Where do we need to improve next year?

[George CantStandYa]

Nah. This isnt 1995.

Clearance winners are 3-3 this finals series. We won the clearances in 4 out of the 7 games we lost.

Sydney won the clearances in last years Grand Final and lost by 60. Brisbane won the clearances in the 2023 Grand Final and lost. Sydney won the clearances in the 2022 Grand Final and lost by 75+.

You and elite crow/ George CantStandYa or whatever his name is (soon to change) are obsessed with clearances.

They simple dont matter much in the modern game.

Reckon there’s more than us that think clearances are important, you’re in the minority that doesn’t.

No one is saying the win clearances you win if the rest of your game isn’t up to scratch.

 

[GreyCrow]

I think the most important thing is to not panic react to our finals performances. The fans, the club, the coaches... everyone. Don't worry about what the ambulance chasing media think or say, their opinions are irrelevant.

Draper, Curtin, Rachele and Taylor should be rotating through the midfield far more.

Fair

Laird should play midfield far more but be instructed not to kick.

No

The gameplan is absolutely fine,

Can you explain what our game plan is? Not a piss take a genuine question that arose trying to work out what we ''stand for ''

This year has been great, we finished too high (if we got to 7th and lost we would feel so much better than we do at the moment). Next year will be much harder, we won't win as many games but the knowledge of what needs to be done in a final will be there.

This is valid. As noted I expected 14 wins which put us at the lower end.

But again there is need for change in the coaching box. These arent reactive points but ones which have been simmering and hidden by our success

 

[OldCrowBloke]

Havent we already been through that in the last 7 years. We need to find a midfielder of the calibre of a Petracca or Oliver or how about a Zach Merrett. If we wait too long we will start to lose some of our senior players. We have a good base at the moment so we need that driving force in the middle, now!

I think we are pretty much on the same page. If we can get a player of Petraca/Oliver calibre - grab them asap!!
But if there are some B-grade at best options available, don't waste draft capital or future picks on that level of player

 

[GreyCrow]

They simple dont matter much in the modern game.

This is certainly a hot take

No matter what you think of clearances the fact remains clearances put less pressure on the defensive area and kick start the offensive movement

If you think you are winning a game with 0 clearances you need help

 

[OldCrowBloke]

We don’t have loads of time as our window is open across the ground with the exception of the midfield. Need to aggressively fix

Definitely agree on need for aggressive fix. I was trying to suggest that we shouldn't use too much draft or trade capital now just to get a B-grader if no A-grader is available right now. Windows don't stay open long, but maybe one more year of developing Draper, Taylor, Dowling won't set things back too far if there is maybe an A-grader we can nab a year later

 

[skittlebrew]

Hang on. Look at your original post.

No

 

[AFC979810]

Reckon there’s more than us that think clearances are important, you’re in the minority that doesn’t.

No one is saying the win clearances you win if the rest of your game isn’t up to scratch.

Yeah.... I am sure the last 3 premiers losing clearances in the grand final highlights just how important it is to winning.

Considering we won the clearances in over half of our losses I hope we really focus on it all offseason.

 

[AFC979810]

No

Smartest thing you have typed.

 

[Soggy2112]

It seems if you don't have a big bodied defensive mid, you're up shit creek. Newcombe run amok against us.

Rowell running amok against most teams. Dunkley could put a lid on him in their game and the outcome reflected it.

Problem is size is not the only variable, you also need line breaking speed - these types of guys don't grow on trees.

We do have the speed though if Rankine, Rachele or Draper are in there.

Curtin being more experienced on ball gives us another big bodied, highly skilled option.

Dowling could be an option to look at when we come up against players like Rowell, Newcombe or Green.

I’d still be looking at trades/free agency, but I think there’s plenty to work with if that doesn’t work out.

 

[AFC979810]

This is certainly a hot take

I think its a hot take for those who are 10 years behind the modern game.

No matter what you think of clearances the fact remains clearances put less pressure on the defensive area and kick start the offensive movement

Look. If you can win the clearance then good. But it's not that important anymore. Your set up and field play is 10X more important.

If you think you are winning a game with 0 clearances you need help

Well thats a massive leap. No-one said that. But when you have the last 3 premiers losing clearances and winning the biggest game of the season I am not sure how you can say they are a barometer of success..

 

[Soggy2112]

Reckon there’s more than us that think clearances are important, you’re in the minority that doesn’t.

No one is saying the win clearances you win if the rest of your game isn’t up to scratch.

Yeah.... I am sure the last 3 premiers losing clearances in the grand final highlights just how important it is to winning.

Considering we won the clearances in over half of our losses I hope we really focus on it all offseason.

You’re both right.

Winning the raw clearance numbers is not that important.

But being able to generate scores from clearances, and not allowing your opposition clean exits from the stoppage is still pivotal.

The latter is something we did well in the home and away season, but completely lost in the finals.

Against Collingwood, we actually won clearances. But while they were looking to handball their way out and control the game, we were kicking it down Darcy Moore’s throat.

Against Hawthorn, we let them get out the front of the stoppage heaps of times which killed us.

Getting better at clearance needs to be a priority, but that doesn’t mean we have to win the clearance numbers every game.

 

[CrowBloke]

He’s been around here long enough to show he’s not trolling.

I didn't say he was trolling.

I reckon it’s exactly how it is, there is some up side with some players.

True for all Clubs; stating the obvious, imo.

What would you rather him say there?

Nothing at all.

It seems what your looking for is only positive opinions of the club and players.

Unfair and patently untrue.
I've been an outspoken critic of Nicks for as long as I remember.
When we won 9 on the trot (Minor Premiers) I was apologetic and thought he'd turned around in terms of decision-making. I was wrong.
I failed to see the warning signs of our last 4 Minor Round games and put them down to tapering.
I'm horrified and bitterly disappointed by our QF and SF losses in which we did not win a single quarter.
Please read this post in which my criticisms of those losses (Coaches and players) is clear:

Where do we need to improve next year?

What else do we need to add? Replace VB and Godden. Add a Midfield Coach with flair and Mids-structure-nous. Have a closed-door, strictly-private Review with Nicks and tell him to adopt some flexibility and Game Day moves (eg Keane off Gunston which stuck out like the proverbial --- it was...

www.bigfooty.com

There is an easy solution here, and that’s to hit the ignore button, which will work for everyone, you won’t then see any of his posts and the rest of us can read an outsider’s opinion.

I'm puzzled that you did not think his posts were patronising and condescending, but if I am wrong, I'm wrong.

I was going to self-report my post, ask the Mods to delete it if they thought it was offensive and accept any sanction they gave me. That's not the way to go.
Out of respect for you and AFC979810 I'll delete the post myself and do what you suggested (very fairly).

Apologies to you and AFC979810 and Freomaniac.

 

[FR0GGY]

I didn't say he was trolling.

True for all Clubs; stating the obvious, imo.

Nothing at all.

Unfair and patently untrue.
I've been an outspoken critic of Nicks for as long as I remember.
When we won 9 on the trot (Minor Premiers) I was apologetic and thought he'd turned around in terms of decision-making. I was wrong.
I failed to see the warning signs of our last 4 Minor Round games and put them down to tapering.
I'm horrified and bitterly disappointed by our QF and SF losses in which we did not win a single quarter.
Please read this post in which my criticisms of those losses (Coaches and players) is clear:

Where do we need to improve next year?

What else do we need to add? Replace VB and Godden. Add a Midfield Coach with flair and Mids-structure-nous. Have a closed-door, strictly-private Review with Nicks and tell him to adopt some flexibility and Game Day moves (eg Keane off Gunston which stuck out like the proverbial --- it was...

www.bigfooty.com

I'm puzzled that you did not think his posts were patronising and condescending, but if I am wrong, I'm wrong.

I was going to self-report my post, ask the Mods to delete it if they thought it was offensive and accept any sanction they gave me. That's not the way to go.
Out of respect for you and AFC979810 I'll delete the post myself and do what you suggested (very fairly).

Apologies to you and AFC979810 and Freomaniac.

All good, obviously things are a bit tense round here but I really didn’t see anything wrong with what was posted.
It’s usually pretty easy to see the posts (generally from the neighbors) that have no intention of discussing things in good faith and the mods are pretty good at getting on top of those.

 

[davos44]

Fair

No

Can you explain what our game plan is? Not a piss take a genuine question that arose trying to work out what we ''stand for ''

This is valid. As noted I expected 14 wins which put us at the lower end.

But again there is need for change in the coaching box. These arent reactive points but ones which have been simmering and hidden by our success

I think you don't go 18-5 without at least a fundamentally solid game plan which has buy in and good execution.

In my opinion our game plan was overprotective of the flaws in our list, it allowed us to prey on turnover on weaker sides with average skills. But in games against good sides we weren't able to do much damage ie. poor scores against top 8 sides. This resulted in 17 goals across our 2 finals, which only works if the oppo score 16, not 25 goals.

The plan itself was to control play down the line with aerial contest ie. Thilthorpe, Curtin, Fogarty marking.
Allow time for our defence to setup, pressure disposal on our turnover/ground ball/out of bounds if we don't win the aerial contest and on that intercept move the ball back down the other side of the field.


You could see Nicks as a really good coach for knowing the limitations of the side, creating a plan which alleviates that need for midfield strength and on the flip side holding up against better opposition by creating dour encounters ie. Collingwood x 3, Hawks in Tassie, Brisbane, GWS games etc.

You could also see Nicks as a average coach for not allowing the players more freedom and trusting our defence more. It was too rigid, too conservative, too reliant on the Pies and Hawks stuffing up their disposal (which was rare).

 

[CrowBloke]

Next year will be much harder, we won't win as many games but the knowledge of what needs to be done in a final will be there.

I agree with all of your very good post except for the quoted, above (I'm trying for brevity, believe it or not )

Every year is hard.
I don't see us winning 18 games next year, either. I guess we'll see.

However, "the knowledge of what needs to be done in a final" was there, pre-Finals.
Everybody knows, all Coaches/players/supporters, that Finals are different from the Minor Round, especially Elimination Finals (which have no tomorrow/next game, for the loser).
The teams that bring more hunger, pressure and superior skills and Game plan, win.

Our blokes (Coaches and players) did not.

 

[CrowBloke]

Good post.

3. Get a 3rd coach in to help Nicks / Murray with selection and gameday moves. Our coaching room is going to remind of the wheelchair pushers from little Britain.

... or a tough-nut Head Coach who does not need a Davis and yet another helper to prop him up to justify the Club's decision of early 2024?

4. Looking back at the season - I think we need a dominant HBF as our #1 priority. Milera, Hinge, Laird are solid, but unspectacular.

Several posters have said that Cumming was a handy HBFlanker for GWS but his stats for us on a wing have been underwhelming.
So how about Cumming, who is not the only player that Nicks plays out of his preferred position.
Milera has proved himself at HB this year but there are some doubts about Hinge, imo.

TBH - it's pretty hard to judge on our finals series considering the scandal that was thrust onto the players group.

I agree. They played their last 3 games under extraordinary internal disarray and external scrutiny.
The sanctimonious outrage from the AFL, other teams' supporters and general media was unfair and over the top.
However, I think Nicks' reversion to his awful 2024 Gameplan was an overreaction that marks him as not the man to win us a Flag.

 

[Freomaniac]

Our SANFL team has to be considered a development failure at this stage.

We were better when they were across the league, playing in their best positions for teams that wanted to win.

I know this is off topic technically. I am curious on how depth or rotation players are developing in the SANFL.

This might sound random saying this. I remember Chatting to a crows mate on a key thing on how crows won the flag in 1997.

Shane Eccles kicked 5 goals as a small forward. He is a back pocket player. But Malcolm Blight suggested he play a few SANFL games up forward.

That would be like a back pocket or back flanker like James Borlase or Chayce Jones playing SANFL games in a forward flank or pocket and eventually kicking 5 goals in an AFL Grand final

 

[skittlebrew]

We do have that. He was just a naughty boy.

No, I mean in the same player. i.e. needs to be big bodied AND quick. Only having one of those traits will mean they still get lit up.

 

[CrowBloke]

But there's also what looks like a mental fragility and a reactionary attitude from the coaches down. Contrast that with the teams still in it. I think this is our biggest area for improvement. Not as sexy as trading in players but there it is.

Really good post; you nailed Mental "fragility" as our biggest problem, which starts with Nicks and rots its way down through the players.
Nicks is actually rarely "reactive" --- look at his refusal to move Keane off Gunston as an immediate example.

My impression is that he is fixed in his ways and digs in when those ways don't work, especially on Game Day.
Compare that to the flair shown by Coaches like Scott, McRae, Hardwick, Mitchell, Fagan (look at Brisbane's brilliant adjustments to Neale's absence --- he's as important to them as Rankine to us, yet Brisbane set the Suns on their butts).
If he does not adopt:
--- some Selection Integrity and
--- some imaginative, flexible Gameday tactical moves and
--- make best use of our blokes' skills,
we're doomed to middle-of-the-Top8 mediocrity.

 

[Freomaniac]

It wasn’t that generous. We had double up games against three top six sides, Hawthorn, Collingwood and Gold Coast.

That's fair enough. Dockers had Collingwood twice too.

But..... Collingwood didn't make finals last season in 2024.

Gold Coast didn't play finals last season either.

Dockers did have the team that finished 2nd last year which was Port. Crows did too. Not many predicted Port to go from 2nd to a 9 win season

 

[Scorpus]

Winning clearances is a great fallback if you can't intercept and set up attacks that way.

Our intercept and defensive game fell apart in finals and we couldn't fall back on contest work. Our answer was Laird into the middle which evened up the raw numbers but had no real impact on our success

We need to look at structure and personnel

Why is ROB tapping the ball to the attacking side of stoppages where we have no players? Either put players in that position, or tell ROB not to hit it there, and if he can't do it get rid of him

Why is our midfield so flat footed and stagnant? Where is the run to be a handball receive option? The overlap run? Positioning outside the contest? Why can't we get our wings involved? Why do we never switch play and enjoy dump kicks from stoppages?

Why are we carrying a player who peaks at 15 disposals and can't tag? Berry has played 75 games, this is who he is, stamp his papers and move on

If Soligo is injured why did he play every game, and in those games played inside mid? If he's not injured, why did he go backwards in form, and can we reverse that?

Why was our first change up move in the midfield using Laird instead of players like Pedlar or Taylor and why haven't we developed those players to be chop out midfielders?

Why was our pick 4 midfielder in the SANFL most of the year getting worse when our midfield is the main issue? Why was he sub in the AFL side? We couldn't give him games ahead of Crouch or Berry? Come on

 

[CrowBloke]

Shane Eccles kicked 5 goals as a small forward. He is a back pocket player. But Malcolm Blight suggested he play a few SANFL games up forward.

Blight had no say where Shane Ellen played previously in the SANFL whose structure and relationship with the AFL was completely different back then.
In fact, Blight chose Ellen to go forward after Modra's injury on an ingenious hunch.
Blight had seen Ellen kick 1.1 for South Adelaide previously "on a windy day" and filed it away for future reference, if needed.
From the mouth of Blight himself:


Here is Ellen's account from back in pre-GF 2017:
"https://www.aflplayers.com.au/news-feed/stories/how-shane-ellen-became-a-surprise-grand-final-hero"

Related to the above: Blight stated a hunch last week that Fogarty should have a run through the middle.
Blight said:
"... a similar line-up change [like Ellen in 1997] could do the trick for the modern-day Crows.
"This might sound a bit silly but I think Darcy Fogarty probably had his quietest game in a while,".
"I might just start him in the middle, the big body in there early... just crash through, give him a couple of go's in there and just see exactly what happens from there"",
which Nicks ignored.

'Be bloody honest': Ex-coach's stern message for Crows

'Be bloody honest'

www.nine.com.au

 

[Freomaniac]

Winning clearances is a great fallback if you can't intercept and set up attacks that way.

Our intercept and defensive game fell apart in finals and we couldn't fall back on contest work. Our answer was Laird into the middle which evened up the raw numbers but had no real impact on our success

We need to look at structure and personnel

Why is ROB tapping the ball to the attacking side of stoppages where we have no players? Either put players in that position, or tell ROB not to hit it there, and if he can't do it get rid of him

Why is our midfield so flat footed and stagnant? Where is the run to be a handball receive option? The overlap run? Positioning outside the contest? Why can't we get our wings involved? Why do we never switch play and enjoy dump kicks from stoppages?

Why are we carrying a player who peaks at 15 disposals and can't tag? Berry has played 75 games, this is who he is, stamp his papers and move on

If Soligo is injured why did he play every game, and in those games played inside mid? If he's not injured, why did he go backwards in form, and can we reverse that?

Why was our first change up move in the midfield using Laird instead of players like Pedlar or Taylor and why haven't we developed those players to be chop out midfielders?

Why was our pick 4 midfielder in the SANFL most of the year getting worse when our midfield is the main issue? Why was he sub in the AFL side? We couldn't give him games ahead of Crouch or Berry? Come on

Good points.

But I think there's a similar outcome to dockers in 2015 under Ross Lyon. Dockers were 9-0 after 9 games, ended up top with 17 wins and 5 losses. Got out in the prelim final.

What does this have to do with this current crows line up?

This is what I think.... I could be right or wrong About This.

The Old saying "don't change a winning team".

It seems like Matty Nicks is either liking certain players or loyal to certain players.

I mean if you win 4 or 5 or 6 games in a row, why do any changes unless someone is injured or suspended?

Again.... This is an opinion of mine. I am staring from outside the window.

So crows fans like you should know more or have a different opinion

 

[CrowBloke]

Can you explain what our game plan is?

See below:

Winning clearances is a great fallback if you can't intercept and set up attacks that way.

Our intercept and defensive game fell apart in finals and we couldn't fall back on contest work.

 

[DJ75]

There are a few things we can do immediately.
1. A new midfield coach. VB is rubbish. Berry on Newcombe was a disaster waiting to happen. We had already seen that matchup before and it was awful. For some reason we also had absolutely no-one at the ONLY place ROB can tap the ball. Seems like that might have been part of the plan. We also had ALL mids stand behind their opponent and wait for them to get first hands on the ball before reacting. You might blame the players, but he is the COACH. He should have been coaching that long ago.
2. We have the most bargain basement ruck coach possible. Now ROB is clearly not a great player, but his positioning is unbelievably stupid. In their forward half he lets their ruck stand on the offensive side of the contest. Dumb. In fact in almost every ruck contest he stands the wrong side, and then as they come to the ball he tries to run around behind their ruck and ends up reaching over their shoulder and all he can do is push the ball the way they were hitting it anyway. It's amateur level stuff.
3. Someone, anyone that can sit in a team selection meeting and point out the bloody obvious. Keane on Gunston was a disaster. Everyone could see it before the game. Everyone could see it 2 minutes into the game. Everyone except the idiots in the coaching box. Unfortunately, they probably thought Worrell was the next best option, when he also was the wrong match up (you don't have players whose best work is zoning off and marking high balls on a player whose biggest strength is on the lead).
4. A coaching panel that isn't coaching to save their own ass each week. Rotate some players, test your squad, look for improvements.
5. Move on from the faith Nicks has in his experienced players. Smith is shot. Tex can't play finals next year. Every team knows they play a mid sized defender on him and run off him. There is nothing he can do about it. We entered finals and suddenly reverted to Nicks panic moves. Somehow, in 2025, we played finals with all of Smith, Laird and Tex starting the game. We reverted to Laird and Keays in the midfield. We were 'this close' to having Murphy back in the side.
6. Realise that we play our best when attacking.
7. Use the SANFL to develop players. In the positions they could play in the AFL.