Perspective
Given the absolute overwhelming negativity towards the club from all angles atm (despite sitting 5th), here’s some cold hard facts.
- Adelaide are too tall up front - garbage. Proper garbage. Freo have gone with the 4 tall setup longer than we have and the Hawks go with it a lot. Unfortunately there are very loud media critics that have driven this narrative, but that’s nothing new.
Anyway, this terrible setup propelled us from 15th to 1st, the largest jump in AFL history. Unfortunately we weren’t able to perform in finals, but we aren’t the first team to make a big ladder jump and get overwhelmed on first attempt (take a look at Brisbane under Fagan).
However, to then back up that disappointment with a top 6 finish shows that the big jump was no fluke and that we have built a contending list over basically a 5year period (2019-2024).
- Adelaide don’t have any midfield depth and rely on Dawson - did you notice this goes quiet after we beat strong midfields without Dawson being in our top 5 players (couch cough Sydney)? Or after a complete midfield performance demolishes the ‘most talented list in the comp’ at Marvel?
Berry still had a brilliant game against Collingwood and had done a great job limiting Nick’s scoreboard impact to half time (only 2 score involvements). However, Nick is in a rich vein of form the last 3 months and is a generational talent, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is, sometimes he’s just too fucking good. Berry actually still had a decent 2nd half, just didn’t have much help.
- Adelaide don’t win big games/games they aren’t expected to - was Geelong not a big game? They just came off thrashings of Sydney and Brisbane and were firmly in the top 4 and at full strength in a prime time slot. A lot of people tipped the Bulldogs in the lead up to that game… win by 10 goals. A lot of people tipped Melbourne against us, gritted out a tough win where it didn’t go our way the whole game. No one had beaten Sydney at the SCG this year, is that not a big game? Was beating Collingwood at the MCG in round 1 when we had 7 of our best 22 out and had not beaten them there since 2009 not a big game?
So we win these big games and it forces Damo to go with a new narrative ‘Adelaide can’t back up big wins’. That would make a lot of sense if you just ignored we had won 11 of 14 coming into Collingwood and had gone 4-0 against the current top 10 since the bye, including those wins I mentioned above (5-5 across the season, now 5-6).
Every side in the top 10 (besides Freo or course) have thrown in 2-3 stinkers this year, that’s why 2nd to 8th is so close.
Ladder predictions - the very likely scenario is we finish 5th. However, the Hawks and Brisbane still play each other and they both have to face Collingwood at the MCG. If we gain enough percentage over the next 2 weeks and the loser of the Hawks vs brisbane game also loses to Collingwood, then we can still finish 4th without needing to beat Freo (but beating Freo would be a statement and make this scenario a lot more likely).
Have a great weekend! 😀