The Moment on Monday: Another second half fadeout will spark fresh calls for rejuvenation at West Lakes
A new app that instantly shows people what they’ll look like when they are ‘old’ went viral last week and it must have been lingering in the Adelaide changerooms at half-time on Friday night. Fresh faces, AFL debutants and games from the 2018 draft are under the microscope in this week’s Moment on Monday.
A NEW app that instantly shows people what they’ll look like when they are ‘old’ went viral last week and it must have been lingering in the Adelaide changerooms at half-time on Friday night.
Despite conceding the last two goals of the second quarter, the Crows went into the long break looking good and 19 points up against an injury-hit Essendon side playing away from home.
“At half-time you wouldn’t have been saying there was an issue,” Crows coach Don Pyke said post-match.
But there was at full-time. They looked old, tired and slow.
Adelaide was the oldest team of the round on the weekend with an average age of 26.8. Sydney was the youngest at 23.5, Port Adelaide was fifth oldest at 25.9.
Age and experience bodes well when you’re winning.
Not so much when you can’t run out four quarters and concede 10 goals to 3 after half-time to lose by 21 like Adelaide did against the Bombers.
What’s worse is it wasn’t the first time either - it was Adelaide’s fourth second-half fadeout since Round 10 which threatens to ruin its finals ambitions.
The Crows’ youngest players on Friday night were Lachlan Murphy (20) and Wayne Milera (21), and its oldest were Eddie Betts (32), David Mackay (30) and Josh Jenkins (30).
Adelaide’s team has not changed significantly in three years. Of the 22 who played in the 2017 grand final, 17 were in the team on Friday night.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it begs the question of whether this group had its chance and it’s time to move on, or at least move forward at selection.
They’ve unearthed Lachlan Murphy, Alex Keath and Reilly O’Brien but there are more waiting in the wings and the question is when will they be unleashed?
Pyke insists he will not pick young players simply because they are young, they’ve got to firstly be ready and secondly earn their spot.
“The risk is if you bring guys in because they’re young and it looks good, it can also do them a disservice as well,” he said last month.
“I also have the view that you ignore youth at your peril because they often bring something to your team and they can do other things, so we ride that balance between making sure we’ve got a new injection of youth as well as we put a side on the park that we think will be capable of winning.”
Adelaide is 9-8 and an interesting comparison, of course, is with Port Adelaide who is 8-9 with five weeks to go.
The Crows had four picks in last year’s national draft (9, 16, 30 and 64) and the Power had five (5, 12, 18, 73 and 76).
After Round 18, Port Adelaide leads the competition for games from its 2018 draftees with 49. Adelaide sits 14th with six - all to Chayce Jones.
Port Adelaide is also equal leader of the competition for AFL debutants this year with six. The Crows have had two (Jones and Ben Davis).
Port Adelaide has introduced nine new faces to its team this season and is equal second in the competition. Adelaide is equal last with three.
GAMES FROM 2018 DRAFTEES
1. Port Adelaide 49
2. Gold Coast 43
3. St Kilda 42
4. Carlton 39
5. Geelong 35
* Adelaide 6
CLUB DEBUTANTS IN 2019
1. Gold Coast 10
2. Melbourne 10
3. Port Adelaide 9
4. North Melbourne 9
5. Carlton 9
* Adelaide 3
AFL DEBUTANTS IN 2019
1. Port Adelaide 6
2. Melbourne 6
3. Richmond 6
4. Geelong 5
5. St Kilda 5
* Adelaide 2
The Power’s top-three draftees have been a raging success. Late in the first quarter against Richmond on Saturday Zak Butters had kicked two goals in a minute, Connor Rozee had taken a strong mark and had a set shot and Xavier Duursma was throwing himself at everything.
“Our three boys that we’ve brought in, could we be more pleased? No we couldn’t, I’m not going to hide from that,” Port coach Ken Hinkley said post-match.
“I think they’ve been outstanding and a great success as a footy club and we look forward to some really exciting stuff from them going forward and I reckon there’s so much upside.”
Crows fans should however ask do you want a situation where your draftees walk into the senior side in their first year?
Port Adelaide probably won’t play finals but they’ve been in contention while getting games into their kids.
Injuries have forced their hand. Only three Power players have played every game this season - Connor Rozee, Tom Clurey and Darcy Byrne-Jones.
Charlie Dixon (12), Hamish Hartlett (11), Ollie Wines (8), Brad Ebert (6) and Tom Jonas (4) have all missed significant chunks of the season.
A good comparison to Port Adelaide is their opponent on the weekend. Richmond has been hit by injury this year and blooded eight new players (equal fourth) and six debutants (equal first) yet still found a way to stay in contention for top four and a premiership.
“I think it’s been a great year of resilience for us, the fact that 2017 we managed to have our list healthy the whole year, this year we’ve been tested with injury and brought young kids in,” Tigers forward Jack Riewoldt said.
“So we’ve also found ourselves in a reasonable position and (been able to) speed up our future as well with guys like Noah Balta and Shai Bolton, we’ve found guys as well.”
So it seems you can do both, it’s just as Pyke rightly points out you need to find the right balance.
Other than O’Brien (for Sam Jacobs) and Keath (for Tom Doedee), Adelaide hasn’t been forced to find its next generation of players this season because of injury.
It’s had a good look at Elliott Himmelberg and seen a little of Jones but whether it’s now or with list management calls at the end of the season, it’s time to look for a few more.
GAME NOTES
POWER V TIGERS
IT WAS in Noosa in December when Charlie Dixon said “If I’m in a ruck contest next year, we’re in trouble”. It was tongue in cheek but still, the Power has abandoned its initial plan to play two ruckmen with Paddy Ryder in the reserves and Dixon took the ruck duties inside 50m against the Tigers on Saturday. Yesterday he told Channel 7: “The way we looked at it this year I’d be playing with Paddy and Scotty and I wouldn’t have to do any, but the way things pan out it doesn’t go to plan all the time. I always push to have Paddy in the team because he’s do dangerous and regardless of whether he gets a lot of the ball he drags a defender and gives us an opportunity to be one on one.”
PORT Adelaide must be a glutton for punishment. If Dylan Grimes hadn’t caused them enough pain in recent match-ups he was at it again on Saturday when Port’s ill-directed forward 50m entries came straight back out. Bonner, Amon, Hartlett, Dixon and Sutcliffe all kicked deep into the Power’s forwardline in the first quarter and turned it over. By contrast, Richmond looked dangerous with every entry at the other end and kicked to Tom Lynch’s advantage.
DOUGAL Howard has now kicked eight goals for the season since being moved forward in the second half of the Round 8 Showdown. He’s not dominating by any means but this hands are exceptional. “He’s a beautiful mark, the move forward has been a really good one from Ken Hinkley,” Nick Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.
FOR what it’s worth I like Xavier Duursma’s goal celebration. If he has his coach and teammates’ blessing then do whatever you like.
HE hasn’t been beaten often this season but Tom Clurey was torn apart by Tom Lynch on the weekend. Clurey spent 91 minutes on Lynch and the former Gold Coast forward is looming large for September.
HOW’S Darcy Byrne-Jones’ last month - 26, 31, 30 and 29 disposals. He has taken another step this year along with Karl Amon.
CROWS V BOMBERS
A TWO-year contract extension and another sparkling performance from Reilly O’Brien who has improved immeasurably this year including his disposal. With that unusual kicking technique he laced out Matt Crouch in the third quarter prompting Wayne Carey to ask “where’s he been?”
IT’S one thing to say ‘play the kids’ but you can’t do that without saying at whose expense. It doesn’t have to be career over but like Adelaide has done with O’Brien over Jacobs (31), the Crows should start looking at the next generation of David Mackay’s (30), Richard Douglas (32), Eddie Betts (32), Taylor Walker (29), Josh Jenkins (30) and Bryce Gibbs (30) when they get the chance. That means getting a good look at Chayce Jones, Ned McHenry, Ben Davis, Myles Poholke, Darcy Fogarty and Tyson Stengle when they’re fit and they have the chance.
MOST of the attention has been on Wayne Milera’s move into the midfield but Brodie Smith’s switch to a forward/mid role has been just as significant. His three goals on Friday night were exceptional and so was his mark going back with the flight of the ball.
LUKE Brown did a very good job on Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. The Bombers forward got some important footy late but for most part Brown did the job and had 24 disposals at 91 per cent efficiency.
IF RILEY Knight is pushing for another contract at Adelaide he’s going about it the right way. His past two games since being dropped have been very good and his pressure right up there.
MR ONE PER CENTER
Who are the unsung heroes of SA footy? The players who have an impact on their team without hitting the stats sheet. Champion Data records one per centers by tallying spoils, knock-ons, shepherds and smothers every game. Here’s the leaderboard from Port Adelaide and Adelaide after Round 18:
131: Tom Clurey (Power)
129: Daniel Talia (Crows)
109: Tom Jonas (Power)
107: Dougal Howard (Power)
89: Alex Keath (Crows)
83: Jake Kelly (Crows)
74: Scott Lycett (Power)
69: Kyle Hartigan (Crows)
60: Dan Houston (Power)
SUPERCOACH TOP 10
THEY coughed up a five goal second-quarter lead to lose by 21 points but Adelaide had the four highest ranking SuperCoach players from SA on the weekend. Ruckman Reilly O’Brien led the way with 149 while Brad Crouch continued his big year with 129.
1. Reilly O’Brien (Adel) 149
2. Brad Crouch (Adel) 129
3. Brodie Smith (Adel) 127
4. Luke Brown (Adel) 116
5. Karl Amon (Port) 102
6. Travis Boak (Port) 97
7. Paul Seedsman (Adel) 97
8. Tom Rockliff (Port) 94
9. Matt Crouch (Adel) 90
10. Matthew Broadbent (Port) 88
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’ll talk to Xavier but the kid is such a humble kid, I just want to say that again, he’s a great kid.”
- Ken Hinkley says there is a time and a place for goal celebrations but Xavier Duursma’s is all about trying to create energy for his team not to big-note himself.
TIPS
AN early look at Round 19 tips:
RICHMOND to beat Collingwood in a blockbuster Friday night, HAWTHORN to back it up against Brisbane in Tassie, ADELAIDE to beat Carlton, WEST COAST over North Melbourne, GWS to beat Port Adelaide, the DOGS over Fremantle, GEELONG to rebound against Sydney and ESSENDON to continue their red hot form against Gold Coast.
Last week: 4 Running total: 93
POWER RANKINGS
1. BRISBANE (12-5)
Controversial free kick or not, the Lions had to dig deep to get over the top of the Kangas and they maintain their spot at the top of the rankings.
2. GEELONG (13-4)
The Cats’ patchy form continues with W, L, W, L, W, L the past six weeks.
3. COLLINGWOOD (11-6)
Horrible loss to GWS brought a lot of the goodwill they earned back against West Coast the week before undone.
4. WEST COAST (12-5)
Had a fight on their hands against Melbourne in Alice Springs and even without skipper Shannon Hurn turned it on when they had to late in the game.
5. RICHMOND (11-6)
The type of clinical, professional and ruthless performance we’ve come to expect from the Tigers who are coming good at the right end of the season.
6. ESSENDON (10-7)
Who said finals were out of the equation? With an injury list as long as your arm, the Bombers have now won six of their past seven.
7. GWS (10-7)
Terrific win by the Giants missing their two best midfielders in Coniglio and Kelly. Toby Green super as stand-in skipper
8. HAWTHORN (8-9)
Vintage Hawthorn who got up for the big occasion against the ladder-leading Cats. The O’Brien/Lewis pairing makes for a bright future. The big mover on this week’s rankings after winning two on the trot.
9. WESTERN BULLDOGS (8-9)
Shellshocked by the Saints in the first quarter when they had a chance to keep their finals hopes alive.
10. PORT ADELAIDE (8-9)
Battled hard but that’s not going to get it done against Richmond at the MCG. Liked the way they played brave footy, switch kicks, through the corridor and fast hands but that’s also conducive to mistakes and turnovers. Great to see Broadbent back.
11. ADELAIDE (9-8)
They’ve lost three of their past four and finish with Carlton, St Kilda, West Coast, Collingwood and the Bulldogs. I’ll give them three of those and 12 wins might just be enough to play finals.
12. ST KILDA (7-10)
Saints always a chance with the change of coach and that will roll into Melbourne and Adelaide in the next two weeks.
13. FREMANTLE (8-9)
A one-point win over Sydney and they’re mathematically still a chance to play finals.
14. NORTH MELBOURNE (7-10)
Back to back heartbreak for the Roos - first against Essendon and now Brisbane - and if they go the other way they’d be 9-8 and Rhyce Shaw would have the job by now.
15. SYDNEY (6-11)
Swans were the youngest team in the competition in Round 18 and took it right up to the Dockers in Perth. Good signs.
16. CARLTON (5-12)
Incredibly the Blues have won four of their past six and David Teague is being rewarded for some brave calls at selection like telling Mitch McGovern to get fit.
17. MELBOURNE (5-12)
Clayton Oliver had 34 disposals (21 contested) and the Dees were in the game against West Coast at three-quarter-time for the second time this year, but couldn’t finish it off.
18. GOLD COAST (3-14)
Can’t see the Suns winning another game this year after Saturday’s loss to the Blues.