Key Crows should look to Riewoldt example: Bickley
Crows veterans Taylor Walker and Rory Sloane must find new on-field roles and a new mindset to help the side rebuild, writes Mark Bickley.
Mark Bickley
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What’s Taylor Walker and Rory Sloane’s motivation to keep playing?
An exodus of senior players last year and five debutants in the first two rounds leaves little doubt that the Crows are in for a total rebuild.
When you strip the list back like that there is always collateral damage.
For Adelaide, it has snuffed out the premiership hopes of its veteran players.
No team had ever been closer to winning a flag than St Kilda in 2009 and 2010.
Beaten narrowly in the 2009 grand final and playing out a draw in 2010, only to miss out again a week later in the replay. So when the premiership window closed after missing the finals in 2012, the moment was a jarring one for inspirational skipper Nick Riewoldt.
The realisation that achieving every footballer’s dream, a premiership at the highest level, was not going to happen.
The Crows, whilst not as dominant as Riewoldt’s Saints, have certainly been in contention for a while. Finals in 2015 and 2016, a grand final in 2017 and then high expectations with a mature list in 2018
and 2019.
After the weekend, you would have to think two key Crows are coming to that same realisation.
At 30 years of age, captain Rory Sloane, and former skipper Walker look resigned to the same fate.
This week, Riewoldt
admitted it took some time for him to get his head around the situation and initially lost his edge.
“I went through an adjustment process,” Riewoldt said.
“For a while, there was a loss of purpose, I had to adapt to a new reality that this was no longer about self”.
Riewoldt’s mindset moved towards what sort of legacy would he leave.
How, in his final seasons, could he steer his beloved Saints back into the direction of success, even if he wasn’t going to be around to experience it?
With the premiership carrot removed, he had to seek out new challenges to regain his motivation.
He changed positions, pushing higher up the ground in his later years
His leadership also changed from ever-demanding to more of a teaching mentor.
The involvement with and development of the younger players became a source of nourishment.
Riewoldt played five more seasons without another finals appearance.
His high playing standards remained uncompromised, winning a fourth club champion and earning a fifth All-Australian honour.
This is the new challenge for Sloane and Walker.
Walker is the perfect mentor for 20-year-old prodigy Darcy Fogarty.
There is an opportunity for Fogarty to assume the mantle of Adelaide’s key target in the forward line, providing more opportunities to fast-track his development, while at the same time allowing Walker more freedom further up
the ground.
If, as we all anticipate, Fogarty is to eventually become the Crows’ main man in attack, get the ball rolling now and have him do it with Walker as an on-field mentor to assist with and speed up the transition.
The same progression of responsibilities needs to happen with Sloane.
Both Crouch brothers have won club champion awards playing in the midfield, but unless some speed and class is injected into that area of the ground, it’s always going to be hard work for Adelaide.
Brodie Smith, Wayne Milera and Chayce Jones have the exact skill set and physical attributes required to succeed, so must get continual exposure in this position to master their craft.
The midfield and stoppages have many nuances, and just like Rory gradually had his midfield opportunities increased as Edwards, Goodwin, and McLeod neared the end of their careers, the same process must happen again.
Luke Hodge, Shannon Hurn, and Jarrad McVeigh are all recent examples of leaders marshalling their troops from half back. Sloane could easily do the same.
The term “rebuild” conjures up thoughts of gathering everybody who turns 30 in the next year or two and showing them the door.
That model has been tried, and proven unsuccessful.
You have to have a core group of senior players who model the values you want the younger players to adopt.
Anyone who has followed Adelaide closely over the past decade would have seen Walker and Sloane develop both on and off the field.
They have stuck with the club through its many highs and lows.
They can provide a sustainable framework for the next generation of players to adhere to and build on.
One that when their time at the club does come to an end, sees Adelaide as a spirited, competitive outfit, poised to return to finals action again.