The Future is NOW

[Vader]

Remember back a few weeks when Neil Craig said that the veterans were all safe - and that we could only imagine what the team would look like without them. This weekend that becomes a reality. Edwards has retired, McLeod and Burton are both MIA due to injury. That leaves Simon Goodwin and (to a lesser extent Michael Doughty) as players aged 30+ in our team.

The future has arrived faster than we ever thought (or hoped) that it would...

 

[Cap]

the result should be interesting....

is this going to be one of the youngest sides we have put out in a long time?

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Bring it On

 

[Mackay train12]

I dont think we can only truly say the future is now untill round 1 2011

 

[Pariah]

So far I've liked what I have seen from the kids. While their developing where going have a mixed bag of excitement and frustration.
I love the fact the most of the youngsters try to play on most of the time making us more unpredictable.

 

[amer]

Sticking to my prediction that we will play in the grand final next year.

 

[ruscy002]

Before the Brisbane game, I would've been quite apprehensive about this scenario. Since then we've won 2/3, showing some good signs, kicked some good scores etc. Structure looks better with Griffin v3.0 running around as a second ruckman. Armstrong looks a beauty. Ditto Sloane and then some. Walker is threatening to tear a game apart. Dangerfield is ever improving. Douglas is our best player, and Phil Davis has set the tone for courage and toughness for the next dozen years at our football club.

But three or four weeks ago...geez, I couldn't have predicted that I'd be this optimistic come the second week of June.

 

[WALL-e]

Maybe Neil Craig can have a press conference and ask the question "Imagine what Adriana Lima would look like on WALL-e's lap".

Get to work Neil.

 

[Allefgib]

I wonder if Craigy will refer back to his previous statements if they perform well?

To be fair he was very heartfelt with the plea at the time and it was in the midst of a genuine lack of effort from the vast majority of the team so he probably felt that at least some of the seniors were giving their all.

My biggest issue at the time was it was 'all seniors' or 'no seniors' in terms of his argument. Obviously that wasn't what people were questioning.

With the balance about what many of us hoped for to start this year - lets see how the boys go.

 

[iamjason]

I think the future was actually last weekend.

Edwards' contributions can be covered by Symes pretty easily, and Mcleod had little impact on the game due to injury. So I don't see their exclusions as a significant contributing factor to the result against the Hawks. The major contributing factor will be, as it has been all season and as it was proven on Saturday - EFFORT.

 

[NTRabbit]

Yeah, well if the future is now, where's my... oh you mean the future of the team?

My bad

 

[Alex99]

I hope people are willing to be patient and give these young bucks some time to mature and develop into seasoned AFL player before giving up on them. The teams form will be up and down from one to match to the next and even in some cases from one quarter to the next. Hopefully we get more matches like against Fremantle rather than the North Melbourne game.

but welcome to the next generation of Adelaide Crows.

 

[Vader]

the result should be interesting....

is this going to be one of the youngest sides we have put out in a long time?

The average age of our team last week was 25.33 years.

Assuming the changes are:
OUT: McLeod, Edwards, Davis
IN: Bock, Symes, Henderson

The average age this week will be 24.73 years. I'm not sure how far back you have to go to find a younger Crows team, but I imagine it would probably be back in 2004.

It wasn't that long ago that we fielded a side averaging 26.1 years.

 

[KUNG FU]

I think this thread is not looking so stupid now.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=712401

Despite the final margin, I think we really did have a chance to win the St Kilda game and am quite optimistic about this weekend. Hopefully Bock pulls up OK, but I'm unsure about taking his niggling injuries down to Tasmania. Either way, very winnable game this weekend.

 

[Vader]

If Bock drops out and is replaced by Sellar, the average age would drop to 24.46 years. It's 24.34 if Talia gets the nod instead of Sellar.

 

[Vader]

I think this thread is not looking so stupid now.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=712401

Despite the final margin, I think we really did have a chance to win the St Kilda game and am quite optimistic about this weekend. Hopefully Bock pulls up OK, but I'm unsure about taking his niggling injuries down to Tasmania. Either way, very winnable game this weekend.

We're 1 from 2 with 3 still to play. It remains to be seen how we'll fare in the next 3 weeks, but the Crows are definitely starting to play some decent footy again - a far cry from the rubbish the served up for the first 8 rounds.

 

[SydCrow]

how many years has it been since we have had a team without McLeod or Edwards?

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

is this a stupid question

IF and I know it is a big IF however

If we win this weekend are finals back on the radar

A win will take us to 4-8 win loss record with Melb and Essendon to play in the following 2 weeks at AAMI, followed by the Eagles at Subi, a tricky draw but not an impossible draw

IMO like last year 10 to 11 wins will get you in to the finals, the door is slightly ajar, can we bust through it

 

[Alex99]

is this a stupid question

IF and I know it is a big IF however

If we win this weekend are finals back on the radar

A win will take us to 4-8 win loss record with Melb and Essendon to play in the following 2 weeks at AAMI, followed by the Eagles at Subi, a tricky draw but not an impossible draw

IMO like last year 10 to 11 wins will get you in to the finals, the door is slightly ajar, can we bust through it

Possible but not probable simply because we are young and inexperienced form will be up and down. We are still to play Geelong, Collingwood (away), West Coast away (and even at our best, they are a hoodoo team) and Brisbane (away)

So, it’s mathematically possible but more than likely improbable

 

[Tex200]

I think the future was actually last weekend.

Edwards' contributions can be covered by Symes pretty easily, and Mcleod had little impact on the game due to injury. So I don't see their exclusions as a significant contributing factor to the result against the Hawks. The major contributing factor will be, as it has been all season and as it was proven on Saturday - EFFORT.

Dont get me wrong Im Symes fan, but Im not sure we will see a 32 poss + 2 goal game from him...be wrapped if we did.

Whilst I loved the performance of Sloane, Walker etc...we cant forget that our prime movers last week were Edwards, Thompson, Goodwin, Johncock, Douglas...Stevens was much improved. To make something of this season we are still very much reliant upon our experienced players playing well.

 

[Bockchoy67]

We're 1 from 2 with 3 still to play. It remains to be seen how we'll fare in the next 3 weeks, but the Crows are definitely starting to play some decent footy again - a far cry from the rubbish the served up for the first 8 rounds.

Our underdone players are definitely starting to have more of an impact, plus we're not playing as many, if any, players who aren't fit.

Ever since the dropping of Vince etc we've looked like a different team. We're nowhere near the level we were last year, but in the past few weeks we've looked like a team willing to work hard to play well. In the first two months we looked like a team that just expected to start playing well of a sudden, when in fact in 2009 it was our hard work and run that got us to that position in the first place.

Not to say I don't want Vince back in the team - at his peak, he is our best natural midfielder - but he basically represented what was wrong with our side. Unfit, unwilling to work hard and his disposal clearly showed that he wasn't switched on. I'm hopeful that when he gets over his injury he will have a few weeks in the SANFL to develop match fitness and come back to the AFL with the same mindset as he had in 2009. He can't afford to let his talent be overshadowed by a poor attitude. It happens all too often in the AFL because players become too comfortable with their own form and forget why they got to that form in the beginning.

Then you have the decision to play Knights. I have no idea why Craig persisted with this, he was clearly labouring with that foot. Even in his first game in the NAB Cup I remember watching on the TV and thinking he looked sore. If I could spot that, then how could the staff not do something about it - ie: not play him! We looked like a club that was panicking about its poor form and playing proven players who were clearly injured in the hope that it would turn things around. It only made things worse.

This week we might have an absolute dog of a game against the Hawks, and it would be disappointing for sure, but at the same time at least we are starting to set a good standard for preperation as well as forming the team structure that we will bode well in 2011.

 

[Riggy1]

the result should be interesting....

is this going to be one of the youngest sides we have put out in a long time?

If Edwards, McLeod and Davis are out and Bock, Symes and Henderson comes in
is 2 weeks a long time?
yeah, we'd be a good 200 days younger than on the weekend, but we'd still be 15 days older than the game the weekend before that

I went and got all age stats just for interest

The youngest team we've ever fielded was round 3 1997 at 23 years 181 days, while the oldest was round 16 2006 at 27 years 63 days

without going deep into averages, 2003 and 2006 would of been our oldest teams on average while 1995 would of been our youngest

Neil Craig would on average have the oldest team on the park just ahead of Ayres with Shaw and Blight on average having the youngest

The youngest team Neil Craig has coached was his 4th game at 24 years and 61 days

In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 we never fielded a team under the age of 25

now, those are some totally random (useless) stats

 

[Vader]

The youngest team Neil Craig has coached was his 4th game at 24 years and 61 days

In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 we never fielded a team under the age of 25

Thanks for those stats Riggy. You've pretty much confirmed what I wrote earlier - this will be the youngest team we've fielded since 2004 and one of the youngest in Craig's entire reign as coach.

 

[Riggy1]

Thanks for those stats Riggy. You've pretty much confirmed what I wrote earlier - this will be the youngest team we've fielded since 2004 and one of the youngest in Craig's entire reign as coach.

No, I expect our age this round will be 24 and 269 days
besides Rd 10, this year, and rounds 1,2,5,6,7,8,12 and 14 last year, it'd be our youngest since rd 22 2004

year-youngest-oldest
1991 - 24-179 (rd19) - 26-66 (rd4)
1992 - 23-260 (rd 8) - 25-174 (rd14)
1993 - 23-275 (rd13) - 25-40 (rd9)
1994 - 23-279 (rd8) - 25-163 (rd14)
1995 - 23-342 (rd11) - 25-8 (rd16)
1996 - 24-186 (rd14) - 25-248 (rd16)
1997 - 23-181 (rd3) - 25-36 (rd14)
1998 - 24-82 (rd6) - 25-225 (sf)
1999 - 24-45 (rd18) - 26-65 (rd12)
2000 - 24-80 (rd16) - 25-218 (rd15)
2001 - 23-310 (rd1) - 25-255 (rd8)
2002 - 24-241 (rd21) - 25-147 (rd8)
2003 - 25-75 (rd9) - 27-6 (ef/qf)
2004 - 24-61 (rd17) - 26-8 (rd11)
2005 - 25-15 (rd1) - 26-145 (pf)
2006 - 25-192 (rd10) - 27-63 (rd16)
2007 - 25-136 (rd19) - 26-245 (rd21)
2008 - 25-18 (rd12) - 25-294 (rd22)
2009 - 24-123 (rd1) - 26-19 (sf)
2010 - 24-254 (rd10) - 26-37 (rd7)
but it would be the 15th youngest team Neil Craig would of coached

 

[CaptainDangerfield]

Sticking to my prediction that we will play in the grand final year.

How's that report coming along?