Four things the Crows have to fix
It was all but sure that the Crows would not be one particular of the very best groups in the competitors as they rebuild their actively playing listing adhering to the slide that has transpired at West Lakes considering the fact that the 2017 Grand Closing.
But three games in the Crows are languishing down at the bottom of the ladder and stats supplied to The Advertiser by Champion Details paint a worrying photo for Matthew Nicks and his fellow Adelaide soccer office customers.
These are four things that require to be addressed by the Crows on the area and rapidly.
Lacking MIDFIELD
There is no sugar-coating it, the Crows have been smashed by each individual midfield they have come up in opposition to this year.
A couple of a long time in the past Adelaide was the variety one particular clearance staff in the comp.
However so considerably this 12 months Champion Details has them rated last for clearance differential (-fourteen.3) and second last for contested possession differential (-eighteen).
Branded too slow in the midfield last 12 months, the Crows now just cannot earn the ball inspite of Rory Sloane and Brad and Matt Crouch still all in the engine room.
In opposition to the Gold Coastline Suns on Sunday the Crows have been annihilated in the contested ball by -17 and lost the clearances by -13.
In the Showdown they lost the contested ball fight by -19 and clearances by -nine when in opposition to Sydney in Spherical 1 all the way back again in March the Swans amassed a whopping 21 a lot more clearances than the Crows, 15 of them at centre bounces.
This means the ball is just coming into the Crows’ defensive fifty once more and once more, conveying why their average of 88.seven details conceded is the most in the competitors so considerably.
NO Tension
Once again the tension and depth is missing at the Crows.
As Adelaide slumped in the second fifty percent of last year less than Don Pyke, the Crows held the unwelcome title of the worst in the AFL for “pressure factor”.
In 2020 the Crows have enhanced this, but only slightly as Champion Details charges their tension issue this 12 months as the sixteenth very best in the competitors.
Very last 12 months this focused on the deficiency of tackles by the Crows forwards and so considerably this year Adelaide is still obtaining it hard to pin in groups in their forward fifty.
In opposition to the Suns they managed 7 within forward fifty tackles, Gold Coastline had 17.
In the Showdown they had only four within forward fifty tackles, Port had 13.
In Spherical 1 they basically matched Sydney for this stat, only getting rid of that count 13-15.
FAILING FORWARDS
In advance of the Crows’ second pre-year activity in opposition to the Suns at Noarlunga forward mentor Ben Hart mentioned they still didn’t know what their very best attacking blend was.
9 plans in the earlier two weeks exhibits that months on from this assessment the Crows forward line is not firing at all.
Certainly if the ball is not having in there, and the Crows’ within fifty differential of -17 is the worst in the competitors, then the forwards will come across it hard to fireplace.
But the Crows’ attack has seemed toothless and there are a lot of queries that require to be answered.
AFL: Adelaide Crows mentor Matthew Nicks discusses his side’s 53-stage decline to the Gold Coastline Suns at Metricon Stadium.
Can Taylor Walker and Darcy Fogarty participate in in the same staff? Nicks has gone with those people two to pinch hit for Reilly O’Brien in the earlier two games right after Billy Frampton played in opposition to the Swans.
Does the previous Port player come in to offer some peak, or does Elliot Himmelberg get a possibility?
The tiny-forward crop are also not having the work carried out.
Lachie Murphy has a lot more than thirty games less than his belt but was left functioning right after three-activity Sunshine Connor Budarick for most of the match at Metricon.
Tyson Stengle looms as a wander-up alternative as before long as his ban is more than.
Children UNDERDONE?
Crows supporters have been crying out for their kids to get AFL publicity more than the earlier two a long time.
This deficiency of publicity is exhibiting as the Crows’ youthful players Nicks is blooding come across the going hard.
Nicks mentioned he “loved what he saw” from young children these types of as Chayce Jones, Ned McHenry and Ben Keays in the second fifty percent of the Suns match.
But Jones had only 7 touches, McHenry two when Keays – who arrived from Brisbane this off-year – had twelve possessions.
On debut Will Hamill confirmed had he some thing about him, but arguably must have gotten his possibility previously than this 12 months.
No. six draft pick Fischer McAsey has identified the going hard at AFL level in his very first three games as a defender but is having knowledge that will hold him in good stead in the foreseeable future.
Extra players have to get a possibility to see if they can make it at AFL level.
