What turned the game

[joelpatful]

I dont follow adelaide or collingwood and I went along tonight and I think the turning point in the game was when Knights went off half way through the 2nd term. He was playing well across half forward n when he went off half way through the 2nd thats when collingwood started getting on top. I thought to myself gees wheres Knights there missing him up forward. It seemed the forwardline didnt function aswell with him off. Also Bernie Vince is an absolute superstar, that kid will win a brownlow one day. Id be very very excited as a crows fan with the young blokes you have. Half way through that 1st term the way the crows were playing I thought gee I think the crows might go all the way this year but wasn't too be.

 

[amer]

Agreed mate, genuinely pumped about the core that is developing. Still about 5 players to claim their spots on a permanent basis, then it'll be a rapid upward trend imo.

 

[Ad76]

Agreed mate, it wasnt all Knights since we were getting beaten through the middle in the 3rd, but our forward line looked much much worse when he went off.

Interesting that his move to the forward line through the middle of the season correlates pretty closely to our run of good form as well.

Would have certainly helped tonight with the rotations too.

 

[SA Tricolours]

Mick Malthouse basically agrees with this (although in response to a different question).

On Channel 10 after the game he was asked about his coming team selections for next week, and he said:
"If you do lose a player early......you cannot afford to be going in with 21 players".

The loss of Knights last night was as crucial as Collingwood losing Pendlebury early last week.

 

[WALL-e]

Knight may have turned the game, but it didn't lose it, the third term brain fade and poor kicking in the second did.

 

[pjcrows]

Thompson's miss. Reilly's miss.

 

[RocknRoll]

First quarter.
I don't think the running Crows gameplan is suited to finals which are often quite HOT as it was for this match.
The Crows went crazy, running and handballing everywhere.
They were tired by the end of the first quarter and buggered by half time.
Craigy needs to understand it is a four quarter game and develop a game style that is energy efficient. Such a style might be better suited for finals games which are often far more tiring than games played just a few weeks earlier.

 

[latinoheat]

definitiely knights going off changed the game i thought. Knights is a gun, and more importantly a game breaker. I have no doubts had he stayed on the park, we would now be in a prelim.

 

[Bockchoy67]

Thompson's miss. Reilly's miss.

As trivial as the above might sound, it's not off the mark.

We were dominating the midfield play during the second quarter but didn't make Collingwood pay. In fact we lost the quarter. Too many misses and too many long bombs on top of Tippett's head did not work. It didn't help that Knights wasn't there to crumb and provide forward penetration, but gee we left the door open for Collingwood.

Collingwood was always going to come back - granted we shouldn't have let them come back as they did, but our poor usage in the second quarter gave them the opportunity to do so.

 

[amer]

Yeah that's correct, we did control the second term. We handed momentum back by not capitalising. It wasn't some enormous coaching blunder like some of the kneejerkers on here make out. Even in that third term when Collingwood got the run on, we still rebounded well and kept falling over with our delivery into the forward line.

 

[frednerk33]

Thompson's miss. Reilly's miss.

Danger's etc etc plus easy cough-ups... we threw it away, not turned on just one play

Craigy needs to understand it is a four quarter game and develop a game style that is energy efficient. Such a style might be better suited for finals games which are often far more tiring than games played just a few weeks earlier.

This is just so funny !!! Jeepers who would've thought NC wouldn't recognize this having been in the game for 40 years and been voted AFL coach of the year and possessing a masters degree in sports science and all. Crikey, you should be coach, having identified that when all the coaches in the box couldn't !

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

we only have ourselves to blame we wasted too many opportunities

Knighta going off didn't help

 

[footy4ever]

forward flank, late in the game, 7 up, Birdman and....someone else..... when the ball was certainly going to be in the hands of one of them, look at eachother and let the ball go to ....Swan?? maybe??...run kick kick goal. One point up instead of a likely scoring shot for us. Now that was when we lost the game.....IMO.....IMHumbleO.

 

[Stevie_Crow]

Yes, Reilly's miss was a big one we felt last night.

 

[-CG-]

Yes, Reilly's miss was a big one we felt last night.

Bernie shouldn't have passed that one off.

 

[crownie]

i saw the warning signs early in the second quarter, doesn't need to be said but you guys were poorly blazing away into your fifty and in a final a team is going to be good enough to run it out and eventually put pressure back on. you gave them a sniff and they came out in the 3rd and turned the pressure up and you got away with over using the ball in the first half but you didnt after half time.

 

[crownie]

forward flank, late in the game, 7 up, Birdman and....someone else..... when the ball was certainly going to be in the hands of one of them, look at eachother and let the ball go to ....Swan?? maybe??...run kick kick goal. One point up instead of a likely scoring shot for us. Now that was when we lost the game.....IMO.....IMHumbleO.

yep Birdman and Tippett were outnumbered and just one of them needed to contest the loose ball on the ground but they stood and looked at each other.

 

[SugarShane]

The problem with Knighta going off was too many of our players were wondering "Who's gonna stand up now?" instead of thinking "I better stand up now." A few took the game on, too many just looked as if they were along for the ride.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

The first goal of the third quarter decided the game. Swan.

It was either going to be a massive win to Adelaide or a Collingwood comeback. That moment determined the course of the match.

 

[CaptainDangerfield]

The turning point - apparently it was the weather. As soon as the barometer hits 30 degrees, players who are aged 30 and over start melting. No seriously, they do. I saw Macca lose a leg on the outer wing.

 

[DirrtyBee]

To think if we had gotten even just two of those missed set shots...

 

[pjcrows]

There were critical moments in the game that were obvious, and not even in hindsight.

The first was Scott Thompson's set shot from 30m out in front with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. If he kicks that, we move to 37 points up with Malthouse putting on the uber-flood in the last 5 minutes to stem the flow. Instead, Thompson misses, and they run down for a goal to win the quarter.

The second was the minute after Tippett's 3rd goal that put us 7 points up. We needed to really hold control of it for the next 2 or 3 minutes but we were unable to. Maric fumbled a loose ball on the wing, and the next play was McCaffer running in to the open goal.

Huge moments, and we didn't do it.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

The second was the minute after Tippett's 3rd goal that put us 7 points up. We needed to really hold control of it for the next 2 or 3 minutes but we were unable to. Maric fumbled a loose ball on the wing, and the next play was McCaffer running in to the open goal.

After that goal we had both Edwards and Thompson on the bench. Along with Vince, two of our best three clearance players.

I haven't observed our rotations closely enough during the season but I would have thought that you'd want two of these three on at all times.

 

[SugarShane]

After half time our play on at all costs plan just didn't work either. I lost count of how many times one of our players marked it and immediately played on and looked to handball off and there was no one there. Nearly always resulted in a turnover or kick to a contest. Surely it doesn't hurt to stop for 1-2 seconds after a mark and just take a quick squizz to see if playing on will be advantageous, instead of "Mark. Play on. Sh*t, where are am i passing to?"

 

[deliberate!!]

As soon as you started going sideways (Collingwood's domain - the edge of grounds) instead of straight up the guts with constant movement...Collingwood had you.

Collingwood wanted a scrap, not free flowing football.