Adelaide Crows season review: Simeon Thomas-Wilson runs the rule over 2024 and what Matthew Nicks’ side must get right this summer
Adelaide talked the talk last summer – but failed to walk the walk when it mattered. Will the next six months be different? For Matthew Nicks’ future, it has to be, writes SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON.
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Adelaide talked the talk in the pre-season but the Crows came nowhere near walking the walk once the real stuff happened.
After the steps they made in 2023, nearly everyone in footy expected the Crows to further improve and finally return to finals. It was a view shared at West Lakes, with all the Crows’ leading figures saying they were ready to embrace the expectation upon them over summer.
But once the home-and-away season started, the Crows began the season poorly and were left always chasing their tails.
There were some good wins – the two-point win over Carlton in Round 5, the Round 8 Showdown win, Round 16 over GWS and Round 19 over Essendon.
But there were just too many bad losses, with the finals dream never really on the cards in 2024.
As in 2023, there were some close losses that the Crows could have pinched on a different day but too often Adelaide was just unable to find ways to win.
And when it got bad, it got really bad, the Round 13 loss to wooden spooners Richmond sparked a wave of fan anger towards the club and the state of the rebuild and it returned with some when Josh Rachele was dropped for the final game against Sydney for not putting the team before himself.
Injuries to Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Matt Crouch and Josh Worrell hit the Crows hard, and they had a tough run with fixtures, but they just simply didn’t play well enough for long enough this year as they finished a woeful 15th – miles off where they and others thought they would likely be.
Rankine established himself as a star of the competition as he was moved into the midfield but missed too many games. Jake Soligo had a breakout year, while Thilthorpe showed that he is ready to explode in 2025 when he returned to the side in the back-end of the year.
OFF-SEASON MOVES
Talisman Taylor Walker will play in an 18th season after he signed a one-year contract extension, while hard nut midfielder Sam Berry and key defender James Borlase have inked new two-year contracts.
But there are a number of Crows players in limbo and waiting on just how busy Adelaide will be in the trade and free agency period for their futures at West Lakes to be decided.
And the Crows are set to be busy.
Melbourne premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen has nominated the Crows as his destination when he returns to South Australia, while it is looking increasingly likely they could snare former No. 2 pick Jack Lukosius.
Gold Coast teammate Malcolm Rosas Jr is also a player the Crows are looking at, and they are also keen on GWS defender Isaac Cumming.
Veteran Brodie Smith has hit a trigger and will play on in 2025, while James Borlase said things were moving in the right direction for his new contract.
Young defender Hugh Bond broke into the side but isn’t locked in to be at West Lakes in 2025, while players such as Will Hamill, Lachlan Gollant, Ned McHenry, Paddy Parnell and Chris Burgess look to be set for a waiting game regarding their futures.
Right now Adelaide has the fourth pick in the draft and while Matthew Nicks said they would be aggressive in the off-season, there is pressure for the Crows to keep the pick with plenty of gun midfielders in the draft pool.
South Australia’s Sid Draper and Oakleigh Chargers’ Finn O’Sullivan have been mentioned as players the Crows should be considering.
OFF THE FIELD
The Crows re-signed Nicks to a two-year extension after round 1, meaning he is contracted until the end of the 2026 season.
But the pressure is mounting on Nicks and the club after they went backwards in 2024.
If he was still out of contract now, would Nicks have been re-signed? The Crows regard him as a “next generation” coach but it would have been a near impossible sell after the year they had.
The focus on defence, and the loss of James Rahilly to Geelong, blunted what was the league’s best attack in 2023.
And far too often the Crows couldn’t curtail the opposition’s damaging players.
Changes are expected over the off-season, either getting more experience in the football department and a potential recruitment shake-up, but Nicks will be there in 2025.
If the Crows start poorly, then the pressure will ramp up significantly, with the patience of Adelaide fans now all but gone after yet another year without finals.
2025 PREVIEW
For Nicks’ sake, the Crows need to bounce back in 2025.
There could be a few key factors in this.
The first will be just how busy they will be in the off-season.
A team with Neal-Bullen, Lukosius, Cumming and Rosas will be a lot better than the one the Crows had in 2024.
The second will be just how many games they get out of Rankine and Thilthorpe.
Rankine is the Crows’ best player and we only really saw glimpses of what he can be as a midfielder with his 15 games in 2024 just not enough for Adelaide.
Thilthorpe looks like he will explode in 2025 after returning from injury late on this season.
Too often it was said that the Crows were way better than a 15th-placed side, so you would expect them to be better in 2025.
But will they get to finals, or at least challenge next year?
Nicks’ job will depend on it
WAY TOO EARLY PREDICTION
9th (13-10)
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