Crows cling to positives as 37-point Brisbane defeat edges them closer to maiden wooden spoon
There was a much-needed bright spot in the Crows’ 37-point loss to Brisbane at the Gabba that will give Adelaide fans some hope for the future in an otherwise bleak season.
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For Adelaide supporters, season 2020 hasn’t so far offered up too many bright spots.
Following crushing defeats at the hands of Port Adelaide in round two and a first-ever loss to the Gold Coast in round three, the Crows’ round four clash to premiership contenders Brisbane on Sunday looked to be following the same old script: lacklustre, defence-heavy football with minimal scoring opportunities.
At half time, the Crows were 40 points down and had scored only two goals from their paltry nine inside-50s, compared with the Lions’ score of 7.10 from their 36 forays into the forward line.
It looked as though another low score and big loss was on the cards.
But then something unexpected happened: for a 20-minute period in the third term Crows supporters were able to say with some kind of optimism: “Hold on, what’s happening here?”
By the end of that quarter, the Crows had tripled their score – thanks in no small part to Taylor Walker’s two goals and some inaccuracy on Brisbane’s part – and cut the deficit to 18 points.
Brisbane won the first clearance of the quarter, sending the ball straight into the forward line where Hugh McCluggage took a strong mark inside the first minute had a shot on goal.
But McCluggage hit the post and recorded the first of the Lions’ five behinds for the term.
From here, Brodie Smith took the kick-in and kicked to Billy Frampton who took a strong mark just outside the defensive 50.
His centring chip kick to Rory Laird fell at his feet and Laird was tackled as he spilt to the ground.
As Daniel Talia tried to crumb, but Laird found his feet again and cleared the pack with a short handpass to Jake Kelly who bombed a long ball to the centre.
Lachy Murphy won a free kick for high contact and he handballed to Brad Crouch who kicked 30m to Sloane who marked on the wing.
Sloane handballed to Tom Lynch as he ran past and his kick found Walker in the pocket.
The former captain slotted through the first of four Crows goals for the quarter.
As commentator Dermott Brereton observed: “Little bit of run, little bit of dare, handball sideways, wet conditions, little bit of dare in that”.
What was also important about that passage of play was the second-effort at the contest.
Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien, who had a tough day against the Lions’ Archie Smith and Oscar McInerney, said the team went into the changerooms at half time in a positive mindset.
“We addressed what we needed to do and what we needed to improve in the second half and we stayed positive with one another and that flowed into a good third quarter when we played the footy we wanted to play. It was just annoying we couldn’t do that for the four quarters.
“The main thing Nicks said at half time was about staying in the contest longer, we were right in the original contest but once the ball spilt we weren’t getting to that next contest, so multiple efforts around the contest and getting from contest to contest with repeat efforts.
“That was the main thing … we did that well.”
Walker went on to be hugely important and in this quarter recorded seven disposals, including four contested possessions, two marks, two inside-50s, two goal assists and two goals (and one point).
Youngsters Chayce Jones, Lachy Murphy and Myles Poholke who were all given runs through the middle finished the term with three disposals and Jones had two of the three clearances Adelaide recorded.
As a team, this third quarter clawed back ground not only on the scoreboard, they beat Brisbane in the possession count 68-50, in inside-50s 12-8 and marks 23-14.
They couldn’t sustain the effort in the last, and went down by 37 points, but coach Matthew Nicks said fans could expect more of that style of football moving forward.
“It’s such a small shift to get yourself there … (but) that’s the philosophy. That’s what we’re aiming for,” he said.
“Hopefully our supporters took some faith out of what they saw because the third quarter it was a simple shift, that enabled us to win that contested ball a little more, and all of a sudden the game looks easier, it looks like we’re running on top of the ground and that’s our challenge, to do it quarter by quarter now.”
Both O’Brien and Nicks praised Walker’s effort after a week spent calls for him to be dropped.
“He was great, he was a big part of that third quarter surge … I thought all day Tex competed really hard and took some reward as well,” O’Brien said.
“I thought he was great.”
Nicks agreed: “As we saw in the third (quarter), when we get our contest right and we get our game plan where it should be, all of a sudden Tex is valuable, super valuable, because he’s very good in front of goal, he’s smart, he’s got experience.
“Unfortunately at the moment we’re asking him to compete in areas that are really tough to compete in over and over and it’s up and down the ground because we’re turning that ball over.
“We’ve got work to do on fundamentals, we’ve got work to do on consistency but overall, we saw some really positive signs today.”
Originally published as Crows cling to positives as 37-point Brisbane defeat edges them closer to maiden wooden spoon