They were just 10 words in Jordan Dawson’s first press conference of the year, but they’ll lead the Crows to 2025 success if applied | Cornes

In just 10 words the Adelaide Crows priorities for 2025 were lay bare, and if they are applied and stuck to, they will be key to any Adelaide success this season, writes Graham Cornes.

They were just 10 words in Jordan Dawson’s first press conference of the year.

Passing almost unnoticed by the mainstream media and the Crows’ own website, that one sentence of 10 words gave some insight to the Crows’ priorities for 2025.

It also was an admission of sorts of what went wrong in 2024, the season that promised so much but disappointed so many.

“Lowering our eyes and setting our goals a bit shorter,” the captain replied when asked what the team had been focusing on in the pre-season return to training.

There was other talk about how competition was driving the players to set higher standards and the morale at training, the new players and so on.

One can deduce he means competition for spots in the team and four groups competing with one another in the various drills they are given to perform on the training track.

10 words by Jordan Dawson in his first press conference, if applied will be key to bringing the Crows success in 2025. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

But it is within those 10 words that the key to any Crows success in 2025 can be found.

“Lowering our eyes”? One of the Crows’ biggest problems last season was the number of times they turned the ball over at crucial moments in a match.

“Lowering the eyes” is normally a direction given to teams when they bring the ball into the forward line. It’s an instruction to stop players bombing the ball in recklessly so the forwards don’t have a tough time marking it. “Lower the eyes and respect the lead.” It’s hardly a new concept, so why do players find it so hard to execute?

Port Adelaide was probably worse last year in its execution of forward line entries but the Crows’ coaching staff obviously have identified the same issue.

Like many instructions, they don’t survive the heat of battle. The pressure opponents apply causes the breakdown. The only way to improve is to try to replicate that match day pressure on the training track.

Drill, drill and more drill. However, last season the Crows’ turnover problems seemed to be further afield.

Turnovers coming out of defence can hurt you a lot more than turnovers in the forward 50. So the same principle would apply. Don’t kick blindly. Lower the eyes and find a teammate with your disposal.

Adelaide wasn’t the worst team for turnovers in the competition last season – that embarrassment went to the Gold Coast Suns – but the Crows were in the bottom echelon of the ladder.

Every 5.4 times they kicked or handballed, they turned it over. That must improve. Consequently, the focus.

“Lowering our eyes and setting our goals a bit shorter,” are the key 10 words for the Crows this season. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Skill development is a constant focus of AFL coaches. It is sometimes hard to believe today’s footballers are the most skilful of any generation. When so many errors are made in a game and the ball is turned over at the rate of every five or six possessions, how can this group of footballers be the most skilful of all?

When they miss so many easy shots for goal how can they be more skilful than a Peter Hudson, a Tim Evans, Russell Ebert, Barrie Robran or even Darren Jarman?

The goalkicking one is hard to explain because play has stopped and there is no direct pressure on the kicker. That’s a psychological problem.

But the other one is all about direct pressure. Today’s footballer has no time or space when he takes possession of the ball. That’s why training has to simulate match pressure.

Of course, it’s more that just “lowering the eyes” but if it’s done correctly enough and often enough, it has to pay dividends.

Those of us who lived through the Sturt dominance of the Jack Oatey era were bombarded with the propaganda of just how much more skilful those Sturt teams were than the rest of the competition. Indeed, they played beautiful football and didn’t lack anything in physical presence but the focus was always on how much more skilful Oatey’s teams were than the other teams.

How and why became a journey of passion for most other aspiring coaches who could cross-examine former Sturt players.

Jordan Dawson of the Crows. Picture: Michael Klein

What did Jack do differently?

It turns out, not much. Sure, he had the 44-gallon drums on stands for handball practice and they spent a lot of time in the forward pocket practising checkside shots for goal.

But most of training centred on boring old circle work.

What he did do, however – and this was his secret – was to demand excellence and not tolerate skill errors.

He also identified those who were naturally skilled and gave them greater opportunities.

In time, the rest of the competition caught up but not before a glorious run of success.

So Matthew Nicks’s challenge is how to prepare his players to “lower their eyes” and use the ball better than the other teams. Demand it like Oatey did.

Hopefully he learned how to do that in his recent sojourn at Harvard Business School.

The other half of the captain’s quote will be a key part of any Crows revival this season. “Setting our goals a bit shorter.”

It’s an admission the Crows got ahead of themselves last season. It’s one thing to set goals but it’s another to simply assume you will achieve them.

All the talk at this time last year was how the Crows had been robbed of a finals spot by that goal umpiring error. So 2024 was going to be their year.

They were woefully underprepared psychologically and as a consequence the start to the year was disappointing.

Historically, the Crows have been most vulnerable when they are the favourites to win. We all remember the 2017 grand final when Adelaide went in as favourite, won the first quarter and then succumbed to a more desperate and balanced Richmond.

Regardless of the era, there is something in the team psyche that allows complacency to creep in. Therefore “setting our goals a bit shorter” makes excellence sense.

Of course, there have to be long-term goals – any coach will tell you that, but too many stumble at the next step because they are looking at the top of the mountain.

So a “short-term goal” can mean focusing on only the next match, or the next quarter, or, at its most basic, the next contest.

It can also mean setting higher standards for the next training session.

Dawson has been an impressive leader in his time at Adelaide. More the silent type whose actions speak louder than his words, he may be the man to lead the Crows from this woeful period of mediocrity.

The club’s first internal trial is on February 14 in Port Pirie. There will be short-term goals for that but they will centre on the competition for selection.

But the real test will come in round 1, which ridiculously is the second round of the season. The Crows play St Kilda on Adelaide Oval.

They must win that game, but steady, that’s a long-term goal.