A Fresh Look at the Crows Game

[Scottee]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to watch the game until this Wednesday. I was however able to access the ROW comments on the game. My God, it sounded awful!!!

Having now actually seen the game I thought a fresh point of view would be of interest.

From the RWO I summarised the following view:

*Terrible effort. They weren't trying.

*Terrible third quarter. Abyssmal last 10 minutes of game.

*Midfield hopeless.

*Kennelly,Spriggs,CBolton,Mathews,Maxfield,Crouch, Goodes, Barry & Nicks all hopeless.

*Turnovers were shocking.

*Kicking was lousy.

*Bad overuse of the ball.


What I saw when I watched the game was as follows:

*Goal kicking was bad, way below our usual high standard. We would have been ahead at three quarter time if we had kicked straight from set shots.

*A couple of gift goals from the umpires made the job more difficult for us. Two examples.When Leo Barry was supposed to have pushed his opponent in the back in front of goal(it wasn't there). This was followed up shortly after by Spriggs standing alone on the wing waiting for a passs from upfield when McLoed came from behind, pushed him squarley in the back so that he fell over and took the ball away. The look on Spriggs' face said it all.
Dempsters supposed OOBOTF when it was a grubber and wasn't called by the boundary umpire who was down the other end of the ground.

*Ball seemed to have been nearly knocked out in the first few minutes and was not right for the rest of the game until he did his hamstring. Jolly rolling his ankle made the problem worse for a while.

*Williams going of made a huge difference. Reminded me of the StKilda finals disaster last year. Lost without him. What was of concern was the lack of game plan without him. It seems that they have been spoilt by having him in the side. Time for some of them to develop their own game plans.

Adelaide is in excellent form and at the moment is one of the best teams in the comp.

We are out of form on the whole. The Boltons, Davis(and works bloody hard),Kirk, Ablett, are in good form. Jolly is a plus. Dempster is a plus.Overall we are going to improve a lot more, with better form, than Adelaide.

ROK is starting to work himself into form. Worked damn ahrd in the second half to the point of bering physically ill. Great commitment.

Even Nick Davis is out of form with his goal kicking. It can't continue like this, it was way below par for our guys.

Magic and Crouch are underdone.

Magic cost us as many goals as he kicked with the frees he gave away.

Particularly down on form (maybe not right physically) are Kennelly and Crouch.

In the end I thought that the margin was partially the result of the a*rsey goal kicking and the fact that our guys were totally spent. Once they knew that they couldn't win the game the letdown allowed the Crows to go on a romp.

In conclusion that vcontyrarty to the opinions exprerssed by some the boys werre trying their guts out. It appears to me that we have a very similar problem to the one we had last year. No Saddington to use in the backline if needed and no Schauble to take on the larger forwards. Hence no way to free up Kennelly and Barry and take pressure off the midfield. The need for a midfild game plan without Williams is a problem.

As well, the number of players out of form was a major contributor, this will change with the progress of the season.

Overall, given the lousy form and poor team structure, and loss of players in the game I thought we did remarkabley well apart from the last 5 minutes.

We have a huge amount of improvement in us. No time to panic. Schauble and Saddington on the way back, Schneider and McVeigh to bring in (more depth this year) NOG has stepped up another level. Jolly is a great pick up(just look at the hitout stats).
Dempster looks excellent and has great toe.

Malceski and others to get a go this year.

We will be coming good at the business end of the season and we will give it a shake.

(Personally I am looking forward to Kennelly on one wing and Dempster on the other, they can both slot goals from over 60 metres. The mid field problems will evaporate when this can happen).

[RogueSwan]

Re: A Fresh Look at the Crows Game

Good to hear a fresh viewpoint. My mate thought we didn't play that bad, a few bad errors were seized upon by a team playing very well. We were just outplayed, as were the premiers last week.

Originally posted by Scottee


*Goal kicking was bad, way below our usual high standard. We would have been ahead at three quarter time if we had kicked straight from set shots.

I am still trying to blot out the game, but didn't the Crows kick a few behinds that could have easily been goals in the third term.

[NMWBloods]

Adelaide had four more shots than us to 3QT, kicking 4.6 to 2.3 in the third qtr, so they could just as easily say with better kicking by them we would have been further behind at 3QT.

Every side complains about the umpiring and what it cost them - I think Adelaide can point to a few too.

I don't think being 'beaten by a better team on the day' is a good excuse. This is one I don't think should have ever been put in that category if we are expecting decent things this year. I don't consider Adelaide's form to be that stellar.

Lousy form and poor structure are some of the key things people are complaining about. Not really much of an excuse. That we were still close midway through the last quarter despite our poor game is just indicative that Adelaide is not a great side IMHO.

[giant]

Nice measured response Scottee, most of which I'd agree with.

As I've said elsewhere, Adelaide played well and are a better side than they've been given credit for. More likely to make the 8 than the Kangas and I still think we're more likely to make the 8 than either of them.

But we do need to get confidence and some form back - hope this week is the start of the renaissance.

[sharpie]

It depends a bit on how you saw the game. On TV, I'd agree with much of what Scotte said, after watching the replay.

However, at the ground, you could really see how the Crows continually had free men all over the ground, which was not as visible on TV. This is one example of where the idea that the Swans just weren't trying is coming from.

At teh ground you also got a very good perspective of how I think Neil Craig completely outcoached Roosy, especially from our kickins.

[giant]

Originally posted by sharpie
It depends a bit on how you saw the game. On TV, I'd agree with much of what Scotte said, after watching the replay.

However, at the ground, you could really see how the Crows continually had free men all over the ground, which was not as visible on TV. This is one example of where the idea that the Swans just weren't trying is coming from.

At teh ground you also got a very good perspective of how I think Neil Craig completely outcoached Roosy, especially from our kickins.

If you watched the replay after being at the game you are indeed a true supporter. I was not there live, but the ease with which they took the ball from the kick-in was evident. That goal they scored just before qurter time (I think) when they went the length of the field after the kick-in had me in paroxysms of rage and was evidence that neither the team nor the coaching staff were on top of their game.

[NMWBloods]

What's doubly frustrating about that is we can't do it back. Last year we were one of the bottom few sides in the competition at going 'coast-to-coast' from a kickout.

[sharpie]

Originally posted by giant
If you watched the replay after being at the game you are indeed a true supporter.

Hehe, thanks!

I just had to see what happened in that first 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter again. It was unbelievable that they could collapse as they did, compared to the first half.

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by sharpie
Hehe, thanks!

I just had to see what happened in that first 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter again. It was unbelievable that they could collapse as they did, compared to the first half.

Hey Scottee and Sharpie,
did you read my match report? LIke you, I was at the ground and watched the game on video. I left the ground very annoyed but after watching the video I felt much more hopeful (and I hope that came through in my report).

I also let the ground thinking we'd be robbed by numerous umpiring decisions. On the replay I realised there were about four dodgy ones against us (I didn't see any dubious ones against them) and not all led to scoring shots.

Despite what has been said here, Adelaide are the in-form team of the comp right now (the Dees started that way). The Roos have perfected snatching ugly wins (us and Saints) but I don't expect that to last. Remember when we nearly got beaten by the useless Cats last year? It was only after they beat more noticed teams were they suddenly flag contenders.

Sometimes I feel that RWO feels that the Swans play in isolation. When we don't get the four points we always lose - we are never beaten. Last weekend we were beaten (both in skills - esp kicking for goal - and game plan). This weekend is a whole new game.

[Red]

What a fantastic post Scottee!

It's good to see someone (apart from Liz) give a well-considered assement of our performance that points out shortcomings but also sees the areas that can (& hopefully will) improve. It's actually made me feel better about things -- my sincere thanks for that

Yes we were outcoached, but I reckon new coaches often have a 'honeymoon' period simply because other coaches haven't seen enough of their work to get a handle on them. I expect Roos & co. to have had a much better look inside Craig's head on the return match.

Tige & Dempster on the wings? Ladies & gentlemen... prepare for takeoff You don't happen to have Roos' email do you?

[DST]

Originally posted by sharpie
It depends a bit on how you saw the game. On TV, I'd agree with much of what Scotte said, after watching the replay.

However, at the ground, you could really see how the Crows continually had free men all over the ground, which was not as visible on TV. This is one example of where the idea that the Swans just weren't trying is coming from

Sharpie, I had a look at the game on TV again last night and the free men issues was not a result of the players not trying but more to do with the structure of the team.

If you are going to continually turn over the ball with bad skill errors you are going to find more often than not your players are out of position and the opposing side will then (if their skills are good enough and the Crows are one of the best at it) be able to use those free players on the way out.

Put simply, in todays game with so much uncontested footy if you don't hit your target the opposition are going to be in a position 9 times out of 10 to hurt you the other way.

DST

[sharpie]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
Hey Sharpie, did you read my match report?

I actually didnt this week . Will be more vigilant in the future!

[sharpie]

Originally posted by DST
Sharpie, I had a look at the game on TV again last night and the free men issues was not a result of the players not trying but more to do with the structure of the team.

If you are going to continually turn over the ball with bad skill errors you are going to find more often than not your players are out of position and the opposing side will then (if their skills are good enough and the Crows are one of the best at it) be able to use those free players on the way out.

Put simply, in todays game with so much uncontested footy if you don't hit your target the opposition are going to be in a position 9 times out of 10 to hurt you the other way.

DST

I do and I dont agree with you. Structure of our team hurt us when we did turn the ball over in general play.

But

That doesnt account for why we were not manning up from their kickins. From my point of view up top of the noble stand, all I could make of this was that the swans were just plain lazy. And I yelled this out a few times to let the know .

And this wasnt the only example of laziness. At one stage adelaide kicked long into the pocket at my end between the goal posts and the members stand. As the ball was sailing in towards Kennelly's opponent, Tadgh was jogging with his back to the ball and it almost hit him in the back of the head. Instead, however, it just missed and conveniently ended up in the arms of the adelaide forward.

[Rushed Behind]

Re: A Fresh Look at the Crows Game

Originally posted by Scottee
We will be coming good at the business end of the season and we will give it a shake.

I rekon

[Scottee]

I hope your graphic coment comes back and bites you on the bum Rushed Behind.