Thoughts

[spindoctor]

I was impressed with Ben Hudson.

Hentschel seemed alright in defense.

Skipworth looked OK up forward.

I was not impressed with Adelaide as a whole - we don't look to have progressed at all from last season, again the best passages of play came from the old firm.

I harbour severe concerns for Ayres' ability to generate any new ideas in his coaching.

Perrie looked the same again - one-dimensional.

Carey looked the same as last season.

Does not bode particularly well. I await being proven wrong, but that's how it looks.

 

[macca23]

No problem with anything you've said above.

People will say, it's only a trial. Fair enough. But we were ordinary. I thought the Saints should have won by more.

Our game plan was cheap and nasty. Leading out to the flanks and wings to get the easy kick. A recipe for disaster. For weeks we practice a direct style of approach going into the forward lines, but the first time we are placed under pressure we revert to this ugly to watch, ineffective, high possession, low result style of game.

There were a couple of positives from an individual point of view. such as Hentshel and Hudson, but from a team point of view - very ordinary.

Ayres won't be there next year if this is going to be our style of play during the year.

It's only February, but we very disappointing.

 

[lozstar]

i'm hoping that "it's only the wizard cup" applies here. didn't look all that good at all.

really, really hoping that won't be like that during the season.

Carey didn't look much better than last year - he still looks old and like he's had it!

only upside was the youngins.. they looked pretty good - hopefully more game experience will do them some more good.

- what the hell was with those goal & field umpires with Reilly's (i think?) goal.. I swear they don't know the rules.

 

[ok.crows]

Very ordinary performance. Poor use of the ball. Inefficient. Indirect. Went wide. Played only one quarter.

Quite a bit of work to do yet.

Gameplan needs fixing still.

 

[Damp Squarie]

Lets not panic.
There were some good signs in Ben Hudson, Gallagher, and dare I say it- Trent Hentschell.

Ive bagged him from day one but although he had a shaky start, (Where he shirked a contest) he gained confidence as the game went on and actually showed poise in one play where he was boxed in.

Ben Hudson reminded me of a raw Shaun Rehn- He will be a player.

Ronnie Burns was terrible- fumbled the ball at least three times and mucked up a couple of disposals when he did get a handle on it.

Pretty ordinary Crows
Well done Saints you were more direct which apparently the Crows were gonna be this year

We missed Sir Ben.

 

[tinman]

Originally posted by ok.crows
Very ordinary performance. Poor use of the ball. Inefficient. Indirect. Went wide. Played only one quarter.

Quite a bit of work to do yet.

Gameplan needs fixing still.

It didn't look like we had a game plan....

Don't disagree with anything said in the posts above. Also thought that Gallagher did well and showed real courage on a couple of occasions, and his disposal was good.

Reilly had a good last quarter as did Burton after both spent long periods on the bench. Edwards battled away well.

Welsh moved well and hopefully he will stay sound. Goodwin also showed that he may be back to his best this year.

Perrie struggled at FF and led wide all game. We looked better with Carey off the ground. Bassett looked very very ordinary. Burns in the midfield at this stage of his career is mystifying. Maybe he needs the run and the coaches think that he will work harder there than in the forward line where he may have been slightly more useful???

Overall the scoreline flattered us as St Kilda looked a much better, more direct team and they have a fair bit to get excited about with some of the young players they have coming through.

 

[Bockchoy67]

Yes, we were ordinary, and yes we did not play well, and yes we did not win, but at least there were some positive signs to come out of this match.

For one, Skippy looked to be in real good shape, speedy, and kicked a good couple of goals. Played more of a goal - sneak today, which seemed to suit him at time.

Hentschel, in my opinion has GROWN. Big time. Not only in size but also in skill. I wouldn't go past saying he one of our if not our best player todasy (which still doesn't mean much). Unfortunately, his performance was marred by his seemigly effortless kick which bassically ruled off any chance of winning.

Hudson was not outstanding, but very solidl. Good effort for his first game.

I must also say I was VERY happy with Scotty Welsh. Did everything he needed to do.

The negatives-

Scott Stevens did not play well. Looked slow and won now contests. With his build he should be, easily.

Perrie was pretty bad. Did not give 100%, dropped easy marks,
and led far too wide.

Carey was aklso disappointing, and unfortunately seems to have injured his knee a bit. I'm not sure, but he had an ice pack on it.

I still think we did well today. Our first three Qs were terrible, but our fight at the end shows we've still got it.

Don't worry, we'll prove Walls wrong.

 

[ok.crows]

Originally posted by tinman
It didn't look like we had a game plan....

Don't disagree with anything said in the posts above. Also thought that Gallagher did well and showed real courage on a couple of occasions, and his disposal was good.

Reilly had a good last quarter as did Burton after both spent long periods on the bench. Edwards battled away well.

Welsh moved well and hopefully he will stay sound. Goodwin also showed that he may be back to his best this year.

Perrie struggled at FF and led wide all game. We looked better with Carey off the ground. Bassett looked very very ordinary. Burns in the midfield at this stage of his career is mystifying. Maybe he needs the run and the coaches think that he will work harder there than in the forward line where he may have been slightly more useful???

Overall the scoreline flattered us as St Kilda looked a much better, more direct team and they have a fair bit to get excited about with some of the young players they have coming through.

On the gameplan ... didn't the Crows hint that they had been working on it ?

On the team selections ... didn't the Crows hint that they would give gametime this season to the younger players ?

Either (1) this is their 'new' gameplan, and it is absolutely useless. BTW, didn't Port alread prove how comprehensively uselesss the 'move it slowly forward, try to keep possession, go short & wide' gameplan was ?

or

(2) Ayres & the Crows are trying to keep something under wraps.

Lets hope it is (2). (1) sucks.

 

[Stiffy_18]

First of all congratulations to St. Kilda. They were fantastic and the final score board was not a true indication of the match. We only played 1 good quarter of footy.

Positives

Ben Hudson - doesn't this guy have an apetite for contest or what. I think he will be a very handy player for us. This is the 2nd time I have seen him play and I must say he keeps on impressing me more and more. I actually thought we played better when he was in the ruck rather than Biglands. A much better back up than the soft one.

Trent Hentschel - Did very well on Kosi in the 1st half and held his own against Hamill in the 2nd half. Got a few touches. What really impressed me was that he always seemed to have enough time to make the right decision and select the right option. This is a sign of a good player. He will need more muscle if he is to hold down a KP this year.

Brent Reilly - for the life of me I cannot figure out why he didn't get any game time in the 1st half . He was good when he came on and kicked a couple of goals. I particularly liked his 2nd goal.

Skippy was good up forward but he really needs to keep his man from dominating a game. Kicked a couple of nice goals.

Gallagher - rebounded well from defence. Got a lot of the ball and used it well but needs to keep an eye on his man. Clarke was more effective than him.

Welshy is getting back into good form.

Form of some other senior players.

Negatives

Too Carey concious. We played better with him on the pine. Perrie thrives on being the go to guy and when ever Cary plays Sarge goes missing.

Going too wide again. We seemed lost, didn't have a fair crack until last quarter.

Scott Stevens looked lost.

We seem to be playing short chipping style of game like Port did last year. Not very happy about this.

How many holes our defence has without Hart, Smart and Torney.

Forward line non existent.

Delivery to the forward was poor.

Forwards leading to the flanks.

Nothing seems to have changed.

Ronnie bloody Burns was pathetic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bickley is more of a loss than some of us realise as is Mark Stevens. Perrie functions better with Stevo than he does with Carey.

Overall: some good signs shown by the youngsters but some worrying signs in regards to our game plan.

 

[tinman]

Originally posted by Stiffy_18

Brent Reilly - for the life of me I cannot figure out why he didn't get any game time in the 1st half . He was good when he came on and kicked a couple of goals. I particularly liked his 2nd goal.

Ronnie bloody Burns was pathetic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bickley is more of a loss than some of us realise as is Mark Stevens. Perrie functions better with Stevo than he does with Carey.

Overall: some good signs shown by the youngsters but some worrying signs in regards to our game plan.

The loss of Bickley is huge, particularly as Kane Johnson was traded. The much vaunted midfield is not what it was a couple of years ago. Reilly looks like he is a good type and at least he plays direct.

To be fair to Ronnie, he has played all of his footy close to goal and he has proven to be a very damaging player. At this stage of his career I can't fathom why we would be experimenting with him upfield, unless they wanted to make him run to lift his match fitness level. Surely we must have better midfield options????

 

[macca23]

Good post Stiffy, and well summed up.

One of the few things I'd like to add is that Ayres must have a death wish playing Ronnie Burns as a wingman.

A bit soft but definitely unaccountable.

Burns is a FP or nothing.

Also Ayres initial match-up of Shirley on Milne was nothing short of stupid.

Now that we're knocked out of the Wizzer, Reilly Schuback etc must be given every opportunity.

If Ayres can't get the players to play down the corridor then he has to be replaced. All we saw was the same old ugly movement around the boundary into the forward 50. You can't win a flag doing that as long as your bum points to the ground.

 

[Stiffy_18]

Actually guys I listened to Ronnie the other day on 5AA and he actually went to the coaching staff at the end of last year and asked them if he could play on the wing as he was getting "bored" playing in the forward line he wanted to do something different.

For the life of me I cannot understand why the hell would the coaching staff oblige.

Reilly came on for Ronnie and imidietly you caould see that it was better for the structure of the team and Reilly kicked a couple of goals and a some very neat touches. He will be a good player but we need more midfield options who can get their own in and under footy and have pace.

St. Kilda's midfield has pace to burn and they were leaving us for dead a few times out there.

The other thing is that I was disappointed with Ken McGregor's effort on Reiwoldt. I thought he should have done better. Granted you can never keep someone like Reiwoldt completely quiet but Reiwoldt was left alone on a number of occasions in the forward line. This was a chance for Kenny to step up and be a leader in the backline with absence of Hart and Smart and he didn't really do it.

I thought Bassett did a very good job on Gehrig. Fraser did kick a couple of goals but apart from that he was pretty quiet. I thought hound did a fair job today.

Stenglein's goal in the 1st quarter, how good was that??????

Johncocks ability to hold his feet is fantastic and he also kicked a ripper.

 

[macca23]

Originally posted by topjars

We missed Sir Ben.

Ahhhhh!! A smile at last for me!!

Geez it was good to see him in a guernsey that wasn't the Crows.

His efforts for Richmond were deplorable.

When we delisted him, we got nothing for him. We were way in front on that deal!!

 

[Stiffy_18]

Originally posted by macca23
Ahhhhh!! A smile at last for me!!

Geez it was good to see him in a guernsey that wasn't the Crows.

His efforts for Richmond were deplorable.

When we delisted him, we got nothing for him. We were way in front on that deal!!

We got a better pick up in Hudson. The only thing they have in common is their first name.

I think Topjars might have been talking about Ben Hart.

Ah well of to Perth now to play Fremantle on sunday. 5AA is apparently covering it so we can at least listen to it on radio.

macca23, didn't i say the other day that we will lose to St. Kilda and you guys shot me down in flames

One negative of dropping out of wizzer is that we get to travel all over the country and play in counrty carnival sort of games. (Which is good for the locals but not AFC). However, I see more positives where we can nurse our senior players into form and give youngsters some real game time. I would be playing Schuey and even Jericho against Freo next week.

 

[redandblack]

Wouldn't take much notice of the form of some of the more experienced players in a game like today. What was obvious was the difference Reilly made to the structure, giving us some run and good delivery through the middle.

 

[-WWJD-]

Very dissappointing. Agree with everything that's been said so far.

Hudson impressed me with a bit of the ground work he was involved in, didn't mind scrapping for it.

Great to see Welsh play out the game so well. Looked more comfortable playing further up the ground in the second half. That mark was a beauty, shows he's got that confidence back to throw his body around like that.

Reilly was impressive, silky skills were on show and loved the goal...should've been a 9 pointer damn it!

Skippy was also impressive, worked his way through traffic really well.

Burns still hasn't learnt what it means to give off first time...he still holds it up, waits til he's in trouble, tries to run around a few blokes and then dishes off and sells someone else into trouble. Can't believe he got a game ahead of Schuback.

St Kilda were just too good in close, their hands were so clean...we on the other hand couldn't seem to grab it first time. Especially Burton!

Burton still doesn't have the ability to keep his feet.

Would've thought Massie was a better match up for Milne from the start of the game than Shirley.

Carey looked ordinary today, but why do they keep insisting on bombing it long to him when he's got two defenders. He can't jump anymore or take a mark over head, why not deliver it to him on the lead?!

Hand skills were very poor, Harvey and Hayes recieved a few free touches after our blokes hand passed it to them, laces out on their chest.

Roo was good, as asual. And Edwards again didn't let down.

Potential Hentschel looked good in the last quarter until the pressure got to him and he took about 5 minutes to bang it long in the last thirty seconds.

 

[Jerome]

Full marks to St Kilda. They played a far more committed, smarter style of play than AFC. Give them 4 - 6 weeks to get match fit and they'll be even more dangerous! Very well done Sanits.

Nick Riewoldt carved us up. I liked his game a lot!

Crows - well that was stinky!! I really didnt expect to see the Crows brand of dumb football so early in the year.

All of our bad habits were there - playing out wide, poor skills, poor decision making, stop/start movement from defence.

We lacked spirit at times. Schocking! Macca is right the Saints should have whipped us by more.

Where was the smart, new effecient gameplan?

Some of the match ups were bloody terrible - Edwards and Goodwin on Hammil?? Our weaknesses in defence were exposed again today and it didnt look like we've developed a plan b or c.

Very ordinary team performance. A real lack of leadership from defence too. Bass and Kenny should have straightened us up and sorted the mess out.

Some of the good ones for AFC

Stiffy - tried really hard. Made the odd blues, but showed some real commitment.

Welsh - fearless. Really has improved, his commitment to a contest is first rate. please keep injury free Welshy!

Skipworth - did some nice work up forward.

Radar - provided some much needed run and followed through with a goal. Well done.

Hudson looked okay. I hope he stays in for a few weeks and is given time to get his game together. Made mistakes but ran in to make second efforts and sort them out.

Hentschel - hey Stiffy are you one of the Rowdy Boyz? Seems TH already has a fan club.

He did some nice things, especially in the second quarter he lifted his game a bit there. A couple of wayward kicks but than can be fixed. Flashy stuff - side stepped a couple of players.

However my main problem is with the physical side of his game.

He does not want to go into a pack and get the ball. Hamill and Kosi lead him to the ball and used their body to keep him out of contests. Unless he starts working on this now it will be exploited and someone will use his lack of confidence against him, making it worse.

He has to stop being a spectator and go everywhere with his man. Hammill ran off him up the ground, into a pack and he just stayed back. I'm yet to be convinced he is the answer in defence...he really has to improve his competitiveness in the next few weeks.

 

[kirky]

Very frustating game to watch today. I know that Mr Williams threw out his gameplan in the rubbish and it looks like Mr Ayres picked it up.

What is with the slow movement of the ball out of defence. A couple of times we held onto the ball then decided to kick it forward, it got turned over immediately and goals resulted when we could have kicked it forward immediately and not wasted time. Must learn to do the instinctive things, remember footballers generally lack a high level intelligence(otherwise they wouldn't be footballers).

Wide , wide , wide....WHY, WHY, WHY????

We should have been belted but fought it out. Hentschell did some good things and am looking forward to his year...

Still, it is only February. But the game plan needs a rethink if that what was on offer today....

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Originally posted by Stiffy_18

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bickley is more of a loss than some of us realise as is Mark Stevens. Perrie functions better with Stevo than he does with Carey.

When you lose hard at the ball players out of the midfield (Bickley and Johnson) it does make an enormous difference. The added loss of hardnut Stevens, results in a gamestyle I thought was fairly soft.

 

[macca23]

Originally posted by redandblack
Wouldn't take much notice of the form of some of the more experienced players in a game like today. What was obvious was the difference Reilly made to the structure, giving us some run and good delivery through the middle.

You're right about Reilly. He should have been on all game.

It wasn't the form of the players that bothered me. It was the pathetic way we brought the ball around the boundary all the time.

They've been practicing a more direct approach for weeks and forgot that in 1 minute.

 

[Stiffy_18]

Gee Jerome you are hard to please. I saw hentschel at the bottom of couple of packs and I was thinking "I wonder if Jerome is watching this". Honestly he is a kid who played his 4th AFL game. 30 odd games of SANFL senior football doesn't make and instant AFL footballer. He did well today. He will improve with time. A few years ago Welshy wasn't as hard at it as he is now. He has improved that side of his game over the years. It won't happen overnight for Hentschel. It will take time but he shows a lot more in his 4th game than the likes of McGregor and Perrie did.

Give the kid a break and in time he will come good and be a better player than the 2 I mentioned.

 

[macca23]

I thought Jerome's criticism of Hentschel was a bit harsh as well.

There were a couple of occasions he might have done more, but overall he can hold his head high.

17 disposals and 6 marks in a defence under fire due to slackness of his team-mates upfield says it all.

As Stiffy said, it was only his 4th game at this level. He did well.

 

[Stiffy_18]

Originally posted by macca23
I thought Jerome's criticism of Hentschel was a bit harsh as well.

There were a couple of occasions he might have done more, but overall he can hold his head high.

17 disposals and 6 marks in a defence under fire due to slackness of his team-mates upfield says it all.

As Stiffy said, it was only his 4th game at this level. He did well.

I just don't get it. Why do people want to sink boots into Hentschel on every opportunity they get.

I swear if the kid had a 40 possesion 20 mark, 10 goal game with no turnover they would still find something to bag him for.

 

[PAfolwr]

I fell asleep during the last quarter, but will say this for the other three.
Carey___Time to retire big fella. He is taking up precious space.
Hentschell___He has to be played. Give him gametime and he will be alright.
Hudson___First time the Crows have had a ruckman for years. He MUST be given gametime. Sorry, but you lot rate your current ruckmen far higher than the rest of us.
Hudson looked good. He is ok to good at centre bounces. Can take a mark, and looks for contests around the place. Cannot ask for much more. Experience required now.

Of your more experienced players, they did what one expects of them in the first game. Of the rest, not much to say really.
Gameplan_Was there one? I was looking to see what was being tried out, but for the life of me I couldn't spot it.

St Kilda___Yes if any of you Saint supporters see this you can bookmark it.
1. You may win the Wizard Cup.
2. You will be one of the teams fighting it out for the bottom of the 8 at most, and maybe even not make it.

 

[Jerome]

I fully understand what you guys are saying about his lack of experience.

I call it as I see it. How well he trains, how much he's been talked up and where he is at compared to other senior players doesnt interest me that much.

How he plays on the day is what I will judge him on and I've done that.

I dont like what I am seeing ... but take it as constructive criticisim. For me, what I have said above is'nt that harsh. I did acknowldge some good work and pointed out the stuff he needs to improve on.