Review When does the Penny drop for Sando

[mattymac]

Starting to think losing Stephen Schwerdt to the Gold Coast Suns might be having a bigger influence on our season than we think in view of our poor pre-season form and indifferent form in the early stanza of the season proper.....especially given the Gold Coast's major improvement in the way they are now finishing off their matches strongly and no longer getting absolutely run over in the second half. Giving some of our players "easy" pre-seasons and late starts to others looks to have seriously back-fired to me. Not taking the NAB Cup serious also seems to have got our players into the wrong mindset right from the start, something we haven't really recovered from IMO, especially in comparison to last years flying start when we were up from the get go.

Thoughts??

This is spot on. Coming out like a team of champions who were a lock for the top 4 and had to time our run to the finals was a massive error. Middling teams have to hit the ground running, get some early wins against opposition who may not be completely switched on yet, and start building momentum immediately. Then worry about finals if you get there. I feel we took a few things for granted coming into this season.

 

[Wood_Duck]

At the end of 2011 when Sanderson was appointed, how many seasons did people honestly think it would take to turn us into a premiership contender? We were a rabble, a disgrace and an embarrassment at the time. Do people have ridiculous expectations based on some unexpected success last year? It takes more than one or two years to fix an average list, maybe even longer with no draft picks.

 

[Wood_Duck]

His trust in some pkayers is staring to be misplaced and this can become a dangerous territory if a coach does not bring it back into line on his terms

Hes been let down by some of the so called leaders. Not sure who you blame when all of your experienced players are basically average footballers. Apologies to Truck of course.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Hes been let down by some of the so called leaders. Not sure who you blame when all of your experienced players are basically average footballers. Apologies to Truck of course.

This is my point he Keeps selectin the likes of Porpy, dropping Porpy won't win or lose us a game but it will send a message across the entire playing group

I understand it's a tough call to drop your Capt and this is why Danger must Capt the club next season and then VB must live by his form

 

[Vader]

You guys have injuries galore, don't blame tonight on Sando

The thing is.. we don't.

Missing tonight were Walker & Mackay. Petrenko got injured during the game. None of the other players on our injury list (Johnston, Shaw, Joyce) are guaranteed starters in our best 22.

Sydney were missing more "best 22" players last night than Adelaide were.

 

[Vader]

You don't think that Stiffy and Lyon are in our best 22

Stiffy - no. Lyons - yes, but if the coaches say he needs a rest (noting that we have the bye next week, giving him 2 weeks off) then I'll take their word for it. He must return in R13 though.

You don't think that Sando made a defining error in selecting Pets and Nutter in the Prelim

Agreed.. he did.

you don't think that at any stage Porpy or Dmac could have been dropped this year

Yes.. but who do you replace them with? Martin, Riley, Jaensch? No point in dropping them if the players coming in are no better than the ones going out.

My concern is this, Sando has an extremely Cosy relationship with the large core of players and players are playing with little fear of being dropped

Possibly... On the other hand, you may be making something out of nothing.

Let's not sugar coat this, regardless of the Tippett situation there were payers that should have been dropped this year and there were pkayers available to come in to the side with better frm in the sanfl

Most of them have been tried and found wanting at AFL level and there really is little point to bringing them back just to replace an out of form senior player. Grigg and Crouch are about the only two exceptions.

Right now we don't have many decent youngsters being kept out of the side. Lyons was given a "rest" this week. He should be back for R13, or there will be a lot of unhappy supporters wanting to know why. Grigg is the only other youngster demanding selection at the SANFL level. We also have a lot of dead wood, courtesy of draft dodging over the last 4 years. Selecting the dead wood does nothing to improve our long term prospects.

 

[Slippery Pete]

At the end of 2011 when Sanderson was appointed, how many seasons did people honestly think it would take to turn us into a premiership contender? We were a rabble, a disgrace and an embarrassment at the time. Do people have ridiculous expectations based on some unexpected success last year? It takes more than one or two years to fix an average list, maybe even longer with no draft picks.

He just re-signed Reilly for another two years. Discuss.

 

[King Elvis]

Securing him so we can trade* him instead of losing him as a free agent??

*A man can dream.

 

[Wood_Duck]

He just re-signed Reilly for another two years. Discuss.

He was in the AA squad last year. He's never been as bad as people on here would have us believe. Having said that his form this year has been ordinary , last night was disgraceful but he was no orphan.

 

[Mego Red]

Vader - in before you do a ninja edit.

We don't have a bye next week. We're round 13.

 

[Slippery Pete]

He was in the AA squad last year.

But he only signed him a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Wood_Duck]

But he only signed him a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, I don't have a major problem with it. He's been a bit horrible at times over the last few weeks but he really is the least of our problems. We really only have about a dozen or so players on our list that have proven they can play AFL standard football every week. The difference between our best and worst is massive. Sadly I can't put my finger on the exact cause.

 

[Vader]

Vader - in before you do a ninja edit.

We don't have a bye next week. We're round 13.

Meh.. Lyons should be back this week then, if the bye is still a week away.

 

[Sanders]

No actually a board member

So someone with zero exposure to operational match day issues

 

[Dewy006]

Meh.. Lyons should be back this week then, if the bye is still a week away.

Yeah, you would definitely hope he would come back this week, otherwise he misses 3 weeks due to the bye and is once again behind the 8 ball.

 

[Kerleys Ghost]

If Sando is a terrible game day coach I don't know what you make of Craig? We've had twice as many come from behind victories under Sando than Craig mustered in 7 years.

I agree though there is an issue with our gamestyle though. We need to find some groundbreaking new tactic that is going to open things up.

I was almost thinking today after halftime that Sando go full circle and have 6 stay at home forwards and 6 stay home backs and play 1990s football. Nothing to lose.

you are awesome

you must coach crows


a few years back I was watching a malthouse interview late at night and it suddenly struck me that he must coach the crows. I pulled out my phone to message my best friend about it, but before I could fire off the text he messaged me saying the same thing. I got really excited when the rumours of malthouse losing his job started, and then it became obvious that craigs time was nearly up and it really seemed like we might get him. Just one year too late (and carlton in the way).

everyone should settle down, Sandos done a good job so far, a bad game is a bad game, who cares? we're having a bad year in general. Lots to look forward to in coming years.

a few handy free agency recruits, some youngsters improve, some tactical tweaks, walker returns, and we're back in business.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Does anyone know if Gazza Lyons is going to play tomorrow?

 

[The Ando Factor]

[How about a defensive sweeper? Or two? Or three? Someone standing there without an opponent, not pushing up the field. Would it work as a change-up?[/quote]

Franco Baresi says hi

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

So someone with zero exposure to operational match day issues

But someone with full exposure to the recommendation of the coaching appt committee and the critique on each candidate

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

I think everything is quite obvious in hindsight...

On the questioning Callinans selection for last years prelim, in rounds 20, 21, 22, 23, QF Callinan kicked 2, 4, 4, 4, 1 goals. In rounds 17, 18, 19 Callinan kicked 0, 1, 0 goals. So should Sando get grilled for selecting Callinan in rounds 20 - QF because he was out of form and only managed 1 goal in the prior 3 weeks? Because without Callinans contribution we may not have beaten Fremantle, then the ladder and subsequent finals draw would have been different. Sanderson had faith in Callinan, and in the last 2 weeks of the year it didnt pay off.

Petrenko on the other hand, yes a mistake. He gets over 10 touches in games vs bottom 6 teams, and less than 10 touches vs quality teams. Petrenko does the odd flashy bit of work, but that isnt enough. Small defender only, and shouldnt have played.

 

[smoovy]

I think everything is quite obvious in hindsight...

On the questioning Callinans selection for last years prelim, in rounds 20, 21, 22, 23, QF Callinan kicked 2, 4, 4, 4, 1 goals. In rounds 17, 18, 19 Callinan kicked 0, 1, 0 goals. So should Sando get grilled for selecting Callinan in rounds 20 - QF because he was out of form and only managed 1 goal in the prior 3 weeks? Because without Callinans contribution we may not have beaten Fremantle, then the ladder and subsequent finals draw would have been different. Sanderson had faith in Callinan, and in the last 2 weeks of the year it didnt pay off.

Petrenko on the other hand, yes a mistake. He gets over 10 touches in games vs bottom 6 teams, and less than 10 touches vs quality teams. Petrenko does the odd flashy bit of work, but that isnt enough. Small defender only, and shouldnt have played.

Callinan finishes, simple as that. You take the good with the bad and make a judgement call. In my view he was instrumental in many of our wins last year (He kicked as many as million $ man Tippett!). That goal he did kick against the Swans, he would've been the only Crow who would've even thought about turning inside on his left foot there, let alone actually kick it.

 

[smoovy]

At the end of 2011 when Sanderson was appointed, how many seasons did people honestly think it would take to turn us into a premiership contender? We were a rabble, a disgrace and an embarrassment at the time. Do people have ridiculous expectations based on some unexpected success last year? It takes more than one or two years to fix an average list, maybe even longer with no draft picks.

I think the key for any coach is the ability to get the best out of the players they have at their disposal. Given our actual list, I'd say he's not doing too bad at all.

However the way some are talking here it won't be long until the "Sando for Colombia" signs come out. Perhaps "Sanderson for Syria" is a better modern day fit.

 

[macca23]

Quite frankly I think this game was lost in the preseason, forget about effort etc it is Sando's job to prepare our side to tackle the best of the best. I personally don't think our effort was that bad, it was our ability to apply a gameplan that is both shallow and out of date. A simple, contested ball game plan may have worked for much of last year in light of Craigy's overly complex, impossible to implement gameplan, but we needed to progress and we didn't.

For mine it all started with the Sydney final. It was clear that they had studied us, they came to Footy Park with a gameplan to systematically dismantle us. We were exposed, it was too soon for Fremantle and Hawthorn to adjust so we managed pretty good games against those sides, giving us a false sense of our own ability, although there were times where both gave us the run around. Since then though, the better coached sides have both progressed in their game plan and used Sydney's plan as a blue print to beat us. Sides like Essendon, Port Adelaide, Carlton, Sydney and even the Kangaroos before they choked at the end of each quarter, have dismantled us, Geelong did it in the preseason. For mine that Sydney game highlighted 3 massive short comings in our game:

A lot of the above makes sense James, as does the rest of your post.

Firstly, we had the distraction and the embarrassment of the Tippett affair, at a time when we had also lost our fitness coach, and promoted his understudy. By definition this has to be giving the job to the 2nd best man on our payroll, not the best in the industry.

Then came the biggest mistake of all IMO. Allowing this mob of underperforming big-heads to believe they are several levels better than they really are by not even playing a lot of the better players for the first 2 NAB cup games, plus treating the NAB Cup as an extra training session rather than competitive football.

Both last year and this year we have shown that to be a good side we have to perform at maximum intensity, yet our start to the season was anything but that IMO. Sando and crew planned it to be a low level pre-season and unfortunately IMO that has carried on to our performances in matches.

Sando also said that we would tweak our game plan to include a bit more handball.

Handball? Fk me drunk!! How many panic ring-a ring-a rosie handballs did we do yesterday to a player in a worse position also under pressure when a kick would have been a far better option.

I don't think it's a State secret that Bailey was the master-mind last year on a strategic basis. Yes, we have access to him on non-match days, but his best work has always been done handling the problems thrown up on match-day and coming up with counter-punches. James has given a pretty good précis above on some of the problems we face on match day with little success now that Bailey is not in the box to come up with the answers.

There is so much wrong at the moment that needs sorting out. Game plan, team selection and the positioning of where players play. An inability to tackle correctly - currently the worst in the competition. Our forward just don't spread quickly and widely, being friendly little souls that seem to like to stand in a clump making the plus one or plus 2 employed by the better teams the best players on the ground. Neither do we counter punch those teams using the slingshot method by playing a loose man a good kick behind the play to negate the effectiveness of this method.

Also, brickbats to the genius in the coaching box who is throwing Dangerfield forward for extended periods when the ball is getting no closer than 100 metres away. Makes sense when we are getting our fair share of inside 50's but is plain lunacy when we're not.

As a club - officials, coaches and players - we have had a very very ordinary year and it doesn't take Einstein to work out that there is no flag coming our way this year. In all probability there won't be finals either, but whether or not we make it will be irrelevant. If we make the finals we aren't good enough to win a flag, if we don't there's always the consolation of a good draft pick ..... as long as you're not Adelaide.

Time for Sando and crew to review our fitness levels and training techniques, revise our game plan and objectively look at our team to see who is performing and who isn't and use the rest of this year as a dress rehearsal to get it right in 2014.

 

[jenny61_99]

He just re-signed Reilly for another two years. Discuss.

On the back of Reilly just having had his best season for the club.

 

[Sanders]

But someone with full exposure to the recommendation of the coaching appt committee and the critique on each candidate

Garbage

If this faceless man's opinion carried weight, the industry wouldn't have Sando as a viable candidate throughout the league. The entire industry saw Sando as a prime coaching candidate.

Leigh Matthews saw no problem.

Whether Sando succeeds or not, it won't be because of a suspect call from an anonymous source.