Crows’ flag chances ‘grinding’ to a midfield halt
ADELAIDE’S “grinding’’ midfield is not good enough to end the club’s 19-year premiership drought, according to two Australian Football Hall of Famers.
In a damning assessment of the Crows’ flag hopes, fourtime premiership coach David Parkin and dual premiership player Peter Bell say vicecaptain Rory Sloane’s lack of midfield support will ultimately prove their undoing this year. This is despite Adelaide sitting second at the halfway mark of the season with an 8-3 record.
Parkin and Bell have joined the chorus of pundits claiming the Crows are over-reliant on Sloane and when he is tagged out of games they lack the midfield punch to beat the competition heavyweights, such as bogey side Geelong.
“They have missing elements from that team,’’ Parkin said after Adelaide was smashed in the midfield by the Cats at Kardinia Park on Friday night. “The load carried by one player (Sloane) to be able to spread is too great. The Crouch boys (Matt and Brad) don’t quite measure up in terms of that quality. They are good but not great and not the type of ball carriers that can hurt sides.
“The Crows don’t have the outside receivers and runners available to them that a Geelong has.’’
Bell described Adelaide’s midfield as grinding and the biggest handicap to its flag hopes. They’ve got good speed in the back half and a couple of pretty quick players in the front half but that midfield is just grinding,’’ Bell told ABC radio. “Cut Sloane out and the Crouch brothers can accumulate the football but have you got that speed and penetration through midfield? I’d suggest probably not.’’
Crows coach Don Pyke continues to reject the “no Sloane, no Crows’’ theory.
He says Adelaide’s biggest let-down in its losses has been a drop-off in contested ball, which has disabled its running game. “If you look at our losses it (contested ball) has been an issue. It’s been our strength in that we’re the No. 1-ranked contested possession team in the competition but it’s been off for periods, including early against North Melbourne, in the second and third quarters against Melbourne and against Geelong when we had 34 less, which means you’re asking for trouble, Pyke said.
The Cats won 34 more contested possessions than the Crows — the worst differential in Pyke’s tenure.