Back on the attack: Your ultimate guide to Adelaide Crows’ 2019 season
After a year to forget in 2018, there is plenty of optimism at West Lakes this season. Here is everything you need to know about the Adelaide Crows for 2019, including fixture, player ratings and odds.
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Let’s face it, things could not have gone much worse at West Lakes last season. Yet the Crows still only missed the finals by one game.
That was despite the fact injury robbed them of half a team for much of the season with Rory Sloane, Brad Crouch and Taylor Walker missing 40 games between them.
They were dogged by persistent off-field distractions stemming from a pre-season mind-camp and struggled to pick themselves up physically or mentally after the devastation of losing the 2017 grand final.
On the outside it looked like a year from hell but coach Don Pyke — as is his job — took the glass-half-full approach.
Less than 30 seconds into his Round 23 press conference which was the first of many post-mortems on the year, Pyke declared “a lot of positives and for me to look forward to, I’m really excited about next year”.
“Guys like (Wayne) Milera, (Hugh) Greenwood has played 22 games as a genuine mid, (Tom) Doedee had a fantastic year, (Jordan) Gallucci is looking more and more comfortable at the level, we’ve introduced (Lachlan) Murphy and (Myles) Poholke.
“That, with the quality of players we know we’ve got, really makes me keen to get on to 2019 to be honest.”
So what does that look like seven months later?
Firstly Adelaide’s list has for now made it through the pre-season largely unscathed.
Daniel Talia had knee surgery after a mishap at home but is expected to be available for Round 1 and Kyle Hartigan was a slow burn over summer while he also recovered from a knee injury but will be in the selection frame.
The Crows are a long way in front of this time last year when hamstrings started to go under the strain of a shortened pre-season.
Adelaide did not recruit heavily in the off-season. It added small forward Tyson Stengle from Richmond and mature-age forward Shane McAdam from Sturt and had two picks in the top 20 at the national draft.
The Crows’ biggest loss was high-flying forward Mitch McGovern to Carlton. But their biggest ‘recruits’ are likely to come from within with Brad Crouch — who played 20 games in Adelaide’s grand final year of 2017 and zero last season — set to significantly bolster the midfield. By all reports Crouch has had a near flawless pre-season after groin surgery last year and will slot straight back into the action in the middle.
The other significant boost will come from Brodie Smith, who played two games late in the year in his return from a knee reconstruction. It only took him two games to show he had lost none of the dash or penetrating kick that made him an All-Australian in 2014.
The silver lining to players like Smith and Crouch, and to a lesser extent Walker and Sloane, being sidelined last year was it gave others an opportunity to step up.
Wayne Milera took Smith’s position at half-back and shone and, after an enormous pre-season, showed he’s ready to go into the midfield. His movement in traffic is breathtaking to watch.
Hugh Greenwood cemented his spot as an inside/outside midfielder after playing every game, Darcy Fogarty got a look at life inside the forward 50m as did small forwards Gallucci and Poholke.
Expect the Crows to play more free-flowing footy. They were stymied by the opposition but also their own hesitation in 2018 as they dropped from highest scoring team in the competition to eighth highest.
The new starting position rule means they can no longer line up at centre bounces with two men behind the footy and coach Don Pyke wants them to play on “instinct”.
“It’s been the message since I arrived, that we want to play with an attacking mindset,” Pyke said. “When we’re instinctive, we’re not overly clouded with thought and are playing the game and taking the options as they present.
“Providing those options is a component of that as well but, generally, sides that play instinctively and on the same page have success.”
The Crows produced it in spades in 2017 but only in patches last year.
Now, with their full team available, co-captains in Walker and Sloane, another year of development into their young players and the horrors of last year behind them, that free-wheeling, attacking footy should be back.
Adelaide Crows fixture
(All times in local time)
Round 1 — Saturday, March 23
v Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval, 4:05pm
Round 2 — Friday, March 29
v Sydney Swans at SCG, 7:50pm
Round 3 — Thursday, April 4
v Geelong Cats at Adelaide Oval, 7:20pm
Round 4 — Saturday, Apr 13
v North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, 7:25pm
Round 5 Sunday, Apr 21
v Gold Coast Suns at Adelaide Oval, 4:10pm
Round 6 — Saturday, Apr 27
v St Kilda at Marvel Stadium, 4:35pm
Round 7 — Sunday, May 5
v Fremantle at Adelaide Oval, 4:10pm
Round 8 — Saturday, May 11
v Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, 7:10pm
Round 9 — Saturday, May 18
v Brisbane Lions at The Gabba, 2:10pm
Round 10 — Saturday, May 25
v West Coast Eagles at Adelaide Oval, 4:05pm
Round 11 — Saturday, Jun 1
v Melbourne at TIO Stadium, 7:10pm
Round 12 — Saturday, Jun 8
v GWS Giants at Adelaide Oval, 7:10pm
Round 13 — Thursday, Jun 13
v Richmond at Adelaide Oval, 7:20pm
Round 14 — Bye
Round 15 — Friday, Jun 28
v Geelong at GMHBA Stadium, 7:50pm
Round 16 — Saturday, Jul 6
v Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, 4:05pm
Round 17 — Saturday, Jul 13
v Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium, 7:25pm
Round 18 — Friday, Jul 19
v Essendon at Adelaide Oval, 7:20pm
Round 19 — Saturday, Jul 27
v Carlton at MCG, 2:10pm
Round 20 — Saturday, Aug 3
v St Kilda at Adelaide Oval, 7:10pm
Round 21 — Sunday, Aug 11
v West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium, 2:40pm
Round 22 — Saturday, Aug 17
v Collingwood at Adelaide Oval, 4:05pm
Round 23 — TBC
v Western Bulldogs at Mars Stadium (Ballarat), TBC
Playing list and ratings
Leadership group
Captains: Taylor Walker, Rory Sloane
Vice-captains: Tom Lynch, Matt Crouch, Daniel Talia, Richard Douglas and Josh Jenkins.
Coaches
Senior coach: Don Pyke
Senior assistant coach/game strategy: Scott Camporeale
Assistant coach (forwards): Ben Hart
Assistant coach (defence): Marty Mattner
Assistant coach (midfield): Michael Godden
Assistant coach (ruck): Matthew Clarke
SANFL senior coach and development manager: Heath Younie
Defensive development coach: Brent Reilly
Midfield development coach: Paul Thomas
Forwards development coach: Matthew Wright
2018 season
Ladder position: 12th
Season record: 12-10 (104.1%)
Club champion: Rory Laird
Honours: Rory Laird, All-Australian; Tom Doedee, Rising Star Award runner-up.
Ladbrokes odds
To win premiership: $11
To make top four: $2.75
To make top eight: $1.40
Miss top eight: $2.75
Advertiser predictions
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