Crows coach Neil Craig makes no apologies for exposing his young players to what could, at times, be considered unfair workloads. In fact, he sees a superior work rate as his team’s best chance of success.
And he’s confident the club is close to bearing the fruits of the hard labour already endured by the playing group during his four-year tenure, particularly when it comes to the midfield.
The Crows’ onball brigade, often referred to as ‘workman-like’, is not as star-studded as that of teams like Geelong, Hawthorn and Carlton and boasts no top-10 draft picks in its midfield.
Scott Thompson, who was traded by Melbourne for pick 12 in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft, and Brent Reilly (also selected with pick 12 in 2001) are the only first-round selections with a regular role in the Crows’ engine room.
And Craig, who has vowed never to let his side bottom out in exchange for early draft picks, concedes Adelaide has had to re-develop its midfield the old fashioned way: through patience and hard work.
“I think we have got some potential elite midfielders and we’ve had to develop them,” Craig said.
“We’ve had to work them and put them under, maybe, unfair workloads in a lot of cases, but that’s because we do it different.
“We haven’t finished bottom to get the number one midfielders in the competitions.”
Veterans Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards, Andrew McLeod and, until recently, Mark Ricciuto have carried Adelaide’s midfield over the past decade, but a new group has started to emerge from under their wings.
Nathan van Berlo ran out the season strongly to finish top-10 in Adelaide’s best and fairest, while Bernie Vince well and truly arrived on the AFL stage when he claimed the Showdown Medal in round three.
Craig believes youngsters, such as Vince and van Berlo, are on the brink of taking their games to the next level.
“I thought what Nathan van Berlo started to do this year indicated to me that he could be a really high possession, hard running type midfielder, and I still think Richard Douglas can go into the midfield,” Craig said.
“I think Bernie Vince has got the attributes to be a [blue-chip midfielder], but he’s still coming to terms with the absolute hard running and physical aspect of the game … and the there’s Chris Knights, who before he injured his hamstring, I thought played three games in a row that were elite midfield games.”
Highly rated teenager Patrick Dangerfield, who will make the full-time move to Adelaide next month, is the only top-10 draft pick on Adelaide’s playing list and Craig is hopeful he and a handful of the club’s other recent recruits can make an impact in 2009.
“We’ve got a young kid called David Mackay. Now, he’s not an elite midfielder at the moment, but I’ve seen him do some things and, even in the elimination final, I saw some movements there that suggested to me he’s going to be an elite-type player,” Craig said.
“And we haven’t even seen Patrick Dangerfield yet, so we don’t know about him, but from what I’ve seen on the training track, he’s got that glint in his eye and that will be exciting for our supporters to see next year.”
