Adelaide Crows stick with former captain Taylor Walker despite his recent poor form but midfield gun Matt Crouch gets the chop
Struggling former skipper Taylor Walker will be given another chance to help kickstart the Crows’ season on Sunday but a star midfielder has been axed.
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Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks has stuck with out-of-form former captain Taylor Walker but axed star midfielder Matt Crouch as he searches for a way to stop the rot.
After their woeful 53-point loss to the Gold Coast Suns on Sunday, Nicks flagged mass selection changes and warned his senior players that they were not performing.
A midweek radio interview by Nicks in which he said Walker was “struggling to get that job (helping out in the ruck) done” only fuelled speculation that the former captain could be dropped for the Lions clash.
When the Crows put out their extended squad for Sunday’s game, Rory Atkins’ shoulder injury and Paul Seedsman the two omissions, Walker was named on the interchange bench along with back-up ruck options Billy Frampton and Elliot Himmelberg.
But on Friday Nicks said he would back his former captain to regain his form, saying the Crows needed his leadership to turn the ship around.
“There are questions about our form and Tex is part of that, we are not hiding away from that our form is not good enough,” Nicks said.
“He is a leader, a really important leader for us, he is going to be under scrutiny and we understand that. We’ve backed him in, we are changing our look we will go with a substantially different look.
“It will look different forward of the ball which we hope will help our forwards.”
Frampton will come in to the Crows side anyway, along with Myles Poholke – who comes in for 2017 All-Australian and Malcolm Blight Medallist Crouch in the big move at the Adelaide selection table.
“Matty’s got some areas we need him to work on,” Nicks said.
“(The) unfortunate part of that is we’ve had a group that’s underperforming on that particular line.
“We’ve decided to make three changes, which we feel will help the group improve in the short term.”
Shane McAdam will debut for the Crows on Sunday, while Nicks flagged some significant changes in the midfield mix after Adelaide was again smashed in the middle of the park.
“Our midfield is going to look substantially different … we will look a lot younger around the footy, we want to get that intensity in there and compete,” he said.
“We are looking for some desperation and some intensity around the ball.
“We’ve held back on Shane for a number of reasons... (but) he has been incredible over the past month and we are really excited.”
SEASON OVER FOR GALLUCCI
Young midfielder Jordan Gallucci’s season is over after he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon.
The 22-year-old will spend the next nine to 12 months on the sidelines after he sustained the injury in what Crows head of science and medicine Steve Saunders said was a low-level warm up drill on Friday.
“Scans today have confirmed Jordan has ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon and will require surgical reconstruction in the coming days,” Saunders said.
“Jordan has had no tendon or lower leg issues at all during the pre-season and went into training today with no history of calf/Achilles symptoms over the past couple of years.
“This is obviously devastating for Jordan given it will now require 9-12 months of rehabilitation surgery.”
Gallucci is likely to go interstate for the surgery.
It is a huge blow for Gallucci, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
His pre-season efforts were criticised by assistant coach Michael Godden in February who said the 15th pick of the 2016 Draft was too inconsistent and had not done enough to be even considered for selection.
Gallucci has played 27 AFL games for the Crows, kicking 19 goals.
Originally published as Adelaide Crows stick with former captain Taylor Walker despite his recent poor form but midfield gun Matt Crouch gets the chop