Do the Crows have enough talent to recapture lost form?

In 2025, Matthew Nicks’ Adelaide rose from the depths to claim the minor premiership, unflappable in their progression charging into September for the first time since 2017.

However, after failing to land a punch in their straight sets finals exit, the Crows have failed to recapture any of their 2025 form so far this season.

Now sat in 13th place with just three wins through their first seven in 2026, Adelaide’s issues are beginning to raise alarms.

Facing the benchmark in Brisbane at the Gabba on Sunday, a rather damning 52-point loss exposed more than just the club’s depth, beaten rather comfortably in the clearance and around the ground.

And with only a handful of injuries, the returning reinforcements may not be enough to recoup their lost results according to Adam Simpson.

“They just don’t bat as deep as I thought they did,” Simpson told SEN Whateley.

“They are missing some players, five or six, but not exactly the A+ players.

“Their defence held up really well last year, and I think at stages this year it’s held up well again, but at the moment, they just look a little bit fragile.

“They’ve won one first quarter for the year, and they lost that again on the weekend – honourably, it wasn’t too out of control, but you saw the signs early yesterday.

“They’ve got Port (in the Showdown) tonight, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Port go in favourites for that game, from what I saw last weekend.”

Despite their average start, Simpson does concede that the Crows’ grief may still be playing a role following the passing of Jaryd Dawson, brother of skipper, Jordan.

“It’s been a heavy week too,” he continued.

“Dealing with grief doesn’t last one round. We all think of that outstanding win against St Kilda last week and think ‘they are good to go’. Sometimes the ripple lasts a lot longer than just one week.

“But there’s something… it’s hard to put your finger on, but whether it’s the contest, whether it’s the talent, whether it’s their system I can’t quite work it out, but they are just off.

“They are just off, and they are not the same.”

Far from the heights of last season, Simpson believes that repeating table-topping form is far from easy, and the evolving list of on-field issues at the club is becoming a real problem.

“I wonder how much they are thinking about, ‘well, we were good last year, why can’t we just do that? We will just wait until it clicks again’,” he said.

“It doesn’t work that way. That’s why last year was such a disappointment at finals. You finish top, two home finals and you don’t fire a shot – it just takes so much effort to get back to that position.

“(They were) -22 at contested possessions on the weekend, -1000 metres gained from clearances, so clearly some issues there, but the next week it’s something else, and then something else.

“If you give me a pattern of events, we can fix it. When it’s a different thing all the time – the starts have been horrendous, but their start was okay on the weekend. It was the third quarter, and it was the centre bounces.

“When you are forever fixing one thing and then something else pops up, it becomes a massive coaching challenge.

“I just wonder if they’ve got enough talent at the moment. It just doesn’t look like they’ve got enough to complete with the big dogs.”

Jordan Dawson has been ruled out as the Crows look to rectify their poor start tonight against Port Adelaide in a highly anticipated Showdown.