Gary Ayres and the future of the Crows

[Sojourner]

I am in somewhat of a minority here I know, yet it has long been my opinion that Gary Ayres should not have been sacked in the way that he was from the Adelaide Crows.

Naturally I know that many people will find plenty about the way that he coached that they dont like and feel that justified his sacking. On that, it is my memory watching Crows games and seeing them constantly kick to the outer forward pocket and take their shots from there and miss, resulting in the Crows getting beaten yet often having taken more shots on goal. I am not sure what in the interim Gary Ayres was supposed to have done about that, perhaps that is why Darren Jarman forward coach was also given the sack in the same fashion?

What concerns me though about the Crows chances for this year is the ultimate reason the club gave for his sacking, the trotting out of the old line "he has lost the support of the players".

I was told two things by a source at the club, one is that a number of players had lost respect for him and were treating him not in the proper fashionn, the second thing was that there was an incident in which Andrew Mcleod arrived late for training and was instructed by Gary Ayres to wash his car and he refused and told the staff what they could go and do with it.

Gary Ayres might just as well have left of his own accord then because it was obvious that the club was not going to do a purge of players as Malcolm Blight had done to correct issues in the club when he took it over.

So fast forward to season 2007. The Crows have some big expectations this year, many think that they could have made the Grand Final last year and the Crows are expected to be there this year. Much has been made of the players current crows coach left on the bench at 3/4 time of their last final and how that coaching error cost the club the game.

What happens if things dont go well this year and the playing group decides that Neil Craig does not have their support?

I think that the management of the Crows should have kept Gary Ayres and purged the club of those that were not supporting their club. The failure of the club to do that I feel will ultimatley deny them a premiership while Neil Craig is coach, despite the fact that Craigie is a great bloke and a good coach.

I hope I am proved wrong, yet we will see come September I suppose!

[Rushby Hinds]

I wish Ayres was still @ the Crows as well.

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

It was all that parochial 'Kick a Vic' mentality what buried him!

[BenchedEagle]

Cant beleive im reading this crap. Ayres is a poor overrated coach. Getting Neil Craig in the top job was the best desicion for the AFC.
Good riddance to him and his mullet.

[sydney-dog]

when Gary took over the club in season "2000", it is fair to say that the club's playing list was not in great shape , I fully supported his appointment and I believe in 2000, 01 and 02 his results were excellent given the quality of our list

however, my personal view 2003 onwards Gary did start to lose the players confidence, the reason for this was mainly due to Gary's defensive mindset, his communication with the players was probably not as good as it should of been, especially with the leadership group, but I think his biggest flaw was, he probably failed to change reinvent himself, training or strategies so in 2004 he was pretty much coaching in the same manner as he did in 2000

If you want to be a life time coach you need to be able to re-invent yourself, let's take Rocket Eade as an example, her was a good coach at the swans, but his sacking was similar circumstances to Ayres, but now I believe Eade has gained valuable lessons for that experience and has become an outstanding coach, I doubt Ayres would get another opportunity

I fully supported Ayre's during his time at the club, but I also thought the club made the right decision not to renew his contract and the time was right for a change

Craigy's appointment, I supported the clubs decision, but was nervous at first, 2 years down the track, disappointing to lose 2 prelim finals, but now we can look back without too much emotion, the club has come a long way in two years, considering the strength of it's list in 2005, so I am happy with the direction the club is heading.....

2007, expectations are high, team needs to improve and Craigy needs to improve his match day coaching / decision making, most importantly there will be more tough decisions in the next year or two to ensure the club maintains a balance list

[Blue Boy]

I am in somewhat of a minority here I know, yet it has long been my opinion that Gary Ayres should not have been sacked in the way that he was from the Adelaide Crows.

Naturally I know that many people will find plenty about the way that he coached that they dont like and feel that justified his sacking. On that, it is my memory watching Crows games and seeing them constantly kick to the outer forward pocket and take their shots from there and miss, resulting in the Crows getting beaten yet often having taken more shots on goal. I am not sure what in the interim Gary Ayres was supposed to have done about that, perhaps that is why Darren Jarman forward coach was also given the sack in the same fashion?

What concerns me though about the Crows chances for this year is the ultimate reason the club gave for his sacking, the trotting out of the old line "he has lost the support of the players".

I was told two things by a source at the club, one is that a number of players had lost respect for him and were treating him not in the proper fashionn, the second thing was that there was an incident in which Andrew Mcleod arrived late for training and was instructed by Gary Ayres to wash his car and he refused and told the staff what they could go and do with it.

Gary Ayres might just as well have left of his own accord then because it was obvious that the club was not going to do a purge of players as Malcolm Blight had done to correct issues in the club when he took it over.

So fast forward to season 2007. The Crows have some big expectations this year, many think that they could have made the Grand Final last year and the Crows are expected to be there this year. Much has been made of the players current crows coach left on the bench at 3/4 time of their last final and how that coaching error cost the club the game.

What happens if things dont go well this year and the playing group decides that Neil Craig does not have their support?

I think that the management of the Crows should have kept Gary Ayres and purged the club of those that were not supporting their club. The failure of the club to do that I feel will ultimatley deny them a premiership while Neil Craig is coach, despite the fact that Craigie is a great bloke and a good coach.

I hope I am proved wrong, yet we will see come September I suppose!

Is the heat getting to ya !!!

[Wedgie]

Ayres was one of the worst coaches Ive ever come across, I was stoked when he left Geelong for Adelaide.
Never proactive and very reactive, very noticable.
Neil Craig's only an OK coach but look at the difference an OK coach makes over Ayres as to where the Crows have been in the last 2 years.
Wouldn't have even made the top 10 under Ayres.

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

You could say that Gary Ayres was riding on Malcom Blight's work down Sleepy Hollow...
But in his defence, he DID get the Cats to (yet another losing) Grand Final in 1995!

[Sojourner]

Will Neil Craig be kept on if they choke again in the finals this year?

[sydney-dog]

Sojourner

to bomb out in two prelim finals is very disappointing, but now the emotion has settle, I think most people would say in 2005 Adelaide exceeded expectations, at the beginning of that season most predicted Adel to finish bottom four, so a top four finish was a good result

last year, most outside the club would tag the crows as chockers, the week leading up to the prelim I predicted a crows win and was disappointed with the home prelim loss, but then again there are as lot of footy judges now predicting the Eagles to have a run similar to the Lions three premierships...

so did the crows choke or were they beaten by a better side, my view is the latter

the club is definitely in a stronger position now then before Neil took over, and as I said in the previous post, my expectation for 2007 is that both Craigy and the crows will improve, is this good enough to make a GF, well there are a lot of other things that need to go your way, one is luck, which Sydney have had plenty of in the past two seasons

[BenchedEagle]

Sojourner

to bomb out in two prelim finals is very disappointing, but now the emotion has settle, I think most people would say in 2005 Adelaide exceeded expectations, at the beginning of that season most predicted Adel to finish bottom four, so a top four finish was a good result

last year, most outside the club would tag the crows as chockers, the week leading up to the prelim I predicted a crows win and was disappointed with the home prelim loss, but then again there are as lot of footy judges now predicting the Eagles to have a run similar to the Lions three premierships...

so did the crows choke or were they beaten by a better side, my view is the latter

the club is definitely in a stronger position now then before Neil took over, and as I said in the previous post, my expectation for 2007 is that both Craigy and the crows will improve, is this good enough to make a GF, well there are a lot of other things that need to go your way, one is luck, which Sydney have had plenty of in the past two seasons

Dont know about other Crows supporters. But not having anywhere near the best list in 05-06, id prefer 3rd, 4th than outside the 8. Good years, just West Coast were that bit better. We'll just have to try again. Get ourselves a top quality full forward type and we will be unstoppable.
Difference between Ayres and Craig. Respect of playing group. Goes a long way for team cohesion.

[Sojourner]

Could be interesting if it is a Crows v West Coast grand final!

[sydney-dog]

lizbeff eaglez

I definitely think the challenge for Craig is to find the right forward structure, especially with the talls, Perrie, Bock and Kenny have been tried with mixed success, Gill comes in to the squad as a mature age recruit, I also believe Meesen may get his shot up forward, Roo, Burton and Welsh can play as leading forwards, while Tippett and Sellar need to find form and consistency in the SANFL first. There is plenty of options and competition for spots

The other area of improvement is the need for more runners through the midfield, hopefully Johncock will start to spend more time in the midfield, hopefully there is further improvement with Proplyzia, Van Berlo, Knights and Douglas and even though I have not seen Campbell or Archard (Rookie list) play they have obviously been recruited for this purpose, I also would not be surprised if bode and roo spent a bit more time in the middle this year.

the crows have a good draw, seem to have more options up forward and through the middle then last year so hopefully we a bit of luck, top 4 awaits and who knows from there

[Blue Boy]

Will Neil Craig be kept on if they choke again in the finals this year?

Id rekon hes racked up a few credits so far - so yes to where ever we finish !!!

[Sojourner]

Neil Craig's ideas on Sports Science had alot to do with our Back to Back premierships, the Crows would be well advised to keep him for that reason alone!

[BenchedEagle]

lizbeff eaglez

I definitely think the challenge for Craig is to find the right forward structure, especially with the talls, Perrie, Bock and Kenny have been tried with mixed success, Gill comes in to the squad as a mature age recruit, I also believe Meesen may get his shot up forward, Roo, Burton and Welsh can play as leading forwards, while Tippett and Sellar need to find form and consistency in the SANFL first. There is plenty of options and competition for spots

The other area of improvement is the need for more runners through the midfield, hopefully Johncock will start to spend more time in the midfield, hopefully there is further improvement with Proplyzia, Van Berlo, Knights and Douglas and even though I have not seen Campbell or Archard (Rookie list) play they have obviously been recruited for this purpose, I also would not be surprised if bode and roo spent a bit more time in the middle this year.

the crows have a good draw, seem to have more options up forward and through the middle then last year so hopefully we a bit of luck, top 4 awaits and who knows from there

Yes absolutly agree with all ur points. Trent Hentshel is a massive massive blow to our forward structure. We just about had him right. He could have been the answer. Still im very optimistic about this year and i cant wait.
Welsh is a write off for my liking. Hes is just not worth the effort. He returns so little. Gill will either not adjust to the difference of AFL, or he will be a genious recruit who does wonders.
Also wish i hadnt read the article about Pavlich wanting to come! I just cant stop thinking about how well he would just slot right in and complete us as a team.
Dont let him go to Port!

[sydney-dog]

Pav, hasn't exactly said that he wants to come home next year, it's his last year on contract and of course he will sit on the fence a bit, he will use this strategy to drive his market value

even if Pav anted to return to SA, Freo holds all the aces, the crows probably wont have a top ten pick to trade, so a deal will need to be done with Adel trading quality young players, as the pre-season draft will not be an option for the crows

so my advise would be, stop thinking about it, firstly 1. he needs to decide that he wants to come home, this would be 50/50 at absolute best, 2. a deal needs to be done, he will come at a huge price, we will need to give up a fair bit to gain his services, he is a multiple all australian, freo's current b&f and captain and is only 25

almost mission impossible

[Blue Boy]

Pav, hasn't exactly said that he wants to come home next year, it's his last year on contract and of course he will sit on the fence a bit, he will use this strategy to drive his market value

even if Pav anted to return to SA, Freo holds all the aces, the crows probably wont have a top ten pick to trade, so a deal will need to be done with Adel trading quality young players, as the pre-season draft will not be an option for the crows

so my advise would be, stop thinking about it, firstly 1. he needs to decide that he wants to come home, this would be 50/50 at absolute best, 2. a deal needs to be done, he will come at a huge price, we will need to give up a fair bit to gain his services, he is a multiple all australian, freo's current b&f and captain and is only 25

almost mission impossible

Sorry Syd

I will always hope he ( Pav ) will come and play for the crows sooner rather than later !!!

[our_longreach]

Sojourner

to bomb out in two prelim finals is very disappointing, but now the emotion has settle, I think most people would say in 2005 Adelaide exceeded expectations, at the beginning of that season most predicted Adel to finish bottom four, so a top four finish was a good result

last year, most outside the club would tag the crows as chockers, the week leading up to the prelim I predicted a crows win and was disappointed with the home prelim loss, but then again there are as lot of footy judges now predicting the Eagles to have a run similar to the Lions three premierships...

so did the crows choke or were they beaten by a better side, my view is the latter

the club is definitely in a stronger position now then before Neil took over, and as I said in the previous post, my expectation for 2007 is that both Craigy and the crows will improve, is this good enough to make a GF, well there are a lot of other things that need to go your way, one is luck, which Sydney have had plenty of in the past two seasons

Dont know about other Crows supporters. But not having anywhere near the best list in 05-06, id prefer 3rd, 4th than outside the 8. Good years, just West Coast were that bit better. We'll just have to try again. Get ourselves a top quality full forward type and we will be unstoppable.
Difference between Ayres and Craig. Respect of playing group. Goes a long way for team cohesion.

What a load of CRAP. We were on top of the ladder for most of the year. As we got closer and closer to the finals we choked. When we capitulated to Port Adelaide in the showdown I knew that our finals campaign would be brief. It will happen again this year...and when it does Craigy will get the boot.

[Rik E Boy]

Ayres was one of the worst coaches Ive ever come across, I was stoked when he left Geelong for Adelaide.Never proactive and very reactive, very noticable.
Neil Craig's only an OK coach but look at the difference an OK coach makes over Ayres as to where the Crows have been in the last 2 years.
Wouldn't have even made the top 10 under Ayres.

I will have to repeat that sentiment with my name in place of Moes'.....

regards,

REB