Crows coach Phil Walsh believes his team’s best football will come in the second half of the season.
At the mid-season bye, Adelaide is seventh on the ladder with a record of six wins and four losses.
Walsh guided the Club to three victories from his first three matches in charge, including comprehensive wins over last year’s Preliminary Finalists North Melbourne and the fourth-placed Collingwood at Etihad Stadium. For a combination of reasons, including form and injury, the Crows have been unable to consistently replicate their good early-season form in the six weeks.
Walsh was confident the return of several stars, including midfielders Rory Sloane, Richard Douglas and Brad Crouch, and improvement in a few key areas would see the Club recapture its best form after the break.
“We think our best footy is going to be in the second half of the year and that’s what we’re going to be working hard to do,” Walsh told FIVEaa on Tuesday night.
“Our two best games were definitely Round One and Round Two, against the Kangaroos and Collingwood. I thought they were really good games.
“(Since) Then, we’ve just spluttered along. The engine is running, but it’s not running on all cylinders and … that’s why I’ve got the car in the garage right now, tinkering with it.”
The Crows were in winning positions in another two games, against ladder leaders Fremantle and cross-town rivals Port Adelaide, but ultimately weren’t able to get the result.
Walsh said a win in either of those matches would’ve put Adelaide where he thought it “should be” after 10 rounds.
“Those (Fremantle and Port Adelaide losses) are the two games I’m really disappointed with,” he said.
“Also the fact that both were at home in front of our fans at Adelaide Oval. I think we should’ve given our fans a bit more than what we did in those two games. We’re hoping in the second part of the year that we’ll be able to reward our fans, who have been loyally turning out at Adelaide Oval.
“There’s really only one game (against the Western Bulldogs) where I thought the effort and attitude wasn’t up to speed. I take a lot of positivity from that, albeit, at 6-4 … I think we’re probably one win short of where we should be.”
Walsh identified slow starts in games and kicking efficiency as two priority areas for improvement.
The first-year senior coach is on record as saying he wants Adelaide to be a “kicking team”. Walsh said he wouldn’t go away from that game style, backing his players to improve their skills.
“I think Champion Data had us as the second-highest team for missing a target under no pressure. They’re the ones you just can’t accept. That’s a mindset and we’ve got to change that mindset,” Walsh said.
“It really can (turn around quickly). The thing that you don’t want though, is you can really improve your kicking efficiency but what you actually do is you don’t get the ball inside 50m because you start to play slow. That’s not what we’re going to do.
“The goalkicking is a bit of an issue. I’m sure our fans saw those misses against Fremantle and again on the weekend. We’ve actually kicked 72.45 from set shots, which means we’re about mid-table.
“The area where we’re missing a lot of goals is from snap shots and on the run, so that’s what we’ve been working really hard on.”
Team defence also remains a work in progress at West Lakes.
The Crows have improved their tackling numbers, averaging 3.4 more tackles than their direct opponent this season compared to a differential of minus 2.9 tackles per game last year. Adelaide has only conceded 100 points or more in three matches, including the blow-out loss to the Dogs.
Walsh said a bit of short-term pain was to be expected in Adelaide’s developing defence.
“When I did the rounds when I first got the job, I said we ranked third for attack and 11th for defence (in 2014) and that wasn’t going to cut it,” he said.
“After 10 rounds, we rank fourth (in points for) and 10th (in points against), so that probably hasn’t improved as much as I’d like, but we haven’t got one player in our back six who has played 100 games, so we all just need to be a little bit patient.”
Walsh identified the rapid development of a few young players, including two defenders, as the major positive to arise from the first half of the season.
“Some people see difficulty, but I see opportunity. We’ve been able to get some games into our young guys,” he said.
“If someone had told me at the start of pre-season that Jake Kelly, Jake Lever and Cam Ellis-Yolmen would’ve played the amount of games that they’ve played, I would’ve been really surprised.
“That’s a big tick. It means we’ve got great depth at our Club.”
Walsh predicted greater competition for spots after the bye as the likes of Douglas, Brad Crouch, Ricky Henderson (back) and Lever (ankle) prepare to return to AFL level. He indicated the oldest Crouch sibling might spend another week in the SANFL before earning a recall.
“I’m a coach who probably has a rule that you have to play two games before you’re right for AFL selection. Brad is one of those special players though because he brings something we don’t have,” Walsh said.
“Richard Douglas is the other one. The only difference is he hasn’t been out as long as Brad and he’s an experienced player, so you might back him in. We’ll have that debate at match committee next week.”
Walsh was also pleased with the form of untried half-forward Riley Knight and veteran utility James Podsiadly, who bagged five goals in the Club’s first SANFL win over Sturt on Sunday.
“Riley Knight has had two really strong games. I’m a big GPS coach and I love seeing what the players produce GPS-wise. The first time I saw Riley play and read his GPS, I knew he was a player I’d have a lot of interest in,” Walsh said.
“Pods performed really well in the State League on the weekend. Unfortunately, he hurt his back (earlier in the year and missed several weeks) because he probably would’ve come in (to the AFL team) a couple of weeks ago.”
Walsh was also hopeful trade period recruit Luke Lowden could press for selection after a horror start to his first season as a Crow.
“Luke’s just had a terrible run. We just get him up and going and then his Achilles flares up again.” Walsh said.
“He did the full training on Tuesday, so we’re hoping, again, that in the second half of the year Luke might come into calculations.”
