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Crows are sitting ducks

By Mr Dandalooa

The Adelaide Crows could be sitting ducks if coach Neil Craig doesn’t come up a solution to the team’s injury woes.

Adelaide’s forwards Brett Burton, Chris Knights and Jason Porplyzia are all in doubt for round 1, leaving a large void in the medium to small forward division.

They all could be out fore much longer too.

The Crows take on Collingwood in a practice game at Alice Springs tonight, with Craig keen to eradicate the lack of discipline and poor poor attitude demonstrated in the preseason cup loss to Port Adelaide.

An AAP report suggested Craig would have to “cannibalise his midfield” if he was to boost the team’s attacking options, speculating that Scott Thompson and Patrick Dangerfield could be charged with goal-seeking services.

In an article posted on ABC, Craig said on Thursday that the Crows need to make sure in the next three (practice) games to look at some “newness, particularly up forward with Knights, Burton and maybe Porplyzia, that’s where we’ve been hit mostly”.

“We’ve got some reasonable depth in defence and midfield but certainly up forward that’s where it has hit us pretty heavily,” he was quoted as saying.

“We know Patrick Dangerfield can play up forward, he did that last year so that always remains an option.

“We know Scott Thompson can go forward, hence the reason to make sure we continue to build our midfield so we’ve got depth in there so those guys can go forward.

“Young Jared Petrenko showed some signs last year of being able to play up here and well have a look at him as well.

“I think Jared’s ready to play AFL football, he’s got some strong opposition in defence, but he’s a hard little player now, he’s had his best pre-season ever and he’s in good form, so I’m keen to have a good look at him as well.”

Craig said the club needs to get back on a level playing field and produce some high standard footy.