.

As tribey often points out, it’s the fact we are consistently horrid in these big games, that so many “stars” play their worst games if the year.

How the fk does that keep happening?

Need a clean out of admin and coaches and sports psychologists because they’re all doing an appalling job of getting this “elite” team up for games that actually matter.
 
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The thing is right, it’s not just that we get outplayed in big games.

As tribey often points out, it’s not he fact we are consistently horrid in these big games, that so many “stars” play their worst games if the year.

How the fk does that keep happening?

Need a clean out of admin and coaches and sports psychologists because they’re all doing an appalling job of getting this “elite” team up for games that actually matter.
It has happened too many time for it to be a co-incidence imo. Like a stuck record.
 
Remember when their fanbase used to accuse Port of playing ‘their Grand Final’ against them, and putting undue focus on the Showdown above all else?

When’s the last time that genuinely happened from our perspective? 2006?

Seeing a thoroughly mediocre Crows outfit play out of their skins against an otherwise high-flying or fancied Port in a given week is a far more prevalent phenomenon than the other way around.

We never seem to get the hopeless duds who meekly roll over for GWS, cough up a 0-64 lead to North in Tassie, or get asphyxiated by the mighty Suns.

Haha, just copped a laugh react from a 51-post veteran who joined this site in April 2022.

Thanks for unintentionally validating the words, fella.
 

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The result is the same result that gets thrown up every year to a number of teams at this time of the season. One team is fighting to make finals, the other team has already booked their place and has just come off a close loss to a team that they feel they will probably meet deep in September. So the qualified team thinks that they don't have to bring the same level of intensity and pressure that they brought the week before and gets jumped by a hungrier and more desperate group of players.

Gold Coast did exactly the same thing to Brisbane and they were in exactly the same situation as Adelaide was against us. Is Brisbane suddenly a s**t team?

What you're going to find is that 5 weeks out from finals no-one wants to do what Izaak Rankine did or Mark Blicavs did and do a hamstring and then not be available. So everyone goes into preservation mode and starts dropping marks and not being proactive and cracking in with elite pressure.

These types of results are exactly what the AFL wants. To keep interest in each team until the very final round, and give fans hope that next year will be 'their year' if things just go their way. Even the Fremantle result over Geelong was a case of that.

As for the game itself:

Not having either Rioli or Fantasia on the field meant that Milera didn't have to worry about getting burned the other way and could run off and play his natural game.

Playing a second game ruck against O'Brien meant that we would never get anything close to the kind of output our midfield is used to and it would become a scrap, which is where Adelaide playing the likes of Crouch, Schoenberg, Laird etc came to the fore. And no, Hayes wouldn't have made a difference. They could push more players up to the contest because they knew that we needed to hold players back to help with defence. If you want to know why we're going after Ratugolea and possibly Grundy, this game will tell you.

We had 3 non-KPP players who managed to rack up double digit contested possession - Butters (15), Houston (11) and Duursma (10). Adelaide had 5 - Crouch (15), Dawson (15), Milera (13), Laird (11) and Hinge (10). They wanted the ball more than guys like Horne-Francis (8), Rozee (7), Drew (7) and Wines (5).

Adelaide is a good side and should feel like the season has been wasted if they don't make finals. Remember, they have been in the wilderness for exactly the same amount of time as we were between 2007 and 2013. We also have obvious deficiencies in our side that we need to address in the off-season that the Crows have the ability to exploit.

And yet we are 2nd and they are 12th. So at the end of the day, who gives a *? Get back on the wagon and go again against a Geelong minus Blicavs and Hawkins. It's not like we don't know what our best football looks like, FFS. If the side isn't hunting the football aggressively it will look second rate against any team.
 
This is the least of his issues. How about his sheer lack of any kind of effort when the ball is heading in his direction, him staying down every time hoping for it to fall out the back to him, or his first instinct to sook and complain and throw is hands in the air rather than apply a second effort or chase? Much bigger concerns for me personally.

His biggest issue is off-field obviously but he would (should be forced to) watch the replay of that game and surely cringe. Horrible visuals of the things you point out.
 
Someone, preferably our forward coach, needs to sit Finlayson down and explain to him that if he attempts another snap shot from outside 30m from goal, he can spend the next month in the sanfl.
I would go as far to say any shot outside 40 he should be passing off. Misses them almost 100% of the time.
 
We haven't really been playing well since the bye.
We have reverted back to the Hinkleyball of bombing it long and not playing as a team.
We use to run hard and lower the eyes and find a forward free or leading.
I think the coaching has moved away from its initial success mixed with a lot of injured, sore players.
The Cows, who aren't that skilled, just wanted it more.
The Cows were just more disciplined, they knew what they were doing and quite intelligent with their play. And they have forwards who kick straight.

The Good:

Rozee keeping up his AA form.
Evans looking like a forward who can pressure the scoreboard and not a player or space.
Dante doing pretty darn well considering.
Butters still working hard.
Dixon's contested marking.
Williams good.
Houston still impacting especially with turnover ball.

The Mediocre:

Horne-Francis kept trying.
It was usually our best players who combined for goals; the medium and lower tier players were shocking.
The second tier midfield struggling to get meaning impact in the game.
Good and bad in Duursma's game.
Ffffffffffffumbly.
Missing handball after handball.
We could have lost by much more.
Dixon's contested marking was just about our only avenue to goal.
Wines with little to no impact but played a fair bit on the wing.
Boak looking old.
Burton looking soft but still OK.
Farrell OK.
Very low with the 1%ers.
Bergman's kicking was not bad.

The Ugly:

Hinkleyball is back and we are losing.
Bombing into the F50 instead of lowering the eyes.
The Big Chill after the bye.
Marshall still struggling with one on one marking.
A very poor work rate all over the ground.
Losing contested possies by over 20.
We were working softer for shorter.
Low intensity.
A murder of Crows at the fall of every ball.
Zero leading by our forwards. It always gets my goat.
The Crows forwards killing us on the lead.
Powell-Pepper's worst game in a long time.
McEntee playing as a ghost. He has to be seriously looked at to being dropped.
Finlayson as quiet and shy as a mouse.
Tex kicking 7 against multiple opponents.
Matt Crouch impacting with high numbers.
Inside 50 tackles way down.
Double Showdown loses. They might have the wood over us. They seem to have worked us out.

We will have to beat Geelong down there because I think it is an easier game than the Giants game.
 
The result is the same result that gets thrown up every year to a number of teams at this time of the season. One team is fighting to make finals, the other team has already booked their place and has just come off a close loss to a team that they feel they will probably meet deep in September. So the qualified team thinks that they don't have to bring the same level of intensity and pressure that they brought the week before and gets jumped by a hungrier and more desperate group of players.

Gold Coast did exactly the same thing to Brisbane and they were in exactly the same situation as Adelaide was against us. Is Brisbane suddenly a s**t team?

What you're going to find is that 5 weeks out from finals no-one wants to do what Izaak Rankine did or Mark Blicavs did and do a hamstring and then not be available. So everyone goes into preservation mode and starts dropping marks and not being proactive and cracking in with elite pressure.

These types of results are exactly what the AFL wants. To keep interest in each team until the very final round, and give fans hope that next year will be 'their year' if things just go their way. Even the Fremantle result over Geelong was a case of that.

As for the game itself:

Not having either Rioli or Fantasia on the field meant that Milera didn't have to worry about getting burned the other way and could run off and play his natural game.

Playing a second game ruck against O'Brien meant that we would never get anything close to the kind of output our midfield is used to and it would become a scrap, which is where Adelaide playing the likes of Crouch, Schoenberg, Laird etc came to the fore. And no, Hayes wouldn't have made a difference. They could push more players up to the contest because they knew that we needed to hold players back to help with defence. If you want to know why we're going after Ratugolea and possibly Grundy, this game will tell you.

We had 3 non-KPP players who managed to rack up double digit contested possession - Butters (15), Houston (11) and Duursma (10). Adelaide had 5 - Crouch (15), Dawson (15), Milera (13), Laird (11) and Hinge (10). They wanted the ball more than guys like Horne-Francis (8), Rozee (7), Drew (7) and Wines (5).

Adelaide is a good side and should feel like the season has been wasted if they don't make finals. Remember, they have been in the wilderness for exactly the same amount of time as we were between 2007 and 2013. We also have obvious deficiencies in our side that we need to address in the off-season that the Crows have the ability to exploit.

And yet we are 2nd and they are 12th. So at the end of the day, who gives a *? Get back on the wagon and go again against a Geelong minus Blicavs and Hawkins. It's not like we don't know what our best football looks like, FFS. If the side isn't hunting the football aggressively it will look second rate against any team.
You lost me at Fantasia.
Honestly
Fantasia would have made a difference? Can’t even be guaranteed he’d make it through the first quarter. That said, no doubt Hinkley will reward this lemon with a spot in the first final we play.
 
I don't mean to be overly blunt, but people like you fascinate me. Its not a reaction to tonight. Its a reaction to years of the same thing

Is it that you just don't see a pattern? Is it that you've conveniently forgotten? Are you new?

Genuinely interested.
Just not completely as pessimistic as most of you.
 
Your correct to a point but to have 65 inside 50's for 9 goals is scary for you guys.
I certainly think they treated last week as a grandfinal against Collingwood and along with the flu going thru the club the players were flat. Still 2nd on the ladder but need to show up next week as you are good enough to beat Geelong who are struggling and look physically shot to me, but you need to bring your best.
Agreed. We get smashed by Geelong, even with their outs, and I'd feel like most on this board.
But not going to doom and gloom it having just come off a 13 in a row winning streak.
 

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