Jason Akermanis’ advice for Josh Rachele after Crows axing

A headline maker during his career — for the right and wrong reasons — Jason Akermanis has had his say on Josh Rachele’s Showdown antics and whether Adelaide was right to drop the forward.

Josh Rachele Jason Akermanis art

One of the AFL’s most outspoken characters reckons Matthew Nicks has made Josh Rachele “a sacrificial lamb” at an “incredibly silly” time that will heap fan pressure on the coach going into a make-or-break 2025.

Brownlow Medallist Jason Akermanis told this masthead the Crows should have let Rachele redeem himself at AFL level this week, rather than make a statement ahead of their last match of the season by dropping him for not being team-first enough.

Instead of playing Sydney at the SCG on Saturday night, the 21-year-old small forward will line up for Adelaide’s SANFL side against Sturt earlier in the day.

Akermanis empathised with Crows fans already frustrated by a seventh straight campaign without finals now seething at Rachele’s shock omission, saying the decision “doesn’t fix or solve anything right now”.

Riley Thilthorpe and Josh Rachele after a Crows win. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“I think it’s incredibly silly to do it before the last round,” Akermanis said.

“The team-first philosophy should have been nipped in the bud … by worst-case mid-season.

“You’ve got too long now before you can fix it, which is a whole pre-season, and for the player you’ve got seven months to round 1 to go back and show you are a team player.

“Your good up-and-comers are not the players you make sacrificial lambs of.

“The supporters will see straight through it.

“Matty Nicks is a good coach, he’s doing a good job.

“But now he’s got six months to put up with the negativity when he didn’t really have to do that.

“He’s probably, inadvertently, put more pressure onto himself from his own supporters coming into the expectations for next year.”

Akermanis was a headline-making star during a 325-game, three-flag career at Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs that ended with his sacking by both clubs for internal feuds.

The Australian Football Hall of Fame member said he liked the confidence Rachele had shown on and off-field across 56 matches since being drafted at No. 6 in 2021.

But he believed the third-year Crow erred by taunting Port Adelaide fans with his toothless pre-Showdown barb.

“I would definitely choose my targets but they were opposition individuals, opposition groups, like the defence,” he said.

Adelaide would not go into what specifically prompted Rachele’s axing, other than saying it was not isolated to recent events and was related to team values.

Jason Akermanis performs his famous handstand at the Gabba.

Josh Rachele taunts Port Adelaide fans during the Showdown. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Akermanis said the young gun needed to learn to celebrate with his teammates more.

“Whenever (ex-Lion) Damian Cupido kicked goals, he’d look outwards to the crowd instead of inward, no matter how many times we told him,” he said.

“That’s where Rachele has got to get a little smarter.”

Akermanis said players who stirred the pot before games also had to make sure it did not affect their performances.

Three weeks after playing what Nicks described as his best game for the club, Rachele registered 10 disposals, two tackles and a goal in the loss to the Power.

“When I was doing handstands and doing stuff in the media, it was after I’d won a Brownlow and we’d won a flag, so I was at the peak of my powers,” Akermanis said.

Akermanis says if you’re going to talk a big game, you’ve got to back it up on field.

Brisbane would have sacked Akermanis if the Lions had lost the 2003 because he revealed in the lead-up to the game that teammate Nigel Lappin had broken ribs.

Akermanis kicked 5.2 in a brilliant performance to help the club win a third straight flag.

“That was as much of a silly decision as I’ll ever make as far as team-first stuff yet Leigh after the game said I had a job for life,” said Akermanis, who ultimately parted ways with the club in 2006, then the Bulldogs in 2010.

“If you back it up on the footy field, that’s all that matters.

“Josh probably didn’t outside of that good goal.

“He’ll get smarter from the experience, I’ve got no doubt.

“He’s only young, he’s a talented player and he’s had a solid season.”

Akermanis urged Rachele to do all the team things he could in the SANFL on Saturday.

“You can’t control how many kicks you get but you can certainly control how much you run, your workrate on second and third efforts, win your own ball and make tackles,” he said.

“They’re the things coaches want to see.”