Season 2023 feels like a crossroads for the Adelaide Football Club – Where will they stand this year?
Season seven felt indifferent, good enough to finish in the top four and good enough to go to the preliminary finals. But they were outworked by both Melbourne and Brisbane in their meetings – perhaps renowned as the ‘third-best’ side this season.
From the side that won their third flag in six seasons in the earlier campaign last year, the Crows have lost Erin Phillips, Angela Foley, Justine Mules, Ashleigh Saint (nee Woodland), Marijana Rajcic, Nikki Gore, Jasmyn Hewett, and Ailish Considine are all no longer there through one reason or another.
It’s an exciting time for the Crows, and I don’t doubt they’ll be sizing up a fourth flag in eight seasons.
But this is where I try my best and break it down; we know they have the top-line talent, but have they got the depth?
Let’s have a look at Adelaide’s season preview
IS ZOE PROWSE THE ANSWER UP FORWARD?
My biggest issue with Adelaide from last season was that it felt as if they were too reliant on both Saint and Ponter, who combined for 25 of Adelaide’s 67 goals last season – Saint with 14 and Ponter with 11. Crows fans will be quick to jump out that Chelsea Randall kicked eight and Caitlin Gould hit the scoreboard for seven too, but the reality is that Randall was injured a fair bit, and Gould is solid as a first ruck.
With Saint out of the team, it opens up a spot as a key forward. Maybe the plan is to throw Gould forward a bit more and have McKinnon play as a first ruck, but I’ve loved the plan of having McKinnon back when she’s not rucking – she’s a strong enough contested grab and is mobile enough to provide the link in the chain in the back half.
This is where Prowse comes in.
After managing just one game in season six, Zoe Prowse managed six games for the Crows in season seven – four of which were the season’s last games, including the three finals – as a key defender.
It’s a small sample size, but she showed great contested marking ability and is mobile enough to present as a forward option.
We know Danielle Ponter will be a focal point this year for the Crows, but as talented as she is, there are still tendencies for her to disappear, and the Crows can only afford that this season if the right support cast is around her.
Prowse may be a partial answer to the solution, but it offers a tall target to kick too if Matthew Clarke hesitates to switch Montana McKinnon as the number one ruck and throw Caitlin Gould as the key target.
WHERE DOES THE HELP FOR ANNE HATCHARD AND EBONY MARINOFF COME FROM?
No one can deny the star talent that both Ebony Marinoff and Anne Hatchard possess for Adelaide’s engine room. They can both dig in for the contested ball; they’re good tacklers – in the case of Marinoff, elite – and often impact around the ground.
But it begins to thin out from there. Melbourne has many players who can go through the middle of the ground, and the Lions were spoiled for choice before Emily Bates headed for Hawthorn.
We saw Chelsea Randall attend over 50 per cent of centre bounce attendances between rounds 2-8 last season before injury derailed her season. When Randall sat out, those minutes were handed to Teah Charlton, who, by the end of their finals campaign, showed that she is ready to make the next jump.
They’re both critical to where the Crows go in 2023. Randall needs to stay fit, and whether the plan is to play her more forward than midfield or find a balance remains to be seen. At the same time, Charlton needs the minutes to continue her development.
It’s been a slow process for her since being taken with Adelaide’s first draft selection back in the 2020 AFLW Draft. I suppose it’s fair enough; not many of them got much chance to play throughout the under-18s years.
Charlton averaged 12.3 disposals and nearly four clearances per game in the finals. Her strengths are through her defensive pressure. From rounds seven to the preliminary final, Charlton averaged 6.2 tackles per game; she averaged five per game across the season.
The next phase of her game is to get her hands on the ball more. Marinoff and Hatchard averaged 24 and 23.6 disposals, respectively, and Chelsea Randall is the only other player to average 15 disposals or more.
Rachelle Martin is another one I have high hopes for as a role player; her defensive pressure and desperation at times since being drafted back to the Crows are among some of the best in the game.
They’ve got the cattle to put it together, the Crows, but it’s all about the next step.
CAN SARAH GOODWIN IMPACT STRAIGHT OFF THE BAT?
Back in March, I wrote a list of the best trade moves from the AFLW trade period following season seven, and the move of Sarah Goodwin crossing from the archenemy to the Crom was, in my eyes, the second-best move of the trade period.
I won’t rehash it here, but the one big takeaway from the move is that aside from Chelsea Biddell, the Crows don’t have a prime runner out of defence. Only two players averaged two or more rebound 50s last season at Adelaide; Biddell was one, and Sarah Allan was the other. Both of them play more as key defenders.
Goodwin was drafted last year, highly revered for her abilities to run, spread and utilise the leather product coming out of the defensive half. After being taken by Port so early on in her career, she only played five games and averaged 7.6 disposals, and looked to have struggled to get involved last season.
In fairness to her, she was stuck behind Alex Ballard, Hannah Dunn and Indy Tahau last season as rebounding defenders.
We won’t fully know until we see the Crows first-hand in the practice games, but from her one-month sample in the SANFLW, she had no problems getting to the football or using the ball either by foot.
We know that she’ll be given ample opportunity to make a statement in the Crows’ best 21 players, and hopefully, she can take that on with both hands.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER OFF-SEASON RECRUITS?
Yvonne Bonner’s name being called out was perhaps one of the biggest surprises on draft night. It feels like an eternity since we saw her at GWS; her last game was in 2020.
It was only 11 games she played in the two seasons, but she showed plenty of excitement around the ball and could finish off plays pretty well.
Since then, we’ve had a little pandemic happen, and it felt like once she was officially off the Giants list, that was it. But I’m glad it isn’t, because the league is better off with Bonner’s talent.
It’ll be interesting to see how it works with over three years out of the system. At 36 years of age, time won’t be on her side, so you’d expect the Crows would want her to go right away.
Jess Allan has struggled for continuity in her game for one reason or another, but her best is undoubtedly capable of being in any side’s best 21. If she goes into the ruck, then adds more flexibility and gives Gould more of a shot of playing as the key forward without upsetting the balance of the side too much.
Can Taylah Levy play right away? Her resume outside of football is outstanding; she was offered a scholarship to play basketball in the US a few years ago, and was a premiership player for South Adelaide in the under-16s, which suggests she knows a thing or two about how to play the game.
Four games in the SANFLW is a small sample size to take from, but she’s consistently putting up disposal numbers in the high teens and solid averages of 3.8 tackles and 4.5 clearances per game.
We’ll know in due time, but I reckon the expectation on her is that it will be a slow burn.
HAS CHELSEA BIDDELL PEAKED, OR IS THE BEST STILL TO COME?
This will be a big test for Biddell this year as the better sides will work the clock to ensure she can’t impact in the defensive half for the Crows.
After her first two seasons as a forward for minimum impact, the Crows moved Biddell into defence last year in seasons six and seven. The move significantly improved her intercepting game, culminating in being named All-Australian for the first time at 25.
But the one thing that I think very few people talk about is her use of the ball by foot; over the past year, I’ve maintained that she is one of the best field kicks this competition has to offer. She averaged 9.5 kicks in season seven with a disposal efficiency of over 76 per cent.
The way she plays reminds me of Tom Stewart’s intercepting and Bailey Dale’s rebounding. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of her yet, but what the expectation is of her this year will be interesting to see unfold.
We’ve seen sides in the men work hard to make the defenders more accountable and virtually non-factors in games. But suppose the opposition works to make Biddell more responsible. In that case, it opens up the Sarah Allan rabbit hole of her intercept, marking everything coming her way and impacting games.
I think we’ll see a season where she doesn’t impact games as often, but give her a year or two, and she’ll be back in the discussions of being among the best defenders in the game today.
WHO NEEDS TO STEP UP THIS YEAR?
It’s a big year for Niamh Kelly. There was a bit of fanfare for her arrival from West Coast on the eve of season seven, but by the end of season seven, the hype was already on the way back to Perth.
I know Chief Mongrel says that recruits need a season to gel correctly, but since she’s been in the system for a few years, touching the ball eight times per game won’t properly cut it this year.
She’s got good pace to be put on a wing, she needs to be fit, and she needs to be disciplined in holding her width as a running link-up player.
Abbie Ballard is someone that could be playing for their career by the end of the season. There are times when her talent shines through; she’s capable of hitting the scoreboard and has played through the midfield in small bursts too.
But the consistency gap remains wide to be guaranteed a best 21 player. I’d like to see her start the season as a versatile swing option. There will be an opportunity for her to impact the forward line, but with the questions about the midfield depth remaining for the time being, she could be the big-bodied enforcer to go in whilst the stars flourish on the outside.
And not that she needs to step up, but I’d love to see the development of Kiera Mueller go to another level this year. She played five games for the Crows last year after being taken by the Crows late in the 2022 draft and looked solid as a lockdown defender type. There’s high potential in her ability to use the ball effectively – similar to an Isaac Quaynor-type player.
And I suppose on that, that’ll do me for now.
If the Crows can find the forward combination to kick them a winning score, they are as good a chance as anyone else to make it four flags in as many seasons. Whether they do or not, your guess is as good as mine for now.
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