Pressure to perform, pressure to keep a job, pressure not to disappoint - it was all on display at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
Pressure accompanied both Neil Craig and Brett Ratten into the crucial game, but then proceeded to foist its burden on one coach then the other as the game ebbed and flowed.
Pressure visited with Craig first as Chris Judd led an inspired opening that threatened to be the first chapter in a horror story for the visitors.
Ratten looked near a Paul Roos-like state of Zen as he quietly pondered his whiteboard at quarter-time while the line coaches spoke to their respective groups.
He wasn't quite relaxed enough to whistle a tune, but things were going pretty well in his world.
Thirty metres away Craig gathered his players straight away and demonstratively ripped into them before they separated for their line briefings.
But just when pressure looked to have settled in for the evening, Blues' players started missing shots at goal. Pressure made its unwanted presence felt on Ratten's shoulders as he watched attempt after attempt on goal skew wildly into the night.
The look of the concern on Ratten's face was matched by the buoyancy of Craig who bounced around the Crows' interchange area offering encouragement to his players.
Pressure had clearly released its grip on Craigy and gone to hang with Ratts for a while.
Jeff Garlett, Marc Murphy, Robbie Warnock, Mitch Robinson and Shaun Hampson all made for a very unhappy coach at different stages, but at least Andrew Walker took a load off Ratten's shoulders when he soared high on those of Sam Jacobs to pull down a screamer and goal after the half-time siren.
It was only brief respite, however, because pressure came right back in the form of the horrendous kicking yips that dogged the side, and Ratten, all night in the third quarter.
With just seven points in it at three-quarter time the coaches approached their players.
This time Craig let the line coaches do their thing while he gathered his thoughts off on his own before addressing them in his usual calm manner. Not so much pressure here.
Over in the Blue huddle Ratten worked the whiteboard furiously before strutting over to the defensive unit and interrupting Gavin Brown to make a heated point.
Hello pressure.
Pressure would take the last quarter to decide which coach it would hound for the rest of the week.
Scott Thompson took a nice mark and gave his side its first lead of the night and when Bernie Vince bombed one from long range to put his side up by 11 points it looked like pressure would be wearing navy blue.
But then Richard Douglas went back inside into traffic instead of outside where he had more options. Then Andy Otten dropped a chest mark on his defensive 50. Then Luke Thompson took the wrong option coming out of defence.
Pressure upped and went and settled back onto Craig's shoulders where it will sit until the Crows take on St Kilda next weekend.
It was always going to be the case for whichever coach lost the pivotal match because each is carrying the burden of expectations not met in recent weeks.
Pressure was definitely with Craig as he wandered, hands in pockets, amongst his stretching players after the six-point loss, stopping occasionally to offer an encouraging word or an admonishment.
Minutes later when he spoke to the press, the Crows' coach acknowledged pressure, but said it would be a welcome guest at West Lakes.
"I think you should continue to judge us really harshly because this group has got very high standards of where they want to go," he said.
"We're not asking anyone to back that off.
"There's nothing better than being involved in a team or a club that has very high expectations of themselves, it's a great environment to be in, but when you do that you put pressure on yourself.
"That's the way it's going to be."
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
