praha

Tyson has officially entered spud territory.

Intensity has dropped. Jones Lewis have done NOTHING. Crows running to position and space has embarrassed us. What's our excuse for not having options? Is Hogan and Gawn not playing the reason why Crows have so much space around stoppages? We are so much better than this.

That was pathetic, loser football. No respect for the opposition, slow, no urgency.

I can't believe that was a push in the back....

Should have had a goal there.

This coverage is pathetic. They stick the camera on Adelaide players and replays and we miss pivotal game play.

How many times are the Crows going to get tackled and drop it?

Pathetic call.

Ruckman taps to a Melbourne players, we handball it to a player with his back to our goal, turns it over, adelaide go forward, goal.

How do you not reward that tackle

These commentators are so condescending.

Delusion.

Lol

Most of our unforced errors leading to goals come from up the ground.

I'd like to think we're always a chance on "Any Given Sunday" but we need so much to go right for us. Every game this year, something has gone wrong or hasn't worked out. We need to be maniacs and absolutely bully Adelaide to get close.

Write a nice letter to Goodwin.

Major indictment on those clubs imo. They've played in Grand Finals, Prelims, finals, and we've been crap for a decade.

We're going to see a completely different Trengove. He's had to change his game.

It's a nice article but it reads like selective counting to me. The stats can be deceiving because there are so many variables in aussie rules. We see every season that teams with "elite" performance in certain stats aren't very good teams. The two best gauges of performance are win-loss record, and percentage. If the two are similarly high -- high percentage, high ratio of wins to losses -- then the team is playing well. At the moment we are 3-4 with a percentage over 100%. That makes us a slightly better team than "just" average. Looking at stats and saying, "they should be higher up the ladder with more wins" just suggests that the stats are flawed, because the team *isn't* higher up the ladder with more wins. Stats don't factor in psychological performance and well being, or the cohesion (or lack thereof) of a group of players. So a team can be elite in 1 or 2 quarters for a match, which will boost their stats, but be well, well below the league average in other areas. That's a bad team. No two ways about it. At the moment the stats show we are very good in some areas, but the gap between wins and losses is rather significant. To see us be "elite" in some areas during wins but then below average in the same areas in losses actually points to a very fickle, inconsistent, poor *team*. Sometimes individual performances all connect together perfectly, but most of the time selfish and lazy football costs you. I just don't see how this article is positive. If anything it highlights some very glaring issues that continue to persist with this team. Sorry to burst the author's bubble. If the stats do tell us anything, it's that our backline is actually quite good, just slightly above average. I think people really turn a blind eye to how well gelled out backline can be. Some of the upfield turnovers are far more infuriating, and most of Hawthorn's first half goals on the weekend actually came from issues further up the ground. Opposition transition and an inability to transition *out of* defense puts even more pressure on the backs, which causes errors. Defenders are never going to directly cost goals unless they directly turn it over to the opposition, which the backline rarely does. The McDonald's are actually very composed with the ball in hand. OMac was one of our best on the weekend, but people chuck a stink when he punches air, or his player kicks a goal. I call these people "lowest common denominator" supporters. Most of the team's turnovers come in the middle of the ground. Our backline isn't the one bleeding goals.

intensity, "coming to play", and skill errors are one in the same. If you bring intensity and come to play, you limit skill errors. Goodwin mentioned this in his press conference. They're all mutually exclusive.

Just watched the highlights. Do you know what pisses me off the most about this game? Hawthorn has bullied us for a decade. They were down on form, last on the ladder, and were a man down for most of the match. And they absolutely smashed us. We made what I like to call the "loser comeback" (come back from a huge deficit but lose the match), but beyond that, they pushed us around AGAIN, and without even trying that hard. It's one thing to lose. That first half was just....urghhhhh. It's more than just "not having the cattle" these days. We're still stuck in the 2010s were we *expect* that good will happen. You need to make a stand and turn a corner, otherwise you're just making up the numbers. Ox is an idiot and showpony who by releasing that letter, has trivialised the entire issue. The Hawks had Brereton go into the lockers in 2004 and rev up the team to make a stand. The club changed that day and went on to play a spectacular decade. Because we've been a loser club for so long, it's so hard for someone to go in and actually convince people the jumper means something. Last Sunday really epitomised the Melbourne Football Club. I know that sounds hyperbolic but look into your heart. You know it to be true. It's really not even worth spending the energy to predict how they'll perform.

I actually think we match up well with Adelaide, despite what a lot of people think. We've performed well each of the past 3-4 times we've played them. They've certainly improved but so have we. If we go down by more than 3-4 goals I'll be surprised and very disappointed.

Ox is an idiot for sharing this.

Will guide us to victory on Saturday.

I am actually more confident against Adelaide than I was against Hawthorn, Freo, Essendon or Carlton. They might be going into the game with "everything to lose" but the bar of expectation is low. They go into Adelaide with little fanfare and have an opportunity to win football's toughest assignment. We can't beat weaker teams on the MCG, so they've failed that test. This is a finals matchup, albeit an early one. Let's see what they've got before completely writing them off.