Round 3 Adelaide vs Sydney, North Melbourne vs Port Adelaide

Discuss   

Could be several changes for Adelaide.

Jenkins is bound to replace McKernan.
M.Crouch for B.Crouch
A little birdy tells me Ellis-Yolmen will make his debut.

Other possible outs - Porplyzia, Podsiadly (unlikely though) and Brown. Johnston (who knows?)?

Wright and Kerridge had average games but were good the week before so should be safe.

Tippett still not back.

Interesting two games this weekend.

Adelaide in as close to a "must win" as it gets, while Port looking to cement a spot up near the top half of the ladder against a highly fancied ( in 2014 predictions ) opponent.

I'll go into the Port game in more detail throughout the week, but ;

Brent Harvey and Drew Petrie always play well against Port.

Kangaroos play more contested "inside" footy, where Port like space and throwing the ball around.

Port's on ball brigade is in excellent form.

Pity Tippett isn't back. I've been practising my booing for 2 years now, getting quite good at it.   

Jenkins a definite for McKernan - and McKernan is officially done IMO.

The Crouch swap will happen for sure too.

Ellis-Yolmen deserves a crack I reckon, probably at the expense of Porplyzia (unfortunately).

Brown & Johnston should stay I think.

Have no idea what to expect in this game. Both teams in poor form, Adelaide worse though.

I'll be tipping Sydney and then heading down for my first AO experience hoping for a dramatic form reversal from Adelaide. Not optimistic though.

Sydney & Port to win

bayman wrote:Sydney & Port to win

For me too, although for some reason Im worried this is a danger game for Port

Scrunch wrote:

bayman wrote:Sydney & Port to win

For me too, although for some reason Im worried this is a danger game for Port

8 from 28 against the roos is a damning stat. Fast start, pressure on the ball carrier and win the contested possession and tackle count, and the roos are vulnerable.

Sydney too good for the crows and port over north are my picks.

Yes valleys, is is damning.....but I think we should win this one.

Sydney has had their pressure on the ball carrier questioned this week, they will respond. Adelaide have turned the ball over under pressure, they need to respond. Will be an interesting contest indeed.

Adelaide just needs to find some clean pairs of hands! What was the stat around Port goals from turn overs last week? 18 goals or something?

Beating Adelaide is far too simple at the moment - just pile on the pressure and then feast on the silver platters that will inevitably be dished out.

Outs - B.Crouch and McKernan (inj), Porplyzia, Johnston and Shaw (dropped)
Ins - M.Crouch, Laird, Hartigan, Petrenko, Jenkins

Laird, Jenkins are handy ins.

Petrenko also handy, but he'll want to show some improvement on last year.

Hartigan - the beginning of the end for Rutten?

M Crouch - looking forward to seeing what this kid can do!

I'm actually reasonably upbeat about tomorrow's game. Some good changes that I think give the side a bit more balance.

I think there might be a fair 'home ground' factor to this new Oval too, judging by the comments of the players and coaches after last weeks game regarding noise and atmosphere. Something that was lacking at footy park.

Not without a chance IMO.

Well, we got smacked!

Sydney were excellent yesterday, and ubfortunately for us so was Buddy. He is one of those players that just seems to be able to find time and space where there is none. The was a couple of times yesterday it was like he was in slow motion while bodies were diving and crashing around him. Beautiful and painful to watch all at the same time!

As for Adelaide - well, it's not the fact that we've lost the first 3 that bothers me, they were always going to be tough. It's the fact that we're basically 10 goals off the pace of potential finalists that leaves me gob smacked.

I'm glad I'm not Sanderson, because I wouldn't know where to start at the review this morning.

The saving grace was Adelaide Oval. Superb place to watch footy, the buzz in and around the ground was fantastic. The Club used the facilities, video screens etc. to get the atmosphere going really well too. Call me crazy but I loved the swooping crow on the big screens after each Adelaide goal, takes me back to the Panther roar days. Haha.

Anyway the prospect of a long year in the outer is a bit less daunting now it won't be at that cold hole in West Lakes. Mind you I've managed to cop a family of stereotypical peanut Adelaide fans behind me in the seat reallocation that may inspire me to an act of extreme violence before the season is out!

People are calling it fitness or whatever, but they just looked like they were not prepared to work and run hard.

The midfield looks very ordinary to me and got smashed in the clearance department. And when that wasn't killing the Crows, turnovers were.

There are supposed to be 6 forwards, but Adelaide only ever seem to have 3 up there when it counts. I only ever saw Pods, Jenkins and Betts making any real play up there.

To an ambivalent observer, there is a distinct lack of intensity there.

Players kept falling over. Like they were worn out or something.

I left my local WRFL (Vic) game at 1/4 time (we were op 8.6 to 0.1) to come home and watch the crows play. I got home as they were staging a bit of a comeback and even though Sydney were scoring easily at the end of quarters, I thought the crows were competitive and working reasonably well. The last quarter though was awful, no pressure, no system going forward and a million turnovers. I'll be at Etihad next week cheering them on but they'll need to improve a lot to beat the Saints who are not going badly for a team who will probably finish in the bottom half of the comp. (btw my local team won by 21 goals and would have given me plenty to cheer about!!)

You're right IATW, at the game it also looked like they were fighting it out reasonably well. I think the main problem is they are just not getting reward for effort. Several times yesterday they worked it into their forward line really well, only to kick a point and have Sydney whip it up the other end for a goal.

Eventually that just wears the team down and when it happens enough times the heads drop and you end up with a last quarter like yesterday's.