Adelaide's goals have to come from somewhere and with big problems up forward, all eyes are on the Crows' midfielders. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: The Advertiser
ADELAIDE'S midfield is coming under increased pressure to deliver goals - and goalscoring chances - as the Crows deal with another heavy blow to their options in a misfiring attack.
Lewis Johnston's hopes of filling the void created by the long-term loss of key forward Taylor Walker were sunk yesterday when scans revealed a fracture to his left knee. There is no ligament damage, sparing the North Adelaide-based goalkicker from joining Walker in an operating theatre for corrective knee surgery last night.
Johnston will be sidelined for at least two months.
He now has little chance of influencing Adelaide's campaign for consecutive finals appearances.
And without Johnston, Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson and forwards coach Mark Bickley are left with fewer choices while remodelling an attack that has fallen from the highest-scoring in the club's history (106 points) to managing just 88 this season.
With Adelaide's small and medium forwards out of form - and constantly being changed at selection - there is greater need for the Crows' highly-rated midfielders to contribute to the scoreboard.
But here too much is falling on Patrick Dangerfield, with Sanderson noting he is sacrificing his star midfielder's work in the centre square to make him a pinch-hitting forward. He is Adelaide's second-highest goalscorer with nine this season.
Meanwhile, Adelaide midfielder Rory Sloane has kicked three goals this season - as many as he did in the first six games last year.
"We need everyone to contribute ... and not just rely on Dangerfield," said Sloane. "The frustrating thing is everything we have been practising has not correlated into games. We're practising for certain things, yet we're not seeing the result.
"We're getting clear messages (from the coaches). It is up to us as players to action it on the ground."
At 2-4, Adelaide's season is already on the line. But the draw offers hope, with the Crows to play bottom-10 clubs GWS, St Kilda and North Melbourne in the next three weeks.
"We had good patches (against Hawthorn) at the weekend but it was not good enough to get a win," said Sloane.
"Last year, in those tight games, we were renowned for winning.
"It starts this week against GWS - it's got to be full-on football, it has to be contested football, we have to win our stoppages, we have to get the ball going forward and we have to be clean with our possessions, because we did burn it at the weekend.
"We lacked poise going forward."
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