Adelaide falls to 11th consecutive loss after squandering promising start against Collingwood
Coach Matthew Nicks said Adelaide was its own worst enemy in its 24-point loss to Collingwood as the Crows lurched to within six games of being the first team in 56 years not to win a match.
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Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says he knew his team would have its challenges this year but was not expecting a 0-11 start as it builds a list that can contend for a premiership however long that may take.
The Crows looked like breaking their winless drought when they led Collingwood by nine points on Tuesday but faded in the second half to lose by 24 points.
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“No, I didn’t think we would ‘bottom out’ but I knew we’d have our challenges,” he said post-match.
“Bottoming out is an interesting term for it, we’re in a transition, rebuilding our list, what comes with that is challenges because we have a young group that will make mistakes in games and today we made a lot of those.
“I came in with complete clarity around where we were going as a club and the direction we needed to take to improve our list, and we’re in that process.
“Ultimately we are all playing to win a premiership, so every year you start with that goal if things go our way we win a premiership, but there’s a reality to looking at the list you have and age profile.
“You look at the profile of sides that have won premierships and it’s on-field experience in those sides, experience at finals level, so you’re building a list to ultimately contend for a premiership and we’re in that process at the moment.
“Right now we have teams sitting at the top that have gone through a similar time to us at the moment, I look at Brisbane three-and-a-half years ago, they’re in a similar position to where we are at the moment.
“It’s hard to lose, we’re in an industry that is pretty much about win-loss … you look back at the season, we were probably in four or five games where we feel like we had opportunities and in the end it doesn’t look that way.
“The hardest part at the moment is some of our older guys that are letting us down and we’re turning that ball over too easily.”
Nicks said he was frustrated after the Crows shot themselves in the foot with costly turnovers and an inability to hit the scoreboard against the Magpies.
“Maybe on camera (more frustration showed), behind the scenes I get frustrated, we all get frustrated, our players are frustrated. We train a certain way and under pressure we’re not able to implement it consistently at the moment,” he said.
“We go away from what we’re training and that’s our challenge as a younger group, and to be honest some of our older guys, the biggest challenge is under pressure we have to take our medicine on occasion.
“Last week we were criticised for being too straight down the line, this week we changed a few things up and wanted to move and own the ball but the needle moved from one end to the other and it hurt us.
“The frustration at three-quarter-time was more me talking to them as a brother saying ‘boys, we’re killing ourselves’, I said ‘they’re a good side but we are doing it to ourselves at this point’ and there was a bit of emotion in that because of the frustration.
“Some of that comes when the opposition lifts their game and I thought they had better hands than us in the contest (in the last quarter) and they out-possessed us in the end and we weren’t able to stop that.”
Nicks said the positives were Rory Laird’s 37 disposals in the midfield.
“I thought he (Laird) was fantastic tonight, it’s exciting what hopefully he’s going to bring over coming years,” he said.
“I feel like he’s playing some great football in there, it suits him, and if we talk about experience, Lairdy has built his game on defence behind the ball as quite an aggressive defender who reads the ball well, and I think that’s a great grounding for a midfielder.
“As they mature and become stronger in the body and fitter they get their opportunity. We’ve been able to put him in there and compliment and help our younger guys and he’s playing some really good football at the moment.”
He was also pleased with the forwardline combination of Elliott Himmelberg and Tyson Stengle.
“Sometimes we try to over-do it when we feel we need to do more than what the team needs and that’s our RFI (room for improvement) at the moment.
“I thought Elliott was a really positive step forward, he looked big tonight and dangerous and when he didn’t mark it, it was coming to ground, and Tyson cleaned up.”
Nicks said the Crows have their fingers crossed for Tom Lynch and Tom Doedee’s hamstring injuries after they were unable to finish the game.
CROWS SQUANDER EARLY LEAD TO SLUMP TO 11TH LOSS
It smelt like a danger game for Collingwood and looked like one when they couldn’t kick in the first half but the Magpies avoided a disastrous loss to the winless Crows to remain in touch with the top eight.
The banner behind the goals in the Crows’ cheer squad read ‘we believe in you’ and for the first half at least so did everyone else as they led by nine points.
But when Collingwood finally finished its work in front of goal in the third term they couldn’t be caught.
Most frustrating for Adelaide was Collingwood’s first three goals were all due to Crows mistakes.
Fischer McAsey and Brodie Smith missed kicks trying to switch play in defence allowing Josh Daicos and Jaidyn Stephenson to convert set shots and Lynden Dunn capped his return from a knee injury with a goal thanks to a 50m penalty in the middle of the ground.
While the eighth-placed Magpies won by 24 points without some of their biggest names, the loss extended Adelaide’s record losing streak to 11 games and Tom Doedee and Tom Lynch both finished the game early with hamstring injuries.
WELCOME BACK
All eyes were on Tim Broomhead and Lynden Dunn who were playing their first games since 2018 for Collingwood after a horror run with injury, and it didn’t take long for them to find the action.
Broomhead’s first touch was to rove a ball and kick inside 50m while Dunn’s big moment came 15 minutes into the second quarter when a 50m penalty brought him to within 20m of goal and he kicked the set shot.
The popular defender who was coming back from a double knee reconstruction was mobbed by his teammates, 773 days since his last AFL game which came in Round 15, 2018.
Broomhead meanwhile put his set shot out on the full and finished the game with seven disposals.
TALL AND SMALL
The future of Adelaide’s forwardline was on show in a meaningful way on Tuesday night.
The Elliott Himmelberg/Tyson Stengle combination was dangerous while Shane McAdam showed why he’s considered a human highlight reel.
Stengle’s tackle to catch Taylor Adams holding the ball and his subsequent set shot goal set the tone early and he kicked his second for the quarter with some textbook crumbing.
He was then involved in Adelaide’s third goal when he delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Elliott Himmelberg, who playing his fourth game in a row and just the 13th of his career, led with confidence and showed safe hands with five marks.
Stengle’s creativity up the ground and goal sense was something for Crows fans to hold onto, as was McAdam’s screamer and goal in the final quarter.
Reilly O’Brien broke even with Brodie Grundy in the ruck which is as good as a win while Rory Laird (37 disposals) was excellent on the ball and Andrew McPherson had the best game of his short career in defence.
TAKE YOUR CHANCES
Collingwood’s inefficiency forward was a major reason why Adelaide was not only in the game but in front at halftime.
Darcy Cameron, Broomhead and Chris Mayne all had set shots in the second quarter from inside 50m and did not score as the Magpies managed just 2.1 from 19 inside 50s in the first half.
But three goals from Crows mistakes put them right back in it and Trey Ruscoe helped break the game open in the third quarter when he kicked consecutive goals with two crumbing efforts in the goalsquare, before Stephenson and Cameron – after the siren – put the visitors in a game-winning position.
Despite the Pies’ wayward kicking early in the night, they made up for it in the second half and finished with an accurate 10.2.
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