Adelaide Crows campaign starts with chairman Rob Chapman’s pre-season optimism, ends with no men’s finals, fan discontent
What a difference seven months makes. In January, Crows chairman Rob Chapman had huge optimism about 2019. By Sunday, Don Pyke was taking solace from avoiding a huge loss.
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Don Pyke coached Adelaide to a grand final just two years ago.
On Sunday, Pyke took solace from not getting blown away by the Western Bulldogs during the final quarter of what was eventually a 34-point loss in the last minor round.
“We gave them a six-goal start before we even got close to going but to our guys’ credit, they fought it out really well,” the fourth-year coach said at his post-match press conference.
“There wasn’t a lot to play for but I thought they showed some spirit.”
The comment was another indication of how far the Crows have fallen in such a short time.
When the fixture was released last October, the club would have eyed the round 23 game against the Bulldogs as a finals tune-up.
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After all, 2019 was supposed to be a bounce-back year from 2018’s slide to 12th place.
Only seven months ago Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman told a room full of Crows stakeholders he was unsure if he had “gone into a season with a greater sense of optimism or level of confidence about the health of our football club”.
“The club is in great shape across all areas,” Chapman said at a pre-season function.
“By and large, the playing list, which has been enhanced with some new talent, is all fit and training well.
“The club has strong and stable leadership across board, management and senior coaching groups. Membership and sponsorship is tracking extremely well.
“The challenge is to make sure that all of those healthy positives transfer into on-field success for both the women’s and the men’s team.”
Adelaide’s women held up their end, winning their second flag in three seasons and earning widespread admiration for doing so in front of a record crowd for a domestic game of female sport in Australia, 53,034 at Adelaide Oval.
But the Crows’ men proved last year was not the aberration many inside and outside the club thought as 2019 yielded even fewer wins – 10 down from 12 – and far more fan discontent.
As Adelaide prepares for an external review of its football department, the main question those charged with undertaking it will be trying to answer is: how have things gone so wrong for its men?
Last year, there were a horror run of injuries and the fallout from pre-season, which included some players returning from their breaks in poor physical condition and the controversial mind-training camp.
This campaign, Adelaide could not blame those factors.
The Crows lost the second-fewest games (116) across the league to injury – Brisbane (78) had the least, Melbourne (254) the most and cross-town rival Port Adelaide (141) sat 14th – and the key words associated with pre-season were “fun” and “enjoyment”, rather than “playing catch-up” or “Collective Mind”.
But signs 2019 might look more like 2018 than 2017 emerged from the opening round.
Adelaide suffered a shock 32-point home loss to Hawthorn in a game the Crows were held to their lowest score (55) at Adelaide Oval to that point.
Three rounds later, Pyke’s side had slumped to a 1-3 record after another surprise defeat – and low score of 59 – against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium.
The Crows looked as though they might get back on track when they sat fifth with an 8-5 record going into their bye but it proved a false dawn.
Instead the wheels fell off, losing seven of their last nine games to beat only St Kilda and Gold Coast, while scoring and home crowds decreased for the fourth consecutive season.
Now, those pre-season good vibes around the club, built up by the AFLW success and expectation of redemption, have also well and truly gone.
The aftermath of the review – who goes, who stays, who comes in and what ideas are put in place – will set the tone for 2020 and beyond, and go some way to appeasing supporters.
No matter what changes are made, the Crows will ultimately be judged by how they respond on the field.
Because as the past two years at Adelaide have shown, talk is cheap and optimism fades fast if the problems are not addressed.