Crows meet at coach Don Pyke’s place on Sunday afternoon as chairman Rob Chapman promises ‘calm, considered’ response to horror Carlton loss
Under-fire Crows coach Don Pyke puts on pizza and beers at his place as chairman Rob Chapman promises fans a calm and considered but thorough response to form slump threatening their season.
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Adelaide players and officials gathered at coach Don Pyke’s home on Sunday afternoon as club chairman Rob Chapman promised fans a calm and considered but forensic response to Saturday’s horror loss to Carlton.
Pyke called the informal gathering over pizza and beers at his place as his team searches for a circuit breaker to a form slump which is threatening its spot in the eight and sparking calls for his head.
The Crows have lost four of their last five games and their only win since the mid-season bye was the 95-point drubbing of 18th-ranked Gold Coast.
They were clinging to eighth spot by percentage last night ahead of games against St Kilda, West Coast, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs to finish the season.
Pyke spoke to his senior leaders and assistant coaches immediately after the loss to the Blues and Chapman said talks on how to turn things around began before they boarded the plane home to Adelaide.
The club’s board met last week which included a football strategy discussion but there were no plans for board members to meet on Sunday to discuss Pyke’s future with two years still to run on his contract.
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“Everybody on that plane returning last night was annoyed, incredibly frustrated and certainly disappointed, but we will stick together because that’s what good clubs have to do,” Chapman told The Advertiser.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it and ask the why. That started before we got on the plane and it will continue today.
“Don is a good coach and he will get to the bottom of it. Our season is very much alive, we’re 9-9, and we have an opportunity over the next four weeks to play finals football. If we make it then it becomes a different game.
“But we have to get there first and that’s the goal, we want our supporters to know we are doing everything we can.
“The longer I’m around in my positions of leadership, being calm and considered delivers you a better outcome all the time. There is no knee-jerk reaction at our end. We will be very calm and considered.”
Players met at Pyke’s place on Sunday after the SANFL team also lost by two points to Glenelg on Saturday.
“Let’s get back to the basics, get some fun back in place,” Chapman said.
Adelaide appears a shadow of the team that made the 2017 grand final and after a year dogged by injuries and off-field distractions in 2018, finished 12th. There were high hopes of a return to finals and even top-four this season but even with a relatively low injury count the Crows are a very real risk of missing finals again.
The usually measured Graham Cornes was scathing of Adelaide on Twitter after the loss to 16th-placed Carlton.
“Absolutely inexcusable. Appalling selections but same old story: no forward line presence or intensity; no attacking options from defence and worse, no obvious enthusiasm and a complete lack of optimism,” Cornes tweeted.
Cornes’ son Kane told the AFL website it appeared as though Pyke had “lost the players”, the hashtag #pykeout was ‘trending’ on Twitter and a video emerged of a man attempting to burn a Crows guernsey outside the MCG before being stopped by police.
Adelaide beat GWS and Richmond going into the bye but had significant second-half fadeouts against Geelong, Essendon and Port Adelaide after the break.
The numbers from Saturday’s loss to Carlton were as damning as the result with Adelaide -22 in contested possession and -23 in clearances as they were powerless to stop Blues superstar Patrick Cripps (39 disposals and 19 clearances) and 19-year-old rookie Sam Walsh (30 and seven).
Post-match Pyke said at 9-9 Adelaide’s season was “still very much alive”.
“We need to stay united and quickly get the group back together to tackle St Kilda,” he said.
Pyke has been very measured at selection in his four years at the helm and two weeks ago took the oldest team in the competition into the Round 18 loss to Essendon.
But his final comment on Saturday night suggested things could be headed for a shake-up this week.
“Based on today’s performance there might be a few guys in line for selection,” he said.
Pyke is set to speak again on Monday night on Fox Footy’s AFL360.
reece.homfray@news.com.au