THE stocks of Adelaide's blue-collar midfield continue to rise and unheralded member Jarryd Lyons credits the group's performance to a holistic approach.
Rory Sloane continued his outstanding season against North Melbourne on Thursday night, amassing 30 disposals and 13 tackles.
The 26-year-old has been a standout for Adelaide this season but beneath him, an even spread of contributors has helped Adelaide cover the massive loss of Patrick Dangerfield and move to a 9-4 record.
Adel v NM: Full match coverage and stats
Against the Roos it was Matt Crouch who stepped up, gathering 32 disposals but, on other occasions this year, Lyons and other members of the group have starred.
"It's someone different every week playing well,'' Lyons said.
"We're not individualising it, we're just playing team footy.
"Tonight it was Matty (Crouch) who stepped up.
"We've had Sloaney playing great footy, Thommo (Scott Thompson), and Dougy (Richard Douglas) going through there, and tonight Brad Crouch coming in.
"It's about a team approach."
Lyons had 19 disposals and continued the most consistent season of his career.
He has averaged 20 disposals in nine matches this season and is on track to eclipse the career-best 13 matches he played in 2015 as he continues to cement a spot at West Lakes.
He said the Crows were disappointed to trail the Roos at half-time despite having six more scoring shots and used the break to re-assess their approach.
"Our second quarter wasn't great,'' he said.
"We let them back in the game. If we'd kicked straight in might have been different.
"But just needed to address that (at half-time).
"After half-time we wanted to come out really strongly and take the game by the scruff of the neck.
"Eventually we were able to run away with it."
The win was the Crows' fifth in succession and Lyons said there was genuine belief building within the club.
"We feel like we're playing good footy. We're really settled at the moment," he said.
"It's good to get a really good month under our belt and now we've got another (10 days) to review this one and then prepare really well for our next match (Melbourne at the MCG on July 3)."
