ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig says recalling defender Phil Davis for Sunday’s clash with Richmond would have upset team balance.
Davis, who made way for Nathan Bock last round despite his NAB AFL Rising Star nomination, will not play a game this weekend as his SANFL club North Adelaide has a bye.
Craig said that with Bock, Ben Rutten and Scott Stevens in the backline, there wasn’t a place for Davis at this stage.
“I’m still keen to keep a similar structure down back. To bring Phil into that structure would change things significantly and it would take some flexibility away from us,” Craig said on Friday.
“Phil will continue to play in the SANFL and continue to place significant pressure on Nathan Bock, Scott Stevens and Ben Rutten in defence. I’m not against playing Phil up forward at some stage because I think he’ll end up being a very good forward.”
Craig lamented his side’s aerial work following the showdown loss to Port Adelaide, but said it wasn’t reason enough to recall the strong-spoiling Davis.
“Hopefully, we can fix that without having to bring in Phil Davis because we can’t afford to lose that flexibility, particularly with the way the weather is going to be,” Craig said.
However, Adelaide has recalled rookie Chris Schmidt and first-year player Jack Gunston for the match at the MCG.
Schmidt will replace the suspended Graham Johncock, while Gunston comes in at the expense of Tony Armstrong, who has been omitted.
Ruckman Jon Griffin was in some doubt with an ankle injury, but trained strongly on Friday and is expected to take his place in the team.
The Crows started warm favourites against Port Adelaide last weekend, but were unable to reproduce the form they showed during the upset win over Geelong in round 16 and the three weeks before that.
Craig said the players were disappointed with their efforts last weekend and were desperate to make amends against the Tigers.
“The playing group set themselves a pretty high benchmark with their performance against Geelong and that’s what they now measure themselves against,” he said.
“It (the showdown) was an important game for us and we weren’t able to front up to the level. I want to see a bounce-back in our level of energy, competitiveness and urgency. I want to get that back up to a really high level again.
“That will be our challenge irrespective of the result.”
Adelaide has spent extra time on goalkicking this week, after failing to capitalise on the scoreboard against Port Adelaide.
“There’s probably a feeling outside the footy clubs that you can spend all day goalkicking, which you can’t. Well, you can but it’s all you’ll ever do,” Craig said.
“We [as a competition] spend extra time on conditioning, on rehab, weight training, game knowledge and set plays but very little extra time on goalkicking. To create more time here you’ve got to take time from somewhere else and it would be a good argument to say, ‘Well you need to do that’.”
Unlucky forward Trent Hentschel will make his latest comeback from injury with South Adelaide in the SANFL reserves this weekend, while Chris Knights (side strain) is also likely to line up in the local league.
Craig said injured stars Simon Goodwin (ankle) and Andrew McLeod (knee) would continue to be assessed each week.
