Crows/Freo

[MW]

Why did we persist in going to Perrie in the second half? What happened to Bock???
They should of rested the ruckmen in the forward pocket too and bombed it in long to a one on one, Perrie could not hold it at all today. Maybe he should try using two gloves next week instead of one.

[Dutchy]

Why did we persist in going to Perrie in the second half? What happened to Bock???
They should of rested the ruckmen in the forward pocket too and bombed it in long to a one on one, Perrie could not hold it at all today. Maybe he should try using two gloves next week instead of one.

Bock went to behind the ball and they cant rest players int he forward pocket as thats another they can use behind the ball!!!!

[Hondo]

Calm down everyone - we were even with Freo at their home ground with 1 minute to go. Perrie and Vince kick their set shots and the thread would be looking a whole lot different right now. The kids almost got us there. Douglas' effort to hold a Freo attack (3 on 1) late in the quarter was gold.

Forget the "too many men behind the ball" guff, if our forwards had held their marks and kicked straight we would have won. And don't discount Freo's defensive efforts, especially in the second half they held our forwards very well ..... and we still almost won.

Of course I'd prefer the W, but that's footy.

PS I bet the Adelaide Board on BigFooty is having a field day at Perrie tonight

[Dutchy]

What if Freo kicked straight?

I actually thought the Crows played the better footy around the ground...but when you play that way you need a target...Freo were poor but still won

[SCD]

As a Crows supporter - i'll be honest.. disappointed big time by the loss - but so happy with the way the team toughed it out... I don't think bagging players like Perrie (who has been good the last month & who wasn't suited by the conditions) is the thing to look at...

Look at the kids the Crows are bringing through - this is one thing people forget.. the crows have a team of kids at the moment and were hurt badly by the Reilly injury on the big open spaces of Subiaco... BUT

Knights, Vince, Douglas, Griffin, Porplyzia - all with under 15 games and then Van Berlo with only 30 games.. teams like West Coast & Sydney don't have 6/22 (or over 25% of their team with less then 100 games experience between the 6 of them).. And yes - they will take time to come up to speed at AFL level...

Crows supporters should be getting behind these kids and the team for doing such a great job - I for one didn't expect a 3 - 2 start with the injury list we have.. including wins over Port and Sydney (both top 4 teams currently). It won't be as easy a year as last year, but look at the next month of inclusions still to come

McGregor, Johncock, Maric (even though he's only played a handful of games), Welsh, Bode, Ricciuto, Massie (not sure he's top 22 anymore though..) and then there are the ones done for the year in Biglands & Hentschel...

Not to mention the blokes who played today - who looked very iffy fitness wise at the best of times, including Goodwin, Burton and Doughty - you normally wouldn't play injured blokes.. but what choice with the current injury list..

It is for these reasons the team needs support and not comments like "they can't win a flag playing that style of football" - well take Judd, Kerr, Cox, Lynch, Hanson, Hunter out of West Coast and they are ordinary also > so give these kids some credit..

The last month, Douglas and Knights have really come along and Porplyzia is better for his 2 outings.. Vince needs some time and to me, Griffin is an exciting prospect - who needs some time in the gym...

Well done to Fremantle, who obviously had to have been harder at it and first to the ball (why else was the free kick count 21 - 9) and for being able to beat a team of kids at home by one point, with a basically full squad...

But more important - well done to the Crows, who battled with 21 "fit" players for most of the day and really battled it out in ordinary conditions at a tough place to win..

[Hondo]

What if Freo kicked straight?

I actually thought the Crows played the better footy around the ground...but when you play that way you need a target...Freo were poor but still won

Yeah OK, how about this .... if Freo had kicked straight throughout the game it could have been over at 3/4 time, if we kicked straight in the last 10 minutes we could have won.

[sydney-dog]

Dutchy

Macca has played across HB for 3-4 seasons now, even back in Ayres day

In regards to the crows style of play, I think we are jumping the gun a bit, at the moment the crows are playing to thier strengths, given the availability of players and against some quality opposition

What should the crows do, go out and play open footy like the demons and get blown of the Park, at least our season is still on track and we have plenty of up side

I am confident once we throw Roo, Johncock, Kenny and Welsh back in the mix, playing together the crows will start to hurt the scoreboard

The other positive, the crows have played Essendon, WB, Syd, Freo and PA, all these clubs have been in great early season form, we are sitting 3-2 and now the draw opens up for us, with games against Collingwood, Brisbane, Melbourne, Richmond, Carlton all to come in the next 5 weeks

[mal]

Dutchy

Macca has played across HB for 3-4 seasons now, even back in Ayres day

In regards to the crows style of play, I think we are jumping the gun a bit, at the moment the crows are playing to thier strengths, given the availability of players and against some quality opposition

What should the crows do, go out and play open footy like the demons and get blown of the Park, at least our season is still on track and we have plenty of up side

I am confident once we throw Roo, Johncock, Kenny and Welsh back in the mix, playing together the crows will start to hurt the scoreboard

The other positive, the crows have played Essendon, WB, Syd, Freo and PA, all these clubs have been in great early season form, we are sitting 3-2 and now the draw opens up for us, with games against Collingwood, Brisbane, Melbourne, Richmond, Carlton all to come in the next 5 weeks

Good points
AC have to play ugly[awful to watch at times] as lack leg speed
It works against 14 other clubs
Just need to dodge WC somehow finals time

[NFC]

Top notch post scaffidi can't drive.

[mal]

Top notch post scaffidi can't drive.

SCD also does good Trots previews as well in the Gambling Room.

[smithy]

more riveting high scoring attacking footy by the Crows...6 scoring shots in a half!!!...FFS Craig is killing footy

Thats F**cking hilarious coming from a kangaroos supporter.

Sure the 'roos have had a couple of recent wins but I wouldn't say Dean Laidley has had a super attacking game plan since being in charge.

[Stumps]

Hudson up forward looked good i thought- played well the crow boys just wasnt there day

[JK]

Crows battled well, just lacked consistency in targets to capitilise on forward thrusts ... I think Perrie offers them a fair bit actually (has deficiencies no doubt, but has an excellent workrate) and shouldn't cop the baggings he does - Perhaps some people should adjust their evaluation on his role as he's not supposed to be a Fevola or Lloyd type (read 1 man forward line).

Continue to be impressed with Griffen, thought he battled well against the much heavier Sandilands and appears to have excellent ability ... Throw a bit of bulk to his frame next summer and he'll be better again.

Massive Hudson fan, continually undersized but you know he will always give you %120.

Fremantle would want to have some improvement left in them because to be honest I've been disappointed with them thus far ... Long season though and they should have the cattle to get even better.

Scott Thompson looking at a career best season IMHO.

[Dutchy]

Heres some stats to confirm their "play ugly" game plan this year -

3rd worst attack behind Melbourne and Saints
3rd Best Defence
4th worst Inside 50
Equal 2nd for Inside 50's conceded

[Dutchy]

more riveting high scoring attacking footy by the Crows...6 scoring shots in a half!!!...FFS Craig is killing footy

Thats F**cking hilarious coming from a kangaroos supporter.

Sure the 'roos have had a couple of recent wins but I wouldn't say Dean Laidley has had a super attacking game plan since being in charge.

WRONG...Roos are above the AFL average for Points scored, Scoring Shots and Inside 50's this year...means they are attacking more than the average AFL side...try again

[JK]

I think "Ugly" is probably a term each individual has to define for themselves .. If someone likes to watch running football they shouldn't have a problem with many teams in the comp (including the Crows), or if they like it in tight*, again they would enjoy the Crows games.

If you were a Crows supporter you would enjoy watching your side winning more often than not.

If however, you are a neutral supporter who enjoys one on one stuff and natural ability, then I would think you wouldn't get as much out of Crows games.

No team is going to please everybody, we just have our own individual preferences as to the type of footy we want to see.

(FWIW I actually found the Bulldogs v Hawks game yesterday one of the more enjoyable AFL games I've seen in a while)

[mighty_tiger_79]

more riveting high scoring attacking footy by the Crows...6 scoring shots in a half!!!...FFS Craig is killing footy

Thats F**cking hilarious coming from a kangaroos supporter.

Sure the 'roos have had a couple of recent wins but I wouldn't say Dean Laidley has had a super attacking game plan since being in charge.

WRONG...Roos are above the AFL average for Points scored, Scoring Shots and Inside 50's this year...means they are attacking more than the average AFL side...try again

the roos would have a better attacking side and would win more games out of the gold coast!!!!

in fact given the good record they have down at geelong maybe the roos should move down there and the cats can go to the gold coast since some of those boys dont like getting dirty

[Hondo]

Heres some stats to confirm their "play ugly" game plan this year -

3rd worst attack behind Melbourne and Saints
3rd Best Defence
4th worst Inside 50
Equal 2nd for Inside 50's conceded

Dutchy, the game plan is being structured around the available players. Clearly something is not right with your conclusions from the stats as we have the 3rd best defence yet concede almost the most inside 50s. Secondly, we have the 4th worth inside 50s yet have beaten Bulldogs, Port and Sydney and lost to Freo by a point. You can't take stats in isolation to make sweeping judgements like "play ugly" nor can you diss on young players doing what they need to do to win games before some of the established leading players return.

You also forget that this season we have yet to play Carlton, Richmond, Geelong, Collingwood, Melbourne, Kangaroos and Brisbane. All teams foreacast at the start of the year to finish outside the 8 and all teams against which higher scoring is very probable.

Given the injury count and the draw for the 1st 5 rounds would you take 3-2 if you were a supporter?

[Hondo]

I think "Ugly" is probably a term each individual has to define for themselves .. If someone likes to watch running football they shouldn't have a problem with many teams in the comp (including the Crows), or if they like it in tight*, again they would enjoy the Crows games.

If you were a Crows supporter you would enjoy watching your side winning more often than not.

If however, you are a neutral supporter who enjoys one on one stuff and natural ability, then I would think you wouldn't get as much out of Crows games.

No team is going to please everybody, we just have our own individual preferences as to the type of footy we want to see.

(FWIW I actually found the Bulldogs v Hawks game yesterday one of the more enjoyable AFL games I've seen in a while)

"Ugly" is becoming a fad word. The last 2 Grand Finals have been intense, very watchable games with only 24 goals scored in perfect conditions. Ditto, in fact, most finals in recent seasons.

[Dutchy]

Heres some stats to confirm their "play ugly" game plan this year -

3rd worst attack behind Melbourne and Saints
3rd Best Defence
4th worst Inside 50
Equal 2nd for Inside 50's conceded

Dutchy, the game plan is being structured around the available players. Clearly something is not right with your conclusions from the stats as we have the 3rd best defence yet concede almost the most inside 50s. Secondly, we have the 4th worth inside 50s yet have beaten Bulldogs, Port and Sydney and lost to Freo by a point. You can't take stats in isolation to make sweeping judgements like "play ugly" nor can you diss on young players doing what they need to do to win games before some of the established leading players return.

You also forget that this season we have yet to play Carlton, Richmond, Geelong, Collingwood, Melbourne, Kangaroos and Brisbane. All teams foreacast at the start of the year to finish outside the 8 and all teams against which higher scoring is very probable.

Given the injury count and the draw for the 1st 5 rounds would you take 3-2 if you were a supporter?

Inside 50's conceded Equal 2nd best is what I mean...again confirming their defensive minded tactics...I cant believe everyone keeps diagreeing with me that they arent playing defensive footy at the moment...thats all Im saying