Last three Showdown results prove that Port Adelaide are mentally fragile and the Crows have capitalised | Graham Cornes
The last three Showdowns show the Crows have the edge when it comes to SA’s footy teams. As Graham Cornes writes, the basis of it comes from being mentally superior.
Opinion
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Sporting success is built on a solid foundation comprised of many elements.
There are purpose-built foundations for different sports. For instance, team sports differ from individual sports, but for the purpose of today’s column, let’s study Australian rules football. More specifically, let’s study our two South Australian-based AFL teams – the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide.
To assemble the building blocks of your footy team’s foundation you need the essentials.
Natural talent, fitness, strength, speed, courage and skill, are all essential requirements of a successful football team.
It’s fair to say both teams have all those requirements, albeit to different degrees.
But there are a couple more – two areas in which the Crows triumphed in Thursday night’s Showdown and the Power failed miserably.
The failure in these two areas saw Port’s foundation crumble then eventually collapse.
The mental aspect of the game is best referred to the as the psychology of sport and it is often said that the mental aspect of the game is more important than all of those other factors put together.
That can be debated but one thing is obvious: the Crows have dominated Port psychologically in the past two seasons.
Now, it might have been the Rory Sloane factor that united the Crows players and brought a laser-like focus to their approach and commitment to the contest on Thursday night, but it was clear that they were on a mission to win the game.
The Port players on the other hand, seemed scared to lose it. The Crows were mentally tougher than Port.
Then there are the tactics of the game.
In a free-flowing game with no off-side rule, 18 players on the ground and no guaranteed possession, tactics in Australian rules football can’t be set in stone.
“Fluid” is perhaps the adjective best used to describe tactics in our game. Coaches and players have to be able to adjust quickly.
In the simplest of terms, tactics determine how players position themselves and move the ball when their team has possession or when the opposition has it.
In that area, the Crows again triumphed on Thursday night. Quite simply, the Crows players executed a well-planned tactic. The Port players continually tried to react to it.
It always starts with the contest. Both teams start with the intention of smothering their opponent and depriving them of the time and space to win the ball or use it effectively.
The statisticians measure the pressure that each team brings to the contest. On Thursday night you didn’t need a pressure gauge to see which team was superior in that regard.
Port’s pressure was satisfactory by league standards but the Crows pressure was truly elite.
The statistics told us that Port were winning the ball and pumping it forward into the forward line.
Port dominated the inside-50 count, but there was no time and space for the Port forwards to move because the Crows had crowded most of their players into Port’s forward half.
As a result, Port’s scoring shots were always under pressure. When the scoreboard reads 5.18, questions have to be asked.
Three goals missed from relatively easy set shots indicates players who are not able to handle the mental pressure that forwards have to absorb in big games.
If you can’t kick easy goals in minor round games you won’t kick them come finals time.
Port’s three tall forwards didn’t function either. Charlie Dixon always presents a threat but he never gets an easy kick. He’s the most important tall forward but he needs much better delivery.
Todd Marshall needs to do more and Mitch Georgiades is still finding his feet after missing a year with that ACL injury.
The Crows tall defenders in Keane, Michalanney and the increasingly impressive Josh Worrell completely blanketed them.
Additionally, Adelaide’s team defence succeeded in reducing Port’s forwards to a concerning level of rushed, ineffective uncertainty.
The Crows tactics on the rebound when they eventually did win the ball were simple. Move the ball quickly into a deserted forward line.
Within five minutes, and completely against the flow of play, Darcy Fogarty had twice out-marked Lachie Jones and kicked the first two goals of the match.
From the outset it had seemed an unlikely match-up, explained only by the absence of Port’s most important defender, Aliir Aliir.
Changes were made but it was too late. Fogarty, a player who thrives on the confidence of early possessions had his best game of the year.
The Crows, who until this game had taken the league’s second-lowest number of marks inside their forward-50, finished with 11 marks from just 47 inside 50s.
From just three inside-50s the Crows kicked the first three goals of the match.
The most astounding statistic was that the Crows kicked the first seven goals from only 10 inside-50 entries.
It remains a mystery that only the Port coaching staff can answer why Adelaide’s forwards had so much room in which to move with no defender between the last Crows forward and the goals.
More specifically how can a player like Taylor Walker, who these days is not renowned for his pace and athleticism, run and bounce unchallenged and then goal from outside 50 at a crucial stage of the match.
To rub salt into a festering wound, Walker did chase down and tackle Zak Butters at a crucial stage of the third quarter – an event so unlikely that it obviously told the story of Port’s night.
The ease with which Adelaide scored and the accuracy condemned Port to further misery.
In hindsight, the result was not all that surprising. At the start of the week Port looked as if they would be without three of their most important players.
Aliir Aliir, who was missing under the concussion protocol was the defender they could least afford to lose.
Sam Powell-Pepper, who now misses the rest of the season with an ACL knee injury is their most dangerous forward and Connor Rozee, who shouldn’t have played, is their best midfielder as well as their captain.
The bookies said they were the favourites but old-fashioned football nous said otherwise.
They say Showdowns are different. It doesn’t matter where the two teams are on the ladder, the odds are always 50/50.
If anything, however, the results of the past three Showdowns have illustrated how fragile Port can be when the pressure is applied.
There is no excuse for not matching the pressure of your opponent. There is no excuse for poor inside-50 delivery. There is no excuse for missing easy set shots for goal. There is no excuse for opposition forwards running unchecked into their forward-50 and scoring easy goals. There is no excuse for not playing on immediately when you are trailing and have to score to win the game.
Mental strength and superior tactics. That’s what won it for the Crows this week.
Can they apply them to their remaining games? Can Port recover?
On Friday, the Power plays Geelong in Geelong. It’s a challenge that will test all of those qualities that determine sporting success. The foundation looks a little shaky.
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