Deep dive special: Inside look at Adelaide for 2020
There have been sweeping changes at Adelaide on and off the field and 2020 is set to be a year of healing for the club. However, the early signs are promising under new coach Matthew Nicks.
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When new coach Matthew Nicks arrived at Adelaide in October he told his players to put others first, and early signs in times of adversity have shown the Crows are getting through to them before the season has even started.
“When we’ve spoken throughout the pre-season about prioritising others and having a team-first approach, the demonstration of that on and off the field has been significant,” Adelaide’s new head of football Adam Kelly said.
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“We see examples, some big, some small, but consistently we are seeing examples of the players understanding that mantra.”
Take what happened last month, for example, when senior players led by captain Rory Sloane, Rory Laird, Bryce Gibbs and Myles Poholke rallied all of the club’s first-year draftees and took them to bushfire-ravaged Kangaroo Island for two days to bond as a group but also help a community still coming to terms with the devastation.
“That was a player-led trip, with no fanfare, they didn’t want media attention around the trip, but it was led by our captain, and all of our first-year draftees went over and spent some time in the community,” Kelly said.
“They probably won’t like me even talking about it but it’s an example of them thinking outside of themselves and that’s been a really pleasing aspect.”
All that is a far cry from what Jason Dunstall described as a “culture of self-survival” that had crept into the club following its 2017 Grand Final loss after he led a comprehensive external review of the Crows at the end of last season.
Although senior coach Don Pyke had already resigned, the review led to further change — Kelly replaced Brett Burton as head of football and Scott Camporeale was sacked as senior assistant coach. The Crows also appointed a head of leadership — former Richmond player Daniel Jackson — who started on Monday.
Kelly wasn’t there for the dark days last year but says from the moment he met with the club before starting in January, he felt it had already let go of the past and was driven by the future.
“It started in the recruitment process that I was involved in, everyone I met was so driven, passionate and energised about taking the club forward,” Kelly said.
The biggest change has been to the playing group.
Sixteen new players have joined the club in the past two seasons, including three first-round draft picks in Chayce Jones, Ned McHenry and Fischer McAsey.
“Almost 40 per cent of the list is new in the past two years,” Kelly said.
“Our senior players are enjoying the opportunity to work with the younger player cohort and the younger ones are responding to the leadership.
“When we talk as a club about prioritising others as one of our key mantras, there is no better example of that than Rory (Sloane).
“He’s a very considerate, caring individual who gives of himself not only on the field and we all get to see that, but off the field he is equally as driven and has genuine care for his teammates.”
Sloane will go it alone as captain this year after Taylor Walker stepped down after five years at the helm.
“What came out of that process was that ‘Tex’ and Daniel Talia were still very much seen as leaders by the players, but to their credit they decided it was time for some new faces and we’ve been able to bring in Brodie Smith and Tom Doedee (to the leadership group),” Kelly said.
“That doesn’t diminish their influence. Tex is supporting a young and inexperienced group in that forward mix and Daniel has some of our more recent draftees in defence like Fischer McAsey and Josh Worrell and Lachie Sholl, so they are still very much at the forefront of what our leadership is about.”
Crows fans grew frustrated last year that as the season was slipping away, Pyke was hesitant to make drastic changes to his team and inject more youth.
But with the departures of Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Sam Jacobs, Richard Douglas, Hugh Greenwood and Andy Otten in the off-season, Kelly expects all that will change.
“There are going to be a lot of opportunities for them (players drafted in past two years) and others who we’ve brought to the club like Ben Crocker, Ben Keays, Billy Frampton, and that’s exciting.”
With youth comes excitement but also the unknown. Some remain bullish about the upswing such regeneration can bring to the Crows this year and believe they can surprise with a finals berth.
Others are more circumspect and think the club is playing the long-game that will pay-off later.
Kelly doesn’t buy into either theory.
“It sounds a little cliched but with a change in coach what you’re looking for is a demonstration that the game plan is understood,” he said.
“Pleasingly, we’ve seen that the players understand what the coaches want but maybe not yet as consistently as what we need it to be, but we have a few more weeks to be working on that.”
THE LIST
Arrivals: Ben Crocker (Collingwood), Billy Frampton (Port Adelaide), Ben Keays (Brisbane), Lachlan Gollant, Fischer McAsey, Ronin O’Connor, Harry Schoenberg, Josh Worrell (draft).
Departures: Eddie Betts (Carlton), Cameron Ellis-Yolmen (Brisbane), Hugh Greenwood (Gold Coast), Paul Hunter (delisted), Sam Jacobs (GWS), Josh Jenkins (Geelong), Alex Keath (Western Bulldogs), Richard Douglas, Andy Otten (retired).
There has been a mass exodus of experience — Betts, Jacobs, Douglas and Jenkins took 910 games out the door between them. But fans are excited about seeing Darcy Fogarty cement his spot in the forward line, Chayce Jones and Ned McHenry on the ball and Fischer McAsey and Jordan Butts across half-back.
OFF-CONTRACT
Brad Crouch (restricted free agent)
Adelaide’s reigning club champion is reportedly being wooed by a multi-million dollar offer from Gold Coast and his contract saga looks set to play out well into the season as he seeks long-term security to stay at Adelaide, despite his injury-interrupted career so far.
“The dialogue has been open and that will continue. Brad had an outstanding year last year and a really strong pre-season, is healthy and played well in the first pre-season game,” head of football Adam Kelly said.
“All signs are he will continue to have the sort of form he demonstrated last year, he’s a valued member of the team and all indications are that he’s really happy in the environment, so we’ll continue with those discussions.”
LIST STRATEGY
The rejuvenation began last year with the mass clean-out. Not just of players into their 30s such as Betts, Jacobs, Douglas, Otten and Jenkins but those in their late-20s such as Greenwood and Keath.
Adelaide won’t call it a re-build, but essentially it is. Although there are still plenty left from the 2017 Grand Final side, the improvement is coming from those who weren’t at the MCG that day and those we still haven’t seen such Butts, Lachie Sholl, Kieran Strachan and the top draftees.
IT’S A BIG YEAR FOR …
Reilly O’Brien
Got his chance when Jacobs went down last year and did so well that ‘Sauce’ couldn’t find a way back in until late in the year. Now O’Brien is the main man without any obvious help.
Frampton has crossed from Port Adelaide but is more of a forward, as is Elliott Himmelberg. So if there is no room for either of those two in attack, O’Brien could have to carry the ruck on his own.
PRE-SEASON HERO …
Chayce Jones
The second-year midfielder won both of Adelaide’s 2km time trials after Christmas and is primed to make a midfield spot his own as the Crows look to add a new dynamic alongside Sloane and the Crouch brothers.
“Chayce has taken another step even for his standards, the way in which he’s moving at the moment and importantly added some size and strength, so we have seen in the first pre-season game the pressure he put around the contest being really strong,” Kelly said.
THE BEST PLAYER YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD OF …
Shane McAdam
McAdam joined the Crows at the end of 2018 as part of the Mitch McGovern trade to Carlton.
He is a mature-age prospect who started his football journey in Halls Creek, NT, and went via Claremont in WA, Scotch College and then Sturt in the SANFL.
The 24-year-old is an exciting forward with a great aerial leap, good hands, a burst of speed, goal sense and a creative kick. Look for him to combine with Stengle in the forward 50.
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