{"id":146658,"date":"2023-11-19T12:21:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T02:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=146658"},"modified":"2023-11-19T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T02:21:12","slug":"cheerful-clarke-happy-with-crowtastic-turnaround","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2023\/11\/19\/cheerful-clarke-happy-with-crowtastic-turnaround\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheerful Clarke happy with Crowtastic turnaround"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFTER his side did a number on the Sydney Swans in the AFLW Semi Final last night, Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke<\/em><\/strong> certainly had a big smile on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crows mentor was very happy with how his team had performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a really strong performance,”Clarke said. “I thought it was still a really good game and the pressure from Sydney was at a really high level. But to be honestly it was probably our first full four quarter performance of the year bizarrely. We\u2019ve sort of been a little bit patchy, but that was pretty complete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarke said there was “obviously lots to like” about the Crows’ performance despite the Swans doing well early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually thought Sydney\u2019s defence played pretty well in terms of their intercept ability, but as it wore on, we started to give our forwards a bit more advantage look at the ball, it\u2019s one of the things we\u2019ve been trying to improve across the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarke spoke of the stark contrast of how last night went compared to how the qualifying final went, noting his side had fixed up some issues that had cost them the win last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast week we felt there were a few things we weren\u2019t rapt with, but just the ability to take the game on when it was our turn,” he said. “We felt we were probably a bit conservative at times. We were disappointed with the performance, but I mean there was a lot to like last week, it wasn\u2019t all disastrous by any stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As I highlighted earlier, probably the thing which we\u2019ve lacked across the season has just been that ability from minute one to minute 80 to try and bring a consistent level, and so while we\u2019ve played some great footy across the year, we\u2019ve probably just lacked that little bit of consistency, so that was probably one of the take outs out of last week.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarke gave an insight into the selection headaches he and his team have had this finals series, and talked through the thinking in terms of how the team presented last night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a tricky one last week in terms of the selection, and then this week was really tough selection with Naj<\/a> (Najwa Allen<\/strong>) coming out of the side. “We felt matchup wise Sydney\u2019s smalls were a little more dangerous than their talls ahead of the ball, so we\u2019ll have another tough conversation this week in terms of what North Melbourne brings because obviously they\u2019ve got a lot of aerial threats. “Wednesday\u2019s not my favourite day to be honest so we\u2019ll see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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