Adelaide's Big 4?
The Crows are 1-3 when they play four talls up forward, but their record of only playing three isn’t much better.
Earlier this week CODE Sports reported Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks was open to the possibility of playing four tall forwards – Riley Thilthorpe, Taylor Walker, Darcy Fogarty, and Elliot Himmelberg – in tonight’s crunch clash against Essendon at Marvel Stadium.
At the time, Nicks was coy as to whether Thilthorpe would be named as the substitute or be elevated into the starting 22.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that he will play a full game because we thought last week when we talk about that player (the sub) being an impact player for us, a finisher we thought he played that role to perfection really,” Nicks told media.
Thilthorpe starred after being injected into the game at three-quarter time in last week’s 32-point win over St Kilda, kicking two goals from seven disposals.
This all turned out to be a moot point, with the Crows electing to rest Walker, their veteran forward.
Dropping one of the tall forwards might have been the smarter choice, as last week was the first time Adelaide had won playing their quartet of tall forwards. They had lost the other three games by an average of 30.3 points.
That figure is made more flattering by the exclusion of the 67-point loss to Greater Western Sydney in Round 7, 2021, where Fogarty was the unused substitute.
The Crows don’t fare any better with the Fogarty, Himmelberg, and Thilthorpe combination, failing to win any of their three previous games without Tex.
However, it’s important to note that the last game they played with Fogarty, Himmelberg, and Thilthorpe – but not Walker – was a one-point loss to Fremantle in Round 1, 2022, when Heath Chapman made a brilliant goal-line save to prevent Adelaide from scoring in the dying stages of the match.
The timeframe of this stat is limited based on what data are freely/easily available and/or accessible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you spot any errors in what I have presented.