R2 - SHOWDOWN!!!

sapaul wrote:Port by 58

Close.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:

Booney wrote:

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:What would have happened if the Stones concert went ahead and the staging and ground structures damaged the lawn surface and it could not be repaired in time?

Well the staging that was constructed did damage the lawn and was able to be repaired.

But the possibility of much more extensive damage with the full set-up was a very real one.

I think the sanfl have dodged a bullet.

I agree, the SMA might have bitten off more than they could chew with the Stones concert so close to the opening match.

The surface is like carpet and the forecast is for 28 degrees.
If 30 goals minimum aren't scored there is something wrong.

Geez they held me to it! Port 19 Goals Crows 11.

Port excellent intense first quarter
Crows lifted for 1.5 quarters. Port a bit ambivalent, not chasing as hard.
Port last 1.5 quarters much more intense and harder running. Crows looked ambivalent.

Dangerfield - no impact
Best for Crows - Sloan by the 167m length of the oval.
I thought Ebert worked hardest for Port and had most impact.
Wingard is a freak. Hartlett was good but I would have given the medal to Ebert.

Impey will be better for the run on Betts.
1st quarter to Impey
2nd and half the 3rd to Betts.
Impey will now know you have to concentrate for 120 minutes of a footy game.

Westhoff is an enigma. He looks slow, lethargic and disinterested by his body language, but is just so effective at both ends. Who knew?

I love the way Schulz plays. No regard for himself (which has caused him some injury grief over the years), but he is 100% committed to the team.

Best on ground: The ground - looked bloody magnificent if I do say so myself.

10pm. Fox Footy can stop talking about the game anytime they like   

Shocking. Only 2 games in and hopes of finals slipping away already IMO. I have to admit, sapaul perhaps your prediction was on the money.

Crouch out for 6 weeks with a broken leg too just to top things off. Can't take a trick.

Hadn't heard about Crouch.
Rutten and Porplyzia are close to the end.

Rutten look a liability towards the end of last season, Porps is capable of turning a game, but not the way the game is played now, he hasn't the agility when the game is played in pack form.

Horribly disappointing for the crows yesterday. Their skills were ordinary. JPod, who I know was only a stop gap solution isn't doing anything, thank goodness they got Betts because he is giving a great target for them. Too many basic skill errors are just killing us at the moment, and where superior fitness used to get us back into games late we seem to be just falling away.

I don't think I've ever seen Adelaide so fumbly and their turnovers were straight out of comedy capers.

Why would Patty D try and short pass when he's 40 out from goal?

It all comes down to Adelaide's disposal at the moment. Chalk up at least a dozen goals a week to the opposition from turnovers the way they are playing right now.

good to see the Crows state league team is helping them win games at AFL level, oh hang on !!!!

bayman wrote:good to see the Crows state league team is helping them win games at AFL level, oh hang on !!!!

If you wanna troll, maybe time to go back to safooty.

sapaul wrote:

bayman wrote:good to see the Crows state league team is helping them win games at AFL level, oh hang on !!!!

If you wanna troll, maybe time to go back to safooty.

not trolling at all, just making a point, must've been a good point as it hit a nerve immediately

bayman wrote:

sapaul wrote:

bayman wrote:good to see the Crows state league team is helping them win games at AFL level, oh hang on !!!!

If you wanna troll, maybe time to go back to safooty.

not trolling at all, just making a point, must've been a good point as it hit a nerve immediately

Not really Bayman, it touches a nerve with us because our footy club is giving us enough to worry about. Having a seconds team does not change the list of players we have to choose from at selection time and given they've only been in existence for a very short time I don't see how you imagine that we would be seeing immediate results from having the players training together. It doesn't seem to have hindered Port so perhaps it's just that the Crows aren't quite up to it at this stage.

Plus this is the AFL board for AFL discussion. You added nothing re discussion about yesterday's game which you probably didn't even watch. So it was trolling.

Just wondering Bayman, are you going to cut and paste that comment every time Adelaide loses?

Sapaul is right on the money, if you don't have anything to add to the discussion then do us all a favour and stay in your little SANFL corner.

A little sensitive aren't we? Fair enough its too soon to know what sort of difference the reserves change might make, but at some stage in the near future it's going to be a reasonable question. Might have been easier to reply with something like "its too soon to tell" than throw the toys out of the cot?

Maybe if bayman had mentioned the game and then said what he did....

It's just as reasonable to suggest it's already helping Port, but I don't see anyone raising that point.

Gingernuts wrote:It's just as reasonable to suggest it's already helping Port, but I don't see anyone raising that point.

slightly different i think.....


as for the game i watched the majority of it, i thought the crows were going to have a bad day early on when Podsiadly wasn't paid a mark that should've been paid & then the same player didn't think through his chance when he snapped from the point post, the skill level & intensity was chalk 'n' cheese as the game wore on especially well after half time, the crows were dominating the general play & worked their way to the lead, they had a chance to go more than a goal up & one wonders had they achieved this whether the mindset of both teams may've been different, however Port went down got the lead back & raced away

Gingernuts wrote:It's just as reasonable to suggest it's already helping Port, but I don't see anyone raising that point.

And this would be the topic for it then wouldn't it?

Port showed our run from the back half has plenty of damaging options. Hartlett, Polec, Boak and Ebert ( who was once questionable with disposal ) are all very damaging by foot. Give Port a break or turnover and you will get burnt really quickly.

Schulz, Westhoff, Wingard ( is there a more exciting prospect in the AFL at the moment? ) Gray, Monfries and even Butcher ( who I think plays the role he is asked ) offer a very challenging match up for any opponent, even more so if you just hand us the ball in the midfield. That group will score quickly and heavily. Throw in Boak, Ebert, Wines, White, Polec, Harlett, Cornes and Cassisi who all hit the scoreboard at times. Very potent attacking options.

Adelaide's skills and forward half execution was appalling. Podsialy is a liability once the ball is at ground level or being run out of defence, I maintain my stance of him being a flat track bully, McKernan, did he even play? He had 4 disposals at 38% efficiency in just over 3/4 of football. Josh Jenkins must be scratching his head....( I assume he is fit and ready to play ). If Jenkins isn't fit I suggest sending out the 19th Man, they hardly had anything to do on Saturday they won't be sore at all. "Will the 19th man please shut up, please shut up"

Adelaide Oval looked an absolute treat. My seats are about 8m from both food outlets and a bar in the City View Room of the Riverbank Stand. Excellent spot.

And yes bayman, those sour SANFL grapes must be starting to get a little dry. Time to spit them out or comment elsewhere.

Well,

Finally get some time to actually post about the game.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually see it as I was supporting my old man in his Bowls GF Saturday arvo – I did record it but fair to say I won’t be watching it back!

If you haven’t already realised, I’m finding that this one is burning deep. I said earlier last week that this was the biggest Showdown since the first, well now I can say that it certainly hurts as much as that one too.

It’s not the losing that bothers me. It’s the manner in which we lost. Barely a whimper.

It’s also what this result means for the season. 2 games in and we’ve lost both by a combined margin of nearly a hundred points. We haven’t just lost, we’ve been way off the pace.

Personally as a member my faith in the Club is really starting to be tested. This is my 5th season forking out for a Silver Membership and so far they’ve made the finals once in that time, and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. Despite this it’s not actually the on-field performances that are testing my faith. I think Brenton Sanderson is the right coach to take us forward, and I think our list is brimming with potential and only needs a few more games of experience under the belt and some better luck with avoiding injury to realise it.

It’s the off-field stuff that I’m tired of. The Club culture is on the nose IMO, for several reasons:

- At some point over the last few years the Adelaide Football Club has become so focused on the business of a strong and successful operation that it has forgotten that it is a Football Club first and foremost. The sheer volume of material that comes out of the Club flogging ‘match day experiences’, super-dooper corporate packages, merchandise, every type of membership under the sun – it all points to one priority, and that’s the bottom line. What happened it winning premierships? This worship of the almighty dollar leads me to my next point….

- The top end of the Club has become supremely elitist, and they are treating the average grassroots supporters like idiots. They take our cash and then think we’ll be entertained by stupid side shows like fireworks, blow up Crow things, raising a bloody flag that means nothing. Meanwhile they sit in their palatial boxes quaffing and chortling at all those battery hens down in the bleachers laying their golden eggs. So how do you even get elected to the board anyway? Well buggered if I know. Hell, as a Silver member and after forking out over $800 for 2 tickets this year I don’t even get a vote, let alone the right to stand. From what I have seen, to truly participate in the Club would require an investment of thousands of dollars every season in memberships, attending functions etc.

- The Club has become completely and utterly complacent. The Adelaide Football Club has dominated the football environment in SA since it came into existence. Jagging a couple of flags early on certainly helped the situation, and ever since the AFC has been one powerhouses of the competition, off field anyway. Port Adelaide has been a rabble for the last few years too, helping the issue. Well, newsflash people, while Adelaide have been sitting on their hands Port Adelaide have got their **** together now and guess what? They are a bees whisker away from owning this town. Actually, after Saturday I would say they now do.

Perhaps this is still the emotion of a Showdown loss talking, but at the moment I am absolutely concerned about what my Club has become. Complacent, Elitist, Soft, Soulless, and now firmly second place in SA.

I think Adelaide are badly missing a young, well chosen top 10 pick or two to at least provide the hope of better things to come. Dangerfield and Sloane are too shelf, and Tahlia and Smith rate highly, but there's not a lot outside of that, and certainly doesn't appear to be any potential match winning kids coming through. They have some good fringe players, but fringe players are up and down, and the Crows have a lot of them. Porplyzia was once a very damaging player but the fact he is still getting a game is very damning, same can be said for McKernan.
By contrast Port have a wealth of exciting players with 5-10 years of their career still ahead of them, with Wines (who I thought was best on Saturday), Wingard, Hartlett, Polec, Boak, Ebert, Etc. And they are all midfield capable.
The Crows have never allowed themselves to bottom out, and it's an interesting argument as to whether that's helped them onfield. They should be behind the Power for at least 2 years yet and possibly much longer.

I agree Scruch, which is where the Tippett saga really hurts with its loss of draft picks. Add to that the loss of Tippett, Gunston and Davis to interstate teams, all of whom would be top 10 players, and you can see why the Crows are struggling.
If your list isn't deep you need a good run with injuries which is another thing the Crows aren't experiencing.
Port has gone past them both on and off the field.
I think they will have a few more years of mid-table mediocrity to endure.

I think Adelaide, from the top, need to lose the arrogance they've developed and look at how well the Power have done things over the last two years. Even if they don't want to publicly voice it, it's something they should seriously be considering internally. I agree completely with the points Gingernuts has made about this. The loss of those players you have mentioned hasn't helped Huey (although it did help land elder Crouch), but I would argue the loss of Matthew Rendall is equally if not more important. Meanwhile the Power have made every post a winner and have to be admired, because they needed a %1000 improvement by the time they got to Adelaide Oval, and they did it! Their membership has gone through the roof, finances improved and about to improve further, their list has been turned on its head in a short space of time, and they are playing among the most attractive and lethal football in the competition. Thomas, Koch, Hinkley, Burgess are perhaps the most notable off-field additions in this time and each of them has made a remarkable contribution to the club in such a short space of time.