Where do we need to improve next year?

[Not Darryl Moss]

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).

Thanks - I reckon you nailed it. Less focus on connectivity and more on positional/selection creativity should potentially lead to a big step forward in terms of performance against 2025 top 9. Too much of a 'word salad' ?

 

[GreyCrow]

It wasnt so much the Berry on Newcombe - it was doing nothing to change it

Keane on Gunston wasnt terrible - it was keeping Keane on him

 

[davos44]

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.

Sometimes you only know something by experiencing it first hand I suppose, like reading about reproductive habits of human beings vs. actually participating in it



I don't honestly feel like it was lack of finals experience holding us back, but a severe drop in form after the Hawks game.

West Coast game: Hard training block? Emotional let down? Not interested in smashing rubbish? Nope Tim Kelly having 11 clearances and Tom McCarthy running by to receive. Hard tackling pressure.

North Game: LDU, Sheezel, Parker absolutely serving it up to us. Tackling the bejesus out of us.

 

[davos44]

Thanks - I reckon you nailed it. Less focus on connectivity and more on positional/selection creativity should potentially lead to a big step forward in terms of performance against 2025 top 9. Too much of a 'word salad' ?

As long as it was somewhat coherent I am happy

 

[DJ75]

It wasnt so much the Berry on Newcombe - it was doing nothing to change it

Keane on Gunston wasnt terrible - it was keeping Keane on him

Strong disagree. It was a terrible choice before the game. No-one in their right mind would make that selection.

 

[skam85]

Allegedly winning or losing clearances mean nothing.

I'll tell you one thing, had we won the first three clearances and were up by three goals after 2mins the game may have very well turned out differently.

muppets

 

[SugarShane]

The sad bit will be that we resign Nicks just before the first match.

Nah let him open the season with a loss first, then re-sign him.

 

[Crow till I die]

Strong disagree. It was a terrible choice before the game. No-one in their right mind would make that selection.

Sitting up in the nose bleeds in the riverbank, i have to say that the hawks on ballers were strolling towards our 50m line under little pressure at times and all gunston had to do was lead and they found him. I don't think with those headwinds anyone was really going to stop him on the lead. It was a complete midfield breakdown that cost us as our best players were just about all defenders and our forwards were starved of opportunity in the second half.

Priority 1. New AND BETTER midfield coach
Priority 2. Retool the midfield group with some new players.

We can fix things but need to be bold and make some tough calls in order to do so

 

[Crow till I die]

Allegedly winning or losing clearances mean nothing.

I'll tell you one thing, had we won the first three clearances and were up by three goals after 2mins the game may have very well turned out differently.

muppets

1000% agree. If we had a winning midfield, how much harder it would make it for the opposition to contain our forwards who would be getting fast ball coming in.

To have to rely on slingshot footy from losing the clearance and building from the back half is so much harder. In fact that we ended up finishing top of the ladder after the minor round doing that says how well we actually did with the midfield playing as it does at the stoppage

 

[Eagleboy2011]

Nah let him open the season with a loss first, then re-sign him.

I would think the contract extension is already prepared, and the issue is the timing of the signing.
We might win a preseason trial game or something similar.

 

[DJ75]

One other thing I couldn't understand.
We brought Karl Gallagher over and have stuck him in a forward pocket for two years.

Now call me crazy, but it seems like the Irish guys are really bl00dy good across half back. Might we have tried that?

 

[JPetro83]

Mentally.. we need to improve mentally. for over 20 years this club has been mentally weak. choke after choke. enough is enough!! im in my 40s.. i have sat through the 05/06 chokes, the 2012 choke against the swans, the 2016 balls up of top 2 in the last game of season, the GF capitulation and the 2025 embarrassing effort and choke and straight sets exit in the finals.

We were better off missing the 8 this year. At least Nicks would be gone

 

[CrowinNT]

Haven’t posted much
I am still very numb about our outcome
Sadly I just can’t see the club making harsh decisions
I don’t want to lose Butts as an example.
Some real delists needs to happen
I am not confident in Nicks at all
Or VB
Just feel flat

 

[Freomaniac]

Where do we need to improve - how long is a piece of string:

1. Have our prime movers fit and ready to go. Rankine was a massive loss. Rachele was a massive loss. Losing two of our 4 game winners for a finals series makes it incredibly hard.

2. Manage ourselves better for a finals run. Feel like we had a massive list of players out of form / fitness heading into finals compounding our loss of Rankine/Rachele. Fog, soligo, peatling, Keays, ROB, Keane, ANB all seemed to be out of form comes finals.

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.

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

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

Hindsight being 20 / 20.....

Would of been taking Nasiah Wanganeen Milera at pick 6 over Rachele?

NWM and Soligo both in the 2021 draft....

 

[Freomaniac]

Mentally.. we need to improve mentally. for over 20 years this club has been mentally weak. choke after choke. enough is enough!! im in my 40s.. i have sat through the 05/06 chokes, the 2012 choke against the swans, the 2016 balls up of top 2 in the last game of season, the GF capitulation and the 2025 embarrassing effort and choke and straight sets exit in the finals.

We were better off missing the 8 this year. At least Nicks would be gone

I want Nicks to get a finals win before he is sacked.

Crows last finals win was the 2017 preliminary final. It's long overdue

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

We need players that can get the ball in the middle.

Worrall x 1
Laird x 2
Rankine x 1
Dawson x 2
Crouch x 2
Soligo x 1
ANB x 1

Thats our list of 30+ touch games this year. And 6 of those were in the first 4 rounds. 2 by a now retired player. 3 by defenders and 1 by a half forward.

we had 1 midfield player hit 25 touches in the last 6 weeks

 

[skam85]

I want Nicks to get a finals win before he is sacked.

Crows last finals win was the 2017 preliminary final. It's long overdue

Bit of a chicken and an egg kind of situation though, if he wins a final he doesn't get sacked

 

[CrowinNT]

The last time I had hope was when we brought in Dunstall et al
The garbage got swept out
Now we have a situation where the coach does not manifest the player’s positive attitude for finals footy
??

 

[Scorpus]

We need players that can get the ball in the middle.

Worrall x 1
Laird x 2
Rankine x 1
Dawson x 2
Crouch x 2
Soligo x 1
ANB x 1

Thats our list of 30+ touch games this year. And 6 of those were in the first 4 rounds. 2 by a now retired player. 3 by defenders and 1 by a half forward.

we had 1 midfield player hit 25 touches in the last 6 weeks

Look at some of the spuds that can get 25 for other teams. Gotta be a structural issue

 

[WeeBlake]

Burgess is the soft tissue guru. We’ve had very few. We lost very few games, only Max comes to mind.

But, I wonder, did his play-through-niggles philosophy hurt us late in the year?

We now know Dawson at least limped to the line.

 

[WeeBlake]

Also, Tex and Fog both averaged 1 tackle per game. Below average (bottom third) for key fwds.

TT was above average, but I still think it’s a problem. Sadly, I think Tex should retire, or at least be depth-only next year.

 

[Johnnyklug]

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

I understand your point but those three double up teams were great this year. We may get Collingwood, Brisbane and Fremantle as double ups and their seasons could collapse with form and injury. I don’t wish that on them but a year is a long time in football.

 

[beagle2]

Having bombed almost all the first round picks leaving a shortage of high end talent improvement will be very difficult and we will likely get stuck in the seven to twelve range

 

[Soggy2112]

Having bombed almost all the first round picks leaving a shortage of high end talent improvement will be very difficult and we will likely get stuck in the seven to twelve range

We bombed one since Pyke left.

2024 - Draper
2023 - Curtin
2022 - Michalanney
2021 - Rachele
2020 - Thilthorpe Pedlar
2019 - McAsey

 

[davos44]

We bombed one since Pyke left.

2024 - Draper
2023 - Curtin
2022 - Michalanney
2021 - Rachele
2020 - Thilthorpe Pedlar
2019 - McAsey

Young and Serong right after that in that 2019 draft hurts.

TBF McAsey was a gun as a youngster but his mental health issues got the better of him, it wasn't that he was mutton dressed as lamb like Dylan Stephens who went 1 pick before him.