SEN host David King loves the coaching moves that Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks made in their 98-100 win over Carlton on Saturday at Marvel Stadium.
Heading into the game at 0-4 facing the 4-0 Blues, the Crows knew they had to change something and that mainly came from using both Izak Rankine and Jake Soligo on-ball more often than they have so far this year.
The young duo both attended more than 60 per cent of centre bounces in the win, the most out of any Crows apart from ruckman Reilly O’Brien. In the previous four games, neither had featured in Adelaide’s top three in a single clash for centre-bounce attendance.
With more opportunity, both Soligo (27 disposals) and Rankine (23 disposals) enjoyed season-highs in disposals and King loved seeing the “magic makers” at the source.
“If Matt Crouch, Rory Laird and often Jordan Dawson are vanilla, then they got a little bit of sorbet on the weekend,” King said on SEN Whateley.
“There's a little bit of lemon sorbet with Izak Rankine going into the midfield and Jake Soligo is going to be a star of our competition.
“Just give him (Soligo) time (in the midfield) and give him the keys. He's a priority in there. Ahead of even the captain, put him in there.
“Rankine went in for 20 centre bounces … If you're going to go and get that player (from Gold Coast) and you know the ball is starting in the middle of the ground - you put your best players, your magic makers, where the footy is.
“There's no point having him in the forward pocket when the ball's likely to get there 20 per cent of the time from centre bounce. Put him where the ball is and let him do his thing.
“He was unbelievable.”
More than anything, King thinks that Rankine’s presence at centre bounces in particular gave Adelaide a huge win as soon as the first stoppage was cleared, much like it does for Geelong when Jeremy Cameron goes on-ball.
“What it did more than anything is when you start in the middle and Jeremy Cameron often goes in for centre bounces, he’s not in there as a clearance player, he's in there because the moment the ball goes in general play, he's up against a midfielder,” King said.
“That's a win already because he's going to be able to take them forward knowing that they're not defensively diligent … even if you do go one-on-one with them, you're going to be able to out them, you're too smart for them.
“Izak Rankine was matched against George Hewett, he’s going beat him all the time (in general play).
“Patty Cripps? He’s going to beat him as a forward versus defender all the time. So, you get luxuries post-clearance.
“All of a sudden with Izak, he starts getting his hands on the footy. He had 23 touches. If you get 23 or more touches from Izak Rankine, you're in most games.”
King thinks that Soligo and Rankine’s outings also would have proved to Nicks that his system was fine and it was just underperforming senior players that were letting him down.
He also believes that the move should say Rory Laird go back to a flank permanently to make room for the young duo while also trying to pick up wins as Taylor Walker (four goals, 10 marks) finds form again.
“It's the perfect result for Matty Nicks to walk in and say right, ‘Our system's fine, these guys as a new mix come in and did the job, what are you senior blokes doing? Come on, let’s go again’,” King said.
“Laird should never go back in the middle, he should be a flanker that plays some midfield minutes, but maybe from a flank.
“And it’s great to see Tex (Taylor Walker) back. Tex has such an impact on this team.
“Whilst Tex is there and in good form, they’ve got to get on a run now. They’ve got to capitalise.”
Adelaide will hope to go 2-4 when they face Essendon at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
