I thought H was good and don't get the criticism. He attacked the contest and often did his job, but he must work on taking one grab marks.
Ive given it a bit of thought, and the same issues we complain about are still there.
Im going to comment on this from a what can our boys control perspective, rather than a what happened perspective.
Our inability to hit a target is very much a problem. I think we would previously have kicked to a down the line contest, hoping to force it out of bounds, or into a contested situation which would help us relieve pressure down back. The new out of bounds interpretation hurts us more than others here, because of our composition down back. Our back 6 is not a running back 6. there is no rebound, or speed or run being provided from it, so this is why our kicks are often forced down the line. The only alternative to it we have is to kick to the corridor, but we dont hit targets either. Carroll provides it of the ones that played last night, but you are not going to get much rebound or run from Haynes, Young, Derkson, Cowan (who does get up more, but has a defensive bone, and is often minding a dangerous forward), Newman gives a little bit of drive, but he isnt a rory laird, or millera type either. Florent seems to go better on a wing. Keep him forward of the ball, was a contributer to our early run of form.
For a team that relies on contest, our ability to compete at times is absolutely abhorrent. The constant going to ground drives me spare. Derkson cost us a goal doing it (although in fairness to him, he somehow ended up on Rachelle and then he was in all sorts).
Harry goes to ground far too easily and im not sure why he isnt instructed to either push off and gain separation, or fly into packs. He has had the biggest fall from his 2021 form. Im not sure what changed with him, maybe its all the head knocks and he has gone conservative? Not sure, but he is a big friendly giant, and needs to throw his weight around more.
Our entries into forward 50 were a real contrast last night. Adelaide were able to hit targets, and find players out in space, and kick it to advantage. We tend to kick to dangerous spots, and then contest around those spots instead. Until we tidy that up, we wont achieve a lot. In the wet, that tactic will work, as it causes a bit of chaos and contest and thats it.
We are not a high scoring team, and as soon as Adelaide got to 12 goals, I knew our day was done, because we just dont have it in us to kick 15 goals. Its not new, we have struggled to kick a big score for a while, and it wasnt that long ago that we posted a 100point score for the first time in years. This will continue with our current avenues to goal. Ainsworth and Mcgovern are our most dangerous forwards, the rest are conditional on things going their way.
The rain absolutely helped us out here. It nullified the Crows polish, and dragged them down to our level, as well as stopped them chopping off a lot of our forward forays and turn the game into more of a wet weather slog. Ultimately the lack of nous and smarts in our team, is the part that really kills me, when we just do stupid stuff, like try play on quick, when we are in go slow territory, and then miss the next kick. We were setup to press again at one point last night, and instead of mark kicking to change the angle, at some point we did stupid handball backwards to Jordan Boyd, and the next kick fell short of his target, which resulted in a against the tide goal to the Crows. Boyds execution was a problem, but why play on in the corridor with a backwards handball? What did I say last week about banning a handball in the defensive 1/3 of the ground when we are setup forward of the ball? You could have torped it 50 metres into our forward line with a rainmaker and been more effective.
I'm not feeling as negative as some...
Lots of suggestions for things to fix.
Areas where we need to be better.
Many are valid.
The run on goals was still there last night.
Improvements aren't going to come all at one time.
So we should take the little improvements where they come.
In the bigger scheme of things we were comfortably beaten by a better team.
But we weren't disgraced and played a team who...
Were on their home turf...one were we usually struggle.
Were minor premiers in 2025
Have beaten Collingwood
Lost to the Western Bulldogs by the current ladder leader by 6 points
Lost to Geelong, last years grand finalist by 8 points
Lost to Fremantle currently sitting 4th by 2 points.
They may not have been winning games but they're matching it with the best.
We matched them for large portions of the game
Were actually better for periods of the game...missing our key defender.
We lost the game in about ten minutes of the 'usual' lapse, but kept fighting.
The rain may have helped, but well into the last quarter we were competitive (in the play, if not on the scoreboard) so I suspect it's not the 'fitness' issue some suggested.
Not happy to lose.
But I thought there was enough improvement there that will be the 'theme' of the week, rather than the 'coach sacking' talk.
Honorable loss time again
They 'complained' about the umpiring last week.
That may be the trick.
We should take our 'diary' to the AFL this week.
On another point...did anyone else notice we tried the old "over the head not looking handball" a few times last night.