Xhoquelin
Club Legend
- Dec 4, 2016
- 1,099
- 1,120
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Arsenal, Charlotte Hornets
Brilliant post and I wholeheartedly agree. In the end, Adelaide doesn't have a midfield combination that can stand up for an entire game against Hawthorn, GWS, Bulldogs, Sydney, Geelong, and this season WCE and the Dee's may also overtake them. Their midfield consists of only small, industrious midfielders. They need a bigger guy who can take the game by the scruff of the neck. Their win against the Dee's last year came down to mistakes from Melbourne and not midfield dominance as Gawn had a great game. Losing Lyons only hurts more, one of their few classy players. They need to pump games into Hampton as IMO he is one of their few players with game changing talent. Maybe throw Cameron on the wing, and give Gallucci an early debut. Knight needs games If they go safe and play Thompson, Mackay, Seedsman and Douglas again they will progress no further in the finals for another year.The issue with Adelaide as a side is that their primary focus is on avoiding getting the ball stuck in midfield - that's why they focus so much on transition play. Their whole gameplan is designed around it - quick switches, quick kicking, letting the ball do the work so their slow mids aren't exposed for pace. When other sides say they are planning on playing more people through the midfield, they do so with the intention of heavy rotations to maximize the limited burst speed endurance their players have - they just don't have the players capable of playing extended minutes at a high cadence. Whereas other sides are looking at playing others through the midfield because they can genuinely make an impact with their skill and talent.
That's the reason why Adelaide fails in finals every year. Finals are about two things - defence and midfield strength. I've yet to see a finals game where it's a forward kicking a bag of goals that decides the outcome of the match in the modern game because the time and space for forwards is heavily reduced. Sure, the Crows forward line is great (1st in the comp statistically) and their defence too (2nd) but their midfield is still and always will be their Achilles heel. You can bypass it through home and away because every team is looking to conserve energy defensively somewhat for the next game they have to play. In finals, however, there IS no tomorrow, so there is no requirement to conserve energy until the game is already won.
I've got them 4th too, but I've also got them going out in straight sets for this very reason. When they had Dangerfield they were still one elite mid away from winning the flag. Now they are two away, and guys like Thompson who they relied on as an inside mid for so long are getting too old to make a valuable contribution to the cause.
They might try to sucker punch teams with their heavy rotations on field in order to create mismatches, but honestly, it's all just smoke and mirrors. When finals roll around, their forwards will be starved of supply because you've got to be able to generate your own score launches from midfield and not just rely on teams making mistakes - finals teams are finals teams because they don't do that very often.