ADELAIDE star Tyson Edwards says his team won’t make drastic changes to its forward line structure despite the Crows kicking a meagre three goals after quarter time against St Kilda on Sunday.
Adelaide had been in scorching form prior to the 48-point loss averaging 110 points in its past three outings.
But St Kilda applied the brakes to Adelaide’s fast, attacking game and the stagnant Crows, who had recorded 14 and 12 individual goal kickers, respectively, over the previous fortnight, managed just 37 inside 50s for the day.
Midfielder Scott Thompson led the Crows’ scoring with two majors while last week’s hero Nick Gill, who had been battling a calf strain, was held goalless.
Edwards said Adelaide’s past month of high scores suggested Sunday’s result was more a case of supply than personnel.
“Our structure has worked pretty well for us over the last few weeks with the same sort of guys, so I don’t think we need to change that,” Edwards said.
“You can have anyone up there, but if you’re not getting it in there it’s pretty hard to score and I think that’s more the thing we need to worry about.”
The Crows struggled to hit targets going inside 50m and continually played into the hands of St Kilda’s running half-backs Sam Fisher and Brendon Goddard, who finished with 53 possessions-combined.
“Our skills really let us down, partly because of St Kilda’s pressure and partly because we weren’t able to put the pressure back on them,” Edwards said.
“It’s pretty simple really - if you can put pressure on them and turn the ball over you get those easier entries into the forward line and more entries into the forward line. It just seemed to steamroll from there.”
Coach Neil Craig, who experimented with Thompson, Simon Goodwin, Scott Stevens, Brad Moran, Graham Johncock and Andrew McLeod in attack, identified key talls Kurt Tippett and Ken McGregor as possibilities for this week.
But Edwards wasn’t convinced Adelaide could justify adding another tall against the undersized Western Bulldogs’ defence.
“I don’t know exactly what the Bulldogs’ make up is in their back line, but having Jason Porplyzia back, if he’s right, and Bernie Vince too - they’re two pretty handy forwards, so we’ve got some talent there,” he said.
“Whether we need another tall in there, I’m not too sure to be honest.”
The Crows suffered a heartbreaking three-point loss to the Bulldogs in round one after Nathan Bock missed a shot on goal in the dying seconds and Edwards was confident Adelaide had improved on its round one performance.
“I just think we’re playing better footy now than we did, particularly, in that first part of the season,” he said.
“Apart from the weekend, we’ve been kicking some good scores and getting more inside 50s and more chances for our forwards.
“Our pressure has been better, apart from three quarters on the weekend, and when you put all that together it’s a better all round game.”
