Adelaide’s forwards share the load or pay the price
THEY are the Crows’ coffee club. Miss a goal when you could have given the ball to a forward line team-mate in a better position and it’s your buy. Andrew Capel explains. Replay AC’s blog here now.
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THEY are the Crows’ coffee club. Miss a goal when you could have given the ball to a forward line teammate in a better position and it’s your buy.
Forwards coach David Teague has revealed Adelaide’s main attacking weapons are so unselfish that each of them gets more satisfaction out of dishing a goal out to a teammate than kicking it themself.
Adelaide, the AFL’s highest scoring team after round 17, averaging 111.6 points, is streets ahead in goal and score assists among its forwards.
Captain Taylor Walker, fellow talls Josh Jenkins and Tom Lynch, pocket rocket Eddie Betts and his speed demon partner-in-excitement Charlie Cameron rank as elite for handing out scores to teammates, illustrating the team-first and “sharing and caring’’ approach that has helped propel the team from finals hope to premiership contender.
The club’s other regular forward, second-year revelation Mitch McGovern, ranks as above average for score assists from a forward.
While the Crows lead exciting GWS by just 0.8 points in total scoring, they lead score assists by forwards by a whopping 58 from next-placed Sydney and they have more than tripled bottom-ranked Essendon’s total.
Adelaide has 174 score assists from forwards for the season with the Swans a long way back in second place with 116.
It is a statistic the Crows and their forwards are extremely proud of because it highlights their team-first approach and proves just what a nightmare match-up they are for opponents.
It is case of if one doesn’t get you another one will.
Adelaide has had five forwards kick more than 20 goals this year — Jenkins and Betts (44), Walker (36), Lynch (26) and McGovern (21) — in an attack labelled as the best in club history.
But it is in the assists column that it stands head and shoulders above the rest of the competition.
Adelaide boasts five players in the top nine in the competition for score assists among forwards — Walker (30), Lynch (28), Jenkins (27), Betts (23) and Cameron (22), while McGovern (19) sits just outside the top 10.
A score assist is recorded for a last disposal or knock-on that results in a teammate scoring.
Most clubs’ score assists come from their midfielders, with the Crows’ opponent tomorrow, Geelong, ranking second in the competition for score assists (292) but 10th for score assists from forwards (91).
But Adelaide’s attackers show they are caring and sharing types.
“We think we’ve got a really good team brand,’’ Teague said.
“Our ability to share the ball, particularly in the front half, is very unselfish. They are all playing their role and as long as we’ve got six or seven forwards out there doing that then as a forward line coach I’m very happy.
“We play team footy and if there’s someone in a better position then we expect them to give it to them.
“But the players have probably driven that as much as anyone. I think they’ve got to buy each other a coffee if they miss a shot and someone is in a better spot.
“It is something they believe in. I know they check their score assists, their goal assists, probably more than they check their (own) goals.
“That’s the culture that you build. The boys don’t care who is kicking the goals, whether one week ‘Tex’ (Walker) kicks eight and the next week Eddie (Betts) kicks five.
“They don’t care as long as they are all playing their role and the team is winning.’’
Teague said while the coaching staff is preaching a team-first approach under new mentor Don Pyke the players had taken it upon themselves to drive the unselfish route to goal.
“It’s player driven as much as anything,’’ he said.
“When you’ve got guys like Betts who is such a caring person, Lynch is a real sharer, ‘JJ’ is a carer, ‘Tex’ is a carer, they’ve actually got care in their DNA, so when they go out onto the footy field they care about their team and their teammates around them.’’
SHARING THE LOAD
Adelaide’s team-first philosophy has taken on extra meaning for the club’s forwards who are so focused on sharing the ball in the attacking 50 that they dominate the competition for score assists by forwards.
Score assists by forwards
Total score assists
Leading score assists by forwards
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