To the top wrote:Rogerfox, look at the responsibilies he assumed.
And the response to any side "flooding" - because this tactic always saw us thumped.
Compare the game at Docklands against Adelaide in 2006 with the same game at the same venue in 2007.
Look up the media reports from that game in 2006 and compare.
I don't know that anybody would seriously believe that the Crows team we beat this year was on a par with that we met at the Dome in 2005 and 2006.
Anyway, during 2007 we totally failed to combat major floods on at least 3 memorable occasions: the first game against the Hawks, the second game against the Swans and - worst of all - the draw against the Bulldogs.
If you count the losses at the TD against Adelaide in 2006 and 2005 (and I think they had more to do with the quality of the Crows attack than in our inability to breach their defence), I reckon that we only lost 5 games in the whole of the 2004-06 period to teams that flooded: the Swans in Round 11 in 2004, the Swans in the PF in 2005 and Geelong in Harves's milestone game in 2006 (when GT was undoubtedly totally outcoached by Bomber Thompson: dont' get me wrong, I don't think that GT was a great coach).
The Saints - when we aren't playing chippalotto and flooding ourselves - are a devastatingly dangerous attacking side. Opposing coaches will often try to counteract that by flooding: sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't. I can't see, on the evidence to date, that Lyon has a foolproof system for countering the flood any more than GT did.
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift
sluuuurrrppp.....