Third straight loss leaves battered Adelaide’s season in crisis
ADELAIDE’S AFL campaign is officially in crisis on the back of three straight losses and the Crows’ latest defeat to Fremantle provided little hope their fortunes will change any time soon.
Crows
Don't miss out on the headlines from Crows. Followed categories will be added to My News.
ADELAIDE’S AFL campaign is officially in crisis.
The Crows’ three-point loss to an inexperienced Fremantle at Perth Stadium has left Adelaide tumbling to 10th on the ladder on the back of a three-game losing streak.
And at 6-6 — and with a hefty injury list that gained defender Luke Brown (left ankle) last night — the Crows are losing credibility in the race to September’s top-eight finals.
The crash of the 2017 losing Grand Finalist to a team lacking confidence and any semblance to the pacesetting ways of last season forces serious questions to be asked — and answered with frankness rather than spin — at West Lakes.
Needing to respond to consecutive losses to Melbourne (in Alice Springs) and Greater Western Sydney (at home), the Crows gave very little to convince anyone this season from hell will turn for the better.
After giving the Dockers a 30-minute and four-goal headstart, Adelaide did put this gripping game back in its favour with an unanswered six-goal second term that turned a 22-point quarter-time deficit to a 12-point lead at halftime.
But this was the only time the Crows did just as coach Don Pyke wants.
His battered team is not in any way hanging tough, collecting the points and keeping alive the hope that the burden of a hefty injury list will vanish in time to have them still play a significant part in this year’s premiership race.
Captain Taylor Walker, playing his first game since Showdown 44 on May 12, completed his rushed return with a modest performance.
He finished with just one goal against Western Bulldogs 2016 premiership defender Joel Hamling.
More troubled with scoring was Crows goalsneak Eddie Betts who finished with 2.6.
Adelaide’s injury curse continued in this game with Brown hobbling out of a marking contest in the last term with a left-ankle injury.
Adelaide’s cheersquad had put in huge writing on their run-through banner the call for the Crows to “showcase our very best”.
That came on delay, after a very ordinary first term — and in only one long burst.
Adelaide’s poor start — handing an inexperienced Fremantle side without its Brownlow medallist and captain Nat Fyfe and lead ruckman Aarson Sandilands a 22-point lead at quarter-time — had nothing to do with finding bearings in the Crows’ first visit to Perth’s new $1.6 billion arena.
Poor disposal, poor decisions and poor composure — and some of this from even Adelaide’s proven players.
Fremantle’s first two goals — in a five-goal first term — were from turnovers off Walker’s hands.
It took 14 minutes — and four unanswered goals — to clear away this handicap with the most significant influence on the game being the eight touches from Carlton recruit Bryce Gibbs in this purple-bleaching patch.
Adelaide’s change of appetite for the critical contested ball (lost 36-41 in the first term) and its turn to cutting holes in Fremantle’s seven-man defence with a shorter game — and significantly more intensity put against and break the novice Dockers.
Adelaide’s loss of All-Australian defender Rory Laird (broken hand) — and Walker’s return — shuffled Wayne Milera from half-forward in last week’s home loss to the Giants to defence again.
The task of minimising Laird’s absence fell to Milera and Brown who endured a fascinating duel with Fremantle goalsneak Michael Walters.
First-year defender Tom Doedee’s chase and tackle of Walters as the Docker raced to an open goal in the 13th minute of the third term again proves — as was shown in the upset of Sydney at the SCG in April — that Adelaide’s youth is not short of ambition.
Adelaide returns to the MCG — for the first time since last year’s Grand Final loss to Richmond — to face a refreshed Hawthorn in a potential playoff to stay in the race to September.
FREMANTLE 5.2 5.6 9.8 10.11 (71)
ADELAIDE 1.4 7.6 7.8 9.14 (68)
GOALS
Dockers: Cox 4, Sheridan 2, Banfield, Ballantyne, Tucker, Langdon
Crows: Jenkins 2, Betts 2, Douglas, Gibson, Walker, Greenwood, Poholke
BEST
Dockers: Neale, Cox, Langdon, Mundy, Hamling, Blakely
Crows: Gibbs, Seedsman, Doedee, Milera, M.Crouch, Douglas
INJURIES
Dockers: Nil
Crows: Luke Brown (left ankle)
Reports: Michael Walters for headbutting Tom Doedee
Umpires: Margetts, Hosking, Whetton
Official crowd: 33,421
Several Crows still in limbo after latest re-signings
A pair of promising defenders have signed on at Adelaide, but a number of Crows remain in limbo as the club prepares for a bumper trade period.
No, thanks: Crow turns back on Collingwood trade
Collingwood came hard at Mark Keane in an attempt to get the key defender back at the club. But the Irishman isn’t going anywhere, recommitting long term at the Crows.