AFL Round 12 Adelaide v Collingwood: Crows blow winning opportunity with wasteful goalkicking
Adelaide threw away a shot at victory against Collingwood with ‘unacceptable’ skill errors. Which Crows made the most costly mistakes?
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We saw the best of the Crows the last time they played at Adelaide Oval — a thrilling one-point win over the previously unbeaten Melbourne.
But in the first quarter of Saturday’s clash against Collingwood, Matthew Nicks witnessed the worst his side has been with the ball in hand this year as the Crows let another chance to claim a win slip through their fingers.
The 12-point loss at home to Fremantle in Round 5 and three-point defeat to Hawthorn in Launceston a week later would have hurt.
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But losing to a Collingwood side, which had won only two games coming into the match and had to abide by extremely tough restrictions to even get into South Australia for the game, seemed to really rankle with Nicks.
“In a way it is one that we gave away in the end, with all due respect to Collingwood it is a great win for them,” he said.
“But we gave them the ball back over and over and it is hard to defend when you do that.
“We came in with a game plan and we didn’t look anything like we came in with.”
We will never really know what plan Nicks and the Crows had for Collingwood coming into the match, because Adelaide was just that bad with its skills and decision making.
Chayce Jones chose to try and kick it into the Crows forward 50 and his kick was smothered by Scott Pendlebury.
What should have been a regulation handball by Harry Schoenberg sailed way over his teammates’ heads and went to Steele Sidebottom.
Taylor Walker couldn’t make the distance, albeit from a difficult spot outside 50, and Darcy Moore marked the ball.
Paul Seedsman, one of the Crows best performers this season, ignored the tall target of Reilly O’Brien and tried to go short, kicking it straight to Nathan Murphy.
These turnovers, interceptions and mistakes all resulted in Collingwood goals — with the Magpies entire score for the first quarter coming from this source.
“It is not acceptable to come out the way we did at the start of the game,” Nicks said.
“And it isn’t just skill it is decision making, and for some reason that was way off.
“We were picking out targets there that weren’t there, we made the wrong decision over and over and if it wasn’t the wrong decision we didn’t execute.
“So it is fair to say that was the worst quarter of footy that we have played with the ball in hand.”
On top of that the Crows allowed a team that loves to take uncontested marks and keep possession of the ball 37 of them in a horror first quarter for Nicks.
“We are a good side, we can play good footy and compete with the best of them but we can also shoot ourselves in the foot and lose games off our own bat,” he said.
BROKEN RECORD
Again Nicks described the loss as a learning experience for the Crows, one they don’t want to have more of.
“They will get sick of it eventually and that is part of the learning process where you get to a point as a player where you get sick of this feeling,” he said.
“And that may come for a player after 50 games of experience.
“At the moment we have a lot of players who aren’t quite at that point yet.”
So, are the Crows learning their lessons?
While they stood up against Melbourne, coming back from a deficit when the Demons looked to be running away with it in the final quarter, the Crows are more often than not failing to deal when the pressure is on.
This was when the Dockers started to take the game on in the fourth quarter in Round 5, or when Hawthorn produced a second-half comeback in Launceston.
Against Collingwood the pressure situation the Crows failed to stand up in was in the first quarter.
“The most crucial time in games, those pressure moments, whether we like it or not we are not performing to the level we need to win those games of football,” Nicks said.
“Unfortunately, that was that first quarter, we had five goals from turnover against in the first quarter.
“The pressure was on and we didn’t get it done. We are not good enough in those pressure moments, we have to get better.”
Ahead of their final game before the mid-season bye, the Crows sit 15th with a 4-8 record.
But this could, and perhaps should, have been far better with three winnable games for Nicks’ side in the losses column.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t agree,” Nicks said.
“There are some games that we could have won and maybe looking back on them we perhaps should have and didn’t get them right at the time.”
SHOOTING BOOTS AT HOME
To the Crows’ credit, after the chance to reset at quarter-time they were a much improved side for the rest of the game.
And they would have likely won if not for some inaccuracy in front of goal few would have seen coming.
The Crows had six more inside-50s than the Pies (50-44), and 23 scoring shots to 18.
Yet the Crows were playing catch-up for most of the night.
Chief in this was Walker’s 2.6 in front of goal — his worst return since Round 19, 2015 — and for just the second time in his career Darcy Fogarty registering two behinds.
Walker had a monster quarter in the second — 10 disposals, three marks and eight contested possessions.
But his tally was 1.4, and a decision to try and find Ned McHenry when he had another chance to take a set-shot which nearly backfired summing up his unexpectedly poor game in front of goal.
But Nicks won’t worry too much.
“It’s not a trend, I think if we go back to either Round 1 or even the pre-season we kicked inaccurately in a game and we talked about post that week that it was not a trend and when it becomes a trend we will address it,” he said.
“We have some very good goalkickers, so it is what it is.
“We didn’t get it done, we kicked the harder ones tonight and then didn’t kick the easier ones.
“It will be one that we won’t put too much time into, there are other areas that we need to touch on.”
Rather, why the Crows started so poorly and then fell apart structurally towards the end will be high on Nicks’ agenda.
“Sometimes it comes back to the connection of the group, you can be off half a per cent and a team at this level can make you look poor,” he said.
“And maybe that was it, we were off half a per cent at the start of the game and that half of a per cent can flow into your ball movement, your decision making, your defence, your contest.
“It is something that we did really well against Melbourne so similar finish to a game where the lead changes and we were unable to structurally set up.
“It’s not necessarily the difference why we lose the game but maybe we give ourselves a chance.
“To be honest it would have been one of those games even if we got up in the end we would have probably had a long conversation post the game about some areas we need to improve on.”
THE SAME GAME PLAN FOR PIES?
After copping widespread criticism for the way they have been playing in recent weeks, the Pies looked to be a lot easier on the eye.
In the first quarter they attacked through the corridor again and again, and carved the Crows apart.
Their ball movement was the best we have seen in at least a month, but according to Pies coach Nathan Buckley, nothing had changed.
“The message was no different to the last three or four weeks,” he said.
“We feel like we didn’t defend through that middle part quite as well but no doubt our best offence comes off really good defence and the messages were all the same.
“We still feel like we can be a side that balances up really well on both sides of the ball.
“It’s no surprise that the best defensive teams win finals and win flags and half the reason is because it gives them a real platform to attack from.
“I think when you win people are a lot more positive about how you played.”
But regardless of what Buckley says about no shift in game plan, after no goals in the first half last week against Geelong, it was a big step in the right direction for Collingwood.
NICKS WON’T BLAME LOSS ON COVID CHAOS
— Jason Pehlan
Frustrated Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has dismissed the notion that the AFL investigation into his players’ breach of Covid protocols and the league’s subsequent heavy fine had any bearing on Saturday’s shock loss to Collingwood.
The understrength Pies blitzed Adelaide early, then came from behind late, to score a 12.6 (78) to 10.13 (73) win at Adelaide Oval.
The Crows were fined $50,000 by the AFL just hours before the match got underway after some players and officials were found to have not complied with face mask protocols on a commercial flight back from Sydney last Sunday.
Nicks was emphatic when asked if the controversy had been a distraction for his players.
“None whatsoever,” the coach replied.
“We didn’t get it right to start the game and we’re extremely frustrated that we weren’t able to get the result.”
Nicks also slapped away claims the incident was another blot on the copybook of a club that has been accused of having a poor culture in the past.
“We are big on our character and the people we have in the footy club, but we made a mistake,” he said.
“We got it wrong in this instance.
“So we put our hands up for that, but it doesn’t come back to people having poor character or our culture being poor.
“It’s an error that we’ve made and we have to be better than that.
“We apologise to the people on the flight and we’ll continue to try to do our best … unfortunately this is one we got wrong.”
Match report: Wasteful Crows squander thriller
Collingwood has pulled off a daring smash-and-grab border raid, Jamie Elliott starring with six goals in a surprise five-point win over the wasteful Crows at Adelaide Oval.
The Magpies were in South Australia for just under 12 hours on Saturday after being granted a much-debated exemption by SA Health, and the interlopers made the most of their opportunity, scoring a 12.6 (78) to 10.13 (73) win.
With injured stars Brodie Grundy and Taylor Adams dropping out of the side that lost to Geelong, the 16th-placed Pies were given little chance of victory by many, but stunned the home side to score their third win of the season.
In his first game back from a broken leg suffered in round two, Elliott burst out of the blocks with four goals in the first quarter and made it a career-high bag of six when he kicked the winner with five minutes left in the entertaining contest.
The intrepid Magpies led for most of the match but had to come from behind to notch a memorable win.
Shane McAdam made it a three-point game with a superb checkside goal from the boundary early in a frantic final term.
With just over six minutes left in the match, Steele Sidebottom looked to have put his side up by nine points but a score review found his goal had brushed the post.
McAdam’s second had the home fans on their feet soon after but Elliott’s sixth from long range sealed the points.
The Seed's right foot is a ROCKET 🚀#AFLCrowsPiespic.twitter.com/CnbvGaZGWY
— AFL (@AFL) June 5, 2021
DON’T TOUCH THAT BALL
South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier caused a stir midweek when she advised patrons to avoid touching the footy, and 11 Crows followed that advice with two or fewer touches in the first quarter.
The Pies, labelled ‘dirty’ by some due to coming from a locked down state struggling to quell a Covid outbreak and because of their dour play of late, were cleaner than the Crows in a scintillating opening term.
The Magpies couldn’t manage a goal in the first half in last week’s much-discussed loss to Geelong but Elliott booted four of his side’s five first-quarter goals, the visitors racing to a 23-point lead at the first break.
SECONDARY SURGE
Rory Laird, who starred with 40 touches, and Taylor Walker fired up Adelaide in the second term, but the home side still trailed by six points at halftime. The Crows had seven more inside 50s but were wasteful - Walker finished the half with 1.5 – while Elliott and Jordan De Goey made the most of limited opportunities at the other end.
THIRD-QUARTER STRUGGLES
The Crows were the only team in the league not to win a third quarter after 11 rounds and that worrying run stretched to 12 as the Pies edged to an 11-point lead at the last break.
Walker gave his side a lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the game with his second major 13 minutes into the third, but a Caleb Poulter long bomb sparked a stirring three-goal rally to set up the grandstand finish.
Scoreboard
CROWS 1.1 5.6 8.10 10.13 (73)
MAGPIES 5.0 7.0 11.3 12.6 (78)
PHELAN’S BEST
CROWS: Laird, Seedsman, Keays, Walker, O’Brien, Smith.
MAGPIES: Elliott, Crisp, Sidebottom, Moore, Poulter, Pendlebury.
GOALS
CROWS: Walker 2, Fogarty 2, Seedsman 2, McAdam 2, Thilthorpe, McHenry.
MAGPIES: Elliott 6, De Goey, Bianco, Daicos, Sidebottom, Thomas, Poulter.
INJURIES CROWS: Nil MAGPIES: Sier (head knock).
UMPIRES Power, Stephens, Mollison.
Adelaide OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 J. Elliott (Coll)
2 R. Laird (Adel)
1 J. Crisp (Coll)
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