Autopsy Round 23 = Adelaide 59-56 Collingwood

[DinoSoar]

If your intent is to come in here and troll, think again as it won’t end well for you.

Anzacday Maggie5 Gone Critical

 

[manicpie]

And the luck wasn't just the umpiring. How can you have that many contests up forward and not have a single lucky spill, bounce, mark where you get first hand to it and it luckily falls into your lap, let alone actually winning a contest ... I don't think we got a single goal from a forward 50 contest in a game where we had more forward 50 contests than I've seen before. Just a weird game to lose.

That was about as frustrating as you can get. Not one lucky anything.

 

[sr36]

Really hope Hill's head and fitness are right. Need his spark.

Our dip in form has not been a surprise and it's depth greatly exaggerated by some. The Hawks game was the worst of it, but that can largely be excused by the 5 day break (we looked exactly like Lions did against us off their 5 day break).

I've tuned out the H&A for a few weeks. Only interested in how we perform in finals. We risked our H&A record in preparing for finals, now we see how that eventuates.

We have a pretty healthy squad and are well placed for a finals tilt. Howe, Hill, De Goey the big three we'd be looking to help elevate our performance.

It's the 4 weeks in a row for our old blokes that is the big issue with us likely to not be top 4.

 

[eddiesmith]

Cox is struggling to hold his marks compared to recent seasons, that’s what’s holding back his selection IMO

Yep, Fly constantly making references to Cameron’s marking being more important than winning hitouts shows where his thoughts lie.

But even then, Cox at least makes a contest and usually brings the ball to ground unlike a few of our forwards who just let the defender mark it.

 

[thebaldfacts]

We should have won.
Adelaide did a great job of flooding our forward half.
The scumps did an even better job at looking in the opposite direction and forgetting the basic rules of the game.
Two blatant throws.
Tilthorpe kicking the ball away.
One of their players reading war and peace before giving us the ball back.
Walker pushing Bruzz into Fogarty and Bruzz tunnels him, risking (fortunately none) injuries to Bruzzy and Fog... play on...
Disgruntled

Pretty sure that Fogarty took that mark and kicked a goal. It was a push in the back, both hands in the middle of his back accompanied by a decent shove, so Bruzzy should have got the free. All the talk has been about Tex escaping suspension, not the obvious missed free kick, which resulted in a goal.

 

[LuckyLee]

Indeed. I think McFly should take some of the advice and praise he gave Justin Longmuir when Freo beat us when they played fast, aggressive, attacking footy. We could do with some of that as our current brand is slow, boring and vanilla.

Looking back, that loss to Freo was where it all went wrong. The previous week’s loss to GC in GC was a bit disappointing but the Freo game showed hubris and arrogance. We rested players who could easily have made it an extra week to the Richmond game, we took the foot off the pedal in Q4 and then Fly (in an out-of-character moment) patronisingly told the Freo footy club how they should play. It was the turning point of our season.

 

[3rdMan]

And the luck wasn't just the umpiring. How can you have that many contests up forward and not have a single lucky spill, bounce, mark where you get first hand to it and it luckily falls into your lap, let alone actually winning a contest ... I don't think we got a single goal from a forward 50 contest in a game where we had more forward 50 contests than I've seen before. Just a weird game to lose.

We had a couple. One that bounced for Elliott, Jordy's kick off the ground that luckily hit a target. But you'd definitely expect more. Then there's the number of times we didn't quite hit targets that were clearly there.

An all round poor execution game forward of centre. Just a touch more polish and we could have had many more goals. We brought what we always expect, keep that baseline and we'll be tough to beat in finals. Add some extra polish and offensive power and wer'e a real force. Hill a big help there, Jordy hopefully improving and Howe attacking from defence will also help.

 

[sr36]

We had a couple. One that bounced for Elliott, Jordy's kick off the ground that luckily hit a target. But you'd definitely expect more. Then there's the number of times we didn't quite hit targets that were clearly there.

An all round poor execution game forward of centre. Just a touch more polish and we could have had many more goals. We brought what we always expect, keep that baseline and we'll be tough to beat in finals. Add some extra polish and offensive power and wer'e a real force. Hill a big help there, Jordy hopefully improving and Howe attacking from defence will also help.

True. I'd forgotten the first quarter ones, as it seemed like a different game than the down the line entry after entry after entry of the last two and a half quarters. I think McRae was right to hold the man behind the ball - it had us dominating the game and it just always felt a matter of time before some goals dropped, but nah.

 

[upnsmoke]

Pies were'nt efficient inside 50 because a big reason is Keanne who gave Mihocek an absolute bath. Clinical ownage that game. Mihocek gotta bounce back next time they meet or put someone else on Keanne and make Mihocek help out

 

[sr36]

Pies were'nt efficient inside 50 because a big reason is Keanne who gave Mihocek an absolute bath. Clinical ownage that game. Mihocek gotta bounce back next time they meet or put someone else on Keanne and make Mihocek help out

Keane and Worrell are going to make Adelaide a bloody good team for a long time to come. They're awesome.

 

[LuckyLee]

So the team who dominated ladder position for most of the year, with form that was clearly superior to that of any other team, and considered flag favourites, having now produced an outstanding performance against the Top team, is an irrelevant rabble.
I think this is another example of why you don’t understand the game.

Spinny, we can’t even score 10 goals a game. We’ve been worked out. Everyone now knows to push us wide, flood our F50 and then use superior foot speed to hurt us on the counter-attack. We have lost confidence, boldness, connection and potency.

The arrival of September will not magically see us return to playing the way we did in May & June, no matter how much you want to believe it will.

 

[3rdMan]

It's the 4 weeks in a row for our old blokes that is the big issue with us likely to not be top 4.

I guess it's likely? Still a good chance of making it. Power could upset Suns in Adelaide. Even if not, Hawks could beat Lions or we could make it on %.

Four weeks is tough, but with the week off I think it's less about fitness or age and more about beating four quality teams.

I think we've sacrificed our H&A record for finals preparation (not intentionally, but knew the potential risk). The outcome in finals will be the measure of the strategy's success.

 

[stormskye]

Spinny, we can’t even score 10 goals a game. We’ve been worked out. Everyone now knows to push us wide, flood our F50 and then use superior foot speed to hurt us on the counter-attack. We have lost confidence, boldness, connection and potency.

The arrival of September will not magically see us return to playing the way we did in May & June, no matter how much you want to believe it will.

Yup. The flogging we copped last night from the minor premiers at home seals it. Pack the season up.

 

[sr36]

Spinny, we can’t even score 10 goals a game. We’ve been worked out. Everyone now knows to push us wide, flood our F50 and then use superior foot speed to hurt us on the counter-attack. We have lost confidence, boldness, connection and potency.

The arrival of September will not magically see us return to playing the way we did in May & June, no matter how much you want to believe it will.

Don't forget that was wet weather footy for the final 3 quarters. I'd say all our recent losses have been different - although I do think flooding numbers back like Freo and Adelaide did is a strong tactic against us.

 

[Carringbush2010]

My exact words from post 608
“and at virtually full strength”
Never said they were at full strength- please stop misquoting me.
You were wrong.

Tomayto tomato mate

 

[Carringbush2010]

our forward line was totally dysfunctional after quarter time. Checkers, McStay and Elliott totally ineffectual, can't see that happening again.

Because of the pressure ade brought after qt

 

[magpie_marty]

What ever happens this idea of resting players I found to be a touch smug and over confident on our behalf.
Sorry guys and gals we aint winning this year or in the next 5 years
Giving away draft pick's etc

 

[3rdMan]

One thing made clear this year: we were right to target Keane. He'd have been an amazing addition to our backline.

 

[LuckyLee]

Smashed in Clearances, Territory, I50’s, Tackles, unable to score ( kept to 59 points) and at virtually full strength on their HG.
I’m tipping Nicks is completely off Food let alone WeetBix.

Mate, they won and we lost. The match was played mostly on our preferred terms and we still couldn’t get it done. We kicked three goals after quarter time. Yep, three. They kicked eight.

So, if you really think Nicks is off his food after that win, then Fly must feel like he has a permanent case of Morning Sickness, given how we’ve gone in losing five of the past six games.

 

[BillyElliott]

Yup. The flogging we copped last night from the minor premiers at home seals it. Pack the season up.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious the directive from the AFL to Crows was, 'keep it close, don't thrash them like you know you can, throw the ball, kick the ball away, push players in the back & we'll instruct the umpires to ignore it all, you'll win in a nail biter & all your fans & the club can feel some form of redemption for all those poor umpiring decisions we've made against the Crows in the recent past'..

We were just their patsy

 

[3rdMan]

Mate, they won and we lost. The match was played mostly on our preferred terms and we still couldn’t get it done. We kicked three goals after quarter time. Yep, three. They kicked eight.

So, if you really think Nicks is off his food after that win, then Fly must feel like he has a permanent case of Morning Sickness, given how we’ve gone in losing five of the past six games.

We had one 5 goal quarter, so did they. They kicked 4 goals in their other 3 quarters, we kicked 3.

We dominated in general play but lost. To claim the game was terrible for either team is wrong. We have some things to work on but the base of our game is strong.

 

[Ugene41]

What ever happens this idea of resting players I found to be a touch smug and over confident on our behalf.
Sorry guys and gals we aint winning this year or in the next 5 years
Giving away draft pick's etc

Resting players is fine if it's a dead rubber last round or two. To do it when we hadn't even sewn up finals/top 4 with only 14 wins was arrogant. And to continue to do it week on week as our winning form turned to losing was pure stupidity.

 

[LuckyLee]

Yup. The flogging we copped last night from the minor premiers at home seals it. Pack the season up.

There were some encouraging signs in Q1 last night but, realistically, if we can’t rediscover our ability to play fluent, high scoring football for more than just one quarter per game then we are no hope of progressing deep into the Finals. We can’t win kicking only 8-10 goals per game.

 

[Fruit]

I still have some confidence but our final ladder position will have a big bearing on whether that continues.
In our losses we played a great second half against Suns, outplayed Freo for 90% of the game and played well last night without hitting the scoreboard. Our shocker against the Hawks could easily be due to the heavy workload of 3 games in 11 days.
If we can hold on to 4th I think it’s game on.

 

[Axl the great]

Fly acknowledged this.

Things got harder for Collingwood when the game got wet. This is not an excuse, they did not adapt to the changed conditions. Slowed our ball movement right down and it became even harder to mark those long bombs.

What I don’t get is we had a 40 differential between kicks and handballs at 1/4 time, it was awesome to see us actually kick it.
We ended up about 50 kicks more than handballs, so on a wet night we reverted back to our handball game for some reason.

 

[LuckyLee]

We had one 5 goal quarter, so did they. They kicked 4 goals in their other 3 quarters, we kicked 3.

We dominated in general play but lost. To claim the game was terrible for either team is wrong. We have some things to work on but the base of our game is strong.

The effort was really there last night. The best it has been for two months. So that’s encouraging.

But we can’t score. That’s about as fundamental as it gets. No other side in the Top 9 is routinely struggling to post the 12+ goals normally needed to win games of AFL footy. MMM & Elliott look jaded. DeGoey has lost his explosiveness due to injury and Hill is MIA. Shooter tries his guts out but is only a one goal per game player.

Also, we’ve shown no tactical ability to defeat a defensive flood, which will be employed against us every week from now on. We just kept bombing it in there, praying for miraculous, heavily contested marks.

Effort alone can’t get us there. We need more potency. I just don’t see how we can rediscover it given that we’re virtually full strength already and have only one match left before it all becomes sudden death.

I look forward to being proven wrong!