Adelaide was a disjointed unit last year, but the Crows have the talent to give it another shot. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
ADELAIDE
2018 record: 12 wins, 10 losses (12th)
List age ranking (oldest to youngest): 3rd
List experience ranking (most to fewest games): 3rd
Footyology draw ranking (easiest to hardest): 6th
THE INS
Tyson Stengle (Richmond), Shane McAdam (Sturt via Carlton pre-selection), Chayce Jones (Launceston), Ned McHenry (Geelong Falcons), William Hamill (Dandenong Stingrays), Lachlan Sholl (Calder Cannons), Kieran Strachan (Port Melbourne), Jordon Butts (Murray Bushrangers)
THE OUTS
Mitch McGovern (Carlton), Curtly Hampton (retired), Sam Gibson (retired), Harry Dear (delisted), Jackson Edwards (delisted), Ben Jarman (delisted), Matthew Signorello (delisted), Kyle Cheney (delisted)
THE BEST 22
B: Jake Kelly, Daniel Talia, Tom Doedee
HB: Brodie Smith, Kyle Hartigan, Rory Laird
C: Bryce Gibbs, Brad Crouch, Richard Douglas
HF: Darcy Fogarty, Tom Lynch, Hugh Greenwood
F: Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins
Foll: Sam Jacobs, Rory Sloane, Matt Crouch
Inter: Paul Seedsman, Luke Brown, Rory Atkins, Wayne Milera
Emerg: Riley Knight, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Jordan Gallucci, David Mackay
THE PROGNOSIS
Sometimes, when analysis a team’s prospects for the upcoming season, you get a feeling of déjà vu. I’ve had that with Adelaide the past few weeks. And it’s a feeling Crows fans will enjoy hearing about.
Twice in the past decade or so we’ve seen two teams which had been solid for a few years go through a nightmare of a season when the bottom seemed to be falling out of the place. But far from being finished, both rebounded spectacularly the following year.
One was Geelong, which after reaching finals in 2004-05 had a disastrous 2006. We all remember what happened in 2007 and indeed over the next five years when the Cats won three premierships. Richmond, similarly, had made the finals three years in a row before a stinker in 2016. You know the rest.
Adelaide had been “up” for three years, culminating in a grand final appearance, before its disastrous 2018, when injuries, fitness and the continuing fall-out from a pre-season training camp which went spectacularly wrong dogged the Crows all year.
What’s the upside? Well, the internal bickering seems to have been resolved. Key players like co-captains Taylor Walker and Rory Sloane are fit and ready to go again. And their finish of 12th last year has given them a handier-than-usual fixture, one rated by Footyology’s draw analysis as the sixth “softest” in the competition.
While you can’t control luck, Adelaide would be stiff indeed to cop the sort of injury run in did last season. Arguably the costliest absentee was running defender Brodie Smith, who ended up playing only two games and without whom the Crows palpably lacked their trademark smooth ball movement out of defence.
Brad Crouch didn’t appear at all, Sloane and Walker both missed around half the season, Tom Lynch and Eddie Betts around a month each. In fact, of their best 10 players from 2017, only two played more than 18 games. And one of them, ruckman Sam Jacobs, just couldn’t find his best form.
There were some positives, though, and they might help make Adelaide a difficult proposition again.
Tom Doedee slipped seamlessly into the defensive hole left by the departure of Jake Lever. Wayne Milera found a home on a half-back flank. Hugh Greenwood carved out a solid year in midfield. And Paul Seedsman grew into a damaging midfield runner with penetrating kicking.
The development of that quartet gives the Crows superior depth even to that they boasted in 2017, and coach Don Pyke consequently more flexibility with his selections dependent upon the opponent.
And Adelaide already has a heap of talent in all areas, a defence boasting the likes of Rory Laird, Daniel Talia and Smith, a forward set up with dangerous key positions in Walker, Lynch and Josh Jenkins, and an elite ground level goalkicker in Betts, who no doubt will be very keen to atone for, by his standards, only a mediocre 2018.
The third oldest and third most experienced list in the AFL, Adelaide has been around the premiership zone for some time before last year’s stumble. Yet it still hasn’t seen any tangible rewards for all the hard work.
The Crows have looked sharp in pre-season, like a side which not only wants to atone for the previous season, but which knows it might not get many more, or better chances, to cash in on its talent and all that preparation.
THE PREDICTION
4th. Last year was an aberration, and even then, the Crows still won 12 games. Adelaide simply has too much talent and experience to slip off the pace too far, and fourth might even be a tad conservative.
THE LADDER SO FAR (click on team to read)
4. ADELAIDE
5. COLLINGWOOD
6. ESSENDON
7. NORTH MELBOURNE
8. GEELONG
9. GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
10. HAWTHORN
11. SYDNEY
12. BRISBANE LIONS
13. PORT ADELAIDE
14. WESTERN BULLDOGS
15. FREMANTLE
16. CARLTON
17. ST KILDA
18. GOLD COAST
