Adelaide’s ‘hodgepodge’ backline turns from achilles heel to arguably the AFL’s best

Adelaide’s forwards or midfielders have got much of the credit for the club’s rise up the ladder. But stunning statistics show how the Crows’ low-profiled defensive unit has become an AFL leader.

After Adelaide averaged 120 points and drubbed two teams across its first five games, then won 54-32 the next week, coach Matthew Nicks was asked what satisfied him most.

Kicking 20 goals and blowing sides off the park or being so stingy in victory?

“I enjoy footy as much as anyone and enjoy watching the spectacle,” Nicks said after the 22-point home triumph against GWS in windy conditions on April 19.

“But from a coaching point of view, my experience would tell me … you have to be able to defend.

“There’s not many teams who win a grand final who have 100 points kicked against them week in, week out.”

Two months on, the Crows are having statistically their best defensive season in two decades as they look set to end an eight-year finals drought.

Adelaide is conceding 73.6 points per game, its fewest since 2005, a year it finished as minor premier before losing a preliminary final.

The Crows ranked last, 16th, 14th, ninth and 10th for scores conceded in Nicks’s first five seasons.

Opponents registered at least 72 points in each of the Crows’ opening five games this year as Adelaide started 3-2, but the wheel turned after Gather Round.

Since then, Nicks’s side is No. 1 in the AFL for points against, pressure rating, opposition stoppage points, opposition chain to score percentage and midfield intercepts.

It also ranks second during that span for opposition intercept points and opposition scoring per inside 50 percentage.

According to Champion Data, the Crows are also coughing up their least points from turnovers (42.2) in 20 seasons, as well as their fewest scores per inside 50 (42 per cent) and points against from their defensive half (22.3) on record, from 1999.

The Crows are having their best defensive season in two decades. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

“We’ve always wanted to be a strong defensive team,” forward Ben Keays told this masthead after the Brisbane victory that left Adelaide third on the ladder with a 9-4 record.

“It’s good to get that reward, but there’s a long way to go.

“The defenders are awesome, but it’s a whole team effort and team defence to keep the scores low.”

Part of what makes Adelaide’s defending so impressive is the club is doing it with something of a hodgepodge backline, bereft of top-10 draft picks, recent All-Australians or star recruits.

Instead, there is an Irishman lured to West Lakes out of homesickness; a second-round selection who took until his fourth season to establish himself; a player Brisbane axed after three games; a trio of former rookies; a 33-year-old veteran coming off a 10-month gap between AFL appearances; a player with a long injury history and the club’s first father-son draftee from the SANFL.

In charge of the group is one of the youngest line coaches in the AFL.

Irish key defender Mark Keane played five games for Collingwood in two seasons, quit the Magpies with a year left on his contract and returned to his homeland due to FOMO, then went from hardly kicking a footy in 18 months to joining the Crows two months before round 1 in 2023.

A spot for Keane opened after the retirement of a key defender that was drafted in the top 10, Fischer McAsey.

Mark Keane takes match saving mark close

The Crows would have selected McAsey, who could play at either end of the ground, hoping he would be part of their next finals team.

But he walked away from the AFL in January 2023, citing a loss of passion for the game.

Thirty-four matches into his comeback at Adelaide, Keane, 25, ranks fourth in the league this season for intercept possessions among all players, behind two All-Australians and a reigning best-and-fairest winner (Sam Taylor, Aliir Aliir, Sam Collins).

Keane’s game-saving Showdown mark and desperate lunge to stop a fourth-quarter goal against the Lions typified his competitiveness.

Josh Worrell was taken at No. 28 in the 2019 national draft, had played five games after three years, then began to cement himself in the team after Tom Doedee ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament midway through 2023.

Fast-forward two seasons and Worrell, 24, is second in the league (behind three-time Richmond premiership defender Nick Vlastuin) for intercept possessions among general defenders.

The tenacious left-footer also ranks seventh in the AFL for defensive one-on-one win rate at 41 per cent.

Brisbane delisted Mitch Hinge after three games in four seasons and he added only one during his first campaign as a Crow in 2021.

Worrell has been a revelation. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

The 26-year-old’s reliability as a left-foot attacking weapon off half-back is indicated by Champion Data rating him above average among general defenders in disposals, metres gained, intercept marks and intercept possessions.

Murray Bushrangers products Jordon Butts and Nick Murray began as rookies at Adelaide in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

AFL clubs overlooked Butts, 25, the first year he was eligible to be drafted.

Murray, 24, too was snubbed, before the Crows plucked him from the bush.

His rookie-listing came off the back of a season playing as a forward for Riverina club Ganmain Grong Grong Matong and working on a family friend’s farm.

The only Crows defenders with All-Australian credentials, Rory Laird and Brodie Smith, got their blazers before Nicks arrived at the club.

A 2012 rookie draftee, Laird, 31, was chosen in the AFL’s team of the year in 2017 and 2018 then spent the first five seasons under Nicks (2020-2024) playing predominantly in the midfield.

Laird has returned to the backline this season as an experienced presence.

Smith, an All-Australian in 2014, is the other veteran down there, playing the past two games and three for the year.

The highest draft picks in Adelaide’s backline against Brisbane were Wayne Milera (pick 11 in 2015), Smith (No. 14 in 2010) and Max Michalanney (No. 17 in 2022).

Foot or leg injuries limited Milera, 27, to two matches in 2020, four last year and cost him the entire 2021 campaign.

Milera has finally become a constant down back. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images

But he has played all 13 games this season, building his form each week.

Michalanney, 21, had played beyond his years since becoming Adelaide’s first SANFL father-son selection, missing just one match.

His two-on-one victory last week, stopping what seemed a certain goal, epitomised his composure under pressure.

Two others in the backline contingent to play this year are later selections: pre-season draftee, Luke Nankervis (seven games) and former Next Generation Academy rookie James Borlase (two).

Adelaide’s defensive coach is ex-GWS, Port Adelaide and Gold Coast backman Jack Hombsch, who, at 32, is younger than Smith.

“I go hard at our defensive unit,” Nicks said.

“Jack Hombsch is an unbelievable coach, but he played the game a certain way and is coaching them in the same manner.

“I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve done.”

Along with McAsey, the only other top-10 pick Adelaide had used on a defender during its rebuild was Dan Curtin in 2023.

But the 197cm West Australian has become a genuine utility, featuring in the backline, attack and, in recent weeks, on a wing.

The 20-year-old was full of praise for the club’s defensive unit.

“They’re absolutely phenomenal,” Curtin told this masthead.

“There’s lots of talent back there and they’re huge for us.

“Week in, week out, they do their jobs.”

Originally published as Adelaide’s ‘hodgepodge’ backline turns from achilles heel to arguably the AFL’s best