Carlton assistant coach Gavin Crosisca runs his eye over Saturday’s clash against the Crows at the Telstra Dome

We have been learning the same lesson each week, we just cannot afford to take the breaks off and play well here and there. We need to maintain our self-belief and maintain the pressure throughout the whole of the game.

OUR BACKS

In defence we have been a little disappointing in that we are not going one on one and being accountable for our direct opponent. Also, we have not being putting enough pressure on the opposition players bringing it in. When we get ourselves into a one on one contest or a pack situation, we have been performing well, but on the lead we are getting hurt a little bit and that has been a focus for us over the last couple of weeks.

THEIR FORWARDS

Scott Welsh, Nathan Bock and the young newcomer Jonathon Griffin have been performing well. The Crows do kick long into their forward 50, which should suit our defenders to a degree. At half forward, Scott Thompson tries to drag up on a half-back flank and go into the midfield and create some space, so it is important that we rebound really well which we have in the past and need to keep doing.

MIDFIELD BATTLE

Our big issue is accountability across the ground. If you let guys like Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards and Chris Knights, who has flown under the radar, roam free then they are going to really hurt us. Therefore, we need to man up a bit quicker on our direct opponents and if we can do that, another 10-15 per cent, then we are a chance to win the game.

THE RUCK DUEL

This year, the ruck has not been a huge strength of Adelaide’s but it is not been a deficiency either. They are lower in centre clearances than they have been in the past and this is an area where we probably have a little bit of an edge on them, so we need to make sure we capitalise on this on game day. I know ‘Big Carlos’ [Setanta O’hAilpin) has been enjoying his time in there and has had a big smile on face. We will have to wait and see whether he plays in there again this week.

OUR FORWARDS

While the guys have been going okay we need to concentrate on the defensive aspect of the game this week. Obviously, Eddie Betts is going to be a big loss for us in regard to having the pressure of a small crumbing forward. Adelaide try and release Andrew McLeod down back as much as possible so it will be a tough job for whoever gets the job on him.

THEIR BACKS

Ben Rutten is really the only big guy down there so the Crows defence relies on bringing the ball to ground and using the quick hands of the smaller defenders to run it out, which recently they have done very well. Nathan van Berlo, Chris Knights, Simon Goodwin and Tyson Edwards all try to help out their back six by pushing back as much as they can.

FINAL THOUGHTS

At the start of the year we all decided that we were going to let the shackles off a bit and play a free-flowing style of game. On Saturday, we have to make sure we not only play attacking football but also restrict and put pressure on Adelaide’s defenders and midfielders so we can help out our defence.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.