Adelaide v Collingwood

Here we go again - Adelaide's finals aspirations still hang by a thread, but they have a real chance to get ahead of their fellow aspirants with a win over the Pies on Sunday.

They are going in at almost full strength and in reasonable form. Collingwood are battling and have now lost Dane Swan for a month.

Discuss....

Bulldogs win yesterday would have been nice.

Love to beat Collingwood twice in a season. Can't see it happening, personally.

Collingwood but would be surprised if it's by much.

Adelaide will win.

Ultimately they will finish 8th I think, which could possibly set up a 2nd showdown final.

****.

Adelaide are at full strength and starting to play some very good footy.

They look strong in the midfield with some depth now that Crouch is back, and the forward line is becoming very hard to match up on now with any of 4 or 5 players able to hurt the opposition.

The weak spot really is the youngsters in the back line who still tend to poo their pants a bit when the pressure is on. This can be covered - but the midfield have to have the ascendancy in the clearances so that the kids don't come under sustained pressure for an extended period of time. If the ball gets locked into our defensive half for 5+ minutes the kids start to crumble.

All that said I think we'll account for the Pies this week.

as i mentioned earlier in the year Collingwood are over rated, if Adelaide can't beat Collingwood then they may as well give up on the year because they wouldn't be able to beat the powerhouse teams of the competition in Melbourne, Adelaide by 5 goals for mine

So anyway, there's a game on the weekend.  

I actually think Adelaide will win and win well this weekend.

I mentioned it above, but I just feel our midfield is much more dangerous now Crouch is back. For a young player he is so composed and uses the ball exceptionally well.

I also think that if our midfield gets on top (it helps that Swan & Ball are both outs for the Pies), then our forward line has a potential to monster Collingwood's inexperienced defence.

I'm with bayman, I reckon Adelaide will win by 5 goals.

Ball, Swan and Maxwell out for Collingwood.

Adelaide leave our Rutten and Porps for Thompson and McKay. Shows they are getting their best team on the park.

Jacobs to beat Grundy.

All points to an Adelaide win, a big Adelaide win. Got a feeling Collingwood will pull out all stops for the retiring premiership skipper.

I can't pick this one, truly can't. Adelaide look in far better form, Collingwood in front of their own with backs to the wall.

I've gone $10 @ $51 for the draw.

I think Toovey is an out for Collingwood also.

Thompson out for Adelaide. Grigg in I'd say. Makes things interesting in the middle tomorrow.

is there a late withdraw from the Adelaide side ?

i say this because in the tab market they've gone from $1.94 overnight to $2.05 just now as i looked, i still think they'll win by 5 goals

bayman wrote:is there a late withdraw from the Adelaide side ?

i say this because in the tab market they've gone from $1.94 overnight to $2.05 just now as i looked, i still think they'll win by 5 goals

Scott Thompson isn't playing

Thiele wrote:

bayman wrote:is there a late withdraw from the Adelaide side ?

i say this because in the tab market they've gone from $1.94 overnight to $2.05 just now as i looked, i still think they'll win by 5 goals

Scott Thompson isn't playing

we already knew that mate, that's why i asked if there was a ''late withdraw'', obviously there wasn't just a lot backed Collingwood & lost

Not the prettiest game, but super pumped about the way the boys dug deep in that last term and fought back after Collingwood hit the front.

Still plenty to work on, particularly in front of goals. Few turnovers too, but unlike the start of the year they are now coming from the guys trying to take the game on.

Will post more tomorrow.

That was indeed a good win. As I mentioned above, I didn't write Collingwood off at any stage with that backs against the wall type mentality and they very nearly took it from Adelaide.

It mirrored Adelaide's losses early in the year to Geelong and Port.

Like Adelaide in those games, Collingwood got 4 goals behind, fought back into the game but ultimately spent all their tickets just getting back to even Steven's and couldn't keep that sort of run and intensity going for the last 15 minutes.

Adelaide set for 6th,7th or 8th spot now with Gold Coast doing them a huge favor. Collingwood appear to be goners and Port will be looking forward to this Sunday now.

A Collingwood win yesterday would have impact greatly on both SA teams.

When Collingwood hit the front I thought “well we’re about to find out what Adelaide are really made of”, and thankfully they stormed home.

I think the thing I find most pleasing is that the approach has changed dramatically as the season has gone on.

They attacked yesterdays game ferociously from start to finish. Yes there were still turnovers, but they happened because they were trying to create, not because they were retreating into their shells as was the case in the first few weeks of the season.

The run, spread and carry off half back was exceptional yesterday too. The combination of Henderson, Mackay, Smith, Jaensch, off half back will be hard to stop. I think half forward is probably the area that just needs a bit more work now. Tommy Lynch needs to find some form so that when the blokes I just mentioned stream off half back they have a target. There was a couple of times yesterday where the fast break was on but stalled for lack of a target. I’m sure Lynch will come on, he’s a quality player.

2 players in particular are worth a mention:

Brodie Smith - how good is this kid? Apparently he has 20 odd possessions at 100% efficiency. His kicking in particular is superb. He is an absolute dead eye on the run from 50 too (I bloody love this – goals on the run from outside 50 are one of my favourite things in our great game).

Brodie Martin – the comeback story of the year at Adelaide. Burst onto the scene 4 years ago then promptly did his knee and has been a fringe player ever since. In fact only a month ago I was calling for him to be dropped in favour of Grigg or M Crouch. I am happy to admit I was wrong, very wrong. He attacks every contest like it could be his last, and his marking for a small bloke is top shelf. He’s a creator too, always looking to keep the footy moving. In the Brent Reilly mould …… except better.

Righto, I better stop posting now, I think I’ve run the dictionary dry of superlatives.   

Lots of fans getting ahead of themselves and talking finals but that hasn’t really even crossed my mind yet. I’m just happy that the boys are finally playing with some hardness and passion, and I’m more than content to just take in each game as it comes at the moment.

Actually - one more who deserves a mention - Daniel Talia, take a bow.

There were several occasions where he was one out with Cloke and the ball coming in hot and he got the job done. Not many defenders in the game can do that against a gorilla like Cloke.

I agree with that, GN.

One downside to me is the poor attack on the footy by McKay. I noticed him sidestep a contest more than once.

Yes R&B.I don't see Adelaide going deep into September with McKay, Brown, Wright and Otten in the side.

I'm an Otten fan, but no room for him and Henderson down back and Otten has no place up forward.

Luke Thompson has to maintain his current form with Hartigan copping a nasty injury on Saturday at Alberton or Adelaide will make the, seemingly, unlikely move of bringing Rutten back in.

Like Port, one ruckman in the side and none in reserve heaps plenty of responsibility on Jacobs who is in very good form.

Out of that list I think Wright in particular should make way for a bigger body in Grigg or Crouch.

I really think they need to find a way to get M Crouch back in before finals come around personally.

Rucks are always a worry - but Jenkins hasn't been too bad when swung into the middle and by all reports Graham has actually had a very good second half of the season with the SANFL team. Both not a patch on Jacobs obviously, but still.

Crouch was completely blanketed by Mitchell after half time on Saturday at Alberton.

I'd say his review today would not be one he want's to watch again. Mitchell wore him like a glove when Adelaide had it and ran off him with ease when Port had it. Crouch looked, and it may be isolated to Saturdays game,a little lazy after half time when Mitchell got on top of him.

Would have been a good lesson for the young lad. Strangely his skills were poor on Saturday, from what I've seen of him he's usually pretty silky in that department. He'd have learnt a bit about gut running on the weekend, Mitchell does that and pretty much that really well.

Hartigan looked an unwell boy when he came off.

Yea perhaps the selectors/coaches have it right and he's starting to run out of juice, it is his debut season after all.

I did catch a bit of the SANFL game on the TV and was a bit disappointed by the Crows. They had a pretty strong side on paper and should have put in a better showing than that, I expected the margin to be a lot closer.

Hartigan is in hospital with a broken ribs and internal bleeding apparently, nasty stuff.

That's pretty right, Booney. I think M Crouch still has a way to go and I watched the first half of Saturday's game and totally agree with your assessment. Even when Crouch does stat up, I'm not sure he hurts the opposition enough yet.

having said that, he'll be a very good player with more experience, but the expectations are a bit early right now.

I also agree about Otten, he looks a bit suspect, maybe better next year, given his interrupted season. Wright is just hanging in there, but needs to be a bit cleaner.

I like Brown. He shut his opponent down well yesterday, as far as I could see.

Dangerfield is a right footer, isn't he? I'm not sure now, he seems to be always on the left foot and not very successfully most times. Even allowing for that, he's a champion.

Glad they won, I was very worried when Collingwood hit the front in the last but the boys lifted a gear and finished strongly. If they had kicked straight the Crows should have won that easily.

WTF was Pods thinking with the "around the corner snap" from 25 out at a 45 degree angle. That was farcical and if we had lost by less them a goal then some serious question would have been asked. For an experienced player he hs some novice brain fades at times.

The defence, despite some panicky moments, held up well given the lack of experience. Otten isnt the 2nd big defender we need. There are 2 positions I think the Crows need to recruit, a back up ruckman and another big defender.

A lot of chatter around the place about dropping Tom Lynch.

IMO this bloke is the key to us perhaps getting further than a week into September. He is the man who can turn defence into attack.

With 5 games to go and 4 of them against bottom 8 sides you'd have rocks in your head if you dropped him. Keep him in and let him find some footy I say. Odds on he'll be up and about within a couple of weeks I reckon.

UncleHuey wrote:
WTF was Pods thinking with the "around the corner snap" from 25 out at a 45 degree angle. That was farcical and if we had lost by less them a goal then some serious question would have been asked. For an experienced player he hs some novice brain fades at times.

Yes a brain fade from Pods.

But twice yesterday he had shots on an angle close to goal.
And on both occasions the opposition were crowding way too close.
The Crows were savvy to it and had other players shepherding Collingwood players from running at Pods.

Basically, what the hell are the umpires thinking at the moment with this?
If it supposed to be a min 5 metres, then make it so.
They are not even close to 5 metres away at the moment.

As the commentators suggested they should ping a 50 or two to get some decorum back into this.
It is ridiculous at the moment as Dunstall commented several times.

If the goalkicker is savvy, he would shape up for a banana kick and then straighten up to kick.
He hasn't therefore, run off his line and if anyone tries to smother it, then it has to be a 50m penalty.