Since Blight left Adelaide have challenged twice for a premiership - under Craig and then under Pyke. However, their game style in both instances was worked out and countered before the finals and, as a result, they didn’t win the flag.
No doubt there are a lot of other factors at play with their current predicament but I wonder if they have an aim to play free-flowing attacking football which is ultimately holding them back because they then recruit players and have a game plan which won’t get the job done in high pressure games.
I’m not so sure the fishbowl thing is a myth. It may be exaggerated, but the idea of media scrutiny/public pressure only needs to be a perceived pressure upon the players. I remember how bad it felt being an Essendon supporter when the saga was 24/7 news. Everyone at work mentioned it, it was on every radio station, tv channel and media outlet. Wearing anything red and black in public drew insults and snide comments. And that’s just for a supporter. Translate that feeling to being a player with a recognisable face. It wouldn’t matter if the fishbowl thing isn’t real, it would be the perceived pressure of reading the paper, watching tv or listening to the radio and hearing details about yourself or your team-mates. I reckon that would wear you down after a bit, particularly for the younger guys without the maturity of more experienced players who have better support structures in place.
I can’t speak for living in Adelaide, but I reckon it could turn from being “king-of-the-world” to a siege mentality pretty quickly if things go bad like they have for the Crows in the last 2 years.
I don’t have a problem with that as you can try whatever you want, but once the ball is bounced it comes down to playing footy. Staring or not staring. Arm in arm or not arm in arm is not going carry you through 120 minutes of footy.
its probably not far away. coaches have been sacked for far less. by Adelaide Sanderson got sacked for missing finals for 2 years. Same for Neil Craig before that.
Yeah and that’s when everything was going swimmingly, a club on the rise, a good youngish coach, a pretty fair list, a mullet and all the right setup. The moment that collapsed so did he both on and off the field. That to me shows he wasn’t quite what they all thought. It was a chance for him to really become a solid leader and unite the club after the GF loss and then a massive issue. Instead he went to water, was abusing a number of players and stopped performing on the field.
After pulling the group together after his good mate and coach died. He did a magnificent job of holding the side together and getting them to a GF. He was under more stress than anyone could imagine and eventually it got to a tipping point which was the GF loss.
