Taylor Walker of the Crows celebrates a goal during the AFL Round 01 match between the Adelaide Crows and the Hawthorn Hawks at AAMI Stadium, Adelaide. Slattery Images
Four wins, a 103-point drubbing and a distressed coach. Adelaide’s season has gone from bad to worse, with deplorable performances from a team that looked certain finals contenders after round one.
Embarrassed by his team’s performance on Friday night against a ruthless St Kilda outfit, Neil Craig has spent much of the weekend soul searching. Could he be given his marching orders mid-season?
No chance. Would he stand himself down? Yep, he just did. Praised by chairman Rob Chapman for his “integrity”, Craig will now take a leave of absence while Mark Bickley takes over as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Timing his resignation to near perfection, Craig has done what is right for himself as well as the club. Having held the reigns since Gary Ayres’ mid-season departure in 2004, Craig has coached the Crows in 166 appearances, including nine finals for three wins.
A dual premiership captain and veteran of 272 games for the Crows, Bickley joined the Adelaide coaching panel in 2009 after six years of working in the media.
Some 18 weeks ago, it was the youngsters filled with potential who delivered a whimsical display to upset premiership contenders Hawthorn by 20 points. Taylor Walker, Patrick Dangerfield, Phil Davis and Shaun McKernan shone that day and this year looked to be the breakout for many others.
Fast forward to the present.
Dangerfield is the only weekly inclusion and remains inconsistent. Flashes of brilliance are shadowed with quiet games where he is yet to prove he can break with a hard tag.
It may have been premature to label the Crows finals contenders after round one, but not unreasonable. 35 of the 44 players on the Crows senior list are aged 26 or younger. Collingwood have 30 and Geelong 29.
The bulk of Adelaide’s playing list is aged between 20 and 24. This is the time when bodies begin to mature and we see the best of players and more games lead to greater consistency. Instead, Adelaide have made little on field progress in comparison to 2010 when they lost over 1000 games of experience to retirements.
Loved by all in Adelaide and humble enough to put the club before himself, Craig is one of football’s genuine teachers of the game. Signed on in an unprecedented move mid-season as a member of the clubs administration, there is no time frame on Craig’s career at West Lakes.
Being mathematically impossible for Adelaide to play finals, the only chance of salvaging the remaining six games is to pump games into the youngsters. Led by Mark Bickley and one of the youngest coaching panels comprising of Ben Hart, Matthew Clarke and Scott Camporeale, only Camporeale is not an ex-Crow.
Each assistant began coaching in 2008, barring Bickley, who began in 2009. None of the quartet has been seriously mentioned in media speculation surrounding the senior role which has been headlined by Simon Goodwin (Essendon), Nathan Basset (Norwood) and Scott Burns (West Coast). This suggests either none are believed to be ready for a senior position or it is time for Adelaide to have a change in culture beyond 2011.
As a member of the administration, Craig is not contracted into the position of senior coach. The opportunity exists for Craig to be relocated into a different role when he returns from leave.
A Mark Thompson-like scenario may be very possible if Craig’s tutelage is seen to be too great of a loss. A turbulent off-season looms but Craig is likely to remain at West Lakes next year.
Whether it be as senior coach, senior assistant coach, director of coaching or runner, there is nothing to be lost by trialling Bickley for the remainder of the season. Not revolutionary by any means, the same strategy is used during pre-season campaigns by most clubs.
If the Bickley experiment proves unproductive, it would confirm Adelaide’s need for a cultural change.
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