Adelaide Crows go handball happy early in 2014

WHEN Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said he wanted to “flip the ball around a little bit more’’ this season he wasn’t kidding.

WHEN Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said he wanted to “flip the ball around a little bit more’’ this season he wasn’t kidding.

Two seasons after the Crows were renowned as a kicking side after recording the highest kick-to-handball ratio in the AFL, Sanderson’s outfit has become the competition’s handball kings.

While it is dangerous to draw too many conclusions from round and a series of pre-season games, the early statistics clearly point to a major change in Adelaide’s game plan.

In Sanderson’s first year in charge in 2012, the Crows recorded a kick-to-handball ratio of 1.63:1 — the highest in the league.

It was a far cry from the final year of the Neil Craig era when the Crows ranked 15th in kicks to handball use, with a 1.24:1 ratio.

Last year, Sanderson’s team had a 1.44:1 kick-to-handball ratio — ranked 14th.

In three pre-season games this year, Adelaide’s ratio dropped to 1.17:1.

And it fell below 1.00:1 for the first time in three years against Geelong at Simonds Stadium in round one, when the Crows went handball happy, recording 178 kicks and 192 handballs.

The last time they had more handpasses than kicks in a match was against West Coast in round 24, 2011, when they registered 173 kicks and 174 handballs.

After the pre-season 10-goal mauling of hometown rival Port Adelaide, Sanderson spoke of his desire to get Adelaide to handball more and “look to run and carry a bit more to get some inside 30s, not just inside 50s’’.

‘The most obvious one (change in game plan) was our kick-to-handball ratio,’’ Sanderson said after the Crows had 223 kicks and 198 handballs.

“We were up to about 1.6 kicks to every handball last year but for this game we were almost one-to-one.

“Most importantly we got the ball to dangerous parts of our forward 50 whereas I thought last year we went a lot wider, so it was good.’’

Adelaide — which was accused of playing static football in its ill-fated 2013 campaign — appeared to benefit from its new run-and-carry game in the pre-season, going undefeated.

But the Crows overcooked the handball against the swarming Cats, turning the ball over at crucial times.

While they gained 374 handball metres — ranked second for the round — too often the ball went back the other way.

Asked about the one-sided handballing statistic, Sanderson said: “We don’t want to handball more than we kick.

“But that was Geelong’s pressure I think.

“They stuck their tackles, it felt like they swarmed us and their ability to pressure us at the contest was something we could not handle at times.’’

Veteran midfielder Scott Thompson said his team’s overuse of handball was “partly our fault and partly Geelong’s pressure’’.

“Their pressure was really good but we’ve covered off on a few of those things,’’ he said.

“Going forward, we don’t want to overuse the ball but sometimes the opposition pressure is that good it can force you into doing that.

“But do we want to do it? No.’’

Now it’s a matter of finding the right balance.

HANDBALL-HAPPY CROWS

2011 — Kick-to-handball ratio, 1.24:1, Handball ranking 3

2012 — 1.63:1, 18

2013 — 1.44:1, 13

2014 Pre-season — 1.17:1, 5

2014 R1 — 0.93:1, 1

HANDBALL KINGS

Crows with lowest kick-to-handball ratio (includes pre-season and round one)

Sam Kerridge — Kicks 19, Handballs 36, Kick-to-handball ratio 0.53

Scott Thompson — 26, 45, 0.58

Cam Ellis-Yolmen — 12, 20, 0.60

Kyle Hartigan — 8, 12, 0.67

Matt Crouch — 16, 23, 0.70

Brad Crouch — 5, 7, 0.71

Rory Sloane — 32, 40, 0.80

Patrick Dangerfield — 33, 41, 0.80

Jared Petrenko — 6, 7, 0.86

David Mackay — 37, 43, 0.86

Andy Otten — 8, 9, 0.89

Jarryd Lyons — 24, 27, 0.89

Daniel Talia — 22, 22, 1.00

Luke Thompson — 6, 6, 1.00

Sam Shaw — 23, 23, 1.00

192 — Adelaide handballs against Geelong in round one. The Crows had just 178 kicks, giving them the AFL’s lowest kick-to-handball ratio of 0.93:1.

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