Things can’t get much worse for the Crows but it’s not just injuries that have led to a shocking season start

With so much promise at the end of 2023, Graham Cornes unpacks what has gone wrong with the Crows and their woeful start to the season.

Graham Cornes takes a look at what has gone wrong with the Crows as they slump 0-4. Picture: Michael Willson

How has it come to this? How can a team that finished season 2023 so full of optimism for the future now resemble a team that is completely bereft of confidence?

This is now a team that lacks cohesion and, if we are being brutally honest, lacks talent.

Most damning, however, is that somewhere over summer this Crows outfit lost the desire to bring its maximum effort for four quarters.

Adelaide, which last year was the league’s highest scoring team, has averaged barely 57 points in the first four matches of this season.

For a team that last week preached the word “shape”, (the club’s new buzzword), it looked decidedly out of shape for three quarters on Thursday night.

To the football layman that word shape might indicate fitness levels but in the context of modern football, it means how those 18 players on the field position themselves to either attack or defend.

Mark Keane of the Crows battles for the ground ball with Bailey Fritsch of the Demons during the 1st quarter. Picture: Michael Klein

Too many times on Thursday the Crows lacked that shape to prevent Melbourne scoring.

But wasn’t the summer emphasis on team defence? Or did that summer emphasis on team defence come at the expense of an attacking game plan? Or maybe it is simply personnel.

In round 19 last season a plucky Crows team lost by four points to Melbourne at the MCG.

It wasn’t a win but it indicated the team was on the right track.

Then they won three of the last five matches of 2023, the losses – brave ones – being by six points against grand finalist Brisbane at the Gabba, and that controversial one-point loss to Sydney.

No wonder expectations were high. On Thursday night, missing from the team that lost to Melbourne last year were seven players: Nick Murray, Wayne Milera, Harry Schoenberg, Lachie Murphy, Riley Thilthorpe (all injured), Shane McAdam, who ironically was traded to Melbourne, and Luke Pedlar.

Those injuries have not been kind to Adelaide.

Murray, Milera, Thilthorpe, arguably Schoenberg and Murphy, would be in Adelaide’s best line-up. Although only Murphy and Milera finished inside the top 10 in the club’s best and fairest count last year.

However today’s team looks decidedly weaker with the absence of Murray and Thilthorpe – especially Thilthorpe, around who there was so much pre-season hype.

Of all the players the Crows would least like to lose for the best part of a season, it is Riley Thilthorpe. Either of his roles, be it as the back-up ruckman or a tall forward, are vital to Adelaide and have not been adequately replaced.

It’s hard to be critical of Chris Burgess, who joined Adelaide after starring for the Gold Coast’s reserve team last year in the North Eastern Australian Football League and is playing that role. He wouldn’t have realistically expected to be playing for the Crows in round 1, let alone as a ruckman.

Jake Soligo of the Crows surrounded by Demons players. Picture: Michael Klein

But Thilthorpe’s injury exposed Adelaide’s lack of tall, talented big men. I admire his courage and willingness to accept the role but his strength is forward of centre where he has displayed flashes of his forward craft.

However, with Thilthorpe seemingly about eight weeks away, coach Matthew Nicks’s options forward of centre are limited. Burgess’s role would be helped by better, quicker delivery.

While forward line efficiency is often dependant on personnel, it still comes down to system and accuracy. This has been Adelaide’s biggest problem in 2024.

Gone is that exciting, attacking ball movement that last year promised an exciting future. Too often the defenders hold on to the ball for too long after a mark or free kick. There has been no courage to “take the game on”. There’s been no instinct to play-on at all costs.

Sure, mistakes might be made, but good coaches will forgive those mistakes if they are made with good attacking intent.

Josh Rachele of the Crows looked dejected the loss to Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. Picture: Michael Willson

“I don’t mind if you make a mistake, but make it flat out. Just make sure you learn from it and don’t repeat it,” an old coach of mine used to say.

He was right. A mistake made with courageous attacking intent should always be excused.

And that’s what is lacking with the Crows at the moment. They lack the courage to play the positive attacking football that so excited us in 2023 and gave us great optimism for the future.

The most obvious ramification of that is that the forward-line players very rarely get easy kicks. The forward line is clogged up by opposition players who have had time to get back into defence.

It’s hard enough competing one-on-one with a talented defender without having to jump against the opposition ruckman or midfielder who has flooded back into your forward line. Adelaide’s forwards have been criticised for their lack of productivity but their teammates don’t make it easy for them.

So what is different about Adelaide’s forward line compared to last season? There are two main differences: Thilthorpe is missing and Taylor Walker is not having the impact that he had last year.

A slow preparation, back injury and personal tragedy have stalled Tex Walker’s season. Picture: Mark Brake

Season 2023 was Walker’s best in a long and storeyed career. His 3.4 goal average was the best in the competition and for the first time he was rewarded with All Australian selection. He was the true power forward. But it couldn’t last.

A slow preparation then a back injury stalled his progress.

Then personal tragedy hit with the loss of his father-in-law. Only those with the coldest of hearts would not understand how that would impact.

He battled on Thursday night and always looked dangerous but the Melbourne defence was at its most desperate and difficult to play against.

Adelaide’s forwards were not helped by the delivery. Rarely did teammates up the ground kick to their forwards’ advantage. Did they not learn anything from the round 2 match against Geelong when the Cat’s defender Tom Stewart marked everything that entered the Crows forward 50?

Melbourne defenders Jake Lever and Steven May did mark everything that came their way and the Adelaide coaching team didn’t seem to have a plan to counter them.

It’s not rocket science. Quick leads into space before the space is filled by defensive players will do it – unless your teammate gets in your way like Josh Rachelle did at a critical stage of the last quarter.

Maybe with the dearth of tall forwards they could play an extra small player and keep the ball at ground level, rather than bombing it in long. However, the ball must at least come to ground. Under no circumstances should a defender outmark his forward opponent.

But all that starts with the midfielders whose methods of delivery have to change.

Greater football minds than this writer may have different ideas but something has to change.

Matthew Nicks will take the positives and emphasise them.

They started well even though they couldn’t convert forward 50 entries.

They finished well, holding Melbourne goal-less in the final quarter, but could kick only two goals. It was not enough close the gap.

Jake Soligo with an enhanced midfield role played well. Defender Mark Keane, the Irishman, continued his impressive development, although he learned the danger of questioning the umpire (even though he had a case).

Darcy Fogarty was interviewed during the week and he revisited that old football cliche. “Things are never as good as they seem, nor are they ever as bad”, he said.

I’m not so sure. Things can’t get too much worse at the Crows. They must unlock once again, that desperate passion for the contest.