Champion Data stats reveal Adelaide’s pressure factor is the worst in the AFL
An alarming pattern has emerged since the bye that explains Adelaide’s fadeout against Essendon, which has put several big names under pressure.
As Adelaide bats away criticism that its players have “gone missing” in recent second halves, there’s a more worrying aspect of the Crows game that raises the question: Where did the pressure go?
According to Champion Data — the official statisticians of the AFL — the Crows are now ranked worst in the competition for “pressure factor” and this damning stat explains their limited defence at all ends of the ground.
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But it’s the pressure applied in the forward-50 — or the lack thereof — that is allowing opposition defenders to get the ball moving too easily out of the Crows attack, setting up efficient scoring chains that are sinking Adelaide in games.
Crows assistant coach Ben Hart said there was certainly a combination of lack of effort, missing tackles and shallow turnovers from poor depth of entry that was enabling opposition teams to have more space and move the ball quickly.
“Some of their (Essendon) players’ legspeed certainly got the better of us,” he said.
“So delivery, structure behind and general intent at the footy is what needed to get better in the second half (on Friday night) … all over the ground, but certainly we gave up a lot from our forward-50 and our attacking mid.”
On Friday night, that lack of pressure from Adelaide’s forwards allowed Essendon’s defenders to dictate play from the back-half.
The Bombers scored 13 goals and one behind — 79 of its 96 points — from Adelaide’s defensive half, while five of Adelaide’s forwards barely laid a tackle.
In that game, Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch and Lachie Murphy combined for just one tackle inside Adelaide’s forward-50.
This, too, is a trend. Over recent games, there have been scant tackles laid by Crows players inside their own forward-50: two against Gold Coast, three against Port Adelaide and four against Geelong.
The lack of pressure is a pattern that has started after the Crows bye round.
Where the Crows were ranked mid-range for forward-50 pressure factor and forward-50 tackles before the bye, since round 15 they are now ranking second-worst and worst in the league respectively.
The side is also scoring less than it has since its standout 2017 year, which Hart in part put down to poor kicking in front of goal.
“We had 17 shots at goal in the first half (against Essendon) and missed a lot of goals,” he said.
“You kick those and all of a sudden, your forward line is working.
“But at the same time, the way the competition is defending has changed a little bit now.
“Teams will get numbers back quite quickly to clog it up and we need to continually find the balance of moving the ball quickly into space, when we can, into our one-on-ones, but also what we do when it’s a bit slower and clogged up.”
But Hart said it wasn’t a matter of the players going missing.
“Our second halves have been pretty poor, it’s not going missing necessarily,” he said.
“It’s not executing the game plan for long enough to the level and standard we require and it’s been a trend over three of the last four weeks, so it’s something we need to address.”
Hart said selection committee certainly needed to find the right balance in the forward line, between tall and small forwards and no one — including the club’s co-captain Taylor Walker — was guaranteed automatic selection.
“He’s the captain of your club, we’ll back him in for what he can bring, he just needs to do it on a consistent level for us at the moment,” he said.
“If we believe that he can do that and we can see that in him then he’ll keep his spot.
“He just needs to get back to playing his really strong footy, which we know he’s got in him.”
But in better news, Hart said Walker’s elbow — which he re-injured in the first quarter of Friday night’s loss — had pulled up fine, albeit sore.
“He’ll be OK to play (Carlton),” Hart said.
And there were still positives: “We sit eighth at the moment, so our footy is good enough and we believe that strongly”.
“Do we have to beat some teams in the top eight if we want to be successful in finals? Yes, we do.
“We believe we can, but we need to execute our game plan, our fundamentals of the game plan and what the team requires just longer.”