Yes, yes and YES
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/teams/adelaide/geelong-adds-more-evidence-to-the-theory-of-three-pressure-points-that-trouble-adelaide/news-story/c3d8784b590cd72fa2f839be16a27348TREND, or event? Crows coach Don Pyke likes to deflect any searching questions of Adelaide’s performances by turning the blowtorch into a philosophical PhD paper. Trend or event?
Well, theory is now fact. And Pyke loves facts. He is a “show me” manager. He saw at Kardinia Park on Friday night yet again the trend of how Adelaide loses its imposing “unbeatable” stature as the AFL league leader.
And no-one needed a lip reader or a body language expert to know of Pyke’s agitated mood at half-time when Geelong had dominated this top-order clash with its hands - hands that were prepared to get the contested ball. And hands that cut apart opponents with quick, constant movement. There is a clear trend.
Adelaide is heavily reliant on lead ruckman Sam Jacobs. And his work - his hit-outs to advantage - are now commanding so much respect from his AFL rivals that “Sauce” is inspiring his rivals to work harder against him. So Jacobs needs to be smarter.
Adelaide's Rory Sloane gets a kick away before Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood arrive.
Adelaide is so much about club champion Rory Sloane in the midfield. The Crouch brothers - Brad and Matt - have advanced their presence in the Crows’ engine room. But without Sloane setting the agenda, the Crows are again one-dimensional in the midfield. Even slow.
Adelaide is not the same team when its launch pad at half-back is forced to defend rather than rebound. Rory Laird may be excused after he was left to count the stars from a crunching tackle from Nakia Cockatoo in the first term. But Brodie Smith?
These are the three pressure points that have been exposed in Adelaide’s three losses this season to North Melbourne, Melbourne and Geelong.
And the circuit breakers? No inspiring moment of bewildering football from Eddie Betts. No cheeky intervention from Rory Atkins. No surprise “blue patch” from the comeback man Andy Otten. And for the second week in a row, no defining statement from the captain Taylor Walker.
Pyke can well say it is a long-proven trend that any team that does not have the appetite for contested football and relies on too few to do too much will fail.
There is another trend that has emerged in Adelaide’s first half to this season. When it all works for the Crows, they score big. When the three pressure points are hit, the Crows attack - and attacking game - cannot be described as “imposing”. But there is no organic moment of spontaneous change to this trend when the pressure is on.
Such a trend is the most disturbing note from this failure in Adelaide’s first real test of being the “real deal”.