AFL round 3: Fremantle condemns Adelaide to third straight loss to start 2024 season
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says a lack of cohesion amongst the group is partly to blame for the Crows’ poor start to the year. Can they turn it around from 0-3?
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Frustrated Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks admits that too many of his players have started the season out of form.
After dropping away in the final term to lose to Fremantle by 35 points in Perth on Friday night, Nicks said they were collectively not playing at the standard expected at AFL level.
With a 0-3 record and facing Melbourne at Adelaide Oval to open Gather Round on Thursday night, they need to work things out quickly.
But Nicks doesn’t believe the Crows season is over yet.
“It’s still early in the season,” he said.
“There are some very, very good sides that are sitting in a similar record.
“So, by no means are we dropping our bundle but at the moment we’re incredibly frustrated with where we’re at.”
Last year’s runners up, Brisbane, are also winless after three games and reigning premier, Collingwood, claimed its first win in their fourth outing.
But the Crows were the competition’s highest-scoring team in 2023, yet managed only four goals against Fremantle.
They kicked only eight goals in the opening round against the Gold Coast.
“I’d probably look more at the lack of cohesion we have at the moment, which is something that we’ve have had at a high level over the last couple of years,” Nicks said. “We’ve had each other’s back.
“We’ve known exactly where we’re at. And at the moment, it’s just not clicking for us.
“It’s now been a couple of weeks in a row that we’ve been off in that area of executing with the ball in hand and making the right decision when we have to.”
Adelaide looked to have it together early against Fremantle, with seven scoring shots to four in the opening term.
But they kicked a wasteful 2.5 to lead by just three points.
Fremantle then took control, keeping the Crows at arm’s length, before kicking away in the final term.
The Dockers booted four goals to nil in the fourth quarter.
Nicks didn’t believe any extra pressure from Fremantle caused them to drop off.
“Our skills, our decision making, we started well in that space, and then for whatever reason went away from it,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like the pressure went up at all. We just started making some really poor decisions.
“It’s uncharacteristic for us; it’s been a strength of ours now for a number of years.
“So, I think that comes back to a number of us just aren’t quite where we need to be at the moment.
“We’re frustrated. How do we fix that? That’s what we’ll go through in the next 24 or 48 hours.
“We have a short break into Gather Round and we come up against another huge challenge.”
DOCKERS CONDEMN BATTLING CROWS TO WORST START SINCE 2018
Adelaide will open Gather Round at home on Thursday night without a win on the board and desperate for a victory against Melbourne after losing to Fremantle by 35 points at Optus Stadium on Good Friday.
The Crows will face a daunting review after their 9.15 (69) to 4.10 (34) loss to the Dockers, their third on the trot to start season 2024.
Skill errors marred the performance, even though the margin didn’t reach double figures until late in the third term.
The Dockers blew them away in the final term, adding four goals to nil.
Crows pair Wayne Milera and Lachlan Murphy also suffered injuries in the fourth quarter.
It’s the first time the Crows have started a season with three consecutive losses since 2018.
And it’s the first time since 2015 that the Dockers have started with a 3-0 record.
Lose to the Demons and the Crows chances of playing finals this season will look slim, considering their following games are against Carlton and Essendon.
STARVED OF CHANCES
In the opening two rounds of the season, Adelaide was unable to make the most of their chances when they went forward.
They averaged 60 inside-50 entries in losses to the Gold Coast and Geelong.
They had three more forays into attack than the Suns and 13 more than the Cats.
Conversion wasn’t the issue against Fremantle, getting the ball into a scoring position was.
The Crows went forward only 44 times against Fremantle.
The result was their lowest score since the 2.9 (21) they chalked up against Essendon in round 17, 2021. This was the highest scoring team in the AFL in 2023.
KICK IT TO ME
In round 2, Geelong defender Tom Stewart caused Adelaide all type of trouble.
The Cats star rebounded everything the Crows the Crows sent forward.
The Crows didn’t learn.
The Dockers trio of captain Alex Pearce, Luke Ryan and youngster Josh Draper, spoiled everything Adelaide tried to produce in attack.
If Michael Walters had done better than the 1.3 he kicked from his 11 touches for the term, the Dockers would have led by more than eight points at the main break.
That trio of Dockers defenders 19 marks between them for the game. The Crows took five marks inside 50 between the lot of them.
GOOD EARLY SIGNS
Adelaide led by three points at quarter time, but importantly, they led.
It was the time the Crows at led at the first break this season/ Actually it was the first time
they had led at any quarter break this season.
They gave themselves every opportunity to have led by more.
Adelaide looked more dangerous going forward than Fremantle early, even though the Crows had two fewer entries than the Dockers for the term.
Adelaide produced seven scoring shots from just 10 inside 50 entries, but wasted those chances, with a quarter-time score of 2.5 (17) to 2.2 (14).
To be fair though, Fremantle hadn’t won a first term to start the season either; and still haven’t.
Originally published as AFL round 3: Fremantle condemns Adelaide to third straight loss to start 2024 season
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