AFL
3 hours ago
Cornes and King baffled by Adelaide’s Stewart inaction
By Andrew Slevison
The Adelaide Crows were beaten by what they know against Geelong on Thursday night.
That is the opinion of both David King and Kane Cornes who were baffled by Crows coach Matthew Nicks’ strategy around Cats star Tom Stewart.
Stewart has had some massive outings against the Crows in recent years and was influential again in the eight-point win (68-60) with 24 disposals, nine intercept possessions, eight rebound 50s, six marks and a goal.
King wondered why the Crows didn’t look at trying to keep the gun defender quiet.
“If you're going to play Geelong, you have to have an answer for Tom Stewart loose behind the ball,” King said on SEN’s Fireball.
“To be fair, the conditions played into his hands, but they didn't seem to have an answer for it for long periods.”
Cornes said that Nicks had identified on the Channel 7 broadcast that Stewart was a key magnet for the Crows to deal with.
So, why didn’t they do anything about him?
“I had Matthew Nicks before the game, I said, ‘One magnet that worries you the most about Geelong?’. Now this is right before they're about to start,” Cornes said.
“He said, ‘Well, they've got a few’. I said, ‘Nicksy, give me one’. He said, ‘Tom Stewart’.
“So they say that, and they know that because he took 11 intercept marks against them (early in 2024) when Luke Pedlar tried to go to him.
“They know that. Yet once again he does it again.
“Now Tom Stewart needs a tag. He does not cope with a tag. He went through that period where teams were coming after him hard in the midfield and he was in all sorts, all at sea.
“I don't reckon Tom Stewart's going to be allowed to do what he did last night for very much longer as teams scout that.
“That tag is coming for him, but once again, it's a bit of Pedlar, it's a bit of Alex Neal-Bullen, everyone gets sucked up. He just drops back.
“It was three intercept possessions early for Stewart, and the five-time All-Australian did it again.”
King saw that Geelong tagged Izak Rankine out of the game with Oisin Mullin.
He was bewildered that the Crows seemingly had no answers for what Stewart was doing.
“So this discussion always makes me laugh, and there's never an answer,” King continued.
“It’s too quickly just dusted under the carpet. ‘Oh, this is our system, our strategy’.
“It's ok for Oisin Mullin to be given the tagging, go-everywhere job on Izak Rankine, and you hold him to seven touches. He always looks threatening, and you always have to talk about Izak because he can light up in a five-minute window and get you back in a game, if not win you a game.
“So, he's a constant conversation, but he's the first magnet impacted by Chris Scott.
“And then I look at Tom Stewart and I say, ‘Well, in a similar vein, he's going to shape the game for Geelong, so what are you doing?’.
“The answer is nothing. It baffles you a little bit.
“Don't get beaten by what you know is what we say, and again, we walk away saying Tom Stewart's the reason.”
Cornes added: “Baffling.”
The Cats walk away with a second straight win to go 2-1 to start the season ahead of the Easter Monday clash with Hawthorn.
For the Crows, they’ve now lost two on the trot but hold a 1-2 record ahead of next Friday night’s home clash with Fremantle.
