‘Everyone should be on table’: Taylor Walker ready for brutal review in wake of Adelaide Crows’ Showdown ‘embarrassment’
An embarrassed Taylor Walker says Crows fans shouldn’t have to pay to watch what the side served up in the second half of Showdown 47 and that everyone — from himself and co-captain Rory Sloane down — should come under scrutiny.
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Taylor Walker said the sight of Adelaide fans heading for the gates early in Showdown 47 reinforced the team’s “embarrassing” performance and everyone from he and his co-captain Rory Sloane down should be spoken about at selection to play Gold Coast this weekend.
Walker pulled no punches at Monday’s press conference, conceding he needed to improve his workrate and impact on games and declaring the 57-point thumping as arguably the most disappointing loss — or half — he’d experienced in his 12 years at the footy club.
“You look around towards the last bit of the last quarter and your fans are walking away, they shouldn’t have to pay to come and watch that. We are embarrassed and shouldn’t dish that up to the fans,” Walker said.
“It was a tale of two halves, the first half we were in the contest, we were up for the fight, our pressure was outstanding, and then to come out after half-time we had the first couple of shots on goal and after that we were very inconsistent.
“We’re going to have to sit and watch that this afternoon because if we don’t we won’t learn from it, there needs to be some honest conversations between players because the 22 who played need to sit and have a real good look at what went wrong.
“Once we review the game we’ll have a clear picture on why it happened and we’ll put in place things that will help us if we get in that situation again — try not to let it happen for a half — because it’s disappointing.”
Walker said no one should feel safe at selection this week including himself.
“From Sloaney and I down, everyone would be spoken about this week. Simple, you have to, if you dish up stuff like that in the second half everyone should be on the table,” he said.
“I’d love to be playing better, I reckon there would be a lot of blokes putting their hand up to play better, I’m co-captain of this footy club and people are entitled to their opinion, I will review it with Benny Hart my forwards coach and Pykey and I just need to work harder.
“Work harder on areas I need to get better at and don’t go away from the areas I am doing well ... I think I need to stay in the game more, play with more presence and have a little bit more impact on the game.
“Irrespective of the way the game is playing my workrate needs to stay at a high level and demand from others what’s needed.”
He said the Crows “lost our way in the contest, couldn’t keep it in our forward half and team defence was inconsistent” but he couldn’t take anything away from Port Adelaide who put them to the sword by 57 points.
Asked whether any of his teammates deserved a pass mark for their performance on Saturday night, Walker said Hugh Greenwood “had his patches”, Wayne Milera “was good up front” and Luke Brown were front of mind.
“There were a few guys in the first half who played the way they wanted to but in the second there weren’t too many,” he said.
The Crows are flying to the Going to Gold Coast on Wednesday, three days before Saturday night’s clash with the Suns in a pre-planned move made months ago. An extended squad will travel to the Gold Coast before selection on Thursday but Tom Lynch (calf) is expected to return.
Key defenders Alex Keath (knee) and Daniel Talia (ankle) as well as small forward Jordan Gallucci (concussion) will recover this week in a bid to play on Saturday night.
“We’re not changing it (travel schedule) because of the result on the weekend,” Walker said.
“It’s a great opportunity for the group to get away, bit of a change, go and train in their environment and give us best preparation to beat Gold Coast.
“But I will make it very clear, we are going up there to train. We are not going up there to put the feet up and relax, we’re going up there to train because we believe it’s best prep to beat Gold Coast.”
Walker is, however, determined to keep the loss in perspective knowing finals is still the aim for his team.
“The way I put it into perspective is I woke up on Sunday and my family stayed at my house, I got to play with my nephew, my brother and mum were down, and life continues.
“We’ve got some really important matches coming up so we’re going to have to lick our wounds, review it and learn from it.
“We’ve got no other choice, we can’t just say ‘Gillon can you hold this weekend off?’ we have to demand of each other what we want and get the bus back rolling.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au