Jordan Dawson congratulates Lachie Sholl after a goal in the practice match against West Coast. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Patience around AFL football is in shorter supply than ever these days. Talented players are supposed to produce the goods from day dot. Ditto the teams for whom they play. Particularly when those sides have been a work in progress for a while.
And Adelaide Football Club fans would argue that on those counts they’ve shown far more patience than most.
It’s 26 years now since the Crows won the second of those memorable back-to-back premierships under Malcolm Blight. It’s almost two decades since Neil Craig’s teams went close, seven years since Adelaide imploded on grand final day against Richmond.
And now it’s year five of a concerted rebuild under the auspices of coach Matthew Nicks. Four previous seasons have taken the Crows to three wins, then seven, eight and last year 11. In fact, but for a now infamous goal-umpiring blunder, that would have been 12 and a finals berth.
That certainly tested Adelaide supporters’ patience. But not as much as would another year without a September appearance. You can’t assume anything in football, but surely a team whose learning curve has been that steady, already knocking on the door and with the most potent forward structure in the competition has to be demanding at least finals in 2024?
“Based on last year and the way it finished, I suppose so,” Adelaide skipper Jordan Dawson, chatting with ESPN, agrees. “I think anyone on the cusp of finals, that has to be the goal. And we want to get back there and win a few.”
Indeed, Adelaide is so close to a return to finals it can almost smell the aroma. Consider the fact the no fewer than eight of the Crows’ 12 losses last year were by 18 points or less, five of them by an aggregate of just 14 points.
Consider that what last season was the AFL’s second youngest and least-experienced list has moved several rungs up both of those “seasoning” ladders. And consider the learning experience offered by the events of 2023.
You can train for cooler heads, says Dawson, and Adelaide has been doing plenty of it over the summer months.
“There’s times where opposition teams are just going to be better. But I think experience in those critical moments where you know you need to execute the game plan is a massive part of it,” he says. “So we’ve been training a lot of that scenario stuff late in games when we’re up, when we’re down, to really make sure we close out those games and be comfortable with how we execute.
“You’re not going to win all of them. But if you win a couple of those, you’re playing finals given how close the competition is. We’re working really hard on it, and I think that along with the extra experience for those young guys coming through in those games is going to be really beneficial.”
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The other focus for Adelaide in the attempt to close that very narrow gap between they and the upper echelon is defence, both the art across the ground and more literally, among the backline group which had its challenges in 2023.
While Adelaide ranked No.1 for points scored last year, defensively it was only ninth for fewest points conceded.
“We’ve worked on our full team defence and the way we set up the ground,” Dawson says, just training those kind of fast play moments when we don’t have the ball and trying to stop the opposition going the length of the ground.
“We really want to take that defensive ranking up to top four to be honest. We know we can be better and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on that side of the game. I’m pretty confident that the work we’ve done we’ll put us in good stead.”
Adelaide won’t regain key defender Nick Murray until late season, and experienced Tom Doedee has flown the coop to Brisbane. Mark Keane may also be a temporary absentee after being concussed pre-season.
If the Crows’ backline does hang together, it’s likely to do so thanks to the efforts of some pretty low-profile names. But Dawson thinks they’re up for the challenge.
“There’s Max Michalanney, Mitch Hinge has gone to another level, Josh Worrell is one that I’m really excited about this year, and James Borlase stepped up last year in the last few games,” says the skipper. “There’s a lot of guys that no one probably knows, but they have the ability to play on smalls and talls, and I’ve been really impressed with the way they’ve gone about it.
“Our forward line is pretty potent, and they’ve been matched up against them and holding their own pretty comfortably throughout the pre-season. If you’re playing on a couple of the best forwards in the comp like they’ve been, it’s going to make you a better player. So they’re definitely lesser-known, but I’m excited about what they’re going to bring.”
Best and fairest top two Dawson and Rory Laird are the midfield rocks, along with the resurgent Matt Crouch. The forward set-up, even with Riley Thilthorpe now on the long-term casualty list, is explosive. It won’t take much more to go right for the Crows to finally get there. And no, Dawson isn’t worried about them all getting ahead of themselves.
“We’ve spoken already a number of times about how tight the comp is and how everyone’s looking to improve,” he says. “You can’t get complacent in this game or else you get chewed up, so I’m not too worried about that. Obviously, there is more expectation on us now, but the expectation we put on ourselves is higher than what anyone from the outside can put on us. We’re all just excited to get into games now and really test ourselves out.”
This article first appeared at ESPN.
