ADELAIDE'S disappointing start to the season has overshadowed the career-best form, and rise to elite status of midfielder Scott Thompson.

Thompson's numbers this season stack up to those of the best onballers in the League.

The 28-year-old is averaging a career-high 29 disposals this season.

He's ranked third in the competition for total disposals, trailing only recognised possession-getters Dane Swan and Matthew Boyd and has worked harder than the star duo defensively, laying 54 tackles to be equal 10th in the AFL in that category.

He also ranks equal 10th in the competition in contested possessions, and leads the Crows in kicks, handballs, tackles, contested possessions, clearances and goal assists.

Thompson earned best afield honours in the club's wins over St Kilda and Gold Coast, and was also Adelaide's best in its losses to Fremantle and Port Adelaide.

Against Collingwood in round nine, Thompson earned a maximum 10 votes from coaches Neil Craig and Mick Malthouse despite the Crows losing the game by 43 points.

The ex-Melbourne midfielder's impressive start to the season continued against the Brisbane Lions at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

Thompson amassed 36 possessions to top Adelaide's possession-count for the sixth time this year.

It was also the sixth time Thompson has finished with 30 or more disposals in a game this season.

He picked up an equal game-high nine clearances, six inside 50ms and laid six tackles in keeping with his season average.

Unfortunately for the Crows, too much is being left up to too few in 2011, and that was again the case on Sunday.
 
The home team started brightly, kicking three of the first four goals of the game, but fell away in the second quarter and never regained the ascendancy, conceding eight of the next 10 goals to eventually go down by 40 points.

Thompson, Richard Douglas, Rory Sloane and Chris Knights all fought hard, but Adelaide simply didn't have enough winners on the day.

A modest Thompson was reluctant to talk about his own performance after the match, but admitted Adelaide needed a more even spread of contributors to be able to stop an opposition team's momentum, and be competitive on a more regular basis.

"If you're relying on one or two individuals it's not going to do too much," Thompson said.

"We need weight of numbers right across the field and we're probably not getting that at the moment.

"We set ourselves for the start. We needed to respond quickly after a disappointing fourth quarter against Collingwood last week.

"I thought we did that, but we really let ourselves down after that."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the club