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Prologue: Astounded at the start of the game to have to line up to get in onaccounta only 1 Turnstile open. Then when I got close to check in Found out I could have just walked in through the seething throng of Swanettes ( Rememember them?) and walked in through the "Members only" Gate DOH! Reasonable crowd today, probably 50/50 Dees/Casey and Swans faithful. Beautiful day for footy out at Casey, no breeze to speak of and a relaxed almost gentile and pastoral elegance permeated the scenescape which featured Dogs of all kinds, Kids playing with footies, Parents sitting on Picnic blankets just out to enjoy a much anticipated clash. The aromatic waft of the Bacon ccoking on the hotplate ajacent the Food stall certainly resounded with the punters and many an egg and bacon roll was being consumed amongst the very reasonable 3 for $4.00 Dimmies and the ubiquitous Home made pies ( at just the right Temperature) and Sauce) No Slitheras in sight and the radience of the sun cascaded into a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday in Melbourne with warmth on my back and easy views from all parts of the ground! The best part about being Picket Fence or anyone else is that you can have a view which may or may not be Numero Ono! Thats the best part about being on a forum such as Demonland. The range of opinions is both fascinating and enthralling! And each to his own! NEWS , VIEWS AND HARD HITTING ANALYSIS! I deliberately set out to watch the forwards more so than the defenders as I sussed out that changes may come from that cohort, However I did see some great defence which I will highlight her as well I'll start with a positive Jake Bowey, a poor mans Caleb Daniel in the making ( hopefully will be a better mans Caleb Daniel) Phew there is a heck of a lot to like about this player, Small in stature but big in heart, he set up many rebounds with his cunning, canny ball use and smarts, I really dont think he is far away at all. Mitch Brown A very crafty clever and creative forward, He knows where to run and could easily have kicked 6 or 7 today instead of his 2 5 ish, If Fritsch is on the skids I would have no hessitation, bringing him in BB Total day to forget, slipPed and slided , was caught behind, I'm not sure he even had a kick, Not that he wasn't presenting it was just one of those days where delivery was Shizzen and he just looked a bit lost. He NEVER stopped trying. Oscar Baker, Played a great game and used the ball mainly well, showed some G & D on numerous occasions and formed a winning centreline Chunky, Too good at this level , but the pace of the next level will possibly find him out, Linked well played with typical "Grunt" but was rested for the last half of the last! Fraser Rosman, will be a very good wingman AKA Issac Smith coz he moves uncannily like him, Was involved in ball movement and creates opportunities Toby Bedford, Played an entertaining and swashbuckling game, plenty of pace, kicks good goals and will continue his development Tom Sparrow, VDB CLONE and if he can stay injury free will be a cracker, pace, grunt, smarts and skills continue to develop Jay Lockhart. Gee I like him a lot, positions his body cleverly, uses the ball pretty well, pacey and just does all things an accountable defender should do Kade Chandler, underpinned why he got game this year and continued from where he left of , touvh of class player with plenty of grunt and played a very good game Austin Bradke, Ok I stand corrected here if it was him I was looking at in the ruck he was very very good, , palmed the ball well and played the snarly ruckman type to perfection Majak At some piont Majak will play some games and he wont let us down another fine performance i the ruck, his fitness has improved and he can play Ruck , Forward, Back whih makes him very versatile Of the Casey Boys Munro, White and Foot are no slouches. I really like James Munro, he seems to be the catalyst at casey and is a fiery no mess type. Ill conclude with this .... " If we do not succeed, we run the risk of failure and failure without risk is not sustainable or attainable" PF

Just like when the Lions had a bad decision against the Cats, the Dees must ask for a “Please explain from the umpiring director “. Example, Murray from the Crows handballs 20 metres backwards out of bounds OOB in the last 20 seconds to go. Right next to the point post in our forward line. Not another crows player near it. My kids and I were absolutely screaming. It was the most obvious OOB all year. WTF. That’s what the rule was for. It wasn’t why we lost. You can diagnose many small incidents and the players must all be accountable. But the umps must be questioned. There were plenty of 50/50 decisions and we got (f&$@d) on most of them.

Exactly. Even without a set play scenario trying to kick a goal, punching the ball toward goal would have created a scramble and fear in the Adelaide defenders. A rushed behind would have been nearly a certainty.

We had a much better chance of forcing a draw or chance of snatching the win with a fluke goal and maintained our top position if Gawn tried to punch the ball towards the goals.Too often I bemoan the lack of creative ruck play from Max as well as strategic thinking. He could have got 2 players to position goal side and thump the ball in that direction. We had little chance of him 3 times dropping the ball non goal side at his feet in manic congestion to win a decisive clearance for a shot at goal. Quick thinking and basic math nous could have saved us. A draw would have been as good as a win.

You probably won’t see a more deliberate handball out of play this season than last night. I understand the frustration but it won’t make most of us feel any better if they admit it was the wrong call. The Spargo one was an absolute howler, trying to pick up the ball of his bootlaces and toe pokes it out accidentally. The Crows one is better compared to Lever getting pinged for deliberate earlier in the game when he actually made it look like he was passing to Petty. Time for Ump pressers after games perhaps, that would be fun.

Let me just say a big congratulations to Adelaide, who were really well coached tonight. I thought they put in massive amount of pressure and it resulted in simple little turnovers that proved costly. 2nd point, stop blaming the umpires. They did not cost us the game at all. The fact we were in a position late in the game that we needed to rely on a deliberate rule is imo is very concerning. We 16 points up with 3 minutes to go. We lost because we put ourselves in that position to lose. I'm putting the absolute heat on our senior players tonight. Some of the efforts and performance from so called senior heads and leadership was simply unacceptable. Steven May - possibly the worst games he's played for us. Played lazy football and gave no respect to a rookie in Thilthorp. Just wanted to play zone football all night. One thing also, stop spraying other blokes when you get beaten in a one on one contest. It is simply on you. Fritsch - My god is there a more softer footballer going around? Lazy and insipid. 0 defensive efforts. If we are fair dinkum as a club then he surely is under the microscope this week. Melksham - Simply bizarre he was playing in the first place. How the [censored] did he get selected on the back of being a medical sub? What does that say to the likes of Tom Sparrow who's busted his [censored] at AFL level with 2 games in a row of being BOG with an average of 30 disposals? What exactly does that send to not only Sparrow but the rest of the blokes doing the hard yards? Not only does Melksham do SFA, he's another who insipid with 0 defensive pressure. Harmes - One trick pony who dead set thinks his dusty. Honestly don't know what to make of him Jetta - Yeah look, commented pre game that I was concerned with this inclusion. Might as well just have played a witches hat. Adds legit nothing to our side anymore. Great servant but hopefully that's the last time we see him in red and blue. Stay at Casey and help develope our kids. Weideman - So disappointed. Running out of patience. If there was a time to really stake a claim and grab a game by the scruff of the neck then today would have been it. Gawn - Had good moments then had poor moments where I just face palmed. Maybe can the whole podcast for a few weeks and #positvelingers stuff and just focus on getting your form back, because he has simply been poor of late. I'm starting to notice signs of tiredness with Pickett, Rivers and Jordon. How we manage that Is up to the club. The positves for me were Petracca and Oliver. I thought while Lever was under immense pressure he was our best defender. Ed Langdon is proving what an absolute brilliant pick up he's been. Lesson for young kids who want to see what work rate is all about, grab yourself a few Langdon highlights and watch him work his [censored] off. I also thought Brayshaw on the other wing was good as well. The 3 keys players we missed today were Salem, Ben Brown and Jack Viney. I said this a few weeks ago, but the impact Brown has is huge for our forwards. He draws 2 defenders and.its no coincidence that when Brown was playing McDonald and Fritsch had career best games. Viney is the general around our stoppages and directs our set ups and stoppage clearences.Him being out has left a significant hole and it's been telling the last few weeks. Enough said by Salem. He is our barometer and just sets us up so well from half back. Please be back next week. Funny enough I wasn't angry about this loss because I think Adelaide played really well and I thought we'd win this comfortable. But what this shows is that there is no easy teams this year. Every win is so significant and I feel like this is exactly the lost we needed.

Yep. Last year Richmond lost twice to non-finalists: Hawthorn (bottom 4) and GWS. In 2019 they dropped three in a row mid-season including to two non-finalists in North Melbourne and Adelaide. In 2018 West Coast lost three games to non-finalists (Essendon, Adelaide, North Melbourne). In 2016 the Dogs lost twice to non-finalists (St Kilda and Fremantle, although from memory that final round match vs Fremantle was a dead rubber). Even the mighty 2015 Hawks lost three games to non-finalists. It happens. Good sides lose to bad sides. We all looked at that game last night and saw we were playing poor football. But we still had a three goal lead with 7 minutes to go and at that point had conceded 18 scoring shots, which is the most anyone's scored against us (again our opponent was accurate and more than us - game could have been over at that point at 12.6 to 14.10 if say TMac had kicked his easy set shot in the 2nd quarter and they'd missed even one of their tough kicks). We didn't handle the final 7 minutes well but then three bad umpiring non-calls all went against us, and we still nearly won it and lost by a single point. None of this is to say we're going to canter it in for the rest of the season, but similarly we don't all need to panic because we lost to a likely non-finalist.

In 2017 Richmond got beaten by 2 points against a lowly Fremantle at the MCG. A few weeks later got thumped by a bottom 4 team in St Kilda by over 70 points. They went on to win the flag.

Actually it WAS why we lost. And that’s ok, on a long enough time-line it all evens out. The bigger point is that there’s no reconciling the abominable contradictions in last night’s umpiring that gifted the Crows the win, because it reflects what is the greatest blight on our game - the quality of umpiring. Not forgetting that the size of ground, speed of play and multi-directional nature of our game makes it difficult, it just has to get better. Ignoring the ‘out of bounds’ shambles for a bit, the adjudication of the ‘tackle rule’ - the essence of the game’s physical contact - is a complete shambles, an utter 50/50 mess in any given situation. The home-crowd influence factor is equally egregious, and it was on sparkling display last night. How and why the umpires can’t be specifically coached in how not to fall prey to this baffles me. They’ve corrected it to a large extent in Perth over the last couple of years, but last night was an embarrassment to the game. Bad/unbalanced umpiring determined last night’s result. It’s that simple, and it shouldn’t happen.

I'd love to see a side by side of Lever's deliberate in the second quarter and that one. Can't blame the umps for the loss but that's as bad a decision as you'll see. Credit to the Crows, they just wouldn't go away.

Redleg is spot on. It's not a mistake. It's a clear and obvious free kick right in front of the umpire and he elected not to pay it. Why? He bottled it - he must have known it was a free but didn't show the courage required to pay a potential game-deciding free kick in front of the rabid Adelaide fans. I can tolerate an umpiring error (e.g. missing a hold or a high tackle in a pack of players), and I can tolerate not paying tiggy touchwood frees in a tight game, but you simply must pay a clear and obvious free that you see. It's a clear deliberate under the old interpretation, let alone the new "insufficient intent to keep it in" which is a lower threshold. And that's not even mentioning the holding the ball against Keays - one of the clearest examples of holding the ball you will ever see. So that's 2 of the 3 umpires on the night bottling it. They melted in the spotlight and allowed themselves to be influenced by the crowd and that's the message that needs to be conveyed. Fat chance of that happening though - all we will get is the AFL giving the "yeah they each made a mistake" and further obfuscating the issue.

I’d forgotten what losing feels like. I don’t care for it.

I want a please explain from Hunt, Fritsch, T Mac, Weid amongst others who were diabolical yesterday.

It was very ironic given that the Crows got awarded a free for deliberate out of bounds which they got a goal out of, which far less of a free kick in my eyes. In that instance out player (I think it was Lever) did a soft hand loopy handball out of a pack situation and the Adelaide player shephered the ball over the line, while appealing for the free kick. When the rule was first bought in, the free would have actually been paid against that Adelaide player, because he had pleanty of oppertunity to pickup the ball before it went out, but chose not to. The non paid free kick for holding the ball/incorrect disposal, which bobbled out to Tex was also a complete shocker. There should be bigger consequences for umpires that F it up this much and make howlers that change the result of games. The expectations on players in the professional era are huge and they should be on umpires too. Not enough for the league just to say, sorry we F that up. The responsible umpires should get substantial fines.

Weid - spray with Roundup

Somehow, based on this I do not know how we only went down by 1 point !!!

Just to lighten the mood... My eldest son lives in Poland, has zero interest in footy, but despite the 8/10 hour time difference, he stays abreast of Dees matches coz he knows how passionate I am. Last night this was our text exchange... ?

Without delving into the stats, I don't think it's any coincidence that we've had a relatively flat month since Richmond and over that same period Viney's been out.

I’m sick and tired of the narrative that the umpiring non decision isn’t why we lost. I get the sentiment but I always call a spade a spade and that non decision was the deciding factor. Yes we were off our game but Adelaide played out of their skins and it took a few bad calls for the game to fall in their favour.

If Ben Brown isn't right and Weid hasn't nailed his spot I reckon we go smaller. The forward line has functioned better with Fritsch, McDonald and Jackson. Gawn stays more engaged in the game. Jackson is our best 'bring the ball to ground' tall forward. Fritsch stays in games getting more of the ball at full forward. The question is who to bring in. Salem for Jetta obviously. I'd be thinking about Lockhart and Sparrow for Melksham and Weid. Sparrow plays half forward with some short stints on ball as the 5th on baller. Lockhart plays a mixture of a few short stints on ball, a little on the wing and a little at half forward. I'd use him very much as an impact player to bring fresh legs. He can even take a stint on a back flank to give the half backs an extra rotation. The secret to beating the dogs is to keep the pressure on for long enough that they start doubting their skills and to move the ball around to stop their aggressive zone defending having easy peel off spoils.

Last time I looked this is a fan site where you can blow off steam and express a view. I am not the least interested in being told get over it. The whole point of fan sites is to expunge yourself from disgraceful decisions such as last night. This wasn’t just a bad decision it was a disgraceful one made by a squib. There I feel better already

Spargo touched it so it should not have been deliberate? Please. The fact that was apparently not evident to a single person watching the game last night shows how ridiculous that is. Besides I doubt that does in fact mean a deliberate cant be paid. I mean he deliberately tried to handball it over the boundary. And succeeded. And obviously showed no intent to keep it in sy, let alone insufficient intent. What does an imperceptible deflection change?

The reason we lost is we conceded 15 goals. Simple. Let’s face it, we treated Adelaide like a player development exercise and it showed. 40% of Adelaide’s scoring goes through Tex, and we don’t send May to him at the start. That was our mindset and it cost us a win.

Whilst we all know the two non decisions late game were rubbish Kicking 6.7 to 7.2 after half time didn't help, we had enough chances to get further ahead. I have faith the club is gonna come out and give it to the bulldogs next week with Viney and Salem back in the side

I know I said we will never lose again this week, but I was wrong ? 9-0 is a very good effort. Nobody else achieved that this year. The competition is very close. Even lower teams can win on their day. Freo beat Sydney last night as an example. The issue with the loss last night was the defensive effort just wasn’t there. We let Adelaide score freely, when they’ve been a low scoring team most of the year. And under a lot of pressure from them we fell apart and reverted to poor ball use and ineffective forward 50 entries. It was classic Melbourne and it was not nice to watch because we all have MFCSS and any sign of failure just triggers a very strong “it’s all over here we go again” type of reaction. I think this loss will burn in the players. It will motivate them to come hard next week. It will also start to put selection pressure on a few blokes who have cruised through the season like Fritsch. That is not a bad thing. And another week where we get closer to figuring out our best forward set up. We know now it’s not Tmac, Weideman, Fritsch and Jackson. Flags are not won in May. Richmond lost to some pretty average teams when they won their premiership. This is not the end of the world. If we lose the next 2 games and go 9-3 then I’ll start to panic.

Indeed JCB. With around 4 minutes remaining, I actually turned to my partner and said, "We won't be getting any free kicks for the rest of the game." It was as predictable as it was disgusting (from a Melbourne point of view). Umps get swept up in the moment like any of us would, I suppose. Self-preservation kicks in, in high pressure moments. Hate the bloke but I don't recall David Howlett squibbing blowing the whistle in the '87 preliminary final, after the siren mind you, to give Buckenara that 15-metre penalty in front of a passionate and partisan Melb crowd. That's the sort of bravery and integrity required from umps in situations like last night (and in Geel v Bris, and Syd v Geel). For what it's worth, I was more livid with the missed Keays holding the ball decision. After more than 20 HTB decisions the week before v Carlton, I am totally confused by the rule and its wildly inconsistent interpretation.

We will get the apology for the "mistake". Problem is, I don't believe it it was a mistake. It was deliberate by the umpire who saw it. Not in a cheating way, but out of fear, in front of a ground full of fanatics, to pay a free that would lose them the game. This is a dangerous precedent and we have seen several this year. Not paying a blatant free to the away side that could give them the game has occurred too often this year to be just a coincidence. If this is not eradicated, we will have a very serious problem for the game. Umpires are supposed to be professional and impartial. This is a failure on both fronts. I repeat, this was not a mistake by the umpire, but rather a choice to not pay what he had seen. Even Nicks in the Crows box winced and swore when the handball happened. Btw, Pickett was pushed fair and square in the back a few seconds earlier, when he went for a mark about 40 out. There were 3 blatant frees not paid to the away side, in the last 2 minutes, deliberate, in the back and holding the ball. All would have changed the result. See the similarity. On another note fairly soft frees and 50"s were paid to the home side, resulting in 4 goals from the umps and loud cheering from the crowd. Popular umpires. Better feeling than being booed. It is simply not good enough in professional sport to allow umpiring to the crowd to continue. On another note, the Crows were the better side on the day and we should never have been in the position where a bad umpire call or two would affect the result. That is on us. Fumbling. Falling over. Long bombs to the forward line. About 2/3 of the side having their worst game of the year, together in the same game. As an example I don't think Hunt had one clean possession in his 7 meaningless possies. It was the disaster happening in front of our eyes, against a low side, with 5 losses in a row, who were as fanatical as the crowd. Meka no mistake they set themselves for this game and rested Tex in preparation. We on the other hand brought not our A or even B game, but our C game. In professional football games that is nearly always a loss. Time to regroup and take on the flag favourites in the next two weeks.

If we think the major problem is the umpires, then we are delusional.

Umpires - biased and gutless

I’m starting to think our best forward line is with TMac , Fritsch and Jackson/ Gawn with no Weed or Brown. Giving us more options to bring in running players such as Bedford, Chandler Lockhart or Baker. So for me it’s out Jetta, Melksham and Weed for Salem , Viney/Sparrow and Bedford or Baker

18.10.2 Free Kicks - Out of Bounds (pg54 of the 2021 Laws of Australian Football) A field Umpire shall award a Free Kick against a Player who: (b) Kicks, Handballs or forces the football over the Boundary Line and does not demonstrate sufficient intent to keep the football in play; Not only did Nick Murray look towards the boundary line as he handballed it directly out of bounds - he made no reasonable attempt to the keep the football in play according to the Laws of Australian Football. Whether the ball did or did not deflect from Spargo is irrelevant if the player (Murray) had no intent in keeping the ball in the field of play in the first place. An apology from the AFL would be something but it has no value as the four points are still lost. No matter how badly we underperformed we were clearly ‘robbed’ of an opportunity to draw or win the match from that non-decision.

Given I’ve had 24 hours to calm down… We are going ok. I’m very interested to see the next 2 weeks. We’ve put ourselves in a great position but need to work hard before the bye to give ourselves some confidence. Good teams have down days. I’d rather them in May than September. I really think as a supporter group we need to have some faith. The boys have done their job to date, and they deserve our continued support and encouragement.

Just back from the delights of Casey Fields. Entry took a while due to scanning and lots of Swans supporters needing to pay. Sat near the goals and watched Ben Brown closely for 3 quarters. Hardly ever got near the ball. Forward delivery was almost non existent. I took special notice of his positioning and leading and simply none of it came off. Noticed that he likes to break back to goal a lot. In the final quarter I thought that as Casey got on top the midfield could have done more to bring Brown into play but many just blazed away at goal. It just wasn't his day. TBH the Casey players were eassily the equal of their more fancied AFL bretheren. Finally.. they had run out of egg and bacon rolls PS they seem to have fixed the drainage problems that the ground had in 2019

I wouldn't be against Mitch Brown coming in.

The direction of the handball was heading straight to the line anyway. Regardless if he got a small deflection or not, his total intention was to get the ball over the line. The exact same thing happened to Lever and that got paid against him.

I can see next week getting very ugly against the dogs if we allow them to follow the same blueprint as Adelaide and North have now. We were a mess last night. Adelaide are rebuilding so of course we were always going to be in the game. We're a strong and mature side. But the dogs have grunt and class all over the ground and if we allow them to chip and handball around our zone as freely as Adelaide did, we are toast. Gawn needs a massive wakeup call. Four weeks now he hasn't asserted himself when needed and he's making some. Fairly crucial mistakes over the course of a game. Dropping marks, trying to mark when he should spoil, shocking taps and sub-par energy levels at the contest. He's our captain, he needs to lead more in key moments and step up the intensity and physicality. May's worst game by far, needs to respond. Fritsch a genuine liability if the ball isn't on a silver platter. He genuinely has no desire to chase, tackle or get involved off the ball. The dogs backline is no better than the crows and we were preety inefficient going inside 50 last night. We will get a big smacking if we don't take away the dogs strength and if we get smacked, we're pretending at this stage. We should know exactly what they'll do against us. We better be up for the fight.

No. This is a team that I want to play to win not eek out a draw. If you think that would have been the best play to create a goal opportunity then I agree.

You’re dead on Redleg. Why those in charge of the game continue to let it be a blight is baffling. Unfortunately, I believe it’s by far the worst aspect of our great game. As an indication that change is possible, we’ve seen an obvious and successful attempt to stop the ridiculous umpiring imbalance in Perth in the last few years. Last night was disgraceful, as was the Geelong v Brisbane ‘incorrect disposal’ shambles (Blicavs) and the Swans v Geelong ‘not 15’ madness (Cameron). All 3 games should have had different results.

Related question: Did our 'good guy' mentally cost us that free kick? Not enough of our players 'appealed' for the deliberate decision. ANB half heartedly put his hands up, no one else did anything. If a few of them had, even if ANB or Jacko had started to lineup like he was expecting the decision, it potentially could have tipped the balance in the umpires eyes. We were poor. Absolutely 0 pressure until after half time. A fair few blokes should be hanging their heads. Crows 100% deserved to win. Doesn't mean we can't talk about yet another decision/non-decision that has decided the outcome of a game though. Staggering we still have part timers officiating a billion dollar game.

Couldn’t agree more. The Lever OOB was an absolute joke Yes the Keays holding the ball was a huge miss. He tried to burst away , took 6 paces and gets caught by Petty. Incorrect disposal. I think Dunstall was actually laughing at how inconsistent the umps were. It just makes me angry.

I think the Club need to accept that Jetta and Melksham are finished and not play them any more. It’s better to give younger players a game.

We’re you there? Every time Jacko went in ball we looked like winning a clearance. He provided a lot of drive.

Our inability to bury teams is a huge concern.

Fritsch has to be in the gun again. What a dreadful, selfish game he played. Not only did he try the me me me kick at goal twice instead of passing to players essentially in the goalsquare, he failed to lay a single tackle. Every time he looked to get the cheap one out the back and jogged around when manic pressure on the ball carrier was required. Melksham will be out before him, mostly probably due to the injury. He started okay, but again failed to lay a tackle either. We can't carry two of this kind, let alone one. Especially when Melksham is/was part of the midfield rotation. The signs have been there the previous two weeks with our drop off in inside 50 tackles. We let the ball come out way too easily and as a result, we struggled to get our system going all day. Oliver was simply superb. One of his great games. Petracca is the flashy one, but Oliver has always been the better player IMV. I'd be surprised if Trac outpolls Clarry in the Brownlow this year. I felt the turning point in the match was Clarry bursting out of the stoppage off half back, handballing to Trac who spilled the ball and Adelaide eventually pinged it back for a score their way. If Christian had been clean and we'd scored a goal from that play, the game was ours. Christian kicked a game lifting goal and his first half out of centre stoppages was incredible, but after this, he often tried to do too much and was pinged at vital times. Our defensive group looked shaky from the outset. I thought May was terrible aside from one terrific contested mark at half back. Hunt equally dreadful. Poor positioning, lack of cleanness and inability to win contests. Lever did a lot of good, but was often shaky back there too. I'd say Jake was probably in our top 5 or 6 though, which IMO says a lot about the overall team performance. While as others have said, we missed Salem's coolness and ball use behind the footy. Nev is probably too slow to play anymore. I thought his pace was exposed one too many times. I wonder how far off Bowey is from a debut? We look a little short for good ball users when you take Salem out. However, I thought Petty was solid enough and was incredibly unlucky to have that free paid against him when he simply outbodied Fogarty. I do have a question about midfield accountability. Who was playing on Keays? It seemed that Harmes was trying to tag him early in the game and then he seemed to go head to head with Petracca. Keays killed us and like many Crows, got the ball out by hand or foot when he shouldn't have far too many times due to our poor tackling. Did we let our minds drift to the Bulldogs game next week? Maybe. But whatever it was, we were a bit off forward of the ball (that lack of tackling pressure and cohesion with the mids), and our defence constantly looked nervous. Like they didn't really trust each other. Our lack of tackling pressure at half forward and then their quick play on game through the corridor opened us up and again showed us what will happen to our system if we don't bring half forward tackling pressure. The forward structure was also a mess this week IMO. Weideman's tackling was a lot better, but we can't play Melksham and Fritsch in the same forwardline. Both play like millionaires. Particularly, Fritsch. Loves an easy one out the back, but isn't prepared to play a defensive role. Does my head in. McDonald couldn't seem to get into the game after the first half. We didn't really move the ball to the advantage of our forwards enough either. After this week, I'm even more confused about what our ideal forward set up is though. Weideman doesn't look particularly dangerous to me. Fritsch looks great on the downward slopes. I think I'd have Brown in my team next week. But if so, who comes out? I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater, but there were some worrying signs from our leaders after such promising signs this year in terms of leadership. I've already talked about May and Lever's shakiness, but after starting well, how many goals did Max give up? 2 at least from dropped uncontested marks and 1 at least from stoppage. If we want to get near the Bulldogs, we'll need to play better than we have all season. I can't it see it happening. So disappointing to drop this game against an ordinary but enthusiastic Adelaide side.

I've been open minded on Weed and I was there when he produced the goods against Hawthorn and Geelong in those two memorable finals. However, he's been in the system 5 (?) years and has played 40+ games but apart from some cameos cannot produce consistently. He does not clunk enough marks for a key forward and, IMO, is a poor reader of the play. Come September a big key forward can make the difference. BBB is a proven key forward. He has to be be given the opportunity to get to know our system and players. I would persevere with him and scrap Weed at this stage.

IN: B. Brown, Salem, Sparrow Out: Weid, Jetta, Melksham Bit harsh on Weid who had some ok moments but he doesn't clunk marks and doesn't find any easy ball. Brown is a Docklands specialist. Sparrow should've been picked over Melksham for weeks. We can't carry a taller forward line and a forward/midfielder like Melksham who doesn't tackle and doesn't crack in.

Watched some of the gane again..we played poorly but to lose with that last non decision was just a bad way for any team to go down. Every commentator called that deliberate. I have not seen any other act like that called otherwise. It was deliberate it so many ways. There was not a crows player there. Thirty seconds to go. A point in it. But the umpire could only assume it was an accident as he hit over the boundary. If that game was played without thousands of screaming crows fans would it have deemed deliberate. Of course. Because it was. It was a classic cass of how umpires get influenced by thousands of yelling supporters. We see it so often in interstate games. I dont mind the odd howler but this was black and white at a crucial time with a crucial score. In other words... One single UMPIRE determined the result. Now thats off my chest... Jake Melksham is not a player that belongs to a top eight side. Thats that. May sadly played his only bad game today. Tommy the same. Jordan too. Anb has played a few stinkers now and so has Hunt. And I guess Kozzie. Maybe their tired Even Langdon vanished in the second and third. Spargo needs to do more than tackle. Fritta was lost again. But Sam W was a big let down. Just a goal from him would have won it. I know hes played only two games and bb three but he really lacked passion...intensity..and physicality tonight when we really needed it. (as opposed to Walker) His lack of intensity has been a charge levelled at him for five years now. We saw glimpses of it in a finals campaign a few years back but it all seems so far away. I guess I believe that he should be drppoed for Bb. If bb and Tmac and Jackson do well and it means we lose Sam w to another club then despite the crticism, Im going to say: thanks for the memories. Perhaps we can get a good deal. Before someine says hes the future...the future is now and next year. This is our window. Im not saying hes a bad player. He certainly been a slow starter. Im just saying we cant play him to stop him leaving. And we cant play with poor efforts lije todays. Our backline was at its worst tonight. Always touted as keeping teams to low scores...it went belly up. We had very little clean exits and run. So missed Salem. Lever however was excellent but poor Jetta looks totally cooked. Aside from Lever, Oliver was splendid. Trac was strong and I thought Max and Harmes were as well. Gus played a ripper in the first and improved again in the last but like others was missing for two quarters. He just doesnt want to or is incapable of reaching levels of winning votes. Not sure if hes a finals player either. Which brings me to the question of depth. Aside from the team tonight, aside from Viney and Salem how many really good players do we have to put in if we have more injuries or form issues. I still think we are a great team but Im not sure we have a great depth of great players in our enrire line up. Maybe Sparrow. Tomlinsons done. Jones is just getting too old. Hore is out. So with Melksham a fringe player, Nibbler not far from one lately, the possibility of Hunt going back in his shell after two shockers and Vineys injury uncertainty, I do believe we are really going to need a lot of luck and have a great run of no injuries if we are to win a flag this year. Tonights game was always going to be tough. I mentuoned the game crowd thing prior but was told we always win there. Its different when your the hunted. We are tired and looked as much. Crows had lost five in a row with nothing to lose. But again it should have at least been a draw with that cowardly non decision on the deliberate. If not deliberate was the player just aiming for the ball to stop an inch inside the line? And if that was correct and not deliberate it must be true that EVERYsingle deliberate ruling this year (and there have been many) are incorrect. That if tonight was the correct call then we have never seen a deliberate out of bounds yet. Thats how clear cut it was. How does an umpire get it so wrong. I dont believe they are cheats or "deliberately" hurting us. I just dont get how they could just be so wrong. Is it the crowd. The stage of the game The closeness? Do umpires get nervous?. Im sure they do. Do they think best not to do anything when they are nervous? That would explain tonights non call. When introduced the deliberate rule was quite contentious The deliberate rule has been rigerously pursued since introduced and more so all year. Even tonight Spargo was pinged when he handballed in front of himself hoping maybe he could follow up and collect it. He was pinged for deliberate. It calls for umpires to mind read which is tough. In the non decision no mind reading was necessary. The ball was heavily punched a good distance as the player went to ground. No chance of him getting to it again and there was no crow player anywhere near the boundary line. It could not be more clear. But the umpire in nervously making no call read that the players mind was not punching it over the line on purpose. Must have been another reason. Love to know what the umpire thought his motives were. His fist accidently slipped into the ball and moved it fifteen meteres over the white line. I know its just one call but to break a winning streak on just plain old incompetence is very annoying. Sadly these poor decisions are happening all too often in interstate games with large obnxious crowds. Cant we at leaat suspend or stop some of these spineless nit wits from time to time? Is that too nuch to ask? I know its not easy umpiring close games with big crowds but cant they at least give them some ear plugs. (And a book on the rules while they are at it). Thanks for listening.

I gotta have a vent about Sparrow. With 8 minutes to go, we're sixteen points up and Melksham is off with a sore foot and his boot off. Why wouldn't you put a fresh player like Sparrow on? Goodwin was right there on the bench. At a bigger picture, everyone is lamenting Viney not being back. Sparrow has been the obvious replacement for him and I don't know why we're not putting games into him. He's been performing really well at VFL level and this week he just sat in his tracky dacks. We had the opportunity to play him for a couple of weeks and with Viney being a load managed 50/50 proposition, I don't know why we haven't played him. It's best to put games into him now in case Vineys foot explodes again on the eve of the finals. It would have been a good ten minutes to have him on the field tonight.

Couldn't agree more. All the chat about Gawn's dropped mark, or May's lack of body on Tex, or the other 200 mistakes made tonight and yet the single biggest issue for mine was that Fritsch decided not to be a team player tonight. The easy give was on and he chose the grubber which was picked off easily on the goal line. Pretty much all of the other errors were forgivable because they weren't deliberate actions. Fritsch's was and I thought that was even more disappointing than the umpires non decision. It flies in the face of team v individual.

Re Harsh on Weid, the guy has had 5 years for a few good and 1 great game! He needed to fire tonight and didn't!! Time to play and perservere with a guy who is a proven forward and Goal Kicker Ben Brown!! Melksham almost never again!