Opinion
After a 75-point record loss to their most hated rival, it’s now apparent that the Adelaide Crows are the AFL’s biggest rabble.
If you’ve tuned in to any footy talk show on TV or radio since Saturday night, I’m sure you’ve heard “they’re favourites for the spoon in my book” at least once. It just goes to show how quickly a team’s narrative can change after one game of footy.
By no means were Adelaide a top-eight contender coming into the season, but few would’ve damned them to the foot of the table before a ball was bounced.
Where to from here for Matty Nicks? All pre-season (how long ago does that feel like now?), the noise coming out of West Lakes was that the new coach is all about defence.
To quote Nicks verbatim, he described it as “elite defence”.
(Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
There’s a lot of colourful language that’s been used to describe the performance Saturday night, but rest assured “elite defence” wouldn’t have been uttered from the 475 social-distanced Adelaide supporters in attendance.
So what’s the problem with this idea of elite defence, apart from the fact your team’s conceded 17 goals?
Well, for starters, it’s hard for supporters to get behind the idea that the mission statement for your team stems from not having possession of the ball. After all, that’s what defence is in any sport: eliminating opposition scoring when you don’t have the ball.
Adelaide were out-marked 105-39, almost the winning margin. Where was the hunger to stop Port getting clean hands on the footy?
And in the most important defensive area of the ground, the Crows had just four tackles inside Port’s forward 50 for the whole game.
If Nicks is serious about shaping his team into a defensive monster, that stat must’ve been drawn up on the whiteboard on Monday morning.
Now the Gold Coast hub beckons for at least the next three weeks, with fixtures against the Suns, Lions, and Dockers to come. We’ve seen a top side in West Coast struggle with the relocation to the dewy Queensland winter, and they were run over by an exciting Suns side because of it.
It seems you’d only have to blink and Adelaide are sitting at 0-4 to start a shortened season before they even return home.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Perhaps experienced heads need to steady the ship. Dave Mackay and Bryce Gibbs are waiting in the wings, with concerns that captain Rory Sloane may miss this weekend’s clash with a corky.
Does Nicks double down on his mantra and put a traditional midfielder in Gibbs in the back line? This is a role he’s familiar with from his later Carlton days. It will certainly put a body in there that’s used to trying to win the ball on the inside, and will at the very least pump up those tackle numbers inside defensive 50.
The coach needs to give the supporters something more tangible to grasp on to if he’s going to get evangelical about the least entertaining aspect of the game.
The next month will be telling in how we perceive Adelaide, particularly the new coaching staff. Ultimately, draft picks and off-season moves beyond 2020 will give Nicks more of an opportunity to cultivate his ideals, but while every Adelaide supporter will be watching his side through the same lens via their television for the foreseeable future, they need something to nail to the mast.
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