Prediction The Run Home - Final Five

[pirate bob]

That is a Blightism. I think Neil Craig with Pyke as assistant believed in loading. Went all the way back to Jack Cahill

It happens in other sports as well. Neil Craig would have been a fan as a result of his work in cycling.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

If we are peaking now, its far far too early

In some ways, I want us to lose to Sydney. Sure I'll celebrate the win if we win, but thinking we need another touch up before we hit finals as we are too far out and momentum can get lost.

 

[pirate bob]

I need someone with some knowledge!
One Of my regular/loyal customers at work is massive Crows fan from day dot.....
He goes to me, that he has it on good authority that the boys had been "smashed and ran really hard" up until that Carlton game!

I thought it sounded a bit like bs but then I kept getting told that we did that in 1998 also!

Load of poo or some possible truth?

From Neil Craig's Wiki page:

Fitness advising[edit]
Craig hails from a fitness background and holds a sports science degree.[4]

He has worked with the Australian cycling team at the Olympic Games and with the South Australian Institute of Sport, as a senior sports scientist.[5] He has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation (where he was Sports science co-ordinator)[6] and also recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.[7]

Adelaide[edit]
In 1997, Craig took up the position of fitness adviser with the Adelaide Crows. He is credited with helping devise the fitness regime that led the Crows to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998 in which players were trained harder mid-season in order to reach peak fitness during finals matches.[8]

 

[TrainRoo32]

Not uncommon for training loads to vary during the year, with a view to having the team peaking come finals. I made the comment a couple of times during the period we lost games that they "looked slow". I had the same conversation with a friend about it at the time.

I have no idea if that is actually what happened though. It was talked about after previous GF's.

Would be a good excuse for that poor run we had.....

I just see it as far fetched because of how "professional" the game has gotten and the amount of power sport scientists have!

 

[Elite Crow]

If we are peaking now, its far far too early

In some ways, I want us to lose to Sydney. Sure I'll celebrate the win if we win, but thinking we need another touch up before we hit finals as we are too far out and momentum can get lost.

I'd rather lose to Essendon and beat Sydney. Beating Sydney would give us a a heap of confidence if we meet them in the finals.

 

[TrainRoo32]

If we are peaking now, its far far too early

In some ways, I want us to lose to Sydney. Sure I'll celebrate the win if we win, but thinking we need another touch up before we hit finals as we are too far out and momentum can get lost.

It does seem like we peaking early..... but what if the fear was that with such a tough run home, they were more worried about making the 4 or hell even the 8!
I always felt that as good a footy we played those first 6 weeks, I thought there is no way that's sustainable all year.

 

[pirate bob]

Would be a good excuse for that poor run we had.....

I just see it as far fetched because of how "professional" the game has gotten and the amount of power sport scientists have!

An interesting comparison would be someone like Robert Harvey. He used to train really hard, and was always looking for an edge to be better than his opponents. When he was younger he went through a really bad form slump mid year. Turned out after conversations with the coaches (I think) that he admitted that he was going for 10km+ runs on days St Kilda weren't training. He had to stop doing it, his legs were heavy and he was struggling getting through games

 

[TrainRoo32]

From Neil Craig's Wiki page:

Fitness advising[edit]
Craig hails from a fitness background and holds a sports science degree.[4]

He has worked with the Australian cycling team at the Olympic Games and with the South Australian Institute of Sport, as a senior sports scientist.[5] He has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation (where he was Sports science co-ordinator)[6] and also recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.[7]

Adelaide[edit]
In 1997, Craig took up the position of fitness adviser with the Adelaide Crows. He is credited with helping devise the fitness regime that led the Crows to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998 in which players were trained harder mid-season in order to reach peak fitness during finals matches.[8]

Him and those *en stationary bikes lol!
2010 especially was so deflating with all those injuries....

 

[pirate bob]

Him and those ****en stationary bikes lol!
2010 especially was so deflating with all those injuries....

Hamstrings ..?

 

[TrainRoo32]

An interesting comparison would be someone like Robert Harvey. He used to train really hard, and was always looking for an edge to be better than his opponents. When he was younger he went through a really bad form slump mid year. Turned out after conversations with the coaches (I think) that he admitted that he was going for 10km+ runs on days St Kilda weren't training. He had to stop doing it, his legs were heavy and he was struggling getting through games

These days they are so monitored and tailored to it's pretty interesting!
I forget who mentioned that if they want to have some goal kicking practice after training they sometimes aren't allowed.

 

[TrainRoo32]

Hamstrings ..?

My memory isn't that good of 10 and 11..... just complete write offs!
Just remember being touted top 4 in 10 and not living up to it

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Not uncommon for training loads to vary during the year, with a view to having the team peaking come finals. I made the comment a couple of times during the period we lost games that they "looked slow". I had the same conversation with a friend about it at the time.

I have no idea if that is actually what happened though. It was talked about after previous GF's.

Early in the season we were out running the opposition later in games, but we went through a patch where weren't, so hopefully we were putting in higher training loads...because we appear now back to what we were at the beginning of the season.

 

[pirate bob]

These days they are so monitored and tailored to it's pretty interesting!
I forget who mentioned that if they want to have some goal kicking practice after training they sometimes aren't allowed.

Commentators have often talked about that this year .. BT, Carey etc

 

[Donkey Magoo]

I need someone with some knowledge!
One Of my regular/loyal customers at work is massive Crows fan from day dot.....
He goes to me, that he has it on good authority that the boys had been "smashed and ran really hard" up until that Carlton game!

I thought it sounded a bit like bs but then I kept getting told that we did that in 1998 also!

Load of poo or some possible truth?

I had thought of that may be happening a couple times, we ran outa gas against Hawthorn

 

[robboaustralia]

Essendon at Etihad is the one I'm most worried about.

Same. Flying over for that game. They rolled us in a 1st qtr a few years back at etihad which I went to aswell. Awful memories.

On SM-G900I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[officialjc]

we would win 12 in a row if we were to claim this years flag. i am one that does believe in needing a loss in the next five rounds otherwise it would feel like we a due for a loss in the finals. had this argument with a mate. there have been many instances in other sports where one team topped a pool/group undefeated and lost in the playoffs. if we were to lose one, i dont mind the essendon game in a shootout or the eagles game.

 

[Donkey Magoo]

This board cracks me up sometimes.

Win 6 in a row, "don't get ahead of ourselves, still a long way to go and we haven't beaten Geelong"

Lose a few, including Geelong "we're not good enough, nothing changes we're always mediocre"

We get our mojo back, win tough games including Geelong "this is terrible, we're peaking too early"

 

[Maggsy]

CALLING IT


v Collingwood MCG - CROWS WIN by 44 Points
v Port Adelaide AO - CROWS WIN by 36 Points
v Essendon Etihad - CROWS WIN by 30 Points
v Sydney AO - CROWS WIN by 12 Points
v West Coast Subiaco - CROWS WIN by 42 Points

First Week Finals AO - VS Port Adelaide - CROWS WIN by 33 Points
Second Week Finals - BYE
Preliminary Final AO - VS GWS - CROWS WIN by 29 Points
Grand Final MCG - VS Geelong - CROWS WIN by 28 Points

CROWS 2017 PREMIERS..

 

[PCORF]

I think we'll drop at least 2 more games and finish 16-6 but should be good enough for 1st or 2nd. Even 15-7 is 2nd or 3rd.

Lose to Sydney and one of our other games. Also we cannot underestimate Collingwood this weekend, they are a young side that plays with so much heart. Port and Essendon are going to be desperate but luckily with Port we have our home crowd. I am more confident we'd beat West Coast at Subiaco Oval than at Adelaide Oval that is for sure. Still think we are a good chance to make a GF even if we lose the QF, finals is tough, it is not easy to win and today more unpredictable things happen.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

I think we'll drop at least 2 more games and finish 16-6 but should be good enough for 1st or 2nd. Even 15-7 is 2nd or 3rd.

Lose to Sydney and one of our other games. Also we cannot underestimate Collingwood this weekend, they are a young side that plays with so much heart. Port and Essendon are going to be desperate but luckily with Port we have our home crowd. I am more confident we'd beat West Coast at Subiaco Oval than at Adelaide Oval that is for sure. Still think we are a good chance to make a GF even if we lose the QF, finals is tough, it is not easy to win and today more unpredictable things happen.

If we win 3 of our last 5 we cannot finish outside of the top 2 as GWS and Geelong still have to play each other again.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

These days they are so monitored and tailored to it's pretty interesting!
I forget who mentioned that if they want to have some goal kicking practice after training they sometimes aren't allowed.

That doesn't surprise me. If you're creating a fitness plan for the team and trying to take it to the absolute edge, any extra load on top of that could prove to be too much (especially when it is extra load that you aren't even aware of, so can't plan for).

It would be like a dietitian creating an eating plan and finding out that the person has been having extra food here and there. Obviously your dieting plan isn't going to work as well as that is extra food you hadn't accounted for in the overall plan.

 

[Alwaysacrow]

Is it just me or would anyone else feel nervous if we won all of our remaining H&A games?

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Is it just me or would anyone else feel nervous if we won all of our remaining H&A games?

To me it would depend on how we won them.

Easy wins, with lots of uncontested ball and goals out the back would get me a bit nervous.

Wins like the game against Geelong, where we physically took it up to them and just wanted it more I'd be ok with.

 

[Rotayjay]

Well, let's have a look at how recent premiers have run home (last 5 rounds and finals):

Hawthorn 2008: 1 loss, won all finals convincingly
Geelong 2009: 2 losses
Collingwood 2010: 1 loss, had a drawn grand final
Geelong 2011: 1 loss
Sydney 2012: 3 losses
Hawthorn 2013: 1 loss
Hawthorn 2014: 1 loss
Hawthorn 2015: 2 losses (including qualifying final loss)
Bulldogs 2016: 2 losses

So yeah ... carn Crows, make sure you lose a game apart from a GF!

 

[NikkiNoo]

I need someone with some knowledge!
One Of my regular/loyal customers at work is massive Crows fan from day dot.....
He goes to me, that he has it on good authority that the boys had been "smashed and ran really hard" up until that Carlton game!

I thought it sounded a bit like bs but then I kept getting told that we did that in 1998 also!

Load of poo or some possible truth?

We did it in both 1997 and 1998 leading into the finals. This has continued at the club since. It does vary when towards the end of the season it occurs depending on our positioning, and our upcoming opponents. We are not the only ones who do it in the AFL, but are the ones that started the trend of adjusting the loading leading into finals.