Exciting forward Taylor Walker says maintaining his work-rate is the key to delivering performances like his five and six-goal hauls against Sydney and Port Adelaide in the last fortnight, on a consistent basis. 

The naturally talented 22-year-old, who has kicked 20 goals in five matches this season, edged ahead in the Coleman Medal race at the SCG on Saturday night, slotting five straight majors.

But what would’ve impressed coach Brenton Sanderson equally as much was the star goalkicker’s defensive pressure throughout the contest.

With less than eight minutes to play in the pulsating final quarter, Walker ran down Swans defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson, just making enough contact to influence the utility’s kick inside 50m.

He followed up the desperate effort by almost running down Swans speedster Lewis Jetta in the centre of the SCG.

Speaking in the wake of Adelaide’s stunning five-point win, Walker said maintaining consistency across four quarters remained a focus of his game.

“Consistency is one of the biggest things I’ve always had to work on,” Walker said.

“I’ve just got to keep to a couple of simple points, work to win my work-rate and get to as many contests as I can because I’m pretty confident I can win my fair share.”

Walker finished the match with 12 possessions and seven marks, including an equal team-high four marks inside 50ms, to go with his fourth bag of three or more goals this season.

The Crows had four multiple goalkickers against the Swans, with lively small forwards Jared Petrenko and Ian Callinan (three goals apiece) both kicking clutch goals and defender Matt Jaensch pushing forward to slot two.

Coach Brenton Sanderson said he was happy with his team’s forward line, which isn’t reliant on one player each week.

“At different times, Tex (Walker) is really in the game and then all of a sudden ‘Tippo’ bobs up,” Sanderson said.

“While Tippo had a quieter night tonight, in the last quarter when he went into the ruck his second and third efforts were fantastic. The chemistry is working well.

“The guys are enjoying playing together and we’re certainly seeing the rewards of it.”

Sanderson also heaped praise on young midfielders Rory Sloane and Patrick Dangerfield, who combined to win four crucial clearances to start the third quarter and keep Adelaide in the contest against a rampaging Swans outfit.

“I loved our midfield’s second half … like Paddy Dangerfield’s first four or five minutes of the third quarter,” Sanderson said.

“When we needed a bit of a spark in there and to win some clearances and start getting the ball forward some of those young kids stood up, Dangerfield and Rory Sloane. ‘Thommo’ (Scott Thompson) was also awesome again in the second half and the skipper after half-time was fantastic.

“Petrenko backed up a great Showdown with another fantastic game. I thought Matt Wright was fantastic again and, obviously, Taylor Walker played pretty well and is starting to string a few really good games together.

“It was a really even contribution after half-time, but we still feel we’ve got a lot of work to do even though it was a solid performance. We’re not going to get up on the rooftop and sing to everyone about how we’ll we’re going. We’ll just keep looking to improve every week and keep working on the areas we need to focus on.

“I’m sure we’re eventually going to be a really good side.”

The Crows will now prepare to take on Sanderson’s former team, Geelong, in the next match of their tough block leading into the mid-season break.

The one-time Cats best and fairest winner and assistant coach admitted it would be “special” coaching against the side he was part of for most of his adult life at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon (12.45pm).

 “I’m looking forward to playing Geelong … but I looked forward to playing tonight and Port last week,” Sanderson said.

“I was at Geelong for 16 years as a player and an assistant coach. It’s going to be unusual to see the blue and white hoops running around out there, but at the same time the Cats are another team we need to play really well against to win.

“I think it will be useful that we’ve got (assistant coach) Darren Milburn and myself, who have spent a lot of time there, but things change with new coaches, different game plans and personnel.

“Geelong has a lot of great young kids … they had 10 players yesterday with less than 50 games of experience. They’re still a very young side and an exciting. We’re certainly going to have to play our best footy to beat them.”