Neil Craig

[locky801]

Surely now this Scientists position must be in some sort of doubt. Granted he has a fair few kids out their playing but its same every year, no forwards capable of kicking a bag, its ok for everyone to say Porp and Walker will kick 3 or 4, but wheres the big fella to kick the bags of 5 to 7 on at least a semi regular basis, but the club continues to recruit players in the mould of Walker and Porp. On what I saw today there was no accountability after half time, I dont have to switch the news on tonight or tomorrow cause it will be the same old story from him, that's not the kind of footy we want to play at the Adelaide Football Club. FFS we have heard this year in year out, but wheres the G/F appearances, nowhere in sight. I have said it time and time again and I will say it again now, a football coach will always outcoach a sports scientist and we just continue to see it. Wake up the Adelaide Football Club, the guy in charge has no hope of bringing you end of season glory

[Thiele]

Seems like they are handball happy

[JK]

Not much the coach can do about some of the terrible skill errors the players are making ... Crows are now carrying a few of their older blokes longer than they ideally would have.

Im pretty sure Craig will either over see, or hand over (when his times up) a developed list that's much better than this current one.

[Thiele]

I would of kept Maric in the team. Instead i different ruckman every week

[locky801]

Not much the coach can do about some of the terrible skill errors the players are making ... Crows are now carrying a few of their older blokes longer than they ideally would have.

Im pretty sure Craig will either over see, or hand over (when his times up) a developed list that's much better than this current one.

Mmm so i can blame someone else when my side shows terrible skills, isnt that what a coach is for, to develop skills and team skills, etc etc, they had the opportunity to get rid of a few of the older ones but didnt

[JK]

Not much the coach can do about some of the terrible skill errors the players are making ... Crows are now carrying a few of their older blokes longer than they ideally would have.

Im pretty sure Craig will either over see, or hand over (when his times up) a developed list that's much better than this current one.

Mmm so i can blame someone else when my side shows terrible skills, isnt that what a coach is for, to develop skills and team skills, etc etc, they had the opportunity to get rid of a few of the older ones but didnt

Yeah no doubt SOME of the blame can be opportioned to the coach, but cmon mate, you cant just tip the team up and pick a whole new one these days ... The downside of the draft is that if your team personnel requires serious improvement, you have no choice but to be patient, and that's IF you get it right.

Compare the Crows list with that of the Dogs, HUGE gulf between skill level, pace, size and experience in the younger players

[locky801]

Agreed CP, my main beef is the type of players they are picking up, at obviously his direction and that of other coaching panel members, but the game plan is easier to read than the Cat in the Hat, i know (as a coach) you are only as good as your list but to be honest look as what they have drafted in the last few years, that have turned out match winners on a regular basis. Guys like Walker and Porp would be 3 times more effective with a strong burly CHF/FF (guys in the mould of Brown/Fevola and dare I say it even Tredrea). Personally think they should now take a risk and see what Rutten would be like as a CHF, big, strong, can keep the ball in the area

[Tassie Blues]

so who do you have in mind to repelace him?

[JK]

I think the actual direction of the club would be driven by those above Craigy, and that is to not bottom out like West Coast, Port, Hawthorn and St Kilda have all done at various times, and collected some pretty handy players through the draft as a result.

Agree there doesn't appear to be too many match winners in terms of youngsters in recent years, but at least there finally appears a few potentials in this current lot, although it's likely they'll only show glimpses of ability for several years until they reach a point of maturation .. It can be easy to forget how long it takes, but you only need to look at the likes of Riewoldt, Ball, Goddard, Cooney, Griffen, Waite etc to see how long it really takes to reach the required level of consistency and body shape.

There's really no substitute for 50-100 games of experience, and during that time hopefully the Crows can weed out those other "bit part players" that will never really allow them to go anywhere.

On Craig I don't necessarily think we see his preferred method of footy, it's more a method to lessen the damage by trying to keep losses to respectable margins and pinch the odd win here and there .. Certainly doesn't make for attractive footy, but if the Crows find themselves in shootout situations they will lose at an alarmingly high rate.

I am absolutely certain, that if Craig was on the market, some clubs would be climbing over one another to get his signature.

[lincolnsdirtysecrets]

Same old same old. we are not going anywhere with this guy as coach. he has to go

as for SOFT. I would have to agree

[GWW]

I think he'll coach them for at least the next 3 years, probably longer.

[Hondo]

He's safe for the this year & next and barring any major derail next year, will be reappointed unless he wants to quit.

It's ironic because he's rated more highly interstate then he is in South Australia, it seems. "Who's the best coach" polls usually see him in the top 6. Maybe it's because they don't have the prejudice of the sports science background clouding their opinions. This would be from ignorance because they woudn't know much about him except for what he's done as coach of the Crows.

This is from opposition supporters on other forums plus the football media in Melbourne. Over here, there's an element hungry to eat their own.

This year we simply aren't a top 4 side and probaly not a top 8 side either. That means we will look ordinary against the best teams. It's all building towards 2010-2012 and if Walker and Tippett are an example of what's coming, then it should be exciting times ahead. And like all quality teams on the field, they will make their coaches look like geniuses!

[ORDoubleBlues]

Do have faith in Craig as the coach but it would be nice to see a bit more of an attacking style than we are displaying.
Isn't it amazing that even in this modern day of 'keep possession at all costs', when a team needs to score goals in a hurry - i.e. Port in last quarter last night - that they get it out of center and into attack as quick as possible and what do you know, a goal quite often results!

[aceman]

The players appear to have lost faith in each other, there certainly is an issue with decision making and skill errors are a result of that. Who's at fault, they all are! Coaches and players must all accept their share of responsibility and some hard decisions need to be made. The first I'd make would be to send Reilly and VanBerlo to the SANFL for a month to get something like a bit of form.

[Sojourner]

Like Terry Wallace, Craig is in his Fifth year at the club and its uncertain at this stage if the Crows will be playing in the finals this year. What I would like to know is what it is that Neil Craig has actually achieved at the Crows in the time that he has spent at the club. According to the above posts the Crows are "building", what happened to the Building efforts of 3-4 years ago, why wasnt it enough to see the Crows in more of a rebuilt position today?

My understanding was that Ayres was sacked from the Crows for not having achieved the results in finals for the Crows and that Neil Craig would be correcting this. My take of the stats for Craigs wins in finals matches is not a result that betters Ayres coaching of the club although I take it back if that is not right based on the actual stats.

I think that Craig is relitivley safe at the Crows for next year, I think that the club are openly seeding information into the media about re-building etc in order to talk down the pressure that some in the media might want to place upon him and the club in general. The only thing that might cause some pressure for a sacking could be two losses in a row to the Power in the showdowns, yet even then I still think Craig will keep the top job for some time yet.

It will be interesting to see what the Crows do trading wise at the end of this year, to get good players you have to trade good players. If the Crows do go down the pathway of looking for a forward/s player then it will be interesting to see which current players are regarded as tradeable and which are not, with the Gold Coast comming into the competition, this trading week will be critical to the Crows success in the short term.

[SCD]

Make no mistake about it.. If the Crows play the Swans in the Prelim in either year, they make the GF...

The Swans and Eagles matched up well on the back of a matchup for Judd / Cousins and Kerr for the Swans.. The Crows didn't run that deep in taggers and hence got beaten trying to play an inbetween style of hold up and attack by a team full of amazing talent and match winners that could do anything on their day...

Neil Craig is now re-buliding a list from scratch and should be judged in 3-4 years time on how good a job he does at teaching these young kids. Wallace was building from scratch and hasn't made the finals once.. Craig is yet to miss the finals if I remember correct..

[bulldogs]

What shits me to tears is every year i read about the Crows playing a more direct game with the focus on more goals. all i see is boring stop start shit footy. Let the kids off the chain and go for broke, actually teach them how to be attacking and not make them fear it.

[Sojourner]

Neil Craig is now re-buliding a list from scratch and should be judged in 3-4 years time on how good a job he does at teaching these young kids. Wallace was building from scratch and hasn't made the finals once.. Craig is yet to miss the finals if I remember correct..

He has had five years already to re-build the side, what is it that he has done to suggest that the Crows admin should give him a 3yr extension?

[Dutchy]

He is contracted to the end of 2011. Last year despite him saying he wasnt going anywhere the board gave him an extension past this season...why? what was the rush? why not do it half way thru 2009.

By the end of 2011 he would have been at the club for 15 seasons.....John Ried like!

[Gozu]

I'm not a fan of Craig's style. Firstly the club is refusing to bottom out which negates the chances of getting anything serious in the drafts and why every year it's "where are the Crows going to finish this year?" when we haven't been a premiership threat for a few years now and for a few years into the future. That's on the club.

But he does play way too much of a negative coaching style which is all about saving face and keeping the members happy comfortable in the knowledge they gave it a crack and come away with an honourable loss rather than taking risks. Craig during the week displayed shock at the lack of risk taking by the Crows players, pretty harsh given any sense of flair, attacking and ingenuity has been drilled right out of them. Flooding the backlines, fart-assing around with it in the defensive 50 and then realising there's no one to kick too in our forward half isn't going to win you too many games. Too negative.

I didn't even bother watching the first three quarters today (despite getting it live on Fox) as the Crows and their style are just too harsh to watch these days, the Showdown pretty much did me for the year.