Adelaide co-captain Taylor Walker must aim to kick 75 goals in 2019 for the Crows to be a finals force
If the Crows are going to make an impression on the 2019 AFL premiership season, Taylor Walker must produce a career-best year and 75 goals should be his target.
Chris McDermott
Don't miss out on the headlines from Chris McDermott. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s Taylor time. If the Crows are going to make an impression on the 2019 AFL premiership season, Taylor Walker must produce a career-best season.
All 22 minor-round games, 75 marks inside 50m and 75 goals should be his target.
After a more-than-challenging few years both professionally and personally, it is time for Walker to focus on himself and be the best player he can possibly be.
At his best — and if played in the most damaging position he can play — Walker is easily a 75-goal forward.
With good health and a dose of good fortune that 75-goal haul could get much closer to the magical 100 mark.
The closer Walker can get to three figures, the higher the Crows will finish on the ladder.
They are not a one-man team but one man can make a very big difference.
Many experts say the days of the 100-goal forward are gone. I could not disagree more.
What goes around comes around and the day will come in the not too distant future when the 100-goal forward will return.
He has been in hibernation for some time.
Not since 2008 when Buddy Franklin kicked 102 goals for Hawthorn has the magical mark been reached.
Carlton’s Brendan Fevola has come closest, kicking 86 goals the year after Buddy, while West Coast’s Josh Kennedy kicked 80 in 2016.
In recent times the Coleman Medal has been won with hauls in the 60s.
The game is poorer for it.
In the 11 seasons from 1986 to 1996 the magical mark was broken every year bar one, 1990, when John Longmire fell just two goals short on 98.
Believe it or not, team scoring hasn’t changed much over that time.
North Melbourne topped the charts for scoring in 1998 with 2486 points in the 22 minor round games.
Last season Melbourne ranked number 1 with 2299.
The year before it was the Crows with 2415.
Though the totals haven’t changed much, the way teams score has.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Monkey see, monkey do, is the way of the AFL at present but a creative genius will come along soon and change the game as we currently know it.
The rule changes in 2019 may well fast track it.
“Tex” can break the recent trend but he must return to his dominant ways of 2012.
It may have been a different time and a different game style for the Crows skipper but it was Walker at his most dangerous and opposition teams were challenged every week to stop him.
In the 19 games he played that season, he kicked a career high 63 goals 35.
It was Brenton Sanderson’s first season as coach and the free flowing Crows finished a straight kick short of a Grand Final appearance after losing a nailbiting Preliminary final to the Hawks.
Walker kicked four straight and a total of 10 in his three finals.
He has never kicked more goals in a season since and never been as dangerous inside 50.
Playing predominantly as a stay-at-home key forward he ranked fifth for marks inside 50m (66) and second for goal efficiency, kicking at an impressive 62.4 per cent accuracy behind North Melbourne’s Drew Petrie (66.7 per cent).
In his injury-interrupted 2018 season those numbers dropped considerably to just 17 marks inside 50m and 26 goals at 53 per cent accuracy.
Strong consideration must be given to returning him to his former glory.
If Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt can do it and with such great impact on the 2017 premier, so can Walker and with Mitch McGovern gone it is even more important Tex stay within range.
Coach Don Pyke has declared his hand with fellow forward Josh Jenkins and shown he is reluctant to move him outside the 50m arc.
The duo must quickly form a complimentary partnership and challenge the opposition to contain them both.
Jenkins must learn quickly the art of playing the decoy at times. It will not effect his influence or importance to the team. It may improve it.
A 75-goal Walker and a 50 goal Jenkins would all but guarantee the Crows return to finals and if Betts can chip in with a similar haul to Jenkins that climb up the ladder will be even greater.
Last year was a disappointment but it wasn’t simply the forwards fault. The Crows Inside 50s dropped by near 10 per cent and as a result their scoring reduced from 2415 in their Grand Final season of 2017 to 1941 last year.
It’s time for the Crows to get their attack back.
Second chances rarely pay off for AFL coaches
History suggests strongly that if you miss out on a premiership at your first try as a coach, you should not get another chance — unless you’re Mick Malthouse or Malcolm Blight, writes Chris McDermott.
When two tribes go to war
It was the game that stopped a state — the first Showdown between the Crows and Power on April 20, 1997. Chris McDermott shares his memories for Part 1 of The Greatest Showdowns series.