AFL 2022: Follow all the latest Adelaide Crows news
The Crows have a less wins record than it did last year at the mid-season bye. But the club still believes it can compete with the best.
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Adelaide assistant coach Nathan van Berlo says the Crows now believe that “our brand of footy and our system will hold up” and challenge the top teams of the competition.
The Crows go into their mid-season bye break on the back of a 31-point win over West Coast.
Before that they lost five straight, but van Berlo said the coaching staff were pleased with the Crows first half of the season.
“Holistically to this point we are really comfortable as to where the group is at,” he said.
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“We feel like we’ve made some really good inroads in terms of where we are with our game style, the cohesion we are building in the playing group.
“Sometimes that is really hard to quantify in win/loss.
“But I guess when we talk system and team defence, team offence, the way that we have been able to get cohesion in our team defence has been a big inroad for us over the last couple of months.
“What that means is that we are better connected across the lines, more predictable in the way we defend, better looks when we go forward off the back of that.”
Van Berlo said a key focus for the Crows in the second half of the year would be finishing the chances they create.
“We have spoken a bit in recent weeks about our finish in front of goal,” he said.
“That won’t change over the back half of the year.
“But we don’t forget that off the back of team defence we are putting ourselves in better positions.
“Our contest work has been a key part of our game, we hope that when oppositions scout us they find that we bring the heat to the contest.”
The Crows have one less win coming into their mid-season bye as they did last year.
But van Berlo said the Crows have taken big steps this season, despite losing five in a row.
“I think our ability to compete and target the better sides has been evident, we challenged Fremantle in Round 1 and went down by a point,” he said.
“We had a poor start but then a really good third quarter and we took it to them and probably should have come away with a result and then even the last month of footy prior to the weekend we played Carlton, Geelong, GWS, Brisbane and St Kilda and we had some outstanding footy where we put ourselves in games and through a lack of polish we weren’t able to get a result.
“But we walked away thinking our brand of footy and our system will hold up and we can challenge teams.
“It’s a matter of us doing this for four quarters and finishing off our chances.”
How young gun has become another Crows draft gem
Adelaide young gun Jake Soligo says his time in the SANFL gave him the confidence to go up against bigger bodies as he continues to impress for the Crows.
After being taken with Pick 36 in last year’s draft, Soligo’s impressive pre-season at West Lakes had him as a Round 1 bolter for the Crows.
He debut in the season opener against Fremantle, but was then the medi-sub against Collingwood.
He was then dropped by the Crows.
But after some solid form in the SANFL, Soligo returned for Round 9 against Brisbane and has carved out a role in the Crows side on a wing.
“I got drafted as an inside mid but I’m loving testing myself in a new position,” Soligo said.
Soligo said his time in the SANFL had helped significantly after being surprised with his early debut at the Crows.
“I think it is just a bit of a confidence thing,” he said.
“Getting used to playing against bigger bodies and used to playing senior footy and just working on my game from there and everything I can do to get better.
“I feel like I’m getting used to the game a bit more with the pace and all that.
“It has been a big step up from what I’ve been used to but I’m just taking it all in.”
After the win over West Coast, Soligo’s first for Adelaide at AFL level, the Crows now have their mid-season bye.
They go into their mid-season break at 4-8 and Soligo said there had been some real progress made at West Lakes despite a five-game losing streak prior to the game against the Eagles.
“I think we have made some steps and improvement,” he said.
Now in the team, Soligo said holding his spot and learning more about his new wing role was his goals for the second half of the season.
Fog’s time: Why Crows tease is ready to emerge
We have been here before with Darcy Fogarty.
The Lucindale-lad puts together a couple of games where it looks like he is going to realise the talent that had many declaring Adelaide had struck gold when it drafted him with the 12 pick of the 2017 Draft.
He kicked four goals in his first two games for the Crows in 2018 and then went goalless for his next two and only managed with five more for the season.
He kicked five against West Coast and then three against Collingwood in back-to-back games to be one of the few things for Crows fans to be happy about as the Don Pyke-era came to an end in 2019.
He kicked multiple goals in eight of his 16 games at AFL level in 2021.
But it has been largely accepted by fans and pundits that the 22-year-old hasn’t made the impact predicted of him as he tore it up for Glenelg at junior level - at one point being in the mix for No. 1 in his draft class.
But could 2022 be different for the Fog? There’s a couple of signs that suggest he might actually go on with his recent good run of form and start to really make an impact in the league.
Dropped after three games at the start of the season, Fogarty returned to the Crows side against Brisbane in Round 9.
Eight goals in five matches at SANFL level hardly screamed pick me, but for the Crows coaches they had noticed a key different in Fogarty.
He was actually jumping at the footy, rather than being preoccupied with wrestling his opponent to the ground as he had been in the past.
And the 193cm tall, 99kg heavy key forward is moving around the ground in a way he hasn’t for a while.
It was on show in an impressive first half by Fogarty against the Eagles on Saturday as the Crows returned to the winners list.
He attacked the ball impressively and was able to speed away from his opponent before letting fly from 65m out for the Crows second goal of the game.
Later on in the first quarter he turned Alex Witherden inside out before sprinting away from the Eagles defender and finding Lachie Murphy with a good kick.
It earned the praise of the man who made the number Fogarty now wears famous at the Crows.
“That is very unusual for Darcy Fogarty to turn someone inside out,” Crows legend and football director Mark Ricciuto said on Fox Footy.
That's gone every bit of 65 metres and the bounce juuuust got it there!
— AFL (@AFL) June 4, 2022
Darcy Fogarty take a bow.#ColesGoals | #AFLCrowsEaglespic.twitter.com/EumdSjevSH
“He’s a big tank but he’s going well. He’s moving well, his confidence is up.”
Fogarty came into the game on the back of a three goal, 11 disposal and five mark game against Geelong.
The Eagles are his favourite opponent to play against and he looked on track for a career game with his impressive forward work one of the big reasons why the Crows took a commanding lead into half-time.
At the main break he had three goals, nine disposals, four marks and two tackles, not that Nicks needed to know how well Fogarty was going.
“I was really pleased with the way he went about it today,” Nicks said post-game.
“I don’t even look at the stats because anyone in the stadium would have seen it as well.
“There was an intensity, a speed, he went at the footy in the air, these are all the things he has been working on and some.
“He has been working both on field and off field to get him to this level, and he deserves the reward for it.
“He is getting that with some of the footy he is playing.”
Like the rest of the Crows side, Fogarty dropped off after half-time as the cellar dweller Eagles gave Adelaide a few nervy moments.
But Fogarty showed just what he can do when he is up and about.
“Now, as I said last week, he needs to put his head down and go again because the challenge is you never get there, if you reach your goal you are not resetting your goals early enough,” Nicks said.
“Really pleased to see him jumping at it, taking the game on.
“A number of times he showed some speed that I haven’t seen in a while from Fog. He is in a good space.”
The big question is whether Fogarty can actually build on these recent performances and start to stamp his authority on the league.
Sydney Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy said he believed he could, after noticing an improvement in Fogarty’s workrate.
“I think that’s the area (Fogarty’s workrate) that people focused on early that was missing,” he said on Fox Footy.
“He had to learn to be a genuine runner in the competition, he had to build his tank and we are seeing some really positive signs.
“I think we are going to see the emergence of this bloke over the next month or so.
“I’ve always loved the finishing of this bloke, I haven’t always rated his workrate but I’m seeing it.”
Teammate Shane McAdam said he agreed that Fogarty could be about to emerge in the league.
“Yeah I am and Fog works really hard at training and he is finally getting the reward for all the work he is done in training and away from here,” he said.
Nicks said the work Fogarty had put in was impressive.
“It is down to Fog, it is down to having confidence in yourself, understanding yourself, backing yourself, knowing the weapons that you have,” he said.
“And what he has done he has done some really hard work both physically and mentally, he has done some stuff off field – it is not for me to talk about that here.
“It is an easy game to watch from the grandstand, we are all experts. It is a much tougher game down there and he has done a lot of work to get where he is and he will have to do a lot more.”
Adelaide fans have been burnt before when they start to think Fogarty is about to arrive in the league.
It might be different in 2022.
Sour taste: Nicks says Eagles scare is ‘concerning’
Adelaide senior coach Matthew Nicks says he’d “be lying” if he didn’t have a sour taste in his mouth as the Crows snapped a five-game losing streak, but were made to work for it by cellar-dwellers West Coast.
The Crows came out firing at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, taking a 31-point lead into quarter time.
They had a 38-point lead at halftime, but in the second half the Eagles – who have only won the one game this year – gave them a scare.
After the Eagles kicked four goals in a row, the Crows led by 22-points in the fourth to test the nerves of their fans.
But eventually they were able to steady themselves and claim the win.
Nicks said his side “dropped away”.
“We did enough work to set the game up and come away with a win,” he said.
“Fortunately or unfortunately it was in a similar area. We dropped away in the contest, which is our one-wood or our DNA as we say.
“We dropped right off at the stoppage, and spent time in our back-half under-pressure and we weren’t able to get it back on our terms.
“We did at the end of the last thankfully, because it was looking a bit concerning.”
Nicks said it had left a little bit of a sour taste in his mouth, but the important thing was the four points.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t,” he said.
“We all stood on the ground afterwards and said OK the outcome great we got what we were after in winning the game of footy.
“And that is something that we haven’t been able to do over the last month.
“We played some good footy in patches and weren’t able to get the result, today we did the same.
“We played some really good footy early on and set the game up and finished poorly for our standards but did enough to win the game of footy.
“We are making progress, our momentum was positive even though we had lost five in a row. So we get around each other, we enjoy it and we reward what is a good result.
“And then we will go to work on reviewing some of the detail, we won’t have to look hard.
“We know what it is, it is contested ball, we were out-tackled and beaten to the hard ball.
“But when we got that right the game was on our terms.
“I’m not sure this one will go into the archives, but we will take the four points.”
Debutant Patrick Parnell was substituted out of the game after a heavy cork to the thigh by the Eagles Greg Clark.
The Crows have the bye next week, meaning Parnell was going to miss more than 12 days of footy anyway – the time frame defined by the AFL as to when the medical sub can be activated.
Nicks said he hoped it would not reignite debate about how the medi-sub is being used.
“I hope not, we didn’t really have a choice (with Parnell) he couldn’t really go on, it was quite a big collision,” he said.
“So we make the decision with the player’s health in mind and what he can actually do.”
Why Crows’ drought-breaking win was concerning
— Jason Phelan
Adelaide is back on the winners’ list, but the champagne corks will hardly be flying at the club’s West Lakes headquarters following Saturday’s hard-fought 31-point victory over cellar dwellers West Coast.
The Crows snapped a five-game losing streak with the 13.10 (88) to 8.9 (57) win at a sodden Adelaide Oval, but were outplayed for long stretches by the Covid-hit Eagles who have just one win for the season and had lost their previous seven games by an average margin of 80 points.
While Matthew Nicks won’t be impressed with aspects of the performance, the win improves his side’s record to 4-8 as it goes into the bye.
A different story was brewing as Rory Laird and Taylor Walker spurred their side to a game high 44-point lead in the second quarter.
But Andrew Gaff and Jack Darling dragged the visitors back into the contest.
To the dismay of most of the 22,859 fans in attendance, West Coast kicked four unanswered goals to narrow the gap to 22 points in the last quarter before Laird sealed Adelaide’s fourth win of the season with his well-taken goal late in the term.
Laird was Adelaide’s best player with 33 possessions, while Walker booted three goals, as did Shane McAdam and Darcy Fogarty.
The hand-off and the sharp finish from 50!
— AFL (@AFL) June 4, 2022
The Crows are firing on all cylinders today. #AFLCrowsEaglespic.twitter.com/scRfqlMgAh
EAGLE DROP
The Eagles’ only score in the opening term was a good indication of the extent of their early struggles.
With opponent Tom Doedee slipping over and lying flat on his back, Josh Kennedy dropped a straightforward mark at the top of the goalsquare then sprayed his snap wide with a little over two minutes remaining in a dismal term.
By that stage the slick Crows had put aside their recent accuracy issues to pile on five goals.
Errant Adelaide had kicked 25.40 from three matches heading into the clash, but Walker’s return from Covid protocols was the boost the forward line needed.
The former skipper had seven first-quarter possessions, booted one goal and gave off another to McAdam.
Fogarty’s first major was a sight to behold, the powerful forward unleashing a booming drop punt from well inside the centre square that bounced in a vacant forward 50 then dribbled over the line and stopped at the goal umpire’s feet.
DARLING DRIVE
Defender-turned-forward Wayne Milera kicked his first goal since round 18 of the 2019 season in the second term, but the Crows didn’t have it all their own way.
Darling had just one clanger kick in the first quarter, but the 29-year-old provided the spark his side needed.
With Kennedy off receiving treatment for a cut head for most of the quarter, Darling burst into action with eight possessions and four marks.
He booted two goals and gave off a brilliant handball that allowed Andrew Gaff to goal from close range.
Adelaide had 18 inside 50s to the visitors’ five in the third quarter but managed 1.4 to 2.1 as the inefficiency and inaccuracy in attack returned.
The term was a tough watch for home fans, but with a thumping in the offing at 38 points down at halftime, the Eagles are to be commended for their grim defending.
They whittled the margin to 35 points at three-quarter time and also won the last quarter to give Adam Simpson something to work with as his team enters the bye.
Make it four in a row for the Eagles! #AFLCrowsEaglespic.twitter.com/qC2QAKhbXH
— AFL (@AFL) June 4, 2022
CROWS 5.2 9.6 10.10 13.10 (88)
EAGLES 0.1 3.4 5.5 8.9 (57)
PHELAN’S BEST
CROWS: Laird, Walker, Hately, Keays, Dawson, O’Brien.
EAGLES: Gaff, Darling, Kelly, Redden, Shuey, Hurn.
GOALS
CROWS: McAdam 3, Fogarty 3, Walker 3, Soligo 2, Laird, Milera.
EAGLES: Darling 2, Kennedy, Gaff, Petrevski-Seton, Cripps, Redden, West.
INJURIES CROWS: Parnell (thigh).
EAGLES: McGovern (back – late withdrawal).
UMPIRES Brown, Gianfagna, Mollison.
ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Laird (Adel)
2 Gaff (WC)
1 Walker (Adel)
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Originally published as AFL 2022: Follow all the latest Adelaide Crows news
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