Reviews now the main game barring finals miracle for Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power
For the second consecutive year — and first time since 2010-2011 — the Crows and Power could miss AFL finals in the same season. The ‘reviews’ of their clubs and football programs will be the hot topic.
- Absent ‘true believers’ threaten to tear Port apart
- Concede three on trot and it’s goodnight Crows
- Hinkley makes his case to stay at Power
- ‘Dougy’ bows out at Crows — but open to other offers
At best, one of the SA-based AFL club will advance from “Super Sunday” to September’s top-eight finals.
In a year of the ridiculous — that manifests to Port Adelaide fans wanting the Crows to win in Ballarat on Sunday — there is always hope of a miracle. But only one of Adelaide and the Power can be blessed this weekend with a call to finals action.
And then? “Exit” meetings for player squads that inevitably change with retirements, delistings and defections. List-management plans that have been in place for months need to be converted to action in October’s trade period and November’s national draft.
In between there will be the “R” moment. The one that creates anticipation among disgruntled fans that a guillotine is being ordered to make key men at West Lakes and Alberton pay the price for a season of unfulfilled expectation.
The “Review”.
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Remarkably, the SA-based team that has failed to deliver the most — Adelaide — is under the least pressure to react, particularly towards its coach Don Pyke.
Adelaide was expected to be a top-four finisher with a rebound from a disastrous 2018 campaign that was wrecked by soft-tissue injuries — and the fallout (be it real or perceived) from the Collective Mind pre-season camp on the Gold Coast.
For the first time since 2013-14, the Crows could (probably will) miss AFL finals in consecutive years. Then it cost coach Brenton Sanderson his job with club chairman Rob Chapman, fearing members clearing their seats, saying: “We won’t accept mediocrity. Our fans and supporters don’t accept mediocrity.”
The Crows are, by their own definition from 2013-14, mediocre again. After being 8-5 — and beating premiership contender Richmond by 33 points at Adelaide Oval — Pyke’s team has a 2-6 win-loss record that includes a 95-point belting of wooden-spooner Gold Coast.
Pyke seems safe, very safe, even though his gameplan, with slower, less-adventurous plays, grates on the fan base and seems so ill fitting to the Crows players. Key forward Josh Jenkins said as much on Wednesday.
So what will the review — most likely by external eyes from KPMG that led the meaningful refit at Richmond in the lead-up to its drought-breaking premiership in 2017- conclude at West Lakes?
It is time to let Pyke build his own squad to suit his playbook. The assistant coaching panel is likely to change. And the next two years — that are on Pyke’s contract — will test that unease with mediocrity that annoys the Crows’ top-end backers.
Port Adelaide’s review is a test of the club’s leaders, in particular chief executive Keith Thomas who has become strongly aligned to coach Ken Hinkley (take note of Fremantle this week pairing the exits of coach Ross Lyon and the chief executive tied to his hip, Steve Rosich).
Port Adelaide is tormented by a fan base threatening to tear up membership tickets to create a new $1 million hole in the club’s strained finances.
But back to the review that will command much external attention as SA football deals with both the Crows and Power missing AFL finals in consecutive years for the first time since 2010-2011.
Port Adelaide’s best has risen this season. The Power has beaten top-eight sides, AFL premier West Coast in the Eagle’s challenging Perth Stadium, Geelong and Essendon after being 2-6 against the competition pacesetters last year.
However, Port Adelaide’s worst — as highlighted by last week’s humiliation to North Melbourne — remains damaging to the team’s progress from the “no man’s zone” around ninth and 10th positions. And too many Port Adelaide fans hold Hinkley to one set of statistics — no final since the 2017 extra-time elimination final loss at home to West Coast and no finals win since 2014.
Port Adelaide’s list has bounced from one strategy to another ever since Hinkley answered the need to salvage a basket case in 2013. First, it was about survival as the club’s AFL licence was in doubt; then top-ups with players that made Port Adelaide appear a “destination club”; and now regeneration with youth.
They built hope at Alberton — and probably oversold and underdelivered. But then, Port Adelaide does exist to win premierships.