Crows' failure to tackle is holding them back - Insider with Andrew Capel

WHEN legendary coach David Parkin this month labelled Adelaide as the worst tackling team he had seen, the alarm bells started ringing at West Lakes.

WHEN legendary coach David Parkin this month labelled Adelaide as the worst tackling team he had seen, the alarm bells started ringing louder at West Lakes.

"If David Parkin thinks it ...... he's a pretty good judge," was Crows coach Brenton Sanderson's response. "We've acknowledged that our tackling is not at the level that it should be."

That is an understatement.

And while Sanderson has declared "the future's really bright for our team" - it should be given the quality of young players on the list - his summer has to largely be spent sorting out the tackling mess.

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If not, the Crows will struggle to feature when the whips are cracking in September.

Statistically, Adelaide ranks 16th for total tackles and tackling differential this year.

Its disappointing average of 59.2 is better than only Richmond (56.7) and St Kilda (58.3).

The Tigers - headed for their first finals campaign since 2001 - won't go far in the finals if they cannot start stripping highly-ranked opponents of the ball.

To put the Crows' tackling numbers in perspective, premier Sydney is laying 15 extra tackles a game.

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Adelaide's woeful numbers have been made to look better by the club-record 99 it laid when it last met this Sunday's opponent, the Western Bulldogs, at AAMI Stadium in round four.

On that miserable, wet day, the Crows had eight players record six or more tackles, led by Richard Douglas's nine.

Take the 99 out of the equation and Adelaide has averaged a meagre 56 tackles in its 18 other matches - the worst result in the league.

The Crows have a -79 tackling differential against their opponents. In wins they are tracking at -0.5 per game. In losses it blows out to -6.8.

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Damningly, Adelaide does not have one player ranked in the top-35 in the competition for average tackles.

Their leading tackler is veteran Scott Thompson, with 90. On average, he ranks 38th with 4.7 a game.

Douglas ranks second at Crowland with 79 and midfield terrier Rory Sloane has 73.

But then there is a big gap to the next-ranked players, Bernie Vince and David Mackay on 61.

A host of regulars are averaging less than two tackles - Brodie Smith, Tom Lynch, Ricky Henderson, Luke Brown, Ben Rutten, Jason Porplyzia, Daniel Talia, Sam Jacobs and Josh Jenkins.

In fairness, midfielders - rather than forwards, backs and ruckmen - are usually the biggest tacklers.
Small forward Jared Petrenko deserves some credit. While he has had an injury-interrupted season, his tackling average of 4.1 ranks sixth in the competition for forwards.

Adelaide was so poor at the start of the season in holding tackles that it brought in two rugby experts to teach the players how to tackle better.

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They got the response they were looking for against the Dogs. But it's been downhill ever since.

"You know how much it frustrates me when we're not tackling (well)," Sanderson said.

"That - and our goalkicking - are our constants. Once again (against North Melbourne last week) people slipped us in the tackles and if they don't slip us we give away a free kick, so it's a real frustration of mine.

"We do tackle hard during the week, we do a lot of tackling school, we do a lot of breakdown drills to try to identify ways to get better.

"It was the same in 2012. We won 17 games in 2012 but we were down near the bottom of the table in tackling.

"So it's an issue for our squad that we have to get better at."

With the alarm bells having rung loud and clear there can be no excuses next year.