Crows v Power

[sydney-dog]

Roo's out, Knights in

[sydney-dog]

great signs in the 1st

Clarke / Biglands smashing Lade / Brogan and given the crows midfield first use of the footy

Up forward what a big difference it makes having the crows three most natural forwards playing in the forward 50m, Welsh looks sharpe, Perrie looks like he hasn't missed a game and Mr Potential keeps working hard, while Bode is picking up scraps at will

In defence, crows look a lot more solid with the hound dog back and Bock to CHB......

Good Structure, better footy

If BURGOYNE wants to be considered in the same breath as Judd he needs to performin big games, 1 touch in the first 1/4 not good enough, Pearce very quiet......

Crows should of been further in front

3.8 . 26
1.2. 8

[sydney-dog]

****, UMPIRES ARE SOFT, SLIGHT TOUCHES ON EBERT AND LOGAN RESULT IN BULLSHITE GOALS

MEMO TO UMPIRES - CONSISTENCY IS ALL WE ASK FOR

[sydney-dog]

Sloppy first 20min of 2nd 1/4 by crows, but gained control again in the last 7 minutes

like Van Berlo's game

I don't make a habit of umpire bashing but today's effort is poor, it's a local showdown and too many soft free kicks pulled out, let the play and award the obvious free's, lets have consistency

[magpie in the 80's]

why is it a push in the back one end but not the other. umpiring very inconsistent

[MightyEagles]

It was the bad kicking for goal 1st qtr that cost the side the win.

[Mr66]

Port 14.11.95 - World's Greatest Sporting Team in History of Universe 11.15.81.
HA! HA! HA!!!

[sydney-dog]

Ebert late on Bassett, Bassett carried off and no 50m, Bock in the last two minutes barely touched Dominic C and 50m penalty.

Enough said about umpires....

Now I am slightly concerned, Craigy 6 weeks ago took a gamble and trained the team very hard, since then we have seen numerous hamstring injuries and the side has hit the wall in the second half, their is no run, the skill errors and decision making falls and they miss tackles...... I am still prepared to hold my judgement until the end of season but it may be a gamble Craigy has lost, finals will tell us more

Negatives, Injuries, Hentchel looks gone for the year, at worse Bassett will miss one game, Roo ???

Hart, Great clubman, been top 5 all time best player at the club but in my opinion he does not automatically pick himself anymore, he lacks confidence and making too many clangers...

Senior Players, Edwards fantastic today, Macca got plenty of the ball but did not hurt Port, Goody needs to wake up from his slumber

Coaching Box, Craigy and his staff take too long to react in the box, it's great having faith in your PLAYERS but their are times you need to make changes...

Positives

Van Berlo, 18 touches, 6 marks, 2 goals best game for the club, Perrie first game back 19 touches and 13 marks, worked hard and Welsh was dangerous early but when the quick ball movement dried up so did his game, hopefully the Welsh-Perrie combo will improve with weeks to come.

The big positive is that even the win / loss ratioo has not been good in recent weeks, games against Freo, Bulldogs and today the crows played one 1/4 of footy in each game and went down by small margins, if Craigy's gamble is correct, which means they should peak for finals then he will be a legend, if his gamble is not and the team continues to hit the wall, then he needs to take accountability for this decision....

Challenging couple of weeks in front of the footy club

[magpie in the 80's]

will have to go into the finals with a new forward structure. at the moment no roo,burton, kenny and now trent with welsh and perrie short of match fitness as always time will tell

[Coorong]

Henchels right leg was at right angles on the stretcher.....12 months.

Next week, Hudson back, Biglands permanent forward.

[Magpiespower]

Only got to see the first quarter when the Crows dominated.

But we obviously turned things around. Dramatically.

Roll on 2007!

[magpie in the 80's]

yes port played well. good youngsters for the future. bishop/wakelin no future though

[sydney-dog]

Welsh and Perrie now have 6 weeks of footy in them and I thought both looked sharp when the delivery was quick, when the crows stop running it obviously makes it harder for the forwards......

Even with Trent out their are options, Hudson in, Biglands forward is one option, Kenny will be available next week and I'm not sure on Roo, I'm assuming he will be close, Bassett at worse will miss one and Massie should be ok, so Trent and Burton are the two long term injuries but all clubs have to manage that this time of year..

Looking at the crows today, they look hungry and their attitudes seem fine, first 1/4 their general play was sharp, but goal kicking let them down, this sounds stupid but I dont think it is a form or confidence issue......

Their has been an issue of a settle structure but this can be over come.

Working in the sport science industry, Craigy's methods are been keenly observed and debated, we know that pre-season he lifted the work load by approx 9%, the side hit the season running and blasted sides away with hard run, 6 weeks ago he commenced a heavier training schedule for a 4 week block and in the industry their is two lines of thought.

1. On the back of a heavy pre-season and given the clubs had already played 15 or 16 games, the sesult of such a program could cause burn out and the players may hit the wall.....

2. The program will have positive benefit on the players but would require 2-3 weeks to freshen them up before you start to see the results, if this is the case they should be flying come finals.....

Either way it is a gamble, if the crows run over sides come finals then Craigy will be hailed a genius, but if they continue to hit the wall after half time then he will be labeled the nutty professor who got it all wrong.......

The other thought is would Craigy take this gamble if the croes were sitting in 9th spot after 15 rounds.....

I know the boys can play footy, the result of Craigy's gamble will determine the clubs season........

[sydney-dog]

Bishop / Wakelin / Thurstan no future

Impressed with the size of #11 for the power, at the age of 19 looks an ideal Key Defender

Move of C Cornes to CHB was a critical move, this guy needs to play CHB, he would be the best CHB in the comp, daylight second

One thing I notice about the crows, they sheep dog too much, by this I mean 2,3 or 4 players hunt the man with the footy, too often the ball spills out and the opposition have 2 or 3 unmarked players around the contest ready to run the footy away with no pressure, I would like the crows to have 1 or 2 men hunt the player with the footy and the man up on the lose players around the contest, too many occassions when the crows have no players to pick up on the loose ball

[mick]

Great to see Brett Ebert play another great match. A few months ago the Port mob on Bigfooty were saying to trade this guy...they have egg on the face now, he'll be a great player for Port. Anyway how good is Chad Cornes? I hate f*ckn Port but credit where it's due Burgoyne a bloody handy player as well. Port will upset a few next year....unfortunately

[magpie in the 80's]

understand your thoughts sydney-dog but for the last 4 weeks IMO its not the extra workload that has hurt the crows its the opposition has found away to combat the crows with this playon at all costs (barrasi style 1970 G/F). yes i dont think the coach reacts quick enough. all we hear is they the players didnt follow the game plan. i feel when our so called gameplan has been found out we should go to plan B. oh wait i dont think we have a plan B. as always time will tell all and i hope we find away to regroup and start to be 1st at the ball and play some of the footy we showed earlier or we could go out in straight sets. chit ive run out of my 2 cents worth

[MW]

Henchels right leg was at right angles on the stretcher.....12 months.

Next week, Hudson back, Biglands permanent forward.

spot on coorong...was saying the same thing during the game

[Magpiespower]

With the emergence of several young players this year, expect to see C. Cornes return to CHB in 2007.

Has been used to plug gaps here, there and everywhere the past two seasons. Fingers crossed, Tredders and co. will remain injury free next year, allowing us the luxury of leaving Chad in defence.

Brett Ebert has really stood tall in the second half of this year.

[sydney-dog]

Burgoyne, didn't do much today, Ebert played well but miss coule of easy set shots, I would still like to see Ebert have time in the midfield.......

Im not so sure the crows game plan has been worked out, it is an easy observation, so clubs are playing running footy from HB with quick forward line enteries, is this a game plan to combat the crows I rather think this is how footy should be played....

The indicators I look at is the amount of skill errors, decision making errors the crows are making and the inability to get to the loose ball, this is caused by fatigue or tiredness......

The crows leaked so many easy goals in the past month thru skill errors, decision making and not being able to push to a contest, I contribute this more to flatness not so much the opposition has worked us out

The challenge is to get them frsh and the spark back, then we will see how their game plan holds up

[Brad]

Crows lost the match in the first quarter when they failed to capitalise on a lot of opportunities, full credit to Port they were hard at it had a great win.