Crows close disappointing year with winning 12-10 record — and some good reasons to expect a quick rebound in season 2019
CROWS coach Don Pyke can pack away a bizarre year with renewed confidence of a sharp rebound in season 2019 after falling from the 2017 grand final to missing the top eight.
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AND so a year that began for the Adelaide Football Club with a folly in the sunshine on the Gold Coast ends with a jolly 104-point win against Carlton under the roof of Melbourne’s Docklands.
Bring on Season 2019 with new hope … and, surely, with new luck for a much-admired team that started this year with high expectation and finished with the most-disappointing record of all the original AFL premiership contenders this season.
The Crows most probably will finish 12th, possibly 11th if North Melbourne loses to St Kilda today — a year after another grand finalist, the Western Bulldogs, crashed from 2016 AFL premiers to 10th.
Still it is a “winning” season — with a 12-10 win-loss count — for senior coach Don Pyke, who has certainly taken his players’ advice from the mid-season break to not be so overbearing with his mood.
Pyke has genuine reason to smile, even if beating the last-ranked “rebuilding” Blues is somewhat ho-hum in terms of collecting football scalps these days. Since the start of August, when the Crows collected the Showdown Shield by beating Port Adelaide, Pyke has had his own new spring in his step from watching his Crows play “good football” again.
They are running. They have rebound from defence again, particularly with the rise of former half-forward Wayne Milera. They are throwing the ball around again. And they are scoring big. Adelaide’s 26-9 (165) marked the Crows’ biggest score of the season, surpassing the 125 scored against Carlton in Round 7. The 165 points also marks the highest score in the AFL this season.
It was anything but conventional for Adelaide on its team sheet or line-up for this home-and-away season closer than puts the Crows on holidays at the end of August for the first time since 2014 (when they ranked 10th).
The captaincy role again was with forward Tom Lynch, in the absence (by suspension) of Taylor Walker and the late withdrawal of vice-captain Rory Sloane with a family tragedy.
Mitch McGovern had to move from attack to defence, possibly further tantalising Carlton that has its No. 1 call in November’s draft eagerly wanted by the Crows to secure South Australian junior forward Jack Lukosius.
Adelaide’s eagerness for a new hero in attack — and possible ruck support for the overworked Sam Jacobs — was given some satisfaction with the debut of 198cm Queenslander Elliott Himmelberg. He missed his first opportunity to score a goal from a set shot midway through the second term. And he made the video highlights of his first AFL goal more exciting by shaking off a tackle and nailing a running goal on a tight angle two minutes later.
Some things from this awkward season will be worth remembering for the right reasons.
FIVE THINGS WE’VE LEARNED
1. CROWS key forward Josh Jenkins continues to enjoy playing on Etihad Stadium where he completed his 15th game by improved his career scoring count to (48.20) with his seven-goal return against Carlton. He finished the season with (46.27) to be Adelaide’s leading goalkicking.
2. CROWS lead ruckman Sam Jacobs did well while carrying the strain of a long, demanding year — and the burden of working with a sore back for much of this year. The AFL’s plan to introduce “starting positions” next season should put finding support for Jacobs on the priority list in October’s AFL trade period.
3. CONTRACTED Crows key position player Mitch McGovern will be considered by many to have been on audition to Carlton as the questions deepen on how Adelaide can secure the Blues’ No. 1 draft pick. He played in defence as Adelaide opted to put its two key forward roles to Jenkins and debutant Elliott Himmelburg.
4. WAYNE Milera’s successful transition from half-forward to half-back to be an assertive playmaker delivers a great gain from a disappointing season for coach Don Pyke. So which of Milera, Brodie Smith and All-Australian Rory Laird stay at half-back next season — and who moves to the midfield?
5. ADELAIDE started the year with forward Tom Lynch as acting captain in a pre-season game against Fremantle at Strathalbyn. And — in the absence of suspended captain Taylor Walker and with vice-captain Rory Sloane withdrawing from this match for a private family matter — Lynch closed the season as acting skipper.
— Michelangelo Rucci