SA Footy

Cats shutdown the 'only option'
By Daniel Brettig
June 06, 2007

DEFENSIVE expert Adelaide admits it has no choice but to try to strangle free-running Geelong at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

Ben Hudson, who has battled manfully as the club's lead ruckman the year after recovering from a knee reconstruction, said there was no question about Adelaide trying to match a Cats attack that has averaged around 40 points more per game than the Crows this season.

"You don't want to back yourself against anyone in a shootout, sometimes you could argue we're a defensive team at times, so if we can stop them and play into our hands - we're certainly not going to go into it as a shootout,'' Hudson said today.

''(Forty points difference) does seem a lot if we look at it from a statistical point of view, but we've got to defend more and take the opportunities when we have them.''

Only West Coast has conceded fewer points than Adelaide this season, but the Crows have had to do so with the knowledge that their patchwork forward line is not functioning freely.

The struggle to find viable forward options may be easing with the return of captain Mark Ricciuto, but his presence will count for little if the Crows midfield cannot beat Geelong's to the ball. Lowly Melbourne was able to win the key contests last week, and in the second quarter ran the ball forward with enough freedom to ram through eight match-shaping goals.

Hudson reckoned a similarly lax level of pressure would result in a day out for the Cats.

"Putting pressure on the opposition, definitely, if you retreat backwards and give them time and space they'll kick as many as they want, so that's a fundamental of the game to pressure the opposition when you don't have the ball,'' he said.

"We're playing a side that are up the top in just about every statistic they measure, so it's about responding to a poor performance last week and there's a number of aspects to address.

"It's not rocket science. We've got to beat them at the contested ball and stoppages and go on from there - it helps when they don't have the ball.''

Utility Brett Burton has undergone arthroscopic knee surgery and will be sidelined until after the mid-season break. Burton has had assorted knee troubles since suffering a hyperextension in round one, and has not played for two weeks.

He joins onballer Brent Reilly (ankle) and forward Ian Perrie (fractured shoulder blade) as first-choice players unavailable to Adelaide for a tough quartet of games.

After Geelong, the Crows face the Kangaroos, West Coast and Hawthorn.


How weak is that? We finished TENTH last season and this game is played at a ground where Geelong has only ever won at ONCE. We lost this match last year by 16 goals! Surely this is bull5hit and that the Crows are actually going to play football.

regards,

REB

Hope the sell out crowd take their pillows..... boring.....

If Adeliade play like that i hope the cats win by 15 goals.

I don't think there's much in that .... every team pushes players back, repeat ... EVERY TEAM

All Hudson has said is that they'll need to apply defensive pressure and won't want to play in a shoot-out. So what? That's consistent with most commentary on this site where the consensus is that the Crows need to have their defensive game in top gear to have any hope of beating the Cats.

Geelong did the same when they played Port - they flooded back very strongly. Tredrea and Cornes both said publicly how chocked their forward line was that day. So what? Get over it boys .... wanna see a shoot-out go to your local amatuer league game

As if the Crows will shoot it out with Geelong in their current form....look forward to a 8 goal vs 10 goal score line

last year the cats came over to play the cows who had i think lost 1 game up until that stage, and even though the cows won by 16 goals, they still flooded!!!!!!!

the crows are the best flooding team in the competition.......

"You don't want to back yourself against anyone in a shootout, sometimes you could argue we're a defensive team at times, so if we can stop them and play into our hands - we're certainly not going to go into it as a shootout,'' Hudson said today.

i think blighty at geelong went into most games trying to get a shootout!!

the crows are starting to sound like glenelg!!!!!!!!

REB who cares where Geelong finished LAST SEASON? Just because a team finished low last year should you just go into the game thinking it will be an easy win despite the fact they are travelling well THIS SEASON?

Its a smoke screen REB - Mummbles has something new to bring to the table

Crows may FLOOD but they wont beat the newly named Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!!

Geelong easy, especially if the Crows try to go defensive against them, Saints are a defensive outfit and look what happened

Interesting game though, the most attacking team against the most defensive team in the comp....or

Best team to watch in the comp against the worst....

***Pulls pin,throws grenade and runs****

Dutchy wrote:Crows may FLOOD but they wont beat the newly named Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!!

Geelong easy, especially if the Crows try to go defensive against them, Saints are a defensive outfit and look what happened

Interesting game though, the most attacking team against the most defensive team in the comp....or

Best team to watch in the comp against the worst....

***Pulls pin,throws grenade and runs****

WTF dutchy you kangaroos supporters dont what you are talking about!!!!.... adelaide are a great team to watch... especially if you have trouble getting to sleep....

i couldnt have said it better DUTCHy

Cats will win it in the last half hour after watching Adelaide (read Bassett,Rutten,Johncock,Mattner) chip it around the back half for the first 3 1/4rs.

16 goals to 12.

I don't mind all this Crows-sniping ..... happy to go in as under-dogs and leave all the pressure on the HOTTEST side on the planet that has EVER played the game .....

Or so it sounds ....

(.... and we are underdogs that's for sure)


Catches grenade ..... finds pin ..... holds on to it for later ...

RoosterMarty wrote:REB who cares where Geelong finished LAST SEASON? Just because a team finished low last year should you just go into the game thinking it will be an easy win despite the fact they are travelling well THIS SEASON?

My point was Martin that things can change around quickly...that's if you back yourselves. Clearly, Geelong didn't do this last season.

regards,

REB

mighty_tiger_79 wrote:i think blighty at geelong went into most games trying to get a shootout!!

And had his heart broken 3 times ....

He learned his lesson by 1997

Blighty

Rik E Boy wrote:

RoosterMarty wrote:REB who cares where Geelong finished LAST SEASON? Just because a team finished low last year should you just go into the game thinking it will be an easy win despite the fact they are travelling well THIS SEASON?

My point was Martin that things can change around quickly...that's if you back yourselves. Clearly, Geelong didn't do this last season.

regards,

REB

If you ignore 2006 then Geelong are arguably about where they should be after the promise of 2004 and 2005. They look very physically strong too this season ... REB have you noticed that? They made Port look like boys verses men a few weeks back.

The don't think the crows will flood heavily, but what they will do is try and push the Cats wide by getting more players in the centre corridor

Their has been plenty of talk about the Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!!

My thoughts, St Kilda, WB and PA in recent weeks have played right in to the cats hands, these sides were prepared to play a shoot out style of game and got cooked

The only way to stop the so called Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!! is to defend the centre corridor, so the crows will certainly have numbers in this zone and try to force the cats in to old habits, "chiping wide"

I expect a top game of footy, the crows have many questions to answer

sydney-dog wrote:The don't think the crows will flood heavily, but what they will do is try and push the Cats wide by getting more players in the centre corridor

Their has been plenty of talk about the Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!!

My thoughts, St Kilda, WB and PA in recent weeks have played right in to the cats hands, these sides were prepared to play a shoot out style of game and got cooked

The only way to stop the so called Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!! is to defend the centre corridor, so the crows will certainly have numbers in this zone and try to force the cats in to old habits, "chiping wide"

I expect a top game of footy, the crows have many questions to answer

So they wont flood they will just "group" their players in the middle of the ground... and if geelong get it too their half forward line will this "group" of players move back to the back line... this is what they do every week and is commonly known as flooding... just because it in the middle of the ground it is still flooding. IMO... and leads to boring games to watch... what every happened to "oh well the better side won..."

sydney-dog wrote:The don't think the crows will flood heavily, but what they will do is try and push the Cats wide by getting more players in the centre corridor

Their has been plenty of talk about the Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!!

My thoughts, St Kilda, WB and PA in recent weeks have played right in to the cats hands, these sides were prepared to play a shoot out style of game and got cooked

The only way to stop the so called Geelong TSUNAMI!!!!! is to defend the centre corridor, so the crows will certainly have numbers in this zone and try to force the cats in to old habits, "chiping wide"

I expect a top game of footy, the crows have many questions to answer

Saints dont know how to play shoot out footy anymore, with Lyon they are trying to play the Swans style...and failing

scoob wrote:So they wont flood they will just "group" their players in the middle of the ground... and if geelong get it too their half forward line will this "group" of players move back to the back line... this is what they do every week and is commonly known as flooding... just because it in the middle of the ground it is still flooding. IMO... and leads to boring games to watch... what every happened to "oh well the better side won..."

I am repeating myself but ..... every team team 'floods' these days. In fact, don't do it and you'll get belted - I can guarantee your supporters will be calling for it the following week.

Geelong did it brilliantly against Port a few weeks back and they are the team you are boning over. You watch Sunday, Geelong will flood our forward line and when we have to slow up to find some room, we will be the ones canned for 'tempo football'. Every team floods, the difference is that some teams are much better than others at converting their forward movements. Simplistic supporters then call that team 'attacking' and the other 'defensive' - the real difference is that Geelong have been very efficient at converting their forward movements AFTER they have choked the opponent's forward line. That's through physical pressure, great ball movement and having quality forwards doing their job. Crows have been not great at this ... hopefully Sunday we do much better and turn on a red hot game for everyone.

hondo71 wrote:

scoob wrote:So they wont flood they will just "group" their players in the middle of the ground... and if geelong get it too their half forward line will this "group" of players move back to the back line... this is what they do every week and is commonly known as flooding... just because it in the middle of the ground it is still flooding. IMO... and leads to boring games to watch... what every happened to "oh well the better side won..."

I am repeating myself but ..... every team team 'floods' these days. In fact, don't do it and you'll get belted - I can guarantee your supporters will be calling for it the following week.

Geelong did it brilliantly against Port a few weeks back and they are the team you are boning over. You watch Sunday, Geelong will flood our forward line and when we have to slow up to find some room, we will be the ones canned for 'tempo football'. Every team floods, the difference is that some teams are much better than others at converting their forward movements. Simplistic supporters then call that team 'attacking' and the other 'defensive' - the real difference is that Geelong have been very efficient at converting their forward movements AFTER they have choked the opponent's forward line. That's through physical pressure, great ball movement and having quality forwards doing their job. Crows have been not great at this ... hopefully Sunday we do much better and turn on a red hot game for everyone.

And i will repeat myself... results in boring footy...