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Crows must meet expectations: Craig
8:09:56 PM Sat 17 September, 2005
Matt Burgan
Exclusive to afc.com.au
Adelaide coach Neil Craig believes expectations of the club will rise next year after the Crows jumped from 12th position last year to a preliminary final in 2005.
Speaking after Adelaide's 16-point loss to West Coast at Subiaco Oval on Saturday, Craig said the success this year will put a greater focus on the club next year.
"The better we get, the more expectation they'll be. If you want to shy away from expectation, don't be good, be mediocre and we won't be doing that," Craig said.
Craig said his first-time experience as a finals coach in the AFL was just as he expected.
"You call upon your playing experiences, some of my previous coaching experiences, what you see on the television in the last couple of weeks and what we've been through today just reconfirmed what I already know about finals footy, which is good," Craig said.
"Confirmation is a very powerful weapon."
Although Craig said his side didn't need to find another gear - as he pointed out, his team was able to claw its way back into the match in the final term - he suggested it was not advanced enough to go all the way in the finals at this point.
"You've got to win enough games to get into the finals, obviously, and there is a certain style of game you can play to do that and should play to do that," Craig said.
"But you've always got to have in the back of your mind what little subtleties there are that really create winning in finals football and we're not good enough to do that (yet)."
Craig said his players would continue to develop next year, which would be a major positive for the club.
"The guys that have played for us today have contributed really well and they'll get better, and they'll get better and better," Craig said.
"As we become better drilled in the way we go about it, our system will get better and the individuals will get better.
"We've got some younger kids that (didn't play much) because of our reasonable success this year, one of the negatives is that we didn't get a big enough opportunity to play some of those young kids, so you could argue in some ways we stagnated a bit."
8:09:56 PM Sat 17 September, 2005
Matt Burgan
Exclusive to afc.com.au
Adelaide coach Neil Craig believes expectations of the club will rise next year after the Crows jumped from 12th position last year to a preliminary final in 2005.
Speaking after Adelaide's 16-point loss to West Coast at Subiaco Oval on Saturday, Craig said the success this year will put a greater focus on the club next year.
"The better we get, the more expectation they'll be. If you want to shy away from expectation, don't be good, be mediocre and we won't be doing that," Craig said.
Craig said his first-time experience as a finals coach in the AFL was just as he expected.
"You call upon your playing experiences, some of my previous coaching experiences, what you see on the television in the last couple of weeks and what we've been through today just reconfirmed what I already know about finals footy, which is good," Craig said.
"Confirmation is a very powerful weapon."
Although Craig said his side didn't need to find another gear - as he pointed out, his team was able to claw its way back into the match in the final term - he suggested it was not advanced enough to go all the way in the finals at this point.
"You've got to win enough games to get into the finals, obviously, and there is a certain style of game you can play to do that and should play to do that," Craig said.
"But you've always got to have in the back of your mind what little subtleties there are that really create winning in finals football and we're not good enough to do that (yet)."
Craig said his players would continue to develop next year, which would be a major positive for the club.
"The guys that have played for us today have contributed really well and they'll get better, and they'll get better and better," Craig said.
"As we become better drilled in the way we go about it, our system will get better and the individuals will get better.
"We've got some younger kids that (didn't play much) because of our reasonable success this year, one of the negatives is that we didn't get a big enough opportunity to play some of those young kids, so you could argue in some ways we stagnated a bit."
