How and why is Taylor Walker the scapegoat some people want for the Crows under performing this season?
ON the day Taylor Walker was named Adelaide’s new captain in the 2015 pre-season, he reiterated one point more than anything else — and it is now happening exactly as he predicted.
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ON the day Taylor Walker was named Adelaide’s new captain in the 2015 pre-season he reiterated one point more than anything else.
Seven times he made reference to “the challenges ahead”.
It was all very scripted but at the same time it was prophetic, like he knew days like this would come.
“I can’t wait to embrace the challenges ahead — some that I know will come up and some that I don’t,” Walker said at a press conference on January 14, 2015.
“I love a challenge … I’ll evolve over time, I’ve learnt a lot of things and I’ll continue to learn. At the end of the day I’m not going to change Taylor Walker but I’m looking forward to challenges and bumps that will come along.
“There are going to be some challenges ahead but I like a challenge and so do all the boys here.”
Apart from the obvious challenge just six months later when the club suffered unimaginable heartbreak when it lost its coach and the man who anointed Walker as captain, Phil Walsh, his captaincy tenure has gone pretty smoothly.
In 2016 he was voted by his peers as the best captain in the competition, and again in 2017 as Adelaide won the minor premiership and made the grand final.
In those two seasons the Crows finished fifth and first on the ladder with a combined 31-12-1 record. Not too many bumps there. But the challenges were about to come.
People want a scapegoat after a losing grand final and particularly after the way Adelaide folded against Richmond at the MCG last year.
Who missed a shot on goal, who fumbled a mark, who didn’t chase, who didn’t tackle, who didn’t direct traffic, who went missing, it could go on and on.
The criticism of Walker extended beyond the game with his very brief and to the point on-ground speech.
To his credit he put his hand up in the aftermath and admitted the occasion got the better of him and he did not perform. But he was not alone.
That was the start of the first real challenge of his captaincy because from that moment not a lot has gone right for the Crows since.
They have slid from grand finalist to sitting outside the top eight with four games to go, but they’re hardly the first team to suffer that fate.
The Western Bulldogs are about to miss the finals for the second successive year immediately after winning the premiership.
Going into Showdown 45 against Port Adelaide on Saturday night, Adelaide’s season is still alive which is a minor miracle given everything that’s happened this year.
The obvious issue is the injury list that has crippled the senior team for much of the season.
The other has seemingly been the pre-season mind camp that upset some of the players.
The captain is responsible for a lot of things at a footy club but it’s an outrageous stretch to pin either of those two on Walker.
In an Advertiser poll this week, more than half of the 1200 voters said the Crows should find a new captain, while 40 per cent said he should keep the job and nine per cent said he should share the load with another player as a co-captain.
So how and why has Tex become the scapegoat that some people want for what has gone wrong at Adelaide this season?
Are they unhappy with his form? He’s kicked 24 goals in 12 games at an average of 2.0 this season.
Last year he kicked 54 at 2.3 and the year before 47 at 2.04 in seasons that weren’t interrupted by injury.
He was goalless in last week’s loss to Melbourne but he also kicked four against Richmond in Round 2, four against Sydney in Round 5, and three against West Coast in Round 15.
Some people have short — or very selective — memories.
Are they unhappy with his body language? Walker was criticised for his attempt to unsettle Max Gawn early last week and for electing to bump rather than tackle Zach Tuohy which cost him a game the week before.
But no one questioned him after his pack mark to help win the game against West Coast. Or his chase down tackle on Nick Smith against Sydney or in the final 30 seconds when he ran to full back and took a contested mark on the line to help save the game.
So are they unhappy with his public commentary? Because he said Jake Lever chose money over success when he walked out last year?
Or when asked on Tuesday whether he believed his team could still play finals and he replied with “bloody oath I do?” before turning on the interviewer and saying “what, you don’t?” as if it was outrageous to suggest otherwise.
In an intriguing documentary titled ‘The Chosen Few 2’ which interviewed past and present AFL captains, Michael Voss said second only to leading by example the most important quality a captain could have was belief in the team.
“As a captain you’ve got to have an absolute belief in team. You start to believe in the greater cause and that is team and channelling everything into that 100 per cent,” Voss said.
But that’s not to say a captain won’t make mistakes, as Hawthorn immortal and now Brisbane Lion Luke Hodge said in the documentary.
“I don’t think you’ll ever see an ideal captain, there are always blokes who make mistakes but the most important thing is to learn from them,” Hodge said.
The captaincy discussion is also on the table across town at Port Adelaide but there is a very logical reason — generational change is coming. Travis Boak is a superb captain but he is 30 and his vice-captain and successor Ollie Wines is 23.
At Adelaide, Walker is 28 but so is his vice-captain Rory Sloane who some suggest should take over.
As Walker was being publicly questioned this week, Sloane responded in the strongest way possible as did Eddie Betts and Bryce Gibbs.
That’s no surprise of course. What else would you expect them to say?
But if they didn’t believe it or it wasn’t genuine then they did not have to be so strong in their endorsement.
“This is the thing, we see what goes on inside these four walls with Tex and he’s an unbelievable leader … I’ll say it again; the stuff that Tex does inside these four walls is unbelievable and we couldn’t have a better captain at the footy club,” Sloane said.
“What I do know is he does a fantastic job as captain, he sets the standard, he’s very well respected within the four walls, and he’s got an aura about him — when he speaks if he’s explaining something, everyone listens and does what he says because he’s got that presence about him. He’s been exceptional from what I’ve seen this year,” Gibbs said.
“He’s a great captain, Taylor. He’s going to stay in that role. When he’s out on the field he brings players along with him with his presence and he leads by example,” Betts said.
When deciding on Walker as captain three-and-a-half years ago, Walsh said what sealed it for him was Walker’s care for the team.
“All of us and human nature we like to think ‘what’s in it for me?’ but Taylor is genuine and passionate to make this club and get it back to where it needs to be,” Walsh said.
Three years on this is not Walsh’s team any more, it is Don Pyke’s team and Walker is Pyke’s captain.
But it’s hard to see how any of the endearing qualities Walsh saw in Walker three years ago have changed. They’ve probably only grown.
What has changed is suddenly for the first time in his tenure, the Crows are under the pump. Hardly of apocalyptic proportions but the team lost a grand final and has under performed the following season when it had a shot at redemption.
And Walker is facing the first real challenge of his captaincy — just like he predicted would come on January 14, 2015.
But if he’s up for the fight, is still getting a kick and his teammates believe in him then why is his captaincy even in question?
If he’s the right man to lead the club in good times then he’s the right man to lead them in bad.
reece.homfray@news.com.au