Game by game: Where the Adelaide Crows can score more wins in 2021 AFL season
Adelaide’s wooden spoon season was the worst in the club’s history. But does the new AFL fixture favour the Crows heading into 2021?
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Adelaide will be out to improve on its 2020 AFL season despite an ongoing rebuild.
With the season being returned to 23 home and away rounds – up from the 17 in the COVID-affected year just gone – coach Matthew Nicks will be hoping his Crows can bank more than the three games they did in his first campaign at the helm.
The AFL fixture was released on Monday, and this is how the season is shaping up for Adelaide.
GAMES ADELAIDE IS EXPECTED TO WIN?
North Melbourne away (Round 4), Hawthorn away (Round 6), Hawthorn home (Round 20), North Melbourne home (Round 23)
Difficult to say which games the Crows will pencil in as gimmes, given they managed only three wins in 2020. They play two games against North Melbourne – a team widely tipped to take the wooden spoon in 2021 – in Round 4 (away at Marvel Stadium on a Sunday afternoon) and again in Round 23 (at home at Adelaide Oval). There are also two games against the rebuilding Hawthorn (in Round 6 and 20) that the Crows would be looking to win.
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THE 50/50 MATCHES?
Gold Coast home (Round 3), Melbourne home (Round 10), Carlton away (Round 15), Essendon away (Round 17)
The Crows would be hoping to notch up win against Gold Coast Suns (Round 3) and Melbourne (Round 10) at home, while their Round 5 clash against Fremantle at Adelaide Oval would offer a chance, but none of these are certainties.
The Crows head to Marvel Stadium twice in three weeks to take on Carlton (Round 15) and then Essendon (Round 17) and both of these would be seen as winnable. Could the Crows beat Collingwood at Adelaide Oval in Round 12? It’s more than possible and this will the sort of game that could make Magpies coach Nathan Buckley a tad nervous.
MATCHES THAT COULD FALL THE WRONG WAY?
Gold Coast home (Round 3), Kangaroos away (Round 4), Kangaroos home (Round 23)
For a club that finished bottom in 2020 there are no easy wins in 2021, which makes any game where they are seen as potential favourites as must-wins. If these games fall the wrong way, their season collapses. Again.
After taking on last season’s grand finalists, Geelong in Round 1 at home, the Crows will be keen to get their first wins on the board early to avoid the winless streak that fans endured in 2020.
Coach Matthew Nicks will not want to lose to Gold Coast at home in Round 3, neither against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium the following week.
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MATCHES YOU MUST PENCIL INTO THE DIARY?
Geelong home (Round 1), GWS home (Round 7), Port Adelaide away (Round 8), Collingwood home (Round 12), Port Adelaide home (Round 21)
Round 1 will see the return of Patrick Dangerfield to Adelaide Oval, and fans will likely be able to see the Cats’ gun recruit Jeremy Cameron in action too.
Of course, there’s nothing like a Showdown, and the Round 8 (Port home game) and Round 21 (Crows home game) clashes will be must-sees.
If new Crow Jackson Hately plays, he will take on his old side, the Giants, in Round 7 at Adelaide Oval.
Collingwood comes to Adelaide in Round 12, which is always a big game, with a bumper crowd. Always a good game to be a part of.
MATCHES WORTH A PLANE TICKET?
Hawthorn away (Round 6), St Kilda away (Round 13), Melbourne away (Round 22)
Adelaide heads to Tasmania to take on Hawthorn at UTas Stadium for their Sunday afternoon Round 6 clash on April 25. There’s nothing quite like watching your team play live on Anzac Day.
Then, fancy a trip to Cairns in the middle of an Adelaide winter? Sounds too good to be true. But the Crows will play St Kilda at Cazaly’s Stadium in Far North Queensland in Round 13 (which is scheduled to be run from June 10-14). It will be something of a grudge match with Adelaide to play former club champion Brad Crouch for the first time since he left the Crows via free agency and headed to the Saints.
Then comes Adelaide’s Round 22 clash against Melbourne at the MCG; any excuse to get to watch footy at the MCG in August.
PREDICTED WIN/LOSS RATIO FOR THE SEASON?
7-15
There are games 2020’s ladder dwellers wouldn’t be expected to win: two games against Port Adelaide, one against Richmond (at the MCG no less), West Coast at Optus Stadium, Geelong and Brisbane at home, Western Bulldogs away and St Kilda up in Cairns. That’s eight losses to the teams expected to feature in finals in 2021.
It will be likely the Crows will finish somewhere around the 7-15 mark in wins-losses.
OUR CONCLUSION
After a truly dismal 2020 season, the ray of light came in the form of three late wins and the Crows will be looking to carry that momentum into next season. They’ll likely start off the year with back-to-back losses to the Cats at home and then the Swans away, but can then kickstart a run of wins with games against Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Fremantle, Hawthorn and even Greater Western Sydney (considering it’s at Adelaide Oval), before facing Port Adelaide in the first of two Showdowns.
Their draw reflects their poor 2020, but that gives them opportunity to blood more youngsters and give fans hope for the future.
2021 FINISHING POSITION
The Crows will lift themselves off the bottom of the ladder in 2021, but they are still rebuilding, expect a finish somewhere between 14th and 17th.
SUMMARY OF ADELAIDE’S SEASON AHEAD
The AFL has handed Adelaide a six-month wait next year before it faces former club champion Brad Crouch in his new St Kilda colours.
The league released the 2021 AFL fixture yesterday, revealing the Crows will play the Saints only once in 2021, travelling to Cazaly’s Stadium, Cairns, in early June to take on their former prolific ball-getter in Round 13.
After finishing the 2020 season with its first wooden spoon, Crows chief executive officer, Andrew Fagan, said the club understood the fixture reflected that.
“After finishing bottom last year, we acknowledge the fixture is reflective of your on-field performances and impacts your chances of being given marquee timeslots and your requests granted,” he said.
The AFL unveiled the fixture time and dates for rounds 1-6 of the 2021 AFL premiership season, and while it also released the match-ups for the remaining minor rounds, no timeslots have been locked in.
The AFL said it would not lock in times and dates until the season begins, as it continues to monitor the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Fagan said that meant Adelaide had the opportunity and added motivation to perform well in the early rounds to influence how the remainder of its schedule could pan out.
The AFL released the fixture for the first six rounds of the 2021 season, with the Crows to host 2020 grand finalists Geelong in Round 1, before heading to the Sydney Cricket Ground to take on the Swans in Round Two.
“It’s obviously a different fixture with clarity given only for the first six rounds but we are thrilled to kick off the season in front of our members and fans,” Fagan said.
“We now have the chance to exceed expectations, as well as play a brand of football that makes our members and fans proud, and hopefully be rewarded.”
The Crows will play Port Adelaide, West Coast, Melbourne, Hawthorn and North Melbourne twice, with the all-important Showdowns to be played in Round 8 (away) and Round 21 (home).
Good Friday football will be played at Adelaide Oval, with the Crows to host Gold Coast (and play their former midfielder, Rory Atkins, who left for the Suns via free agency in Round 3 on Good Friday, April 2 and new recruit Jackson Hately could face his former side, Greater Western Sydney, in Round 7 at Adelaide Oval.
There is a single trip to Perth with other road trips to Sydney, Hobart and Cairns.
Adelaide’s mid-season bye is in Round 14.
“We will host Indigenous Round, which is always a priority request we put forward to the League, and to have a big club like Collingwood part of it is a bonus,” Fagan said.
“To be able to have our last game of the Home And Away season at Adelaide Oval and continue the tradition of making it our annual members appreciation round is a good result too.”
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