After a season that leaves so many questions, will the Adelaide Football Club deliver answers to its members
IT is members’ recognition round for the Adelaide Football Club as the Crows close their season at Adelaide Oval on Sunday. But many Crows members might want their search for answers recognised with another event later in the year
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Laird vows Crows will bounce back
- Pyke axes mind games but backs Tex
- The Tex TV gaffe that inflamed Kane feud
- Teams: Defender Clurey shock out for Power
ADELAIDE on Sunday will say thank you to its members — the AFL club now counting this group as 94,000-plus — as the Crows play their last game of the season at Adelaide Oval.
There will be no AFL or SANFL finals next month, leaving those 700,000 Crows fans on chief executive Andrew Fagan’s count to find new ways to enjoy September for the first time since 2014 — and the eighth time since the 1998 premiership triumph against North Melbourne that is fondly remembered this weekend.
They will be back next year, again in strong numbers. It has been that way for every season since the Crows fans blasted off the rust from their seats at Football Park at the end of 2013 to understand why Adelaide Oval always has been the best-placed sporting venue in town.
But this should not be reason to take them for granted. Certainly not at a time when there are still so many questions as to why the Crows failed to follow up last year’s pacesetting trends.
Injuries are a reality. But Collingwood, that has been battered week after week, is playing for a top-four berth on Saturday while the Crows are seeking to rise to 11th.
Collingwood at the end of last season — when it finished 13th with nine wins and a draw (from Crows forward Mitch McGovern’s goal after the siren) — opened itself up with every key official holder, on and off the field, having to explain themselves at a members’ forum on December 5.
President Eddie McGuire acknowledged the restless supporter base vowing: “We have recognised a greater focus for our members and fans. We will deliver increased value, improved communications and greater access to the club than ever before.”
And now that the Magpies are playing in finals again — for the first time since 2013 — all is well.
Crows fans, who have enjoyed far more in the past five years, might not be so agitated as their Collingwood colleagues were this time last year. But, if questions being asked to former Adelaide playing greats at sportsman’s nights are a guide, there are meaningful concerns and unease for what has unfolded at West Lakes in the past 10 months.
Adelaide’s members will get the internal rundown of the Crows season during the Malcolm Blight Medal count on Friday, August 31 — a night that clashes with Blight coaching the All-Stars as the EJ Whitten Legends Game is played at Adelaide Oval for the first time.
They can — but few do — be at the members’ information meeting at the Oval in late February or early March next year, by which time there will be a new coaching panel, new player list and new hope.
In between, there will be emails as letters from Fagan’s desk … and the internal review that has to settle now much of the Crows season was about bad luck and how much was bad management.
“We will start to now think through that, to make sure that we give ourselves the very best chance next year to bounce back,” says coach Don Pyke.
Members’ forums can be volatile — and uncontrollable — moments that AFL clubs prefer to avoid when they today control so much of their presentation, particularly in the digital media space.
But it might be just the moment the Adelaide Football Club must endure to be true to its members, all 94,000-plus of them.
REALITY BITES
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“WHAT’S robbing the fans is (they’re) not getting to see the best players because of injury. And I think it is linked back into length of season, length of games and just the demands players are put under.”
GEELONG midfielder PATRICK DANGERFIED in another week of major additions to the AFL injury list.
THEN AND NOW
BROWNLOW Medallist and Geelong midfielder PATRICK DANGERFIELD in January: “I think 17 games make sense purely because it’s fair. The other alternative is what if you play 34 games, but instead of 120 minutes of footy, you cut it to 18-minute quarters, so you’re playing less than 80 minutes of footy.”
DANGERFIELD this week: “Twenty-two games I see as too many, but the length of the game is a conversation piece that (also) needs to be had.”
JUST A THOUGHT
AS Adelaide celebrates the 20th anniversary of its 1998 premiership against North Melbourne, this reflection from Crows premiership ruckman SHAUN REHN in September 2016 has more relevance: “It’s time the current Crows team writes its own history rather than be told about what we did 20 years ago.
“And this group is good enough — they have shown that all year. We’ve seen that (in 16 wins) with the way they play, the way they have become a concentrated group — and the passion they have.
“The only limit to what they can do is … themselves.”
STILL BE ASKED
CROWS 1997-98 premiership hero DARREN JARMAN and goalkicking great TONY MODRA were on the country speaking circuit in the South-East last week — and it is no surprise that the question of what did happen on the Crows’ pre-season camp at the Gold Coast in late January continues to fascinate people. Adelaide football boss BRETT BURTON’S notion that there is “no lingering issue” from the camp still seems up for debate.
BACK AT THE OVAL
SA sporting greats will gather at Adelaide Oval at 11am Monday to pay tribute to former State and Glenelg cricketer BRIAN ILLMAN.
The moment will take KEN “KG” CUNNINGHAM back to the 1960-61 Sheffield Shield summer when he and Illman made their first-class debut in the same game at the Oval against Victoria.
Illman’s first wicket — in a six-game career with SA — was that of Australian cricket legend Bill Lawry with the catch by Cunningham.
“Brian was a vibrant man, a great bloke — and a great competitor,’ Cunningham said. “He always had a hearty, very infectious laugh. He was a great friend.”
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
“For the Crows, they would be balancing up what to change and what to persevere with. I don’t think the Crows should panic as they’ve just had one bad year.”
PREMIERSHIP master LEIGH MATTHEWS.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
“I couldn’t care less who is (Crows) captain it’s just my opinion that (Rory) Sloane is the best person for the job.”
PORT Adelaide premiership midfielder KANE CORNES on the future of Taylor Walker as Adelaide Football Club captain.
I couldn’t care less who is captain it’s just my opinion that Sloane is the best person for the job
— Kane Cornes (@kanecornes) August 15, 2018
Aussie golf fans could share in a million dollars
The PGA has teamed up with a sports bookmaker for an Australian first – offering golf fans a chance to share in a million dollars if a player scores a hole-in-one.
Experts react after dire goalless effort
A foundation member of the AFLW competition was begging for change after fans were greeted to a dismal display on Friday night.