Adelaide wingman Rory Atkins says it's the club’s program that keeps the Crows winning

RORY Atkins says there’s a simple reason why the Crows keep winning despite having an unprecedented amount of star players on the injury list.

Cam Ellis-Yoleman and Toby McLean slide to the ball in the wet at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

CROWS wingman Rory Atkins believes the club’s thorough development program has kept the side confident and winning despite a crippling injury curse.

The Crows comfortably beat an in-form Western Bulldogs on Friday night despite missing nine first-choice players to injury — among them captain Taylor Walker, vice-captain Rory Sloane, club champion midfielder Matt Crouch and his brother Brad.

But the Crows keep winning and at six wins and three losses have cemented their place in the top four despite constant team changes.

Atkins put it down to running identical structures and playbooks in the club’s AFL and SANFL sides, which means the promoted players have a clear idea of what their roles are when they are called up to the seniors.

“A lot of people have been talking about who’s out,” Atkins said. “But there’s not enough recognition of who’s in.

“That’s what good football clubs do; they stand up.

“Our development coaches and our coaches do a great job of getting these guys who aren’t in the side ready to play AFL football.

“Playing at the SANFL level the guys might not be getting the results (the Crows reserves is last on the SANFL ladder) but they’re still playing to the system that they’re going to have to play when they get a call-up to the AFL side.

“Which is what they’re doing.

“We’re seeing Myles Poholke, Jordan Gallucci and Lachlan Murphy all coming in and playing their role and that’s just from the way they’re being coached and the way they train.”

Atkins also allowed himself to have a chuckle about crowd favourite Eddie Betts’ return to goalkicking form after a slow start to the season.

Betts has kicked two, three and four goals over the past three weeks and was back to his exhilarating best against the Bulldogs.

Daniel Talia gets a kick away before being tackled by Toby McLean.

“We’ve seen him do that plenty of times,” Atkins said. “He doesn’t need much look at the goals to kick them.”

One of the keys to the Crows keeping their form intact despite losing players to injuries on an almost weekly basis — there have been 10 hamstring injuries this season alone — has been simplicity and efficiency.

The Bulldogs had them covered in disposals and had three more inside-50s but the game was under lock and key after a Josh Jenkins goal that opened the fourth quarter.

“A lot of their possessions were just them flicking it around,” Atkins said. “We knew that if we kept the contest up it was going to go a long way.”

Coach Don Pyke said the win had thrown up another positive alongside the experience for the younger players.

With the club missing so many leaders, others were thrown into senior roles.

Adelaide now has a nine-day break — it faces Melbourne in Alice Springs next Sunday — and plenty of time to recover from a game which produced a season-high tackling count from both the Western Bulldogs and the Crows (118-114).