Pates

If it’s not in the Alice, and we can’t have it at the G (why not) I’d vote for GIANTS stadium. We played well there during the sydney part of hub life and it’s a truly neutral ground.

I agree the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Our 9-0 run was definitely built on everyone playing their roles whether they were stars or fringe players.

I’d like to see them still permit a very reduced amount of crowd, maybe select cheer squad only and plonk them at opposite ends. Allow 500 people from each team, space them out. I know it’s different worlds but they have been able to do it in other countries, it’s amazing how much of a different it makes just having some sort of crowd at the game.

If ever there was a (non health related) reason people need to get vaccinated this is it. Population gets vaccinated, it no longer becomes an issue how many cases get reported. Life goes on.

I get what you’re saying but there was that classic encounter where the Saints beat Geelong (with I think both team unbeaten at the time). Saints won the H&A but the cats won the game that mattered. If pound for pound we go with them, keep in mind this is on their home track as well, that will be something to take away. The only result that will be a disaster will be if they comfortably beat us without us giving a whimper.

I’d put the Saints in “ok wins” only because the score line totally flattered them. Should’ve been 50+ points. But I completely agree regarding momentum. We had it with 6min to go in the first quarter when we got out to a 3 goal lead, and 6min to go in the last quarter when we had just under the 3 goal lead that got pegged back. Both times we let them score quick cheap goals and let them back in. Credit to Adelaide for staying in it and not giving up but we could’ve (should’ve) been able to put them to the sword after Clarry’s goal.

I have wondered that. Nibbler was the only player to really go for it while everyone else just moved into position. I feel like it's the equivalent of LWB/Caught behind in cricket, if the appeal (and this includes crowd) isn't strong enough the umpires ignore it.

I think we're going to play frustratingly well but come up short, I say frustrating because we will look back and say if we'd put in the same performance vs Adelaide then we would have had zero problems.

That one I could understand as they gave the players a lot of latitude through the night. The deliberate was simply inconsistent with how they’d judged it (against us) the whole night.

Watch the umpires somehow give Tex the 3 votes and 2 to Clarry. He was a completely different level to anyone on Saturday, almost dragged us singlehandedly over the line.

Lol love this coming up after our first loss for the year (1 point with a few dodgy umpire calls costing us a chance to get something from the match). Is anyone going to bump the “Is Goodwin the right guy” thread as well? Just as someone creating a thread saying “Why we will win a grand final” after beating the tigers, this is still too premature. We have issues with the team, and so far our peak has been against the tigers, but I see those issues being resolved through dedication and hard work, as well as adjustments to our structure. Something I’d like to point out though is that all premiers from previous years reached their performance peak towards the end of the year. I’m hopeful that we will see our best footy being played from round 17-19 into finals. Like everyone i enjoyed the 9-0 ride, but now the players (and fans) get confronted with a new challenge, how do you back up from a loss?

I think it’s time for a rule adjustment on this, it can’t be deliberate if the opposition player is making no attempt to keep it him themselves. They cancel each other out because neither team has made an attempt to keep the ball in play. As for a please explain, I don’t see what it would achieve. I don’t like complaining, particularly when you’re up the top end of the ladder. Makes you seem entitled. They got it wrong, the entire competition knows it was incorrect. It’s not going to change the result or make us feel any better.

Left field (and not saying to do this) but Daw for Weid perhaps? Sam really disappointed me last night and while I’m not ready to cut him completely that was his opportunity to shine and he failed massively. I only mentioned Daw because he is something completely different to what we currently have. @Kit Walker totally agree, you can argue who deserved to win/lose but we were dudded out of the opportunity to get something from the game. I’m expecting 2 changes, 3 maximum. Salem if fit will come in for Jetta and it’s time the club started making preparations to have someone above him. Nev’s been a warrior for us but he just doesn’t cut it anymore. People keep saying Viney, I thought he’d been ruled out for a couple more weeks. Fritta won’t get dropped but boy he needs to be given a massive rocket up his bum. He looks way too casual at times and he actually stuffs up our zoning system with his lazy efforts. BBB playing poor May have saved Weid, but then again we actually looked more dangerous earlier in the year with the 2 tall (TMac, Jacko)/2 mid (Fritta, Melk)/2 small set up (Kozzie/Spargo/ANB). I’m wondering whether we return to that.

When the rocks for brains umpire didn’t pay the deliberate I was actually thinking exactly this, for us a draw actually could’ve been massive ie the difference between top 4 and missing out. I get that the mindset should be go forward the win but I think Max can be a little stuck in his ways, smart thing to do would’ve been to thump it towards goal into space. Instruct the players that’s where it’s going and if they get the chance take it but otherwise force it through. I said it in the post match thread, a draw would’ve been a very fair result for both teams.

I hope every Melbourne listed player was watching the Adelaide game licking their lips. Put in a good performance and a call up could be on. BBB in particular should really put his hand up for selection now.

It’s a massive cliche but you learn more from losing, I think our wins have been solid but it’s covered a couple of cracks in our games. We are yet to get off to a dominant start in any of our first 10 games. We have consistently allowed teams to stay in the contest, Adelaide was finally the team to take advantage of this. We aren’t clinical either with opportunities on goal We have been beaten regularly in the middle with centre clearances, we have relied on our defence standing tall. Adelaide put enough pressure on to stop this. We rely heavily on forward pressure players putting in even if they don’t kick goals. Pickett, Spargo, and ANB were all off and aside from little cameo spots they did very little. In fact Pickett missed the chance to kick after the siren to win it for us by dropping an uncontested mark. We failed a test with tonight’s game but the good news is that we now have the chance to learn from it, and the boys should be fuming they’ve dropped that game.

I haven’t watched the full 2min, but I had to rewatch the last clearance and deliberate. We all love Kozzie but you can’t drop that mark from the clearance. Uncontested I think he wilted under the pressure. As for the deliberate; nothing clearer. After paying so many soft ones (and Spargo’s earlier in the night) that had to be given. I’m annoyed but I enjoyed the ride we had, now we see how this team responds to losses.

This might sound silly but I think a draw would’ve been the exact right result. I think it was even Steven the entire night with us pulling away slightly and then them hanging in there. Unless Nibbler gets the chance to play on (which I doubt) I think it would’ve been a behind, which would’ve been fair. I actually would’ve loved a player to thump it towards goal to squeeze a draw out.

Oliver - simply the best

I think he would be the first to admit he had an off night, he did some very uncharacteristic mistakes.

6 Oliver Daylight 5 Petracca 4 Langdon 3 Lever 2 Harmes 1 Max I gotta say that from 5-1 they just more did good things but were still sloppy. Max did enough but cost us goals with dropped marks, bad taps, and being painfully slow at the end. Oliver should get the 10 coaches votes tonight.

I really hope Salem is ok for next week, we looked really lost without him and sadly (because he has been a warrior for us) Jetta is past it. Weid barely got a look at it tonight, poor delivery at times but we looked like we regressed to kicking long in hope. My instincts are to bring in Brown but I worry about the dogs pace out of defence and Brown is painfully slow. Sadly Weid gave us nothing tonight. If Brown plays well for Casey: In Salem, Brown Out Jetta, Weid

I see that the hard comments are coming from the usual posters. Let’s just take a breath, we are still 9-1 and in some ways yes this was a loss we needed to have. Despite us being top of the ladder I’ve never really felt we were the best. We’ve had very good wins vs the Tigers and Cats, as well as solid wins against the Saints and Swans. But I’ve also felt we’ve just been doing enough, we haven’t once taken the game away from a team until early-midway through the final quarter. That is a ruthlessness that a true top team has. Twice tonight we broke the game open to a 3 goal lead but failed to land the killer blow. If we’re talking about lessons learned (or learnings) that’s something to take away from not only tonight but all season. We do have good fitness but the crows players had enthusiasm and determination, they forced it out of themselves. We had passengers tonight who will have to take a long hard look at themselves. A loss this week sucks, but what if we’d fallen over the line and continued to think things are hunky dory going into a tough couple of weeks? Take the loss, learn from it. That’s what the best teams do.

Firstly, tip of the cap to the crows. I think there’s going to be a lot spoken about how we lost, but they won through commitment and daring. These are stirring wins for young teams and they should be very proud of it. They deserved it, across the board they played better than us. Onto us though: Oliver is a star and almost single-handedly dragged us over. When he kicked his goal I thought we were going to run over them. He was immense. The team was shocking though, deer in headlights for most of the night. Our brilliant defence was a failure tonight. Our forward system didn’t function at all, we had chances to win it but Fritta, Spargo, ANB, Kozzie (despite some cameos), Weid, and TMac were well off. Kozzie had an uncontested mark opportunity in the final minute but dropped it. Our captain Max made critical errors that cost us goals, none more so than doing his best slow motion impression at the end. Adelaide brought the heat, I felt like this was a danger game because it was our first true enemy territory game. The crowd built in confident which brought the best from the Adelaide players. I can’t finish this without mentioning the umpires though. And this is a general comment for the entire competition. Let’s look at the decisions they’ve made when the heat is on in matches and the decisions are critical: - Cats v Lions at KP: clear HTB but called play on - Swans vs Cats at SCG: clearly more than 15m kick but called play on - now Crows v Dees in Adelaide: clear deliberate out of bounds, but called play on The umpires are wilting under home ground pressure and failing in their jobs. They didn’t cost us the match, but they cost us the opportunity at levelling/winning the match.

CHEATING UMPIRES THAT WAS DELIBERATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!