AFL 2021: All the latest Adelaide Crows news ahead of Round 3
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks envisages Darcy Fogarty playing a role similar to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin in future for the Crows.
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Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has hinted how Darcy Fogarty can return to the Crows’ line-up – as a hybrid forward/midfielder like Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield and Christian Petracca.
The No. 12 pick of the 2017 draft will spend another week out of the Crows’ AFL side, and instead play in the SANFL against South Adelaide on Friday.
Elliott Himmelberg trained with the 26 players from which the Crows will choose a side to take on the Gold Coast Suns at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, and Nicks didn’t rule out adding the key forward to his line-up alongside the in-form Taylor Walker and Billy Frampton to go with three talls.
This leaves Fogarty’s path back into the AFL team potentially going along another route.
The 21-year-old, who stands at 193cm, was used as a hybrid forward/midfielder for the Crows in a SANFL trial against Port Adelaide last week.
Nicks said that’s where Fogarty, who played on the ball at times for Glenelg as a junior, could make his mark.
“Another week like we saw last week (on what Fogarty needs to do). We were really pleased with the way he went about it,” Nicks said.
“He played a bit of a hybrid role, on-ball and forward.
“He showed what he can do in and around the footy and we’d spoken about it in the last few weeks with him.
“He has taken his game to another level, but it’s a tough one, the balance of when to bring him into the team; our midfield is doing well in and around stoppage and our seek around the footy has been pretty good.
“With ‘Fog’, if we can get him in there that will be really good, but the timing has to be right.”
Nicks said Fogarty could become a point of difference for the Crows, such as what Richmond has with Martin, Geelong with Dangerfield and Melbourne with Petracca, if the role change pays off.
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“We’ve seen that as a weapon, haven’t we, over the last few years; that player who is strong and dynamic around the footy, but then has the ability to go forward and hit the scoreboard,” Nicks said.
“Dusty is the No. 1 in the competition at the moment, Danger does similar, so does Petracca.
“We look at other sides to see what they are doing and individual players, but ultimately ‘Fog’ is his own player, he’s not going to try and be someone else and hopefully we can get his game to a level sooner rather than later, where we are talking about that Fogarty role.
“That’s the goal for him.”
Jake Kelly and Luke Brown both trained on Thursday morning after concussion and achilles issues, respectively.
Nicks said he was hopeful they would return against the Suns, but that other players such as Tom Doedee, David Mackay and Lachlan Murphy would have to be monitored slightly before a final call was made.
“We just want to make sure that they are right to go and at this point, off a shorter break, it is hard to do that,” he said.
“It’s a long season and we will make some decisions around the medium to long term.”
CROUCH’S ADMISSION ON ‘BIZARRE’ DRUGS BUST
Brad Crouch says he feared his late night drugs bust in the Adelaide CBD had ruined his chances of a big money move away from the Crows.
The 2019 Adelaide Club Champion is set to play his first game for new side St Kilda this weekend, after serving a two-game suspension for the incident in which he and now dumped Crow Tyson Stengle were caught with cocaine in the early hours of the morning in October.
It came as Crouch was looking to move from West Lakes as a free agent, after trying to get a move to the Gold Coast in 2019, and he revealed he was “pretty blurry about the whole night”.
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“Before that I had been speaking with St Kilda but there was nothing set in stone as well so I was very much up in the air about where I was going to go,” he said on RSN.
“It was a massive distraction… it was really hard for me but at the same time St Kilda were the most supportive out of all the clubs I was talking to and we had a really good conversations about it.
“They said “we are going to support you and if you come play for us we will support you and be there for you” that made me feel really good and have been since I came over.
“The first couple of days was really hard, I was thinking what have I done, how did it happen.
“It was a really tough thing because I was pretty blurry about the whole night, didn’t really know much about what had happened.
“So it was a really bizarre couple of days for me.”
Crouch addressed the incident with his new teammates in a pre-season chat.
“I got it off my chest and hopefully the players respect me for it,” he said.
The move away from the Crows, on a five-year deal, came after he began to feel like he was in a bit of a “rut” at West Lakes.
Crouch also revealed that he thought debilitating groin issues in 2018, after carrying the injury through 2017, would curtail his footy career early.
“I probably got to a stage with my groins in 2018 where I couldn’t walk without being in some serious pain and so I’d tried a conservative treatment with my groins for about eight months and nothing had worked,” he said.
“I honestly thought I would never play footy again so I was thinking I’ve got one more year on my contract I’m going to start looking at what else I can do.
“And so in my head I was thinking if my body is 100 per cent no good at the end of 2020 I can finish up footy and do something else and I’ve given it everything.
“That was how I was thinking in 2018, 2019 I had the surgery on my groins and it fixed me.
“So I had a pretty strong year but the team didn’t and don stood away and then in 2020 we lost the first 13 I had a little hammy at the start of the season and had a little bit of an interrupted year and tough year – we all did.
“It probably got to a stage where I thought, I’m turning 27 do I want to go back and have a change and be a part of a really successful side again.
“It was a huge call for me but I was really keen to get out of my comfort zone again, I was in a bit of a rut there for sure.”
The Crows elected to not match St Kilda’s bid for Crouch and received pick 23 in compensation.
CROWS ‘LUCKY’ DESPITE KEY MAN’S INJURY SETBACK
New Adelaide recruit Mitch Hinge will miss the rest of the season with the club deciding to send him in for reconstructive shoulder surgery while Crows key defender Daniel Talia will have to return through the SANFL after a minor setback.
Hinge came to the Crows from Brisbane in the off-season and made his debut for Adelaide in its Round 1 upset over Geelong as the medical sub.
But in that match Hinge dislocated his right shoulder twice, and Crows head of football Adam Kelly said the 22-year-old would now have surgery with his long-term health in mind.
“Very disappointing for Mitch Hinge, he’ll undergo shoulder surgery this week,” Kelly said.
“We decided that was the best course of action for his long-term health.
“He’ll now be unavailable for the rest of the season.”
Talia has missed the opening two rounds of the season as he recovers from off-season knee surgery.
Kelly said the gun key defender experienced foot soreness last week and was sent for scans.
Crows senior assistant coach Scott Burns said this would slow Talia’s progress by one to two weeks, and when he does return it would be in the reserves.
“We just stepped up the load with his knee and he just got sore on the opposite foot, the foot that he must have been putting a lot of the load through,” Burns said.
“We are lucky it is nothing serious but he will miss an extra week or two.
“He was always going to play twos, he has a pretty interrupted pre-season. As you’ve seen we played three games before round one and the payers in Round 1 they were cramping with 75 rotations now.
“He’s fit and in really good nick but he’s not match fit yet so he will just need a couple of games (in the SANFL) to get match fit now.”
Matt Crouch will continue his rehab work this week as he builds his training loads following a groin complaint while Jackson Hately (groin) and Luke Pedlar (abdominal) will have a fitness test ahead of selection.
Burns said Crouch wouldn’t necessarily return through the SANFL when he is fit again.
“Matty is a little bit different he has been training a little bit longer with the team and played in some trial games as well where Tals I guess in terms of training with the main group he has done a bit but nowhere near the work Matt has done,” Burns said.
No. 2 Draft pick Riley Thilthorpe was removed from the Crows’ Friday night SANFL trial game at halftime after an accidental head clash.
But the youngster was cleared of any concussion or fracture and he will be available for selection this week.
Darcy Fogarty impressed in the game being deployed as a midfielder at times, but Burns said this wasn’t about improving the forward’s endurance.
“We are trying a few different things with Darce at the moment,” he said.
“We are confident about what he can bring up forward, he is a unique athlete he has plenty of power and plenty of speed.
“He played a bit of midfield time, not a heap of midfield time, but we had him around centre bounces and he really showed his class and a bit of quality in bursts from there at times.
“I couldn’t have been more impressed of what he’s done pre-season so far. The time he ran in the 2km not many other key position players can do that so I’m not worried about his fitness base.
“It’s probably more about putting that consistent performances in at SANFL level.”
Lachie Gollant will have finger surgery this week after rupturing a flexor tendon in his left hand during the game.
The Crows defence is set to be bolstered for Friday night’s clash against Gold Coast with Luke Brown (achilles) and Jake Kelly (concussion) set to be available for selection.
Brown commenced running on the weekend and will train on Tuesday. Providing he gets through he is expected to return to the Crows’ line-up to play Gold Coast.
Kelly, who was concussed in the Round One win over Geelong in a bump by Patrick Dangerfield, has passed all required protocol to date and been cleared to participate in contact training on Tuesday.
Kelly said he will continue to be managed according to concussion protocols and is a possibility for a return against the Suns which will be 13 days post injury.
“Luke recovered well from that Achilles soreness he suffered against the Cats in Round One and we’d expect him to be available for selection on Friday night,” Kelly said.
“Jake Kelly has met all requirements for concussion protocols to date and he’ll continue to train throughout the week and rejoin main training.
“If he continues to progress the way he has, he’ll be available for selection against Gold Coast.”
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