1310 at the MCG. I'll be there. Somehow I do not expect a large crowd. The forecast is dire: rain, sleet, etc. I'll still be there.
rain might save us and is there any chance of us our players getting back into adl fwd50 and blocking space,defensive pressure on betts and cameron,how do other teams manage this.
Car park will be closed to all but a few with disabled passes. Looks like the train from Box Hill then a walk in the rain to the ground. Let's hope we can surprise and at least get close.
Well, such lovely disposal, miss target from 15m on the HFF, goal Adelaide.
Another game, crap umpiring... when are we going to get paid "sheparding" off the ball or have hand in the back missed. FFS, don't kill the game early you maggots.
Looking a bit scary, atm class shines , we need to be tight. Had plenty of the ball , but an usual can't find the sticks
Great goal from Army showing them how to kick goals , a few can learn from him
DENIS!!!!
Army again 3 for the qtr from outside 50 , awesome stuff
Certainly intent is there , delivery forward & gereral skills let us down . Army the star
Dennis all 3 from outside 50, great to watch, but we aren't going to win doing that...
Glad Dennis is playing!
I'm very happy West Coast threw Judd in as steak knives to the Army deal...lol.
Army is the only pacy, half decent offensive small forward we have - talk of trading him is sheer folly.
Radio commentators talking about Eddie as a protected species.
Cas goal - rock n roll !
Casboult awesome straight through. Goal , hope it Spurs him
Kruezer looks committed , tapping ball and following up
Daisy slight calf injury (apparently).
We should ask the AFL for a new rule, any players we trade/discard are not allow to play against us :)
Rowe doing well, good to see him marking the ball again several telling pack marks.
SOJ first goal
It's the Army show number 4
Endeavour is there, general position kicking letting s down.
I'm thinking the rest of our side should split their testicle. It seems to work...lol.
Kerridge crap his pants
This bloke next to me keeps calling SOJ "Sausage"...starting to get very annoying
Can I be there when you deliver that msg Laj. Lol
Kerridge tries really hard BUT he's a liability.
Half time can't come soon enough.
Sauce really showing us his worth today 2 goals
Holding our own at times , but hard to keep the pressure up, starting to loose our grip, they have to many forward options, and there delivery is creative
I would drag Casboult for that stupid . Unprofessional , a player who is frustrated in his own game
Meanwhile our ruckmen have 7 touches and no marks between them. Why do we persist with playing two ruckmen. One is always a waste of a player when not on the ball when we could play someone else.
Give over $1000 Levi!!!
Maybe if we dropped a ruckman and let Casboult play more on the ball both he and the club do alot better. Been that way for 4 years but the match committee never see it. Prefer to persist with two ruckmen doing nothing.
Levi's got priors hanging over him from earlier this year, will get week/s for that one, I'm sure.
We're getting smashed at the centre clearances, missing Murphy badly.
Going OK but generally outclassed, our skill errors clearly outnumber Adelaide and it's hard to see us getting within 4 or 5 goals at the end.
I'm over Casboult, he's done well for a speculative rookie draft pick but he's never going to make it so we may as well cut our losses and look to the future.
Jaksch or Jones, I don't care which but someone who can exert any sort of defensive pressure at all would be an improvement.
We need a lift from some of the bit players, Lamb, Kerridge, Wright and company, a bit of magic from Thomas wouldn't go astray either and Ed Curnow has been pretty ineffective so far apart from the nice ball to Armfield.
If anyone told me Denis would kick 3 from outside 50 in a quarter I would have thought they were stoned, I'm still struggling to believe that it happened.
Frustrated because he should have got a free kick and measured in his expression of his response. The umpire was sucked in and the Crows player should be suspended for acting.
Everitt, Lamb, Walker.....nothing.
Good start t the 3rd q, but the Crows lead will count for more now in the wet.
To true, especially when we went short re the proposed weather, could have added Jacsh in as a swing man
WTF Dennis!!
Wow get a kick into the 50 and not a sausage there , what a surprise , no forward with in a bulls roar. No wonder we don't score.
Our forward structure is wrong. Replace walker with jones.
Umpiring is shocking, so one sided.
So you can push in the back now?
And it's time to go Kerridge....
Our score board would look very ordinary minus Army today.
We are really getting caught today with our turnovers. They seem to have a player waiting for their fast break in to the forward line. So if our players aren't in our forward line, and they have players on there own in there forward line , where are our players?
Haven't seen Weitering since half time???
Yep working well for us isn't it? What's wrong with keeping walker, or Casboult , Everitt playing from the square , it least give us a target , sick of breaking from the wings , and nothing?
Are Walker and Everitt i.e. our mobile forwards playing?
That's my point Prof E , if someone played from the square you would at least know they were there, not doing anything else just running around in the mid field like the rest
Just pointing it out Rob. The press works well when you have good skills, good understanding between players, and can minimize turnovers - it makes it harder for the opposition to get out of the F50, but once they're out, the opportunity to score quickly "out the back" is much greater. You don't get this with man on man, but that brings with it it's own set of good and bad.
Walker isn't a smart enough player to work within whatever structure is there is... should be smart enough after 200 games to realise that he needs to make position when we get a break across centre but ain't smart enough and his atheleticism has gone.
Our game plan is crap.
Which other side only play one key forward?
And who's your selection to replace him. Bet you didn't think of that. He's been alright the last couple of years but not equipped to handle the defence on his own when we refuse to pick a 2nd key forward.
other clubs would be most interested and like last year willing to offer a decent pick. You mightn't think so but yeah...I'll take the opinion of those who actually know.
Why do all our players look skinny compared to top sides? Surely Navy isn't THAT slimming. :S
Jacobs doesn't have the biggest frame but he makes Kreuzer look like Bootsma. We just seem to have been undersized for years now.
Cheers PaulP, as you say it works well when you have the skill , and I guess players , eg when we have betts, Garlett Yarren, pace, but we don't we just have empty spaces , and no one to run into them. So since we don't have they lets play a game where we can compete , a little one on one , couldn't do any worse 81-36
Exactly but too many numbnuts prefer to blame the player.
Umpiring is terrible. I don't know what the rules are anymore.
I see your point, but this is one of the things that Malthouse was criticized for - man on man and kick around the boundary, and that didn't work either.
Ratten played team defense like Bolts, I think it's the right way to go, but we're way short on personnel.
I was just thinking a little flexibility if one thing doesn't work, try a new plan, play with the players on the park, rather than who you wish you had.
Our game plan is a work in progress, starting with getting our defensive structures correct. If you remember when Roos came to Melbourne, his first job was to get the defensive structure correct. They scored very little and were critisized for not scoring. I'm no Level 4 coach but I think they probably know where their starting point is, with the cattle they have. Our biggest problem was 6 wins in a row. Lifted Season 1 expectation too high. This is a group that was expected to win a couple of games and we were all programmed towards that.
Hurts to watch sometimes, but it's not about today.
Just don't get enough from experienced players IMO.
Gibbs Walker daisy kerridge Everett all play like very average footballers at best.
Bring the kids in I don't care who just bring em in.
I see your point. But I'm hoping Bolts knows what he's doing and is on the right path.
The radio commentators stated that they are most pleased with the fact that Bolton looks like he's coaching for the future - he's not putting a spare man back etc - trying to get them to play the right way. Make of this what you will.
Our skills are atrocious, umpiring is pathetic and half our players ball watch
We've got a few on the struggle bus ATM but Kreuzer has seat 1A, needs a week or two off because when he gets flogged (which has happened the last month) the side gets flogged.
Don't get any insightful commentary like that on the telly.
Jacobs destroying us.
The guys on the radio aren't perfect by any means, but focus less on the sensationalist stuff than the TV boys.
Your right PaulP, but would like to see a reward for effort as well, that reward breeds confidence in the group, if it means a goal or two a game, at times it would lift the group in confidence & belief. And that would be as valueable as anything else , playing with a belief we can win because we can score. I think Bolts it's doing exactly what you say, but I believe we can mix it up a little as well.
Other than catch a cold.... wtf has everitt done today??
Caz needs a spell too. Terrible!
Both should be investigated by the fraud squad
That's my problem, I have Fox :)
From the commentary I'm hearing, it sounds as though the Crows put some effort into nullifying Simmo's influence, and it seems to be working.
Hate to be Casboult or any key forward. One out as a key forward in a crap side with no help from Walker and Everitt. No wonder his form drops off, he needs help. Cas has done ok for us but he's not exactly Fev. Blame needs to be put where it's supposed to be.........match committee.
Not sure how much we learn from the last half , sad to watch
Players seem to be completely knackered, again.
The rotations are capped at 90 this season, with talk of further reductions in the future.
Note to SOS - endurance and fitness will become even more critical.
How many easy walk in goals have the crows put through today? We struggle for a shot at goal.
Supporters at the game giving Everitt Bronx cheers.
Not on his Pat Malone is everitt
No, I guess not.
Anyway, glad that's over.
Does anybody else think our team selection may involve a little tanking ?
Amen
34 possessions. 18 contested. Standing at the feet of ruckmen who can't get their hands near it!!
If correct DON'T PLAY him. Graham could not have done any worse.
Stats for our rucks and forwards are damning...
Kreuzer laying heaps of tackles and that's about it.
Entire forward line horrible, NFI.
I thought our defence did well at times considering the ball movement into that zone and the %)%)ed umpiring which made life bloody hard for our blokes. Plowman showed that Jenkins is a wannabe $750 000 sheep dog.
The injury was not pre game, it was in the 1st q.
Mods, let's lock this and move over to the post game thread.
Nope, our VFL team got smashed again and by the reports on here the best players there in the last few weeks have been Tutt and Dick.
Just too many non contributors today. Lamb, Everett, walker, casboult.
Midfield soundly beaten courtesy of an arm chair ride through their rucks. Liked sumners game, still doesn't get enough of it but looks likely. Cripps is a non event when the ball spreads, worried.
I'd rest weitering too. Just looks cooked.
I was thinking more in terms of the two ruckmen v jones/casboult.
Our club is as low as it can get, you know that is the case when Frankston pumps your development league team.
No wonder the membership is floundering.
VFL Development League Ladder. (http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?c=1-118-0-392694-0&a=LADDER) Frankston were win-less before they bettered the NBs Devs by ten goals!
Our key forward options as of today are Casboult, Jones, Jaksch and Everitt, which speaks for itself.
Jack Silvagni's only 191cm but he's still only 18 so there's some hope, is growth hormone on the banned list?
Says lots for the last 3-4 draft periods, no wins at any level again this week, no players emerging etc
The draft has been a graveyard for us for well over a decade, even when we drafted Kreuzer, Murphy and Gibbs they were the only three players in those years who made any sort of careers for themselves, our second, third and fourth round picks have been total wipeouts.
Add to that first rounders like Lucas, Watson and Bootsma and it's no wonder that our list is thin.
Then there was Patrick Cripps.
I think post Rogers and co, things are starting to turn around, but poor culture, poor recruiting and poor development pretty much stuffed the club and this is why we are in the situation we're in.
You're bound to hit one sooner or later, we would have done better with a dart board.