Insider: On the attack — why the Adelaide Crows are a shock September threat

IN the lowest scoring season since 1968, attack is now the point of difference in the AFL. And that’s why the Crows loom as a shock September threat.

IN the lowest scoring season since 1968, attack is now the point of difference in the AFL.

And that is why the Crows — in the top eight for the first time this year after their upset win against Collingwood — loom as a shock September threat.

In the past six rounds — where Adelaide has made its surge from 11th to eighth — Brenton Sanderson’s side is the second-highest scoring team in the league.

From rounds 13 to 18, the Crows have averaged 105 points — just 2.5 points behind scoring machine Hawthorn and 6.5 points better than the next ranked club, Fremantle.

Adelaide — impotent in attack at the start of the season when it averaged just 75 points after three rounds — has kicked scores of 109, 92, 99, 140, 92 and 98 points in the past six weeks.

Not surprisingly, it has won four of those matches, including three against teams it is battling with for a finals spot — North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and the Magpies.

The statistics paint a glowing picture for the Crows and their chances of not only playing in September but being a threat if they get there.

In a year where teams are scoring at a 46-year low average of 86.1 points, Adelaide is able to pile on scoreboard pressure.

In the past six rounds it has a top four ranking in five key offensive categories.

They include scoring (ranked second with an average of 105 points), inside 50s (fourth, 55.7), percentage of scores once inside 50 (third, 50.9), percentage of goals once inside 50 (third, 27.5) and forward 50 versus defensive 50 contested possessions (first, +3).

The Crows also boast more players in the top 16 in the competition for scoreboard impact (three) than any other side.

This takes in goals, behinds, goal assists and behind assists.

Sydney multi-million dollar superstar Lance Franklin leads the league in scoreboard impact in the past six weeks with 180 total impact points.

But Crows players rank second (Eddie Betts), ninth (Taylor Walker) and 16th (Josh Jenkins).

Small forward Betts has kicked 18 goals and had nine score assists from rounds 13 to 18, which included games against the Kangaroos, Bombers, Power, Giants, Hawks and Magpies.

Adelaide’s best key forward Walker has 124 impact points, with 11 goals and 13 assists.

His key forward sidekick Jenkins — enjoying a career-best year — has 114 impact points, with 14 goals and seven score assists.

They have formed a deadly three-headed monster, with a strong contribution also coming from new recruit James Podsiadly, who has kicked 10 goals in this period while also dropping back into defence to take key intercept marks.

Of the 10 times the Crows have scored 90 points or more this season, six have come in the past six rounds and seven in the past eight.

In its first nine games this season, Adelaide passed the 90-point mark just three times and was kept to 81 points or less on six occasions.

Walker missed the first seven rounds as he recuperated from a knee reconstruction, which didn’t help the Crows’ attacking cause.

Adelaide also is benefiting from the return from injury of playmaking half-back Ricky Henderson, who has added to the drive provided by fellow running backmen Brodie Smith and Matthew Jaensch.

Finally, Sanderson’s pre-season call that the Crows’ multi-pronged attack will be “the envy of a lot of clubs’’ is starting to ring true.

“We’ve had some (injury) challenges but with the team and forward line we’ve got now we think if we can get the ball in there often enough and with a bit of time and space we will give the opposition a few headaches,’’ he said.

Migraines perhaps?