Round 9
Richmond v Adelaide
3.15pm, Sunday 10th May 2026
MCG
By Dan Lonergan
The Adelaide Crows might have defeated Richmond the weekend to move to five and four on the ladder, but they continue in my opinion to be unimpressive this season and overall throughout their 36 year existence.
This is a club that wants for nothing off the field in regard to resources and financially, but their on field performances are not up to the standard of the rest of this strong club. They have made the finals regularly and had some great players over the years who have been stars for more than 300 games like Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards, Ben Hart, Mark Ricciuto and Taylor Walker along with Simon Goodwin who got close to that 300 game mark with 275 games.
Throw in Eddie Betts, Shaun Rehn, who if not injured on a regular basis, might have become one of the greatest rucks of all time, Rory Sloan, Darren Jarman and in the early days his brother, Andrew, Tony McGuinness, Nigel Smart, Chris McDermott and Mark Bickley and that is a great group.
They won their two flags under the mercurial Malcolm Blight in pretty even seasons despite losing nine home and away games in both years. People may find holes in my argument and views as they may have over achieved in those flag winning seasons as they had top end talent of the highest level and then a cast of recycled players like Shane Ellen, Brett James, Clay Sampson, Troy Bond, Kym Koster, Matthew Robran, Mark Stevens. Matthew Connell and James Theissen, but they gelled together expertly with Blight at the helm.
However, more often than not they have disappointed. 2005 they finished on top with an excellent defensive profile under Neil Craig, but lost the first home final to St Kilda inexplicably and after thrashing Port had to travel to Perth to take on West Coast and lost. They were warm premiership favourites having dominated the home and away season, but were found wanting in 2005.
The same in 2006 when they were on top of the ladder for large portions of the season, before finishing second, winning their first final and hosting West Coast at Footy Park in the preliminary final after the Eagles lost narrowly to Sydney in the qualifying final before thrashing the Bulldogs in the first semi and opposite to 2005 had to get on another plane to try and win and make another grand final. Adelaide had the advantage but once more fell short when they were at their prime to add to their premiership tally.
It seems that they perform better when the expectations are low such as 17 home and away wins under first year coach, Brenton Sanderson in 2012 and they made a preliminary final and lost narrowly to the Hawks, who went on to win the first of three flags on the trot. That was a great achievement by the Crows, but it was a one off as they had two ordinary years after that which saw Sanderson sacked as coach at the end of 2014.
Who knows what would have happened in 2015, if then coach, Phil Walsh wasn’t tragically killed as he had Adelaide in a good position to mount a legitimate challenge, although Scott Camporeale did a good job to get them into the finals and win one.
They seemed ripe again to have success when Don Pike took over permanently as coach in 2016, but that soft underbelly cost them a top 4 spot when they lost the last home and away game, being favourites and after thrashing North Melbourne, who had fallen away badly in the second half of the season winning just 2 games in their last 12, they had to play the minor premiers, Sydney at the SCG and were outclassed.
2017 saw them finish on top and they had 2 big finals wins and looked set to end a 19 year premiership drought, but had a shocker as ironically their opponents last Sunday in round nine, Richmond with their chaos brand of footy and a superstar, Dusty Martin having arguably the best individual season of any player in the history of the game upset the apple cart.
Since then it’s been a struggle for the Crows until again they were minor premiers in 2025 with an imposing home and away record of 18 wins and five losses, but they were outplayed in both finals and embarrassingly didn’t win a quarter in either match.
Matthew Nicks is into his seventh year as coach and has had in my view plenty of time to have the Crows sitting right in the sweet spot of the premiership window. However, I think they have gone backwards somewhat in 2026 and outside the Collingwood victory very early in the season, their form in other matches has been patchy at best.
They are not playing four quarters and that was again evident on the weekend as Richmond coming off their first win of the season over the West Coast Eagles took it right up to Adelaide at the MCG and led by 10 points at half time. An upset looked on the cards and I reckon pressure might have mounted on Matthew Nicks regarding his coaching tenure which many might think is another silly statement from Lonergan, who has areputation of producing many, if they didn’t get over the line.
They steadied the ship in the second half and won quite comfortably in the end, but I remain unconvinced they are a finals threat. They might have won five and lost 4 in their first nine encounters this season and tight wins are so important in this comp, but two of the victories have been by one point where on both occasions they were lucky to be on the right side of those especially another showdown classic with Port Adelaide considering Brayden Cook’s goal to restore the lead for Adelaide was well inside the last 30 seconds.
They have plenty of talent led by the impressive skipper, Jordan Dawson, who was able to put behind another tough week, which involved the funeral of his brother and again play out of his skin.
Izak Rankine in my view is below his best along with Josh Soligo, but Josh Rachelle is starting to play excellent footy on a consistent basis, while Sam Berry is improving and Riley Thilthorpe did work his way into the game as the sole key forward without the injured Tex Walker and the disappointing but talented Darcy Fogarty.
One plus was 10 players kicked goals, which is an excellent spread and there were just two multiples in Neale-Bullen and Rachelle.
They can’t have sustained success with five years the most they have played in finals consecutively and that to me is the definition of under achieving.
We know the Tigers are in a massive rebuild and again like last year have been slaughtered by injuriesparticularly to those plethora of early draft selections in the 2024 Draft including the number one pick. Sam Lalor along with Taj Hotton, who in the hand full of games he has played has shown plenty and Josh Smilie a top ten pick, who is yet to play senior footy due to a raft of calf injuries.
I think it’s a case of IF certainly in the short term, not WHEN, regarding him playing in the AFL. Toby Nankervis, the heart and soul of that footy club is also sidelined, but Tom Lynch flew the flag with three goals as his battered body continues to hang on. They are competitive the Tiges but not for long enough. In the third quarter on the weekend they hardly touched the ball for the first half of the term after a really good first half, which they can take positives out of.
For Adelaide a win is a win and another four points to put them in the middle of the pack and they showed fight and pride to dominate the second half, but the concern is why can’t they play four quarters and why they can’t have success on a more regular basis?
To use a famous phrase by late great race caller of the 1960s and 70s, Bert Bryant, the answer is a pineapple!
RICHMOND 3.2 7.4 7.5 9.7 (61)
ADELAIDE 3.2 5.6 10.10 14.14 (98)
GOALS
Richmond: Lynch 3, Balta, Campbell, Sonsie, Green, Lefau, Cumming
Adelaide: Neal-Bullen 2, Rachelle 2, Pedlar, Rankine, Curtain, N. Murray, Thilthorpe, T. Murray, Cumming, Dawson, McAndrew, Keays
BEST (Dan’s best)
Richmond: Miller, Taranto, Hopper, Ross
Adelaide: Dawson, Milera, Rankine, Cook
INJURIES
Richmond: Brown (forearm)
Adelaide: Nil
LATE CHANGES
Richmond: Sam Grlj replaced in selected side by Luke Trainor
Adelaide: Nil
Crowd: 22,123 at the MCG
Malarkey Medal votes
3 – Dawson (Adelaide)
2 – Milera (Adelaide)
1 – Miller (Richmond)
Read more from Dan Lonergan HERE
To read other Round 9 match reports click HERE
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