Adelaide 2015 Finals campaign

I think, with the benefit of the all encompassing hindsight, that Adelaide would have now liked to have rested Jacobs last week.

It was the perfect time to do so as leading into the game it seemed a home final was at best very remote. Again, hindsight tells us other wise.

I'm off home....best of errrrr.

Right, I'm going I hope Adelaide w....w......wi.......

Early finish, I'm off home, I wish you and your team all the b......be.......

Seeya.

Classic.

Points for effort mate, points for effort.

Just home from the game- how flipping awesome was that?? Rory Sloane is my favourite player ever I've decided. Of the young kids tonight I was thrilled with Riley Knight's game. In a game with plenty of errors due to the pace of the game I thought he was very calm. I think we should have a policy to take any player that Carlton doesn't want. If we can pick up a player like Eddie or Sauce every couple of years that'll do just fine. Loved Tex's game as well. At the ground he was working overtime all night and when he needed to kick a captain's goal he did. Dangerfield is not playing like someone who wants out but if he's leaving, I won't begrudge him if he delivers us a flag!! Next week will be a really hard game and I'm not at all confident, but I am daring to dream- GO CROWS!!

Great win by the Crows last night

i watched most of the match last night at the trots, if AFL footy was played like that all the time i would watch it, sadly only a few teams play like that, however the tide may be turning in that regard, the ultra defensive footy that we've witnessed over the last few years, was the sole reason i gave up my (as it was) football park membership

What a fantastic win that was.

I just love how Adelaide found a way to win, despite the Dogs being all over them at various stages.

I genuinely thought in that last term when the Dogs hit the front that we wouldn't be able to go with them, but in the end the big game performers willed their Club over the line. I have watched that last play by Tex Walker over and over, it just doesn't get old!

Very proud to be a supporter of the AFC today.

For all that though, they have to get back on the job today. The season isn't over yet, and taking on the back to back premiers - well there's no bigger challenge really.

I think there is a real danger that Adelaide could have a bit of a let down this week after the elation of winning that final, so the coaches would be hard at work getting around to each of the players to ensure they stay in a competitive mindset.

The Hawks will want to respond after such a comprehensive defeat in the west, so Adelaide will absolutely have their hands full.

Despite all that, I think Adelaide are a chance. The Hawks have injury concerns and haven't been convincing for a few weeks now. Adelaide are playing with a real belief and confidence. Anything could happen.

Dangerfield said on FOX after the game that the job isn't done yet so that's something to inspire confidence.

Have to admit when Bulldogs got to 100 first, I thought we were gone, usually first to 100 wins these days.

Paul wrote:Dangerfield said on FOX after the game that the job isn't done yet so that's something to inspire confidence.

Have to admit when Bulldogs got to 100 first, I thought we were gone, usually first to 100 wins these days.

if they get to 100

Love Campo's press conference today. A good summary here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-17/crows-to-stay-focused-on-strengths/6783444

Basically saying that they are not going to focus too much on what Hawthorn does, but rather on their own systems and setups.

I love that attitude of just going 'head to head'. It's what finals are all about IMO.

Obviously there will be various tactical strategies that they'll have up their sleeve, but ultimately steering away from making negative/defensive tactics your sole focus i.e. 'we have to stop such and such'. I've always thought that gives you a negative mindset from the start - you're basically mentally confirming that you are the lesser side and putting an invisible 'ceiling' on what you can achieve.

Make them stop you FFS. That's how you win a premiership.

Friday night – Hawthorn v Adelaide

Not many sides have fun heading to Perth and while the Hawks went there a month or so ago with success the return trip wasn’t as friendly with the Eagles taking it to them from the outset and holding strong throughout the night with only a couple of very short lived fight backs from the Hawks. Adelaide got jumped, the Bulldogs had 4 goals before anyone could get their seats but from there Adelaide moved the ball as quickly as anyone can or does and pretty much hit the scoreboard with every I50 in the first half with top shelf efficiency.

Lots of comments about “The Hawks looked slow”, “Is their time up?” after last week’s game. It’s a bold move to write this group off on the back of one loss, but, to be fair, they’ve had a few losses in the latter half of the year and the Tigers, Port and the Eagles have all beaten them and fair to say beaten them soundly in the last 8 weeks. Not often the Hawks find themselves 8-9 goals down as they did last week, it prompted a bit of a fightback but as noted above it was short lived as the 4 goal run either side of ¾ time was held up by two late steadiers to the Eagles and a sound 32 win sent the Hawks home to play a knock out final.

So what did the Eagles do right and what did the Hawks get wrong? First off all the Eagles played their brand of footy, they didn’t let the Hawks have the ball much early and when Hawthorn did get it forward the Eagles swarmed them in defence, caused turnovers then they spread and ran the Hawks off their feet to score on the rebound. Hawthorn wouldn’t like seeing that as their opponent this week plays in a similar fashion. Lake got touched up by Kennedy, Gibson was drawn wide by Darling to give Kennedy and LeCras room to move and both used it well. This hurt the Hawks as Gibson wasn’t able to get third man up and Lake was cooked whenever he had to chase Kennedy up and back. At the other end Frawley looked like a fish out of water in the front half, Gunston only had the two marks and much of this was to do with the pressure on the ball carrier. The Hawks average around 100 marks per game, they keep the ball off you, on Friday night, 66 marks. That’s what the pressure created.

I’ve grown a little sick of pumping up Betts and Walker in recent weeks but not much can be said other than how good these two were last week. Betts took advantage of Douglas and Sloane getting the ball moving quick early and snuck out the back to get 3 before the game had really got going. He’d already had an impact on the outcome before the magnets on the whiteboards got put into place. Walker led his team from the front, some big marks, some big goals and some missiles off his boot when the game was there to be won harking back to the days of Carey, Brown and Tredrea as the centre half forward of old. Fair mention to Knight and Henderson who played as good as they have for some weeks. Lynch and Jenkins were held out of it, Jacobs was subdued by Minson ( Is Sauce cooked, he was down against Geelong and now the Bulldogs. Neither side has much of a ruck battery ) and the back half all had a goal or two kicked on them. That’s what happens when both sides kick over 100 points. But the likes of Betts, Walker, Sloane, Douglas and to a slightly lesser extent Dangerfield carried the side through with excellent ball use and quick movement from one end to the other.

The Bulldogs game plan though does play into Adelaide’s hands though. The Dogs open up and play fast attacking football, if they cough it up though they can get burnt on the return and Adelaide scorched them with ball movement and clinical finishing in front of goals. Adelaide will need to tighten up and tighten up fast. 30+ scoring shots and 60+ I50’s shows the Crows were fortunate to finish as well as they did in front of goals.

I think the Hawks win this, but I won’t be surprised if Adelaide get across the line. Real danger for a top 4 side to go out with a one-two combination of the Eagles and Crows.

Hawthorn, just. 10 points.

Match up to watch – Jacobs v Hale/McEvoy. Jacobs fly’s alone as Adelaide’s lead ruckman. He gets some soft support from Jenkins, but fair to say Adelaide’s coaches don’t want Jenkins in the middle for long. Firstly, he doesn’t do ruck work very well, secondly, it hurts their F50 structure. Jacobs got touched up by Stanley/Blicavs in Geelong and last week Minson could say he shared the honours. This week Jacobs faces the two man team of Hale/McEvoy and if Adelaide lose clearances again this week the class of the Hawks will do more damage than the Puppies from the West. Key match up this one.

Booney wrote: I’ve grown a little sick of pumping up Betts and Walker in recent weeks but not much can be said other than how good these two were last week.

Excellent write up Booney.

Tonight all comes down to Hawthorn's response. In all the pre-game predictions they are being afforded a lot due to their reputation, as well they deserve. In the past you could bank a response.

I don't think you can be so sure of this anymore.

What I am sure of is that Adelaide will bring it again tonight. They are on a mission. If the Hawks are on as well then we are in for a cracker of a game.

Hopefully they're not on. Not expecting a win but really hope we serve it right upto them. Nothing worse than losing a knock out final by being thrashed. Having said that, would hate another close loss to them in a final ala 2012 and a few years earlier when Franklin kicked 7 (most of them on Massie)

We gave them a fair run for their money in 2012, and personally I think we are a better side this time around.

I honestly can't believe the odds being offered on this game. Hawks deserve to be favourites no doubt, but Adelaide $3.50-$4 outsiders? I don't think so.

Poor starts were always going to end our season. Never seemed to try and fix it. Got what we deserved.

Proud of their season but that loss was bad, they have to live with that for the next 6 months now.

Brodie Smith had a shocker. As did a few others but he was terrible.

Just glad we kept it to under 119 points

Last week after the game the players stayed out on the ground for a long time, soaking up the atmosphere and thanking the fans. At the time I thought we were due for a big emotional letdown afterwards because it was obvious the win meant a lot to them. Sadly this proved to be true although all season we struggled against the top 4 sides so perhaps it was just an accurate reflection of where we really were at for the year. Last night it always seemed like they had 4 extra men on the ground- we were never clear of them but the Hawks always had spare men over the top when the ball came out of the congestion. Their forwards were always goal side of the ball and the lucky bounces went their way. I'd say that apart from Dangerfield and possibly Talia and Van Berlo (late) we didn't have a player who won his position. I love VB but if he's in our top 3 then there are about 11 other players who aren't playing to their ability. And with the midfield being completely smashed it's no wonder Betts and Cameron struggled to get into the game. It was like Tex thought last week's effort to outmuscle his opponent was the defining point of his career and last night he seemed to focus on trying to bump his opponent all night rather than getting in the right position and attacking the ball. Of course, we couldn't keep up last week's f50 efficiency under that sort of pressure and we slaughtered too many opportunities. It was a disappointing way to finish a season that has been remarkable for all the wrong reasons. I'm expecting to see Dangerfield in a Geelong Guernsey this afternoon based on the media hype over here. Whatever his decision he's been fantastic for our club and I'm thankful for his efforts thus far. I just hope he never plays his best games against us!

i thought it was an insipid performance & i'm qualified to say that as i've seen plenty of insipid finals from Glenelg, the only spark i saw was Dangerfields' goal & not even that could spark them off, perhaps they just had a bad night just like Hawthorn had the week before & history shows us that the top 4 teams at the end of the home & away season end up playing in both peliminary finals as well, however over the season given the unforeseen circumstances that happened they did well to get where they got

Two things happened on Friday night:

1. Hawthorn responded convincingly to their previous poor performance.

2. Adelaide clearly had a let down after what has been a long and terrible year. The previous week was obviously their grand final as they looked absolutely cooked.

I'm also very proud of what they have achieved this year in the face of some pretty awful things. As Tex said on Saturday, he has some time to grieve now.

I hope the lads soak up their time of and enjoy it with friends and family. They truly deserve it.

Hawthorn were sublime early, Hodge and Lake controlled the first quarter and gave Adelaide nothing. Then Mitchell, Lewis and Burgoyne took over and Adelaide had no reply. Having said that, 5 of Hawthorns best players, wise old men who know finals took control.

Adelaide will be disappointed with that effort, make no mistake and make no excuses about the week before being the GF etc, they were in better form than most of the other sides in the top 8 and they blew it Friday night by simply getting thumped. A handful of players could do with a mirror and a long hard look at it.

It will now be time to grieve, time to reflect, time to relax and process the year that thay had.

Booney wrote: Adelaide will be disappointed with that effort, make no mistake and make no excuses about the week before being the GF etc, they were in better form than most of the other sides in the top 8 and they blew it Friday night by simply getting thumped. A handful of players could do with a mirror and a long hard look at it.

Not disagreeing with this at all.

Generally though, to still achieve probably what they informally aimed for at the start of the season (make the finals and perhaps win one) is quite remarkable given the fact that their coach was murdered half way through the season.

The emotional investment and focus required by the group to still do what they did after what happened would have been exhausting.

If ever there was the opportunity to offer an 'excuse', I would suggest the circumstances of this year would be an adequate one. Opinions clearly differ on that though.

For me it will be about how they respond next season. They have come so far this year and really matured as a group, it would be a real disappointment to see them not capitalise on that (whether Dangerfield stays or not).