Adelaide faces big off-season of change after consecutive years without finals
The Crows’ crash from minor premier two years ago to AFL also-ran has been swift and severe and is likely to result in a big list overhaul. How will they tackle 2020 and beyond?
A season that promised so much, delivered so little for the Adelaide Football Club.
After finishing minor premier and making the grand final in 2017, the Crows this season missed the finals for the second consecutive year.
And unlike last season when they were ripped apart physically by injury and mentally by the ill-fated pre-season camp on the Gold Coast, this time there could be no excuses.
Adelaide lost fewer games to its best 22 through injury than all but one team, high-flying Brisbane.
Veteran ruckman Sam Jacobs and wingman Paul Seedsman (knees) and big-bodied midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen (shin) spent significant time on the sidelines, but the Crows’ only long-term loss was 2018 AFL Rising Star runner-up Tom Doedee after the young key defender shredded the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee against Hawthorn in round one and was lost for the season.
But Adelaide, which started promisingly with a 5-3 win-loss record after eight rounds, inexplicably crumbled in the second half of the year.
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It lost seven of its last nine games following its bye round to finish 11th with a horribly disappointing 10-12 record.
It followed its stunning fall from second to 12th last year, when it won 12 games — two more than this year.
Coach Don Pyke, who is suddenly under pressure to keep his job despite having two years left on his contract, described the shocking fall from grace in the second half of the season as “probably more disappointing than last year’’.
“Clearly at the end of last year we were disappointed at missing out and we’re probably more disappointed (this year), to be honest,’’ he said after the Crows’ season ended with a lifeless display against finalist the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat.
“We expected to go the other way — up the ladder — and we’ve probably just treaded water.
“Ultimately, that’s the responsibility of me and our coaching group and our playing group — to go ‘what’s caused that? What do we need to change?
“And that’s what we’ll undertake through the review process, to get a feel for what is it we can actually do to get better and continually work on to give ourselves a chance to play finals footy, which is where we want to be.’’
Co-captain Taylor Walker was more blunt, saying Adelaide “underachieved” in 2019.
“There needs to be change, that’s a simple as it is,” Walker told Triple M.
“I think we should be playing finals, we shouldn’t be finished now.
“We set some expectations at the start of the year but haven’t made finals in the past two years.
“We need to find out why and hopefully we do over the next few weeks.”
The Crows entered the season with the third-oldest squad behind Hawthorn and Collingwood and had a host of players suffer form drop-offs.
Veterans Josh Jenkins, Bryce Gibbs and Eddie Betts were among those players not to reach the heights expected of them and all spent time in the SANFL.
It had only eight games from its 2018 draftees, with midfield speedster Chayce Jones playing all of them.
PORT ADELAIDE SEASON REVIEW: ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING YEAR OR STEPPING STONE TO FUTURE?
Adelaide’s biggest trouble was scoring.
The highest scoring team in the league in 2017 when they averaged 109.8 points, the Crows this year averaged only 80.7 points — ranked 10th.
Damningly they recorded their four lowest ever scores at Adelaide Oval this season — 5.14 (44) against Port Adelaide in round 16; 6.12 (48) against the Magpies in round 22; 7.9 (51) against Fremantle in round seven; and 7.13 (55) against Hawthorn in round one, illustrating just how badly they lost their way as they unveiled a more defensive game plan.
After their final round loss to the Dogs, St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt suggested there was more to Adelaide’s poor performances than player form.
“When two weeks in a row you’re playing to lock in finals and to deliver such poor effort (in losses to Collingwood and the Dogs), what do you put that down to?,’’ he said on AFL Nation.
“Is there a disconnect there? There is something not right.’’
Adelaide will undergo an off-season of change to try to fix things.
CLUB CHAMPION
After failing to play an AFL game last year following serious groin injuries that required surgery, midfielder Brad Crouch played every game in a season for the first time since debuting in 2013 and led the Crows in disposals with 665 at an average of 30.2.
He deserves to be favourite for the Malcolm Blight Medal.
Key defender Daniel Talia was the only Crow named in the 40-man All-Australian squad, with Adelaide not having an All-Australian representative for the first time since 2011, illustrating its tough year. He played all 22 games and already holds a gold jacket as club champion in 2014.
Other previous winners, Matt Crouch, Rory Laird and Rory Sloane, enjoyed solid, rather than spectacular, years, while Brodie Smith enjoyed being freed of a backline role and running through the wing and across half-forward.
Novice ruckman Reilly O’Brien should have polled well in his 18 games after replacing injured veteran Sam Jacobs while defender Jake Kelly enjoyed his best season.
NEXT PREMIERSHIP TEAM
F: McHenry, Fogarty, Lynch
HF: Sloane, Pick 21, Jones
C: Smith, M. Crouch, Pick 3
HB: Laird, Doedee, Kelly
B: Brown, Talia, Butts
1R: O’Brien, Milera, B. Crouch
Inter (from): Pick 26, Seedsman, Gallucci, Stengle, Himmelberg, Hamill, Sholl, McAdam, Atkins.
TRADE TABLE
OUT: Where do you start? Adelaide is expected to be one of the major players in this year’s exchange period, with a host of players up for grabs — either because they want out or the Crows do not see them as being a part of their long-term future.
Popular defender Andy Otten has already retired and three-times best team man and 2010 club champion Richard Douglas has been sent packing and is looking for another AFL club.
Brilliant small forward Eddie Betts has a year to run on his contract but reportedly wants to rejoin his former club Carlton. At age 32 and in the twilight of his career, the Crows are unlikely to stand in his way given they could save $600,000.
Key forward Josh Jenkins has two years left to run on a five-year deal worth about $3 million but he spent half of the season in the SANFL and the club might try to ship him out if it can find a taker.
Veteran ruckman Sam Jacobs — as popular as he is — is out of contract and being offered longer-term deals elsewhere.
Key defender Alex Keath was enjoying a career-best season until hurting his ankle and missing four games. Out of contract, the 27-year-old is understood to have been courted by the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda and looking for a bumper four-year deal, which the Crows might not want to match.
Big-bodied midfielder Hugh Greenwood, 27, also has suitors and will most likely be let go as he could not hold a regular spot this year. Fellow on-baller Cam Ellis-Yolmen, who was enjoying a breakout year, suffered a shin injury and did not play after round 13. He also is out of contract and might look for opportunities elsewhere.
IN: Former Power star Kane Cornes has posed the question of who would want to join the Crows while they appear to be unstable and undergoing enormous change. Money and opportunities talk and there is also the go-home factor if Adelaide can find a South Australian that it wants.
Hometown rival Port Adelaide has a few tall options the Crows should consider recruiting to fill needs, including Billy Frampton, Dougal Howard and Jarrod Lienert. Putting together a lucrative package to get ace teenager Jack Lukosius back from Gold Coast would be a dream scenario but he is likely to spend at least one more season up north.
ON THE AGENDA
Adelaide is in for one of the busiest off-seasons in club history. On Monday, it announced there would be a full external review, with the appointment of a four-member panel, of the club’s operations following back-to-back failed seasons and member and supporter discontent.
Coach Don Pyke, chief executive Andrew Fagan, head of football Brett Burton and the assistant coaches are among the key off-field positions that will come under scrutiny. Then there is the ageing playing list to deal with.
With seven players over the age of 30, including several out of contract, the Crows will be looking to make a list cull that has already begun with the moving on of Andy Otten and Richard Douglas.
Adelaide is expected to be one of the most active players in the exchange period as it searches for youth and speed via way of trades and prized draft picks.
SEASON 2020 FORECAST
After entering a season with high expectations for the past two years but failing to play finals, expectations should be tempered in 2020. The Crows have an ageing list and face an off-season of change with a host of key veterans, including fans favourite Eddie Betts, set to depart either through retirement, delisting or trades.
The club has enough quality to make a push for the top eight next year — young gun Darcy Fogarty is a real talent — but a premiership seems well beyond them and they could face a transitional period.
DRAFT PLAY
Adelaide didn’t quite get the draft value it wanted when it famously exchanged 2019 first-round picks with Carlton at last year’s national draft for the No. 19 2018 selection, which the Blues used on big-bodied midfielder Liam Stocker.
The Crows ended up with pick three at this year’s draft after the Blues improved from wooden spooner to win seven games and finish 16th — two spots above hapless Gold Coast, which lost its last 18 games, and last year’s preliminary finalist Melbourne, which had a disastrous year, finishing second bottom.
As it stands, the Crows will get Carlton’s No. 3 draft pick while giving up the No. 8 selection. But the Suns have lobbied the AFL for a first-round priority pick, which would be pick two and push Adelaide back to No. 4.
There are two standout players in the draft — Oakleigh Chargers teammates Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson — who the Crows would love to get their hands on but they will almost certainly be gone by the time they make a pick.
Other contenders for pick three would be Victorians Lachie Ash and Hayden Young — half-back/midfielders who are quick and use the ball well.
The best Croweaters available are Norwood on-baller Dylan Stephens and Glenelg defender Will Gould.
GRAND FINAL TICKETS
Don’t get in the queue just yet. Two years after starting the 2017 grand final against Richmond as a red-hot favourite — and failing to fire on the big stage — Adelaide does not look like contending again in a hurry.
Things can change quickly in the AFL landscape but, with an ageing player list, a grand final appearance does not appear to be on the horizon.