Graham Cornes: Why Adelaide Crows must reappoint Taylor Walker to top job now

ADELAIDE Crows coach Don Pyke’s vapid words of support and defence for captain Taylor Walker fall on deaf ears until the club supports them with action, writes Graham Cornes.

Taylor Walker and Don Pyke at last year’s AFL grand final press conference. Picture Sarah Reed

WHENEVER leadership is questioned or challenged, be it in sport, business or politics, the image of the organisation is damaged.

The damage may initially be only slight, but the cumulative effects of constant speculation breaks down even the strongest of corporate or political resolves.

The Adelaide Football Club can wait no longer to reappoint Taylor Walker as captain.

Don Pyke’s vapid words of support and defence fall on deaf ears until the club supports them with action.

For despite the speculation, Taylor Walker should remain as skipper. The club had other options back in 2014 when Nathan van Berlo’s tenure was ended prematurely by injury.

Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane shared the leadership duties in that year but Dangerfield seemed the obvious choice to replace van Berlo.

He was the club’s best player – maybe its best ever – his on-field endeavour was wholehearted and he was a brilliant media performer.

Significantly, the honour of captaincy might have influenced him to stay. It’s hard to walk out on a team when you are the captain.

Sloane was a contender at the time but there was still a youthful exuberance about Rory that could have been mistaken for immaturity.

He led with his hard-nosed actions on the field but there was a open-faced naivety about him which while it was compelling, undermined his immediate leadership credentials.

However, the new coach Phil Walsh, saw something in the raw-boned Walker which wasn’t immediately obvious to observers from outside the club. To those who know him the charisma is magnetic and he has a genuine, appealing manner.

On-field however, his game-style is polarising. Old-school critics say he doesn’t impose himself on the contest as a player of his size should.

Taylor Walker, middle, flies for a mark against Essendon last year. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

They want a Wayne Carey or a Jonathon Brown. However, Walker’s strengths are skill, deft movement and a beautiful kick.

When they think he should crash the pack, he attempts to outmanoeuvre it.

When they want him to attack the ball with full-fronted aggression, he attempts to bodycheck and evade. Never has a Crows captain divided opinion so markedly.

Those critics however, can’t be given any real credence until they see him at first hand in the club surrounds.

The AFL players voted him as the best captain in the competition at the end of the 2016 season. It surprised many who rationalised it by the Phil Walsh tragedy and Walker’s duty to hold the team together in its moment of greatest need. But the critics were confounded again at the end of 2017 when those peers (from all the other clubs) again voted him as the league’s captain of the year. It’s time for the critics to back off.

Rory Sloane’s credentials for the Crows captaincy have never been better.

He represents everything a tough, inspiring leader should be. In hindsight he would have been great. But his time has come and gone.

He’s now in the right place but it’s the wrong time. The captaincy would make it hard for him to leave Adelaide under free agency at the end of the year but that’s not a good enough reason to make the change.

The demons of the 2017 grand final will continue to haunt the Crows players, particularly the forwards who didn’t give a yelp.

Only time will tell how much they impact. In the meantime, Taylor Walker must be re-elected captain forthwith. That will have an immediate effect: it will stop the speculation that continues to fester.

Plus it gives him a chance to atone for that disappointment in September last year.