Why Daniel Talia could be man to lead Adelaide Crows out of their woes
Adelaide’s review will leave a heavy agenda to clear away in the summer, but the Crows should find the captaincy question easy to resolve — more so if full back Daniel Talia is endorsed as co-captain or vice-captain.
Michelangelo Rucci
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No Crows captain since Chris McDermott first led the Adelaide Football Club in 1991 has played deeper than half-back. It might be time for another chapter to be written at West Lakes.
Actually, it is time to do it.
Midfielder Rory Sloane could start Season 2020 as the solo skipper, having the leadership role in his own right after being a co-captain with key forward Taylor Walker this season.
But if Adelaide — that was once adamant in its stand against co-captains — was to persist with the modern AFL leadership model of spreading responsibility on and off the field, there is a stand-out candidate to have the “C” on the team sheet with Sloane: Full back Daniel Talia.
While there will be a regeneration theme at Adelaide next season, the eagerness to put leadership on the shoulders of 24-year-old midfielder Matt Crouch should not deny Talia his well-earned right to stand before his team as a co-captain.
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Five years have passed since Talia won his Malcolm Blight Medal as the Crows club champion while the Adelaide Football Club was ushering out another coach after missing AFL finals in consecutive seasons.
At 22 — and in just his fourth year of AFL football with 76 senior games to his record — Talia showed maturity beyond his station in his acceptance speech.
“We’re always saying we’re nearly there, nearly there … but now is the time for action more than words,” said Talia after the Crows had finished 10th in Brenton Sanderson’s third (and last) season as coach.
“We have to change something in the pre-season. We need more guys being consistent and having consistent years.
“In the past couple of years too much has been left to the top six to eight guys — the leadership group really has been carrying the rest of the group.
“But we can’t talk about it. We have to do it.”
Five years on, Adelaide is still without that AFL premiership that seems long overdue for the trophy cabinet at West Lakes. The Crows have fallen deeper — 12th in 2018 and 11th this season — that they did in Sanderson’s double-failure of 11th in 2013 and 10th in 2014 when Talia was club champion. And there is a massive session in front of the mirror as the Crows put themselves on review.
“Now is the time for action more than words,” still echoes from Talia’s speech after being draped with the Crows gold jacket and the Malcolm Blight Medal.
There will be many words with the Adelaide review. The real test is the actions taken with the feedback from the players, key staff and the external experts, in particular Jason Dunstall who was the critical wise head in Hawthorn’s revival more than a decade ago.
Whatever unfolds in the next month at West Lakes, Adelaide ultimately will be judged by the actions on the football field next season. Sloane is noted for his determination that sets an example as captain.
If Sloane is to be the lone captain, Talia should be his vice-captain. His belief in the Crows, his commitment to be in Adelaide and his determination to make his career count is without question — and merits recognition with an official leadership title at West Lakes.
Talia’s season — in which he was Adelaide’s lone nominee for the 40-man All-Australian squad — highlights how he backs his words with meaningful actions.
Much of Adelaide’s profile in Season 2020, the club’s 30th in the AFL, is uncertain while the review of the Crows football department plays out this month. The need to regenerate the player list will go well beyond October’s AFL trade period and November’s AFL national draft. There is the notion Adelaide will need two years to address what has become an obvious problem with the make-up of its squad.
In such demanding times, Adelaide will need strong on-field leaders. Sloane and Talia can form a grand partnership, on and off the field. The new-look Crows football department should find such a pairing easy to adopt while spending precious time on a loaded agenda at West Lakes this summer.
Week 11 of the e-newsletter Roast begins on Tuesday with a look at how athletes — such as former Australian Test cricket captain Steve Smith — fare on the road to redemption. Some are admired, some are heckled — and very few make it back.
Also, one of the big challenges from the Adelaide “external” review will be how the findings are presented to the frustrated Crows membership base — and the wider AFL community that has come to tire of the spin from West Lakes.
In Reality Bites, there is an “open letter” to former Lord Mayor Martin Haese to deal with the secrecy that is far from right as his former colleagues at the Adelaide City Council handle unloading the Adelaide Aquatic Centre to the Adelaide Football Club. Public money and public space demand public debate not closed meetings.
The Roast will continue on The Advertiser website at advertiser.com.au on Wednesday and Thursday.
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