With the 2022 AFL season complete, Kane Cornes and Garry Lyon have gone through all 18 clubs and come up with burning questions for each.
Adelaide finished 14th in 2022, showing some encouraging competitiveness as they completed the third year of their rebuild, winning eight games for the season.
Cornes asks are finals the benchmark for the Crows’ season?
“Adelaide, it’s year four of the rebuild, they went three wins, seven wins, eight wins, is finals the benchmark for the Crows, year four into a rebuild for Matthew Nicks, do they have the group to do it,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
Lyon responded to this with a question of his own, asking “where are the stars in this Adelaide side?”
“I know back in the day it was different because you had your Adelaide-based players, the Adelaide Crows in the South Australian footballing landscape for me was always something I looked upon as going, this is one of the greatest states, producing quality footballers year after year,” Lyon said.
“I’ve written these names down, (Tony) Modra, (Mark) Ricciuto, (Andrew) McLeod, (Simon) Goodwin, (Ben) Hart, (Darren) Jarman, then you go back to more South Australian players.
“I know you can’t get access to them all but who is the player, where’s the marquee man who just drives you to Adelaide?
“Tex (Walker) is still their big dog… where’s the star factor gone from the Adelaide Crows?
“They’ve been bland for too long, I know that’s sometimes out of your hands but come on, give us some superstars.”
Cornes listed a few names that could grow into that superstar role the side needs, however going through their squad highlighted a major issue for the club.
“I would think (Riley) Thilthorpe is going to get there, you’ve got (Izak) Rankine now who will put bums on seats, (Josh) Rachele’s not a South Australian but clearly he’s a Crows player, second-year and we know what he’s capable of doing,” he said.
“They don’t have a player in the top-50 of the Herald Sun (list), it’s reasonable… particularly in the midfield.
“(Rory Laird) is a good player, he’s a three-time best and fairest winner, Ben Keayes is a worker, they’ve got (Luke) Pedlar and (Sam) Berry and (Rory) Sloane, they’re all workers.
“Adelaide are obsessed with 182 centimetre, competitive, tackling midfielders with no speed and explosiveness on the outside, they’ve been obsessed with them and now they’ve done nothing to address that in the off-season.
“I love Thilthorpe, I love Rankine, I love Rachele, so forward of the ball, and Walker has still got a couple of good years left in him, but the midfield needs some depth, so no finals for you.”