Pates

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May been killed tonight.

Got out to 3 goals and stopped again.

Oliver is a bonafide star. What a goal.

Big goal Langdon!

Jordon has been awful tonight.

Adelaide have been better than us tonight.

Crows aren’t going away.

Oliver and Petracca, what the hell was that?

Yep I don’t know what the hell Fritta was thinking.

Spargypants! Great work Oliver.

Well we’re being put under the pump, now we see what the players are made of.

Oliver big goal, he’s been easily our best this quarter.

It’s a push, poor from Lever there.

Is TMac out there? I swear I haven’t seen him in this quarter.

Well that’s what Kozzie can do.

Pickett having a dirty night. We miss Salem so much.

Bloody hell we needed that. We are really sloppy right now.

I was wondering that, since when are you allowed to deliberately trip someone up even if it’s your free kick?

**** off umpire. Crows tails are up.

That was a big goal from Harmes at the end, just steadies the ship a bit. But the crows are up for the fight tonight, we’ve got to bring it in the second half. The umpiring legitimately is disgusting though, how they could possibly give deliberate out of bounds against Spargo in our forward pocket is beyond me and that’s only the tip of it. Disgraceful. I wouldn’t really say anyone is playing well, Langdon was big in the first quarter but seemed to be curtailed a bit in the second. Fritta came into it in the second quarter but should’ve had more from his chances. Our midfield, much talked up for their contested work, is STILL getting beaten in clearances. Viney is so important to our make up in there. Brayshaw has been solid, plugging holes and seems to be using it fairly well but we’re doing a lot of hack kicks out of defence. Neither Lever, May, or Petty look like they’re playing well. Legitimately worried, 3rd quarter is big.

HOW THE [censored] IS THAT DELIBERATE, THESE UMPIRES ARE IDIOTS!!!!

Fritta let them out then.