Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks needs to change his midfield dynamic if the Crows are any chance of having a successful year.
That’s the opinion of Hawthorn great Luke Hodge after watching Friday night’s clash between the Crows and Geelong.
On paper, Adelaide’s midfield dominated the undermanned engine room of the Cats with the likes of Jordan Dawson (28), Rory Laird (29) and Matt Crouch (37) stuffing the stats sheet with the trio combining for 92 disposals between them.
However, the lack of metres gained between Laird and Crouch caught the eye of Hodge with the veteran midfielders managing just the 489 metres between them.
“My main issue with Adelaide is starting in the midfield and the balance,” Hodge said on SEN Crunch Time.
“You’ve got Crouch, Laird and Dawson where two of those blokes are doing the exact same thing.
“Up until half-time, Crouch and Laird had 34 touches between them for eight kicks, they didn’t even have over 100 metres gain.
“That’s the issue, if you’ve got two blokes playing the exact same way, they had 17 clearances between them, 66 touches but under 500 metres gained.
“It takes away the bang for your buck when you get a clearance, on the other hand you have a look at Dawson and he had 28 touches and over 770 metres gained.
“I reckon they need to have a bit of a look at their matchups in the middle because I think it’s letting them down.
“They’re winning a lot of it but just aren’t doing much with it.”
Adelaide will look to chalk their first win of the season in Round 3 against Fremantle in Perth.