Adelaide 2016 Season Megathread

[GoLions]

way I see it is neither team won the premiership, and we get a higher draft pick. Thus our season is more productive :P

On that, I hear Adelaide finished 5th somewhere which means the Hawks are 6th. How did a top four team losing the same finals week drop behind a team who missed the top four? ???

  ....... just what I heard, not sure and unsure how that could happen?

Because the Dogs (or I guess Eagles) would have been expected to lose on the weekend, and both finished below the Crows. So Hawks are seen to be worse than the Dogs in a way (who finished 7th).

[Grazz]

2016 has been a good year for us off the back of a tragic 2015 with Phil's death and then loosing one of the best players in the comp which we were never going to be able to replace, it's just to hard to replace those guys. Also a new coach to get use'd of his ways.

Some are saying it was a wasted opportunity with a such a great run with injuries we blew it. I disagree yes we certainly had a good run with injuries only using 29 players for the year I think but we finished roughly where we should of. We are a top 8 side  but were not a genuine premiership threat yet, this was my feeling long before finals came around.

The Cats at home showed us on our own deck early in the season that we were a bit off the pace under genuine pressure we fumbled made bad decisions and turned the ball over aka 2015 where turnovers really hurt us and we are still doing it. The Hawks are good enough to win games while loosing contested possession counts because they use the ball so well and are elite with their kicking efficiency. We need to continue to improve in this area quickly. The Cats dismantled us again on their deck then came that nightmare against the Eagles who on that night probably did it better than any other team, their pressure and defensive set up caused us all kinds of dramas and we just couldn't cope with it, awful under that kind of pressure again. These games stood out as glaring examples of where we are deficient and where we were placed in the reality of contenders for the flag.

Sydney did it to us aswell on Saturday night, brought the pressure and in the first half we struggled to cope, we didn't cope. They destroyed us with their mids and onballers, inside and outside they hurt us badly except for the third quarter where we found a bit of it but this wasn't to last they got back on top in the 4th qtr and marched into a prelim.

Our backline is good enough but we still need a bit more run off half back which makes things tough for Brown, good one on one player but doesn't give us alot of run off half back.

Our fwd line is good enough and when functioning one of the more dangerous fwd lines in the comp. McGovern needs to keep improving and inject himself into the game more.

Our mids in simple terms aren't up to the standard needed to push deeper into September. The Loss of Danger was huge in the end.
We can survive without him we showed that but we can't be contenders without someone like him.
Thomo has been great for us over the years but watching him this year I think the game has gone past him now, watching him fumble the ball time after time has become a major frustration for me. If he stays on the list it has to be for depth only and play mostly in the reserves.

Long story short we need to inject some new blood into our mids, either we wait a couple of years and hope we have a few on our list that can improve enough to fill the void or we offload a few players to try and get some decent draft picks and try to shortcut the wait and trade hard for a Rocky type player in the draft. I think Charlie can step up and become a decent mid in time but we still need more, we need another gun in there now. We have some good players coming through but they are a year or two away still.

We have some cash to splurge with Danger leaving, there's room in our salary cap to make a play for a gun mid if we can find one. Brad Crouch should be better and improve in 2017 with a solid full preseason behind him, Matt needs to keep improving off the back of a pretty good year and we have some good kids coming through so it's not all bad news but what is obvious is we need an injection of genuine quality in there now to find the missing pieces to our jigsaw puzzle to be a genuine threat in 2017.

Most good sides have 2-3 genuine guns in their mids with quality guys around them the way I see it is we have one at the minute and that's Rory, it's not enough we need to get Rory some help or we are going to continue to finish anywhere from 6th to 10th or there abouts until we can either bring some through our system or draft a couple in.

To go further in 2017 this draft period we have to pull out all stops to find a disgruntled gun mid ala Rocky and get them in, we have a few players we can put up for trade, we have a few players of similar type that I think we can afford to part with to get some decent draft picks to use or bargain with at the trade table. (I'm only using Rocky as an example Lions fans as he's the only one worth considering  that through the media seems a bit unhappy or the club is unhappy depending on what scribe you read, sorry guys. He is the obvious choice at the minute don't know of any others i'd like that fit who could be looking for a new club)

[tbagrocks]

way I see it is neither team won the premiership, and we get a higher draft pick. Thus our season is more productive :P

On that, I hear Adelaide finished 5th somewhere which means the Hawks are 6th. How did a top four team losing the same finals week drop behind a team who missed the top four? ???

  ....... just what I heard, not sure and unsure how that could happen?

Because the Dogs (or I guess Eagles) would have been expected to lose on the weekend, and both finished below the Crows. So Hawks are seen to be worse than the Dogs in a way (who finished 7th).

Which is crap! All Adelaide could do week one is win and they did against the bottom club North. If Hawks won they're in a Prelim, they lost, so Adelaide had to play the team finishing top and they lost. Why then should Hawks finish lower? ???

[Rusty00]

way I see it is neither team won the premiership, and we get a higher draft pick. Thus our season is more productive :P

On that, I hear Adelaide finished 5th somewhere which means the Hawks are 6th. How did a top four team losing the same finals week drop behind a team who missed the top four? ???

  ....... just what I heard, not sure and unsure how that could happen?

Because the Dogs (or I guess Eagles) would have been expected to lose on the weekend, and both finished below the Crows. So Hawks are seen to be worse than the Dogs in a way (who finished 7th).

Which is crap! All Adelaide could do week one is win and they did against the bottom club North. If Hawks won they're in a Prelim, they lost, so Adelaide had to play the team finishing top and they lost. Why then should Hawks finish lower? ???

It is crap, and you heard wrong ;)

Hawks 5th
Crows 6th

[PowerBug]

Still in the top 6, so should still get a super tough draw for 2017. ;) would've been better off losing to Norf.

[Rusty00]

Word on the street (or more accurately the radio) is that Thommo will be offered a new 1 year contract :-X

[Jay]

Still in the top 6, so should still get a super tough draw for 2017. ;) would've been better off losing to Norf.

We had that this season and won 16 games. Beating bad/mediocre teams isn't the problem for us (see: both showdowns :P) just need to work out a way not to crumble in high pressure, contested games :(
And I don't think any side could've possibly lost to Norf that week :P

Word on the street (or more accurately the radio) is that Thommo will be offered a new 1 year contract :-X

If this is to play mainly SANFL and then come into the AFL side when injuries occur then I'm stoked with it! Unfortunately I don't think that's the case...

[Grazz]

Agree Jay on Thomo, hopefully it is just for depth and he's mainly used in the SANFL.
Get the youngens in there in 2017 let them have a decent crack.

[LF]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-10-07/thompson-to-go-round-again-after-signing-oneyear-deal

So Thompson has officially signed on
I guess it shall be catch you later Crows for some players now for sure

[Jay]

If we lose any young player because of the Thommo re-signing this has been an absolute disaster!

[TomK]

I think it was his manager yesterday saying he is not guaranteed a place in the 22 next year. I hope he is just there as a mentor and a break glass in case of emergency situation and the club sticks by that. Still confident we'll pick up some good players this trade period, Thommo would be on a very small wage.

[tbagrocks]

SO I might have liked to see VB stay and play on as Captain of the crow reserves. But Van Berlo has retired. But, He will stay and coach I believe to be the kids and the SANFL team

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-10-28/former-crows-captain-returns-as-development-coach