Realistic...

[Teflon]

I'll get howled for this but I left the Crows game less than impressed.

Yep I loved qtr 1 and qtr 4 but what on earth was that tripe in the middle?

Seriously, Im not interested in Crows......they are a bottom side by a long way......a side in qtr 2/3 we made look respectable.......Tippet/Dangerfield up fwd in that time period looked like they were gonna tear us a new one......

I know we miss our Captain (and Im refusing to believe we are a 1 man team......but wtching Kosi its hard...) but I kep thinking......how would we have gone in qtr 2 and 3 against Cats in a couple weeks at MCG....???? I reckon we'd have been smashed and thered be no coming back. THIS is a side IMHO we cant afford to lose by 10 goals to - IF we lost by a goal to the Cats without Roo........I can live with it.......as long as we had that pressure back......IF we get belted I reckon that opens up that gap with them that last year we well and truly bridged.

That pressure just aint there this year and it was THE stuff that brought us up to Cats levels - that absolute manic pressure we had last year when ALL sides feared us. How many times did the Crows run the ball from our fwd 50 last night the length of the field under virtually no pressure??? - would not have happened last year.

Sure Bock and co are great defenders - but we too have a great defence.....yet Tippet and Dangerfield can take strong contested grabs....while our tall fwd line was dysfunctional........I would not want to rely on Joey kicking 5 each week and dobbing rippas from the boundary against better sides....

I realise we've had big week media wise but we'd want to move on from that fast before we hit the better sides from Rds 12-16 or we'll be right back with the Dogs.

Need a 4 qtr effort. Need the pressure.

The good news - there were signs.....

[rexy]

Crows are a bottom 3 side, that were top 6 last year, have had a lot of injuries and are a very professional outfit.

Tippet is touted as the next big thing as far as forwards go, and if you have not got onto the kid dangerfield then I suggest you do, could win a brownlow one day, courageous, smart, skilled and a natural leader.

Try enjoying a good win over a good side with their tails up after a slow start.

Not perfect but nothing wrong with our effort IMO.

[Teflon]

Crows are a bottom 3 side, that were top 6 last year, have had a lot of injuries and are a very professional outfit.

Tippet is touted as the next big thing as far as forwards go, and if you have not got onto the kid dangerfield then I suggest you do, could win a brownlow one day, courageous, smart, skilled and a natural leader.

Try enjoying a good win over a good side with their tails up after a slow start.

Not perfect but nothing wrong with our effort IMO.

See I hate responses liek this.

Crows ARE a bottom side. THE END.

If you think playing 2 qtrs against a bottom side is gonna get the job done for a flag this year then wake up and smell the friggin roses - we dont need to flog everyone by 10 goals......but we dont need to drop away so badly against inferior opposition with ZERO pressure.

Ask yourself - even late last year when we were supposedly out of form - did our pressure drop away by as much as it has this year????

Im all for enjoying the wins - but Im interested in a much bigger prize...not consoling myself that we beat up on a side thats on the slide.....thats Collingwood thinking for mine.

[fingers]

It's a good question Teflon. My only consolation is that we put more together than we did last week so at least the trajectory is right. We will also get confidence from the 1st and last...and we know what a big deal that is. just ask Kosi.

[Teflon]

It's a good question Teflon. My only consolation is that we put more together than we did last week so at least the trajectory is right. We will also get confidence from the 1st and last...and we know what a big deal that is. just ask Kosi.

Agree fingers - I thought we showed signs.......I look for how difficult it is for sides trying to get the ball out of our fwd 50.....I can recall vividly last year Gary Ablett having absolutely no time while trying to run it out of our defence last year and getting pinged (dont see that a lot)......I KNEW we were the real deal when I saw that.....

Its definately a mental thing - I guess a timing thing also - the side needs to "click" into that all out manic pressure that opposition just cant cope with......I hope we really start to see more of it over 4 qtrs.

[kosifantutti23]

I don't think we'll play a bottom side in the finals.

How have we gone against Collingwood, Freo, Bulldogs?

[markp]

I think we should judge how we measure up against the cats by actually playing the cats.

We played the crows... we were patchy at times, and they were good at times, but we smashed them.

Maybe we could've won by 3 or 4 more, but Kosi is being carried at the moment, we are down a champion and a gun, we were coming off a trip, and we have several players trying to work back into form.... I'd give the performance about a 7.5/10 overall.

[Teflon]

I don't think we'll play a bottom side in the finals.

How have we gone against Collingwood, Freo, Bulldogs?

How'd we go against Blues, Bombers and Port (who will struggle to make the 8??)

Look Im not questioning the wins - we all know that.

Im interested in the effort and I dont think it was there for 4 qtrs and against a Geelong like that we'll get spanked IMHO

Im interested in what gets us back to the level we were at last year - with using Roo as the "cream on top" when he returns.

[Teflon]

I think we should judge how we measure up against the cats by actually playing the cats.

We played the crows... we were patchy at times, and they were good at times, but we smashed them.

Maybe we could've won by 3 or 4 more, but Kosi is being carried at the moment, we are down a champion and a gun, we were coming off a trip, and we have several players trying to work back into form.... I'd give the performance about a 7.5/10 overall.

Agree.

Do you think last nights effort would have got the job done against Geelong right now? and if not - what needs to change so we can compete with them? Thats what Im interested in getting to - its flag or bust for me.

[Milan Faletic]

I think we should judge how we measure up against the cats by actually playing the cats.

We played the crows... we were patchy at times, and they were good at times, but we smashed them.

Maybe we could've won by 3 or 4 more, but Kosi is being carried at the moment, we are down a champion and a gun, we were coming off a trip, and we have several players trying to work back into form.... I'd give the performance about a 7.5/10 overall.

Agree.

Do you think last nights effort would have got the job done against Geelong right now? and if not - what needs to change so we can compete with them? Thats what Im interested in getting to - its flag or bust for me.

On a positive note:
We can play a lot better and still won by nearly 50 points.

We lost Zac and the Crows got back in to the game when we were one short in defence-2nd quarter

Zac although not 100% steadied the backline in the 3rd quarter and we got our act together.

We had a totally disfunctional full forward who kicked no goals, and yet we kicked 19 goals.

We played in WA and came back to Melbourne on a 6 day break which is effectively 5 with the long flight from Perth.

The club dealt with publicity that the WB clearly couldn't deal with and still came away with a comfortable win.

We are 7 and 3, in the Top 4, with wins against Freo and Collingwood and we are not playing our best footy.

I'm sure the group knows that they have to improve to win a flag but last year we won 19 in a row. Geelong knew they had to lift to beat us on the important day and they did.

The Home and Away season is a way of positioning ourselves to win a flag. We are positioned well enough at the moment and are getting better and will get Gram and Roo back.

[Moods]

2nd quarter was woeful, not sure anyone would disagree. Seriously worried about our backline when the ball was in the air, cause I thought they looked liked marking it every time. 3rd quarter I thought we worked our way back on top nicely.

It's the 4 quarter defensive effort that's a little worrying, although 35 points in the west and 47 points at home against the crows I'll take with or w/o Roo.

Let's face it, since Roo has gone down we have beaten every team in the top 4 plaus the 5th placed team. We haven't beaten the cats b/c we haven't played them yet WE have dropped games against lower teams but I reckon at the start of the year if someone was to have told you that Roo would be missing from Rd 3 and at the half way mark of the year we would turn 8-3, most of us would have taken that.

Stanley needs to learn to present more. He is an amzing talent, it just needs to be harnessed. I would love more aggression from him too - I cringed when he ducked his head in that 1st marking contest and was rewarded with a free anyway. He needs to learn to really attack every contest. Kos needs to find some form obviously. Our midfield guns are all firing. OUr small fwds are going well. OUr backs worried me last night, but overall I have confidence in them. I would also love more of a contribution from our 18-22nd best players. The Eddys of this world need to be getting about 12-15 possessions instead of 5-7.

[Legendary]

We are what ... 10 games in?

So what we had an 8 goal win against the bottom 2 side playing only 2 decent quarters and we're at round 10?

It's all about 12 weeks time.

Keep building.

We're doing it nicely.

[Legendary]

Do you think last nights effort would have got the job done against Geelong right now?

Of course it wouldn't.

In 14 weeks time in a Preliminary Final with a much more complete gameplan, different scoring options and our captain back in form?

Of course it will.

[markp]

I think we should judge how we measure up against the cats by actually playing the cats.

We played the crows... we were patchy at times, and they were good at times, but we smashed them.

Maybe we could've won by 3 or 4 more, but Kosi is being carried at the moment, we are down a champion and a gun, we were coming off a trip, and we have several players trying to work back into form.... I'd give the performance about a 7.5/10 overall.

Agree.

Do you think last nights effort would have got the job done against Geelong right now? and if not - what needs to change so we can compete with them? Thats what Im interested in getting to - its flag or bust for me.

What I'm suggesting is that they are not robots, and if we were playing the cats, the preparation, build up effort would have been different.

I wont be too distressed if geelong beat us in a couple of weeks though, because I think that we are totally focusing on hitting our peak at the right end of the season this time round, even if that means a sacrifice in performance early... and I think effort and intensity is actually closer to something you can flick like a switch.

We know what these boys can do, and more importantly so do they!

[Goose is king]

I'm with Teflon. Those 2nd and 3rd quarters against 5 or 6 teams would see us out of the game. In particular against Geelong it would see us 10 goals down.

Hopefully all the boys will be on when we play Geelong. Just like Lenny is on every second of every game.

[Zed]

Fact - we are not in the same vein of form as ths time last year and we will be up and down a bit. I think we are better now then we were a few weeks back. Structure and balance was thrown out with Roo injury and made worse by trying to plug the gap with guys who normally play in the backline. Looks better now that backmen like Fisher and Gilbert are back where they belong. Obvioulsy Stanley is no Reiwoldt but he at least puts the balance and structure back to what works best.

Crows beat Brisbane last week and Brisbane beat Collingwood this week. Collingwood will be a top 4 side. Go figure.

More positives than negatives. Take the win. Dont overthink it.

[saintsRrising]

Need a 4 qtr effort. Need the pressure.

.....

Agree..it was our hallmark last year...and lack of it has been our hallmark this year.

[Bernard Shakey]

I agree with you Teflon. I thought we were better last week in the west.

Last night's performance was good from a percentage point of view, but it was really only one quarter.

The bookends are a major problem.

Midfield were great and it looks like the pressure will be really on them to score and defend for the rest of the year.

[terry smith rules]

24 hours later and suddenly not good enough.

Did Cats play 4 quarters against Melb... no I didn't think so. Good teams do enough to win. God knows it has happened enough to us over the years

If you actually look at the game you will see that yes the second quarter was dodgy.

But the third was fine, if we had kicked accuarately in the first ten minutes of the third we could have led by 4/5 goals. We had the momentum but no scoreboard pressure. So it was no surprise that we did smash them when we started to kick straight.

If you really want to be critical look at the second half of the first quarter, where we seemed to really relax.

[ThomasR]

The Crows' skills were appalling - missed a lot of easy targets. Hit them and we were staring down the barrel at 3 quarter time. Worst team in the comp right now

[degruch]

We were looking like the Harlem Globetrotters until that ridiculous non-goal decision, and we continued to make them look like witches hats in the last quarter. Take out some soft frees in the Crows forward 50 and we were never really threatened. Many more positives to take out of it than negatives, and a great build on last week.

I don't think Richmond will be the soda most people believe (as per the Crows), so looking forward to further improvement next week!

[linz]

We are a long way off the Cats ATM.

[rexy]

We are a long way off the Cats ATM.

3 weeks

[linz]

We are a long way off the Cats ATM.

3 weeks

2 years

[degruch]

We are a long way off the Cats ATM.

3 weeks

2 years

A few weeks without Scarlett and you might be changing your mind.