Adelaide’s credibility as a premiership contender has taken a giant hit, writes Michelangelo Rucci

ADELAIDE’S credibility as a premiership contender — less than nine months after the Crows were an AFL grand finalist — has taken a giant hit with another costly defeat at home. Michelangelo Rucci looks at where the club is at.

Luke Brown and Josh Kelly go head to head on Sunday. Picture: Sarah Reed

ADELAIDE’S credibility as a premiership contender — less than nine months after the Crows were an AFL grand finalist — has taken a giant hit with another costly defeat at home.

Adelaide’s 16-point loss Sunday night to a confidence-ravaged, lower-ranked Greater Western Sydney, which had never won before at Adelaide Oval, puts the Crows in a form slump with three losses in the past four weeks.

And to make matters worse, the damaging injury list at West Lakes could gain acting captain Tom Lynch who did not finish the match Sunday night with the Crow reporting the forward has a side strain that might also involve rib damage.

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Also painful to the Crows (6-5) is they have fallen out of the AFL top eight — to Port Adelaide, after the Power had its own nightmare at the weekend with a three-point loss to Hawthorn at Launceston. The pre-season dream of both SA-based AFL clubs winning the race to the top-four in September — for the first time since 2002 — is now a fantasy.

Paul Seedsman and Eddie Betts celebrate a goal for the Crows. Picture: Sarah Reed

Crows coach Don Pyke is facing a form crisis he has not known since rounds 5-8, 2016 when the Crows last lost three of four games in late April-early May of his start-up season as an AFL coach.

“We’re going alright … but not great,” said Pyke after the Crows fell to their third loss at Adelaide Oval this season.

The Crows face a challenging double road trip, starting in Perth on Sunday to play a smarting Fremantle and then the revived Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday week, before taking their mid-season break.

“We’ve got some work to do,” added Pyke, who insists the high injury count at West Lakes is not an excuse. But it has become a reason for Adelaide’s form slump with Pyke noting the Crows are not only troubled by a lack of “continuity” in their line-up but also at training.

“It’s the continuity to be honest,” answered Pyke to what Adelaide lacks from last season when it was the AFL pacesetter and minor premier. “That’s the key thing — the continuity of guys playing together.

“We need to hang in (the race) … and we need to make sure we get some wins on the board. Our best is good enough … but we are not playing at our best. And that is our challenge.”

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