How has it come to this? Last year, when the Crows hit their straps, they were exhilarating, poised and confident. Now they are disorganised and disheartened and the supporter base is disillusioned.
The bald bloke had a few ideas about what has gone wrong, and so has everyone. Here is my take on some of the theories doing the rounds.
The game plan doesn’t work. Some people say the game plan has been unpicked, or it’s too regimented, or the Crows are too robotic, or they handball too much. I think that, on it’s day, the game plan can still work, but that day has not yet arrived this year. On Saturday the Blues navigated their way through the zone the way Matthew Flinders navigated the Great Barrier Reef - with skill, care and precision. Once through they burst into clear water and their speedy forwards scudded unimpeded into goal.
The Crows, on the other hand, were like the Shen Neng 1. They ploughed full steam into Blues’ obstacles, floundered, tried to double back and ended up stranded.
The rucks suck. Against Carlton the Crows won the hit-outs, the clearances and the centre breaks. And lost by 48 points. The rucks are not the problem.
Nevertheless, they can be strengthened. The Crows’ selection panel has decided, probably correctly, that they can play only one lumbering-style ruckman and if there is to be a second ruck he needs to be mobile. Sellar and Moran both fit the bill but both are injured. Sellar should be available again soon, but in the meantime McKernan is worth a try.
They can’t hold their tackles. As I wrote last week, the Crows are missing far too many tackles. They are a woeful last in the competition in the tackle count and even those they make often come unstuck, or the opponent is able to keep his arms free and offload the ball before he is brought to ground. Tackling requires both strength and good technique: at the moment the Crows have neither.
The jumpers are wrong. A caller to ABC radio said she knew little about football but a lot about the psychology of colour. The Crows were playing poorly, she thought, because there was too much white in their uniform; symbolically, this was like flying a white flag of surrender. Her theory lost credibility on Saturday, though, because the Crows were fully decked in red, blue and gold - all strong colours - and still got belted.
They can’t kick. They certainly can’t kick for goal. For each beautiful, precious goal they have booted in the last two games (eleven, in total) they have scored three points. On Saturday the goal-kicking was excruciating: by the end, Crows’ supporters were laughing about it because the alternative was to scream.
The Crows field-kicking is almost equally poor. Crooked kicking is a source of turnovers and a source of frustration and, in the end, it’s bad football. Hawthorn won a premiership with a fleet of fleet-footed blokes with great kicks. At the moment, the Crows have few who can nail a 50-metre pass; even a 30-metre effort is a stretch for some. The accusation that their kicking skills aren’t up to scratch has traction.
They have too many injuries. In a comment on last week’s blog someone wrote that “blaming injuries … is rubbish”. I disagree: chop off a man’s arm and he will be at a disadvantage in a brawl. The loss of nine (by my count) of the Crows’ top 22, coupled with the stunted preseasons of at least half a dozen others, has been disastrous.
Injuries have had a particularly cruel effect on the backline, which last year was both a safety net and a spring board. Of the first-choice back six, Bock, Otten, Symes and Stevens were missing on Saturday, and Johncock was playing his first game of the year (he was brilliant nonetheless).
A secondary complaint is that the high injury rate has exposed a lack of depth in the Crows’ squad. This is unfair: having twelve or more blokes in the rehab room would test any squad. The Crows have had four debutants this year: neither Armstrong nor Young was quite ready but Schmidt and Davis look the goods.
In the long run the high injury toll could be a blessing. It means that blokes like Davis, Schmidt, Cook, Petrenko and Walker will get much more game time than they otherwise would, so they will develop more quickly. I hope more youngsters get a good run this year.
More of a problem than a lack of depth is the lack of form of many of the Crows’ best players. Tippett, Porplyzia and Edwards, to name a few, are in dirty slumps, and many others are off the boil.
They’re too slow. “For two years I’ve been saying it,” says 5AA’s Stephen Rowe. “The Crows don’t have enough leg speed.”
For two years Rowey has been wrong. On Saturday we saw Myke Cook run down a Carlton speedster (it might have been Garlett) after giving him a start of seven or eight metres. We also saw the great closing speed of Johncock and the dash of Mackay. Petrenko has toe, and so does Dangerfield, Douglas and McLeod (although he is slowing a little in his old age). The pace might not be used to best effect, but it’s not lacking.
They’re not putting in the effort and they don’t have the passion. The Crows’ work rate has clearly not been equal to that of the opposition so far this season. Is it a lack of fitness, or a lack of passion? The zone was smashed on Saturday at least partly because the Crows did not run hard enough to make it work. There were times when Carlton switched the ball to the far side, where they had free men, while the Crows’ midfielders stood watching from the near side. It was hard to tell if they were stuffed or just couldn’t be stuffed. I’d like to believe it was the former because it’s easier to fix.
They lack belief. Many of the problems described above - horror goal-kicking, poor decision-making, basic skill errors, turnovers and the failure of the game plan - are all indicators of a precipitous loss of self-belief. Craigy must address all the woes of the Crows, but above all it is his job to find out the reasons for the team’s shattered confidence and then to rebuild it.
It must be the coach. I have been a supporter of Craigy from the very beginning. I have always thought he could coach. I backed him to the hilt last year, when the club was going through a similarly dark time. I’m tempted to waver now.
Craigy is right to dub this the club’s darkest hour. In many ways the Crows’ performance against Carlton was the most inept I have seen. The change for the worse in their performance - in almost every facet of the game - since last year is scarcely believable and the buck must ultimately stop with the coach. He has made mistakes. In my view, for example, he has players out of position. Petrenko is a natural running half-back and he should have been used on Saturday to quell one of those speedy Carlton forwards. Dangerfield must play entirely in the midfield because we could do with more horsepower there and he needs to learn the trade. I agree with Rowey that Walker should stay close to goal.
Nevertheless, I am keeping faith with Craigy because of the way he brought the team back from the brink of despair last year. He can do it again. The bald bloke might not have wanted the boys to return after half-time on Saturday, but I want them back in a hurry. It is unclear when, or how, but from the darkness will come a new light.
