Dropping Josh Rachele might have been the right call as superb 2025 form continues
Last time the Crows played the Swans, Adelaide fans were up in arms over Josh Rachele being dropped. But nine months on, that call looks to have been vindicated.
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The last time Adelaide travelled to the SCG to take on Sydney, Crows fans were in open revolt over Josh Rachele being dropped.
But just over nine months later have the Crows been vindicated by what was then a controversial call?
Rachele’s performances on the field suggest so.
He comes into the clash against the Swans after kicking five goals against West Coast last week, the first time he finished a game with that number since his debut for the Crows in 2022.
He’s kicked a goal in every game bar round 3 against North Melbourne, where he suffered broken ribs in the first quarter and was subbed out of the game - missing three matches for Crows.
Since round 6 he is a top 35-rated player in the competition, and is averaging 2.2 goals, two score assists and 6.2 score involvements following his return from injury.
The Rachele redemption is well and truly on at West Lakes.
There would have been plenty of doubt among Adelaide fans ahead of the final game of last season that this would happen.
His omission for the season-ender against the Swans - for putting himself ahead of the team - ignited what was a tinderbox of fan anger over what was a poor season for the Crows in 2024.
Dropping Rachele, on the back his Showdown celebration mocking Port Adelaide fans, was for many Crows fans the final straw.
It came after he joked Power supporters “don’t have many teeth” in his weekly radio spot leading up to the match.
The Crows told Rachele to focus on the game and not incite the crowd but when he ran towards Port fans and pointed to his teeth after kicking a goal in the second quarter was viewed internally as ignoring instructions.
Not fully committing to a crucial 50-50 contest in the centre of the ground during the match added to the belief that Rachele needed to become more team-first.
Veteran teammate Rory Laird after this said that the actions by Rachele were “a bit misaligned as to how we approach these games”, which in turn led the three-time Malcolm Blight Medallist copping it from fans online.
So instead of taking on the Swans, Rachele’s season ended with him taking on Sturt in the SANFL.
Crows fans feared that this would lead to the former No. 6 pick disillusioned and looking to leave the club, despite being contracted until the end of 2029.
Instead the 22-year-old took it well and truly on the chin.
After a trip to Italy and Greece in the off-season Rachele arrived back in Adelaide and impressed his fellow Crows players as they would do their prescribed running sessions together prior to pre-season.
“I think he just put his head down and got to work,” his close friend and housemate Jake Soligo told this masthead earlier this year.
“His off-season was a great off-season.
“You just have to work hard and put your head down and he did that.”
Rachele took a whopping 20 seconds off his 2km time trial time.
So when Matthew Nicks said following the Crows’ first match simulation of pre-season that Rachele had one of the best off-seasons he had seen in a long time - it might not have been the hyperbole some originally greeted the statement with.
Nicks backed this up a month later in February when he told afl.com.au that he believed the Crows had been vindicated by the decision given the way Rachele was training.
But training is one thing.
There was going to be a close watch on how Rachele was faring when matches began.
His 2024 was an interesting one.
He finished seventh in the Crows’ club champion award, playing a vital half-forward role based on the one now teammate Alex Neal-Bullen played at Melbourne - so the coaches were mostly happy with how efforts.
But at times didn’t look to be playing with the same enjoyment or enthusiasm as he had when he burst on the scene.
After two years establishing himself as a young star last year Rachele joined numerous teammates in penning TV and radio deals.
This was despite some at the Crows believing he was not ready for those weekly appearances.
He ended up making headlines for reasons the club would not want.
In addition to the pre-Showdown barb to Power fans, Rachele’s comments around his lack of midfield minutes in the Round 12 loss to Hawthorn were broadcast and advertised widely by Channel 9 in his weekly paid chat with them.
It ended up being his last segment with them with Rachele and his management furious at how much it was blown up.
This year Rachele has no external media commitments and the Crows have so far kept him out of the limelight off the field.
It has meant he has done his talking on the footy field.
He kicked six goals in the Crows’ first two games of the season before he copped that brutal knee to the ribs from Roos ruckman Tristan Xerri.
His return from the injury against Fremantle was a bit quiet - nine disposals and a goal - but since then he has had 19 and two against Carlton, seven and two against Port Adelaide and 14 and one against Collingwood before his bag of five to go with 16 disposals against the Eagles.
And over this period his midfield time has increased.
In his first four game of the season he had midfield time of just two per cent.
Over the last four it has risen to 17 per cent with the remaining 83 per cent forward.
His teammates who gave him a bit of a clip last year, couldn’t be more impressed as to how he is now tracking.
“He’s doing things that you probably don’t see on the TV as much,” Laird said.
“You see his goals and the flair and his skill really stands out but the stuff he is doing around the stoppage when he goes there and things behind the ball that people might not see.
“He is doing a lot of team things and he is getting rewarded for that.
“I think the way he is playing his role for the team at the moment is nearly the best that we have got and the reward for that is that he is kicking goals off the stuff that he is doing that people might not see on TV.
“I think Josh understands where he is now and what is working for him and that is why he is playing such good footy.
“The steps he’s made both on and off the field and enjoying his footy, I think that’s why he is playing so well.”
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