From Tex to Port’s talls: Our football writers tackle the top 12 Crows and Power issues you want answered
How long will Port’s premiership window last? Probably as long as Ken Hinkley’s around. What will the coach’s next contract look like?
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2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, so what does 2021 hold for fans of the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide?
Our experts run the rule over the two South Australian clubs.
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1. How optimistic are you that we will get packed Adelaide Oval games at some point during the 2021 season
REECE HOMFRAY: Very. The fact we had 30,000 this year in the middle of a pandemic, the increasing ability of governments to shut down outbreaks, painful lessons learnt along the way and the ever growing reports of a pending vaccine mean we will have 50,000 there at some stage in 2021.
MATT TURNER: Right now, not very. Authorities will be trying to do everything possible to ensure spectators and clubs’ safety at matches in 2021 to stop the spread of COVID again next season. But it is only December and a lot can change – both for the good and bad – when it comes to where things stand with the disease by the second half of the campaign. I’d expect they start with a half-capacity stadium at best by March, but the AFL will want to maximise attendances as soon as it is safe to do so.
LIZ WALSH: It’s way too early to tell and the fact Adelaide is currently in a hard COVID-19 lockdown after months of no community transmission shows this virus can really mess things up, really quickly. But we do know the AFL will do everything in its power to get crowds to games next year.
2. Does Tyson Stengle come straight back into the Crows line-up once his suspension is over?
RH: Yes. Plenty of water will go under the bridge between September and next season. Stengle is too good to be left out of a side that has minimal depth for any longer than he has to be.
MT: He should because he offers things Adelaide does not have enough of: pace, craftiness around goals, X-factor and forward pressure. But he is surely on thin ice after two off-field indiscretions this year and he will definitely have to earn his spot all season.
LW: No way. He’ll have to prove himself in pre-season and importantly off-field before he gets a game.
3. Can Mitch Georgiades, Todd Marshall, Peter Ladhams and Charlie Dixon play in the same forward line? If not, who misses out?
RH: I think they will but only because Hinkley loves Dixon and Marshall, Ladhams is crucial ruck support for Lycett and they have to get games into Georgiades. If push comes to shove then Marshall will be the one who makes way if his consistency dips.
MT: No, I don’t think they can – not unless Port opts to drop Scott Lycett and plays Ladhams as its main ruckman. I think the Power erred in choosing both Marshall and Ladhams – two inexperienced players – in a cutthroat preliminary final against Richmond in the wet and could have used Justin Westhoff as an experienced utility. Port does not want to play Charlie Dixon in the ruck but think it needs to be prepared to every now and again, so that we see Georgiades, Marshall and Dixon together. Marshall is a high IQ, team-first footballer. Georgiades is the huge-leaping pack-crasher who can help take some heat off Dixon.
LW: Would be good to see Georgiades given more games in 2021, because the X-factor he brings is just exciting to watch and will learn a stack alongside Charlie Dixon. But I’d say four talls is one too many. If 2021 is their premiership year, perhaps Georgiades is left out because of his inexperience.
4. How long should Port re-sign Ken Hinkley for, given he has earned a new deal for 2021?
RH: I’d give him a two-year extension taking him to the end of 2023. Their premiership window should be open that long.
MT: Long-term deals, particularly in this climate, can be fraught with danger so a two-year extension beyond next season (to the end of 2023) would make sense.
LW: Give him whatever he wants!
5. What is an acceptable number of games for the Crows to win next year?
RH: If it’s a 22-round season then they should win 5-7 to be considered satisfactory improvement.
MT: After prevailing just three times this past season (and losing 14 matches), Adelaide would want to see improvement, not just in performances but results, particularly after finishing this year well. Fewer than six wins in a 22-game season would be really disappointing in Matthew Nicks’s second campaign.
LW: Enough to elevate themselves far enough away from the bottom of the ladder to give fans hope for the future. Something in the order of seven wins should do just that.
6. Where does Orazio Fantasia fit into the Power’s plan?
RH: With Butters and Rozee supposedly playing more midfield, he takes the spot that Kane Farrell and Boyd Woodcock would have been eyeing off. Having said that we haven’t seen Fantasia in any sort of form for a while so he’s no walk-up start and nor should he be guaranteed a game.
MT: The ex-Bombers livewire will play in attack and allow Port to push Zak Butters and Connor Rozee into the midfield more often. The Power’s on-ball brigade excelled for most of the season but struggled in the second half of its preliminary final loss to Richmond. Butters and Rozee offer more creativity and speed to a hard-nosed but sometimes one-paced group led by Travis Boak, Ollie Wines and Tom Rockliff. If Fantasia plays at least 17 games, which he has not done since 2017, he can be a handful for rival defenders.
LW: Will be really exciting to see what Port does with the 25-year-old, particularly in getting his body right. If he can stay on the park, he’ll be the perfect small forward to give the likes of Butters and Rozee the chance to dominate in the midfield.
7. Will cutting interchange rotations make it hard for a young side like Adelaide?
RH: It will be the same for all sides so, no. I’d suggest get fit.
MT: It will be a challenge for all clubs and it will lead to more players “resting” on the field, such as midfielders in attack, rather than coming off for breaks. The rule tweak should not affect the Crows adversely, but they need to hit the ground running this pre-season after some of the squad came back from the COVID shutdown underdone, putting the side on the back foot.
LW: If they make the most of their pre-season, could be great.
8. Who takes Brad Crouch’s spot?
RH: Harry Schoenberg showed enough to suggest he can be a permanent midfielder this year so will get some of Crouch’s gametime. Rory Laird has already shown he belongs there. Chayce Jones looks better on the wing and Ned McHenry as a small forward.
MT: Jackson Hately has been recruited from GWS to play as an inside midfielder so he would be the logical answer. But Crouch’s departure should also mean more opportunities for Harry Schoenberg and Chayce Jones.
LW: Harry Schoenberg will be a superstar.
9. Will the Crows have back-to-back wooden spoons by the end of the 2021 season?
RH: No. North Melbourne will win the spoon next year.
MT: No. Reckon we saw enough in the last five rounds to bank on Adelaide taking an extra step next year. Not sure the Crows will suddenly push for finals, but think getting games into the likes of Lachlan Sholl, Will Hamill, Schoenberg and Shane McAdam, bringing in two high draft picks, as well as Hately, plus a full season of Rory Laird in the midfield is enough to suggest the Crows can climb several spots in 2021.
LW: Well, anything can happen (how many predicted Adelaide would finish wooden spooners at the beginning of 2020?), but they finished the season better than they started it and will be hoping to carry that momentum forward. Essendon for wooden spoon in 2021?
10. What’s the most critical thing Port Adelaide has done off-field that has turned it into a destination club?
RH: They’ve turned the club into a ‘family’ for interstaters. A compassionate coach, strong leadership has removed any cliques among the players and don’t underestimate the pre-season camps or trips to China to strengthen the bond among the group where players feel loved and can’t see themselves leaving.
MT: The Power’s stability has been crucial. Port had the same coach, chief executive and president from 2013-20. Its football manager has been at the Power for six years. Its captain has been at Alberton for a decade. The club’s list manager too. Keith Thomas stepped aside as chief executive at the end of this past season but was replaced internally by Matthew Richardson, who knows the club well. Port has had disappointing campaigns during this stretch but has been able to sell itself as a steady club with its leaders singing from the same hymn sheet, at least most of the time.
LW: Three words: The Prison Bars. Port has done a significant amount of work to turn its long history in the SANFL into a reason the players should feel like they are part of a proud club that has a deep connection to its community and in turn, the club has a deep connection with all the players who pull on the jumper.
11. Does Aliir Aliir walk straight into Port’s defence in 2021 and if so, who makes way?
RH: Yes. Jarrod Lienert and Riley Bonner fall back in the queue but from the back six of the preliminary final it will be between McKenzie and Clurey.
MT: Definitely. His flexibility and size was why the Power chased him so he will be in their best 22. I reckon Tom Clurey might be getting a little nervous and will make way. Trent McKenzie finished equal-fifth in Port’s best and fairest, in a sign of how highly the club rated him this year. Clurey was not in the Power’s top 10.
LW: Much has spoken about the (shortish) size issues confronting Port’s backline in 2020. Aliir’s 196cm frame will add the height, at the expense of a Tom Clurey or a Riley Bonner.
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12. Will Tex Walker play any senior football next year?
RH: Yes, but in a 22-game season he may only play 10-15 games. His body isn’t bulletproof so even if he gets a good run at it he may be rested at times, but ultimately the amount of footy he plays depends on whether Fogarty, Himmelberg and whichever key forward they take with Pick 1 in the draft performs.
MT: Yes, for sure. I doubt Tex will play 22 games and he has struggled at times the past two seasons, but I think his experience and leadership is still important and he can play 10-12 or so matches in a forward line to help mentor whoever Adelaide takes at pick one (Riley Thilthorpe or Logan McDonald). Given everything he has done for the club, Walker also deserves an appropriate swan song and for his Crows career to be celebrated when he does inevitably wrap it up sometime in 2021.
LW: Yes, but I think we’ll be watching him in his final year as a player. I’m predicting a retirement and I don’t doubt Nicks will give him a farewell game (hopefully in front of fans at Adelaide Oval).
Originally published as From Tex to Port’s talls: Our football writers tackle the top 12 Crows and Power issues you want answered
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