AFL Round 23 Port Adelaide v Adelaide: Crows optimistic about future despite Showdown thrashing
Not even a thumping from their arch-rivals could dampen the optimism of the Crows. And a star believes finals could come sooner than most think.
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There has long been confidence at West Lakes that the Adelaide rebuild was on track.
But as the third year of the Crows rebuild comes to a close on the field, with another big off-season looking in store in terms of additions, there might be the most optimism yet about what is happening at West Lakes.
Not even a poor second half that led to a Showdown thrashing at the hands of arch rivals Port Adelaide could dampen the optimism on Saturday night after a promising last month with three wins out of the Crows last four games.
“I think we get to the end of the season and we say that we have developed as a group,” Crows senior coach Matthew Nicks said.
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“We’ve had a number of individuals develop further and take their game to a whole new level.
“It’s another 22 games into our group, which is the youngest in the competition.
“Those 22 games are really important as we go from year to year.
“Port tonight might have had 50 games more than us on average, that’s two and a half years of footy.
“We know where we are at, there are things we need to improve on.”
Crows leadership group member Reilly O’Brien said he believed they were well placed to build strongly on the eight years in 2022.
“I think we are definitely on the right path, I’m very optimistic,” he told News Corp.
“It has been a slow two years, a frustrating couple of years in 18 and 19 and then the last three years we have started from the bottom.
“But now I think we have built that base and we are really ready to win games and start challenging for finals in the next couple of years and get back to where we belong.”
While they suffered a heavy 56-point at the hands of their fierce rivals, you couldn’t really tell that this had happened in the Crows room post game as players laughed and joked with friends and family.
“I really feel like we have made some strides this year and really excited,” O’Brien said.
“Guys like Sam Berry, Darcy Fogarty, Jake Soligo, Josh Rachele when he has been out there they have been amazing and they will keep growing and getting the group better.
“It has been a frustrating couple of years but the future is really bright and I’m really optimistic about next year.”
It’s a far cry from last month, after the Crows were defeated by Hawthorn by 32-points in the low-point of their season.
O’Brien said it tested the Crows.
“That middle part of the year we fell away and fell away as to how we wanted to play and that Hawthorn loss was probably the pinnacle of that,” O’Brien said.
“It was a really disappointing game and we had a few disappointing games at Marvel Stadium for whatever reason but we were just able to refocus, get some clarity and get back to our DNA which is that contested footy, our stoppage and contest all over the ground and we brought that pretty consistently over the back end of the year.
“I think with a young group as we get more consistency that will come and I’m looking forward to next year, playing some more consistent footy and stopping those lapses.”
O’Brien said stopping those lapses, which have cost the Crows at times in 2022, would be a key focus for Adelaide taking the next step.
“Consistency is a huge area for a young group, we’ve had too many games where we fell away and too many patches in games that cost us in the end,” he said.
“That comes with experience, that comes with growth and I think that it’s something that we have worked on.
“Our ball movement in the back end of the season has been really strong and that will hold us in good stead if we keep improving on that.”
Nicks said Port Adelaide had showed his side the importance of having some polish.
“Being clean with the footy was big tonight, they were so clean with the footy and that is one area that we will continue to work on but from our point of view we have taken steps in the right direction and we will continue to try and improve,” he said.
“But if you look at the last month you’d say that we’ve found it (polish).”
The likely addition of Izak Rankine can only help the Crows in this area, with Nicks not willing to talk about the Gold Coast Sun after the Port loss.
But after luring Jordan Dawson to West Lakes last off-season, getting a player who looks like he could become one of the best small forwards in the game very soon can only help the Crows address this area.
But Nicks said it won’t be the only area his side needs to address for 2023.
“There are always areas you need to clean up, when you aren’t playing finals footy there are areas that you need to improve on,” he said.
“So we will go away and work on those.
“Polish has been the one that everyone has talked about but I feel like we have made some ground on that this year.”
The Crows will finish this season with one more win (eight) than last year, and one place higher on the ladder in 14th.
But they went down to Fremantle, Essendon and Collingwood by less than a goal.
It feels like the Crows have grown more this year than a win and a spot on the ladder.
Fogarty has arrived at AFL level, Berry is becoming an important midfielder for them, Rory Laird is one of the league’s best midfielders, Nick Murray has proven to be more than just a squad player down back.
Josh Rachele wasn’t able to hit the heights of his stellar start to the season, while Jake Soligo looks to be a real find for the Crows – with it quite mind-boggling that he doesn’t have a Rising Star nomination yet.
Josh Worrell has impressed since he came into the team, giving the Crows an extra option in defence.
So given this growth should contending for finals be the aim for the Crows in 2023?
“We want to be there, we have work to do to get there,” Nicks said.
“We have to improve a few areas but I guarantee you that our players will be doing everything they can to be playing finals footy next year.”
The key stat that lead to Crows’ Showdown demise
After all the build-up during the week, fireworks were expected when Adelaide and Port Adelaide players met on the Adelaide Oval turf.
But there was none of the biff, grapples, melees and scraps that were expected to have the match review panel extremely busy in the Showdown.
There were some spot fires, though. Karl Amon and Harry Schoenberg got involved in a somewhat bizarre scuffle amid a nearly comical sequence in which the two teams seemed to be kicking to each other.
Sam Berry joined them as a free kick was awarded down the field.
Taylor Walker and Aliir Aliir tried to intimidate each other as they walked back to their positions following a Darcy Fogarty goal.
But while there wasn’t the all-in brawl that many had predicted, after Power captain and vice-captain Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines labelled the Crows arrogant and entitled, there was plenty of feeling and tension on the ground at Adelaide Oval.
Jeremy Finlayson looked to be seeing the red mist when he gave away two 50m penalties in the first half for dissent.
Finlayson, who was getting soundly beaten in the ruck by Reilly O’Brien, had to have the runner come out to him to after he gave away his second free kick, that gifted the Crows a goal, to regain his discipline.
The barbs from Jonas and Wines dominated the build-up, prompting Crows coach Matthew Nicks to fire back in an entertaining media conference.
But it was actually a comment from Crow Brodie Smith that ended up being the one that rang true on Saturday night.
Smith described the battle that was about to unfold as one between a side that lived for contested football, the Crows, and one that was dominant in uncontested possessions, the Power.
Early on the Crows were dominating the Power at stoppages, with a 7-1 lead in clearances in the opening exchanges.
But Port Adelaide was able to bridge this gap, despite O’Brien’s dominance in the ruck.
And then the Power ran through the Crows, especially in the third quarter, and racked up the uncontested possessions.
At halftime, Nicks said the Power were getting too much space in the corridor, but the Crows couldn’t stop it as Ken Hinkley’s side blew them away and went on a match winning run.
At the final siren, the uncontested possession count was a whopping 236-126 in Port’s favour.
It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise that Port Adelaide were so dominant in the uncontested possession count.
It was, however, surprising that tempers between the players at Adelaide Oval remained relatively cool, after a build-up to remember.
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