Adelaide sits eighth on the ladder but is that papering over the cracks of a team in freefall?
Adelaide has lurched from one dilemma to the next since the 2017 grand final and has held its nerve throughout. But the club’s faith in its coach is being tested now more than ever, writes Reece Homfray.
- Pizza at Pyke’s as Crows boss calls for calm
- The Phantom’s Round 19 review
- Pyke laments loss of confidence, but season’s still alive
- Match report: Crows so cold they’re turning Blue
- Crippsy creams Crows as Pyke’s plan fails
Very little has gone right for Adelaide since the 2017 grand final. The club has held its nerve but right now seems to be holding on to eighth spot as some kind of front that the situation is under control.
On Friday, coach Don Pyke was asked if he was surprised by external criticism of the Crows and talk of them missing the finals.
“I find that unusual,” he said. “I don’t understand how we could be talking about missing the finals when we’re a game and percentage inside the eight with games ahead that are clearly winnable.”
Roughly 24 hours later, after losing to Carlton, Pyke should have been rethinking that sentiment.
He and the club are facing the same accusations that were circling in Round 4 after the loss to North Melbourne left them 1-3.
To suggest Pyke had lost the players, and that the team could miss the finals with 19 weeks to go was surprising — or as Pyke puts it, unusual. But it’s not now.
There have been four second-half fade-outs since Round 10, only one win since the bye over 18th-ranked Gold Coast, and on Saturday beaten by 16th-ranked Carlton at the MCG.
Concern over the Crows is not unusual anymore, it’s reality. They are yet to win at the MCG since the grand final and their three losses there have been significant — by 56 points to Hawthorn, 47 points to Richmond and now 27 points to the Blues.
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An hour after the Carlton loss, Twitter announced that the hashtag #pykeout was trending in Australia.
When you have the biggest Twitter following in Australian club sport, when fans revolt, it goes viral. But how much of it rests with Pyke? Adelaide’s senior players and leaders have been questioned, and rightly so. The top three in their best-and-fairest right now could well be Brad Crouch (79 games), Alex Keath (29 games) and Reilly O’Brien (18 games). None are in the seven-man leadership group.
The co-captains are out of form. Rory Sloane was tagged out of it against Essendon and beaten by Patrick Cripps on Saturday. Taylor Walker has kicked 32 goals in 19 games but he and the club have been forced to constantly defend his position in the team, which is unhealthy.
As conservative as Pyke has been at selection, he has made some big calls which have and haven’t worked.
The decision to drop Josh Jenkins after Round 4 got a response, albeit nearly two months later. In that time, Elliott Himmelberg showed he could play at the level — and then Jenkins returned a different player.
He’s also been vindicated for his faith in O’Brien after resisting the urge to recall Sam Jacobs from injury.
But the yo-yoing with Bryce Gibbs, who played every second game from Round 3 to 11, hasn’t worked and he finds himself with two years left to run on a lucrative contract and no certainty over his spot.
Then there was Eddie Betts, axed on the weekend for Tyson Stengle, who wasn’t Adelaide’s worst with two goals — but the decision drew a mixed response.
Pyke has resisted public pressure to play all the kids — namely Darcy Fogarty, Ben Davis and Ned McHenry who have one game between them this year, and Chayce Jones hasn’t played since Round 10. But fans are getting impatient.
If their team isn’t in contention for the flag then they want to see the future, and as bright as O’Brien and Keath have been, they are demanding more.
The club took Jones and McHenry high in last year’s draft and is well placed with three picks inside the top 30 this year, which may appease some of the angst about an ageing list.
But Adelaide is in the eye of the storm, with chairman Rob Chapman calling for calm. Yes, the Crows are still eighth and a chance to play finals, but they’re also a chance to miss, and history shows only Graham Cornes has survived as coach at West Lakes after missing finals two years in a row.
Adelaide believed in Pyke when it appointed him in 2015, even more so when he took them to the grand final in 2017, and reaffirmed it in January 2018 by signing him to a three-year extension.
Now that faith is being tested — just like it was with all facets of the football department last year.
The list was decimated by injuries and some fans wanted blood. The club held its nerve. After the disastrous mind camp the fans wanted a fall guy. The club held its nerve. Grand finalist to 12th? The club held its nerve.
Now 12th to eighth may represent a pass mark but it would fall short of expectations unless they go on a dramatic September run.
Grand finalist to 12th to 9th or even 10th would represent a fail and then Adelaide will be asking itself again: Does its faith in Pyke remain? Or have he and the team had their chance, with the most appropriate way forward to make changes?