Adelaide Crows lose to Gold Coast Suns for first time, smashed by 53 points
Have they given up? The Crows have lost by 53 points to the Gold Coast Suns, a team they’ve always beaten and marked their second-lowest score.
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We knew Adelaide was rebuilding but we didn’t know they’d given up.
How else can you explain going to the Gold Coast to play a team they’d beaten 13 times to 0, kick one goal in three quarters and look totally inept against a side that has finished 18th, 17th and 17th the past three years?
“We are witnessing the demise of a once-proud football club,” Garry Lyon declared on Fox Footy as the Crows slumped to a 53-point loss to the Suns.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks resisted any urge to swing the axe at selection after the 75-point Showdown loss in Round 2 but you’ve got to wonder how long that patience lasts as he put his head in his hands in the box in the third quarter.
We may not learn a lot about the Crows as a team this season but we will learn plenty about individual players and not many would be safe for next week.
The big question going into the match was were the Crows really as bad as last week’s Showdown loss and were the Suns as good as their win over West Coast? Well, the answer is yes, and yes.
The Crows were devoid of confidence and somehow looked rushed and frazzled but at the same time slow and half-asleep.
Adelaide’s midfield was smashed, its experienced players made too many mistakes, they had no method going forward and to rub salt into the wounds the player they refused to give a long-term deal when he wanted to stay last year – Hugh Greenwood – torched them in a Suns jumper.
And you’d have to think Gold Coast assistant coaches Josh Francou and Tate Kaesler would have enjoyed that one too.
Their final score of 4.5 (29) narrowly avoided their lowest ever, 3.6 (24), which came in Neil Craig’s last game as coach in 2011.
If you’re looking for positives, Jake Kelly’s attack on the ball in repeat contests in the third quarter stands out, Tom Doedee was good in his second game back from a knee reco and debutant Will Hamill showed some dash but that was about it.
Nicks says his team is in a “world of hurt” and needed to address every aspect of its game. Crows fans who were expecting a response to last week’s 75-point Showdown loss to Port Adelaide were left disappointed as the Crows started the season 0-3.
It prompted inaugural Adelaide coach Graham Cornes to reach for his Twitter account to post “as low as it can get”.
“Fortunately or unfortunately we have to get straight out of the facility because there’s another game on. It’s hard to review, we haven’t sat down as a group yet and we’ll do that tonight, we’ll get straight on to it but we are in a world of hurt at this point,” Nicks said.
“Just nowhere near the level. The intensity is not there. So we’ve got some conversations.
“To come back in this sort of form, it’s just not at the level. We’ve got work to do.
“We expected a response (after the Showdown), we had a really positive week on the track after some reality and we weren’t able to deliver.
“When you are pinned in your back 50 for the whole first 20 minutes of the game, it’s hard to come back from there. It gives the opposition confidence, it drains your energy so we’ve got some things to answer.
“As a midfield, we’ve got work to do. There’s too many areas for me to be angry with one but not the other.’’
SHELLSHOCKED
Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew said he wanted a fast start and he got it.
The Crows were stunned from the outset and never recovered and the quarter-time statistics were frightening.
The Suns led inside-50s (18-3), clearances (13-2) contested ball (38-20), tackles (15-11) and tackles inside 50 (6-0).
Adelaide was so slow out of the blocks they didn’t even have a single possession inside 50m in the first quarter and the only thing keeping them in the game was Gold Coast’s inaccuracy (2.7).
But the Suns kicked 4.0 in the second quarter to take total control and the Crows registered their first score three minutes into the term.
While the Crows hesitated and were second to the ball, Gold Coast played end-to-end footy by linking up by hand and hitting targets by foot.
EXPERIENCE GOES MISSING
The Crows couldn’t handle the pressure and it was their experienced players making mistakes.
Luke Brown kicked it out of bounds on the full from a free kick, Rory Laird panicked when Darcy MacPherson made good position and pushed him in the back which led to Gold Coast’s first goal.
Paul Seedsman dropped a simple chest mark, Laird was run down by Ainsworth when he had an eternity to get rid of it and they handballed sideways to a player who was either under pressure or was about to be.
Where were the cool heads? Where was the leadership apart from Rory Sloane who kept hunting against the odds and Tom Doedee who took intercept marks?
Rory Sloane (15 disposals), Tayor Walker (six), Tom Lynch (14) and Brodie Smith (17) and Paul Seedsman (15) didn’t get enough of the ball.
MIDFIELD DEMOLITION
It started at the first bounce which set the tone when Jarrod Witts jumped into Reilly O’Brien, took the ball out of the air and got his side moving.
O’Brien was the Crows’ shining light in last week’s Showdown but even he had his colours lowered against the Suns.
The Crows tried to mix things up by sending Ror Atkins to Matt Rowell at the first bounce but last lasted just a quarter when Atkins’ 100th game was ruined by a shoulder injury.
Matt and Brad Crouch were having no impact, Sloane upped the ante in the second quarter and there was a damning passage just before halftime when Brad Crouch went to the bench with a black eye, Hugh Greenwood won a clearance, danced around two opponents and a string of handballs led to a goal to Rowell.
Nicks started Ned McHenry, Chayce Jones and Ben Keays at the first bounce of the last term and Keays kicked a classy goal on the run.
GOLD COAST 2.7 6.7 10.8 12.10 (82)
ADELAIDE 0.0 1.2 1.4 4.5 (29)
BEST – Gold Coast: Witts, Miller, Lukosius, Rowell, Greenwood, Weller, Collins, King. Adelaide: Doedee, Kelly.
GOALS – Gold Coast: King 3, MacPherson, Rowell 2, Sexton, Ainsworth, Budarick, Miller, Weller. Adelaide: Fogarty, Keays, Walker, Crocker.
INJURIES – Adelaide: Atkins (shoulder).
At Metricon Stadium.
Originally published as Adelaide Crows lose to Gold Coast Suns for first time, smashed by 53 points