Disastrous Adelaide must make a Gather Round stand against Melbourne – or its virtually season over

The Crows were so toothless in their Good Friday loss to Fremantle that the city’s A-League soccer team scored as many goals as they did, writes Andrew Capel.

It’s a disaster.

There can be no other word for it.

After starting the season expecting to play finals for the first time in the Matthew Nicks coaching era – and first since the infamous 2017 grand final loss to Richmond – Adelaide has, in three short weeks, fallen off the cliff spectacularly.

It’s not just the 0-3 win-loss record that is damning – all three losses have been against teams that didn’t play finals last year – but the manner of the defeats, monotonous style of play, form of key players and a worrying injury count.

The Crows were so toothless in their Good Friday loss to Fremantle that the city’s A-League soccer team, Adelaide United – playing at the same time – scored as many goals as they did (four).

Adelaide, which took big strides forward last season and over summer, expressed such confidence in its playing list that it publicly claimed that, under reasonable circumstances, anything less than a top-eight spot this season would be a failure – and then signed Nicks to a two-year contract extension.

Three games in, Adelaide is in such a hole that it is already facing a season-defining game.

Put simply, Thursday night’s opening AFL Gather Round clash against in-form Melbourne at Adelaide Oval has become one of the most important home-and-away fixtures in Crows history.

Shattered Crows players, with coach Matthew Nicks (left), trudge from Perth’s Optus Stadium after their loss to Fremantle on Good Friday. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Lose and slump to 0-4 and their chances of making the finals will be almost extinguished – by early April.

Of the 162 teams in league history to start a season 0-4, only five have played finals.

So what has gone so drastically wrong?

Where do you start?

The long-term injury suffered by emerging star key forward Riley Thilthorpe was an untimely blow.

He was the player who was talked up all summer as Adelaide’s next big thing who was on the verge of a breakout campaign which would deliver 40-plus goals.

Then came veteran star Taylor Walker’s back injury in the lead-up to Round 1, which cost him the opening round against Gold Coast.

He hasn’t looked like the same player since.

Even prior to his injury, there were questions, even inside the four walls of the Adelaide Football Club, about how much good football the 33-year-old Walker had left and that, if his form dipped, what effect that would have on the team after his career-best 76-goal haul last season that earned him his first All-Australian selection.

Taylor Walker attempts to mark against Fremantle’s Alex Pearce in Perth in Round 3. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Adelaide’s Josh Rachele handballs under pressure from Docker Luke Ryan at Optus Oval on Good Friday. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Walker, who turns 34 on Anzac Day, played the leading role in the Crows’ dynamic attack of 2023 that led the AFL in scoring, averaging 95 points a game.

This year they rank a dismal 17th, having averaged only 55 points and scoring just eight goals against the Suns in Round 1 – when they managed only one to halftime – 11 against Geelong in Round 2 and four against the Dockers in Round 3.

Their percentage is a lowly 73.3, ranked 15th (down from 116.8 last year, ranked fourth) and the exciting, attacking dare that was their one-wood in 2023 is gone.

They look like a shell of their former selves.

With an off-season focus on defence after they ranked ninth in scores against (82 points) last season, the question has to be asked. Did they overcorrect?

The loss of highly-respected forward line coach James Rahilly to his former club Geelong always loomed as significant but few pundits believed it would hurt the team this much.

With defensive-minded assistant coach Scott Burns having taken over the forward line duties, Adelaide has not looked the same in attack.

Crows captain Jordan Dawson (left) and ruckman Reilly O'Brien show their disappointment after the Round 3 loss to Fremantle. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

The team has lost its dare and cutting edge in front of the sticks. The braveness and speed that the Crows played with last year is gone, along with the connection between the midfield (where Adelaide has looked pedestrian at times) and attack.

Excitement machines Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele, who the Crows wanted to use more through the midfield this season to give the team more explosiveness, appear a little lost, torn between kicking goals and setting them up.

Fellow young forward/midfielder Luke Pedlar, who showed so much promise last season, is out of form and was subbed out against Fremantle.

Adelaide’s ball use going inside 50 has been so poor that it has continually turned it over to the opposition, with Geelong’s Tom Stewart and the Dockers’ Luke Ryan and Alex Pearce having field days in defence in the past two weeks.

The Crows’ horror start has been compounded by a season-ending knee injury to one of their playmakers, halfback Wayne Milera, who devastatingly shredded a knee for the second time in the loss to the Dockers.

Age has also become an issue for Adelaide.

Adelaide forward Darcy Fogarty in action against the Dockers. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

While its list profile is still young, several of its best players are on the wrong side of 30 and showing signs of slowing down.

Apart from Walker, who is the second-oldest player on its list, All-Australian Brodie Smith, who played his 250th game against Fremantle, is 32 and has had a poor start to the season, with even his famed kicking letting him down.

Former captain Rory Sloane is 34 and might not play again because of a bad eye injury.

Dual All-Australian Rory Laird is 30 and nearing the end of his career.

Questions have also been raised about the quality of the Crows’ eight-man leadership group, which was voted in by the playing group with the backing of the coaches.

While second-year captain Jordan Dawson is a star and the right man for the job, forward Darcy Fogarty has hardly fired a shot this season, kicking only two goals, Lachie Murphy shouldn’t be a walk-up starter in the team, Milera has had an injury-riddled career and former Lion Mitch Hinge has had only one strong season at AFL level.

Smith, lead ruckman Reilly O’Brien and Ben Keays are the other leaders.

A season that promised so much and has so far delivered so little is now on a knife’s edge – and it’s only Round 4.

NUMBERS GAME

4 – Goals scored by the Adelaide Crows and Adelaide United on Good Friday.

21 – Port Adelaide’s inside 50 advantage in its loss to Melbourne.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“We’ve got a lot of players at the moment that are down in form, too many for us to stand up when it counts.” – Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks.

“I’m prepared to say if Peter Wright gets suspended, whatever weeks he gets, I will not watch a game of AFL footy. I’m done.’’ – AFL great Wayne Carey before Bomber Wright copped a four-game ban.