Kane Cornes and Nathan Buckley have gone head-to-head over the stubbornness of AFL coaches and their lack of desire to make changes, particularly when they’re being called for from the outside.
This relates to Adelaide and their sudden shift across the board during their win over Carlton.
For a month the Crows had been playing slow, sideways footy built around a midfield mix of Matt Crouch, Rory Laird and Jordan Dawson. They were the worst team in the competition at scoring from defensive transition and also struggled to convert clearances into scores.
And then suddenly against the Blues, Izak Rankine goes on-ball 20 times, Jake Soligo takes over Rory Laird’s spot and suddenly they’re playing aggressive and attacking footy off half-back as they did in 2023.
It led to their best performance of the year and their first win, knocking off Carlton at Marvel Stadium.
Cornes has criticised coach Matthew Nicks on SEN Breakfast for not injecting Soligo and Rankine, who both had season-highs in centre bounce attendances, into the midfield sooner.
Former Collingwood coach Buckley however believes it’s easy from the outside to say that without knowing all the factors.
Cornes: “Can I ask you, we’ve all been calling for Izak Rankine to spend more time on-ball and it’s taken five weeks for that to happen. Why are coaches so stubborn? Is it almost like the external advice they get, they want to push back on that?”
“So, five centre bounce attendances for Rankine throughout the first four weeks and he goes in there 20 times and is the best player on the ground and everyone has seen that as such an obvious move to make, yet they have resisted doing that. Are coaches so stubborn that they want to push back on the advice they get externally?”
Buckley: “Are you serious?”
Cornes: “I am. What would be the other reason?”
Buckley: “Are you suggesting that a coach won’t do something that might be better for their team because someone else suggested it externally?”
Cornes: “That’s what I’m asking you.”
Buckley: “That is so egotistical.”
Cornes: “What other explanation have you got that we’re going ‘this midfield is boring, slow dour, lateral, sideways kicks, no attack, no zest and you’ve got Rankine who is the perfect player to inject some of that and you’re still putting him in there five times?”
“Then all of a sudden you get to Round 5, season on the line, and he goes in there 20 times. What other explanation have you got for that?”
Buckley: “Well, Jordan Dawson had to go out for Rankine to go in.”
Cornes: “So did Laird, that was the obvious move, wasn’t it?”
Buckley: “Laird actually played really well out of there and then playing a little bit more rolling back as a defensive mid and his ball-use became really important for them.”
“What you’re dealing with is you go in with you best laid plans. You give your players every opportunity to either perform in the role they’ve earned, or out of it.
“Matthew Nicks has had to shuffle the deck chairs and he’s had to move his captain, who wasn’t playing as good footy as he was last year, but he’s moved him forward to put Rankine in – that’s not a small decision to make.”
Cornes: “I’m suggesting that was a mistake, then. It was an obvious move he should have made three weeks ago. The fact that he didn’t do that was a mistake – and it’s not hindsight, we’d all been saying it.”
Buckley: “You’re sitting in A1 of the cheap seats because it is so easy out here because you don’t have all the information. So, they’ve won a game of footy and then you’re going back to two weeks ago to something they should’ve done at the time.”
Cornes: “He’s gone from five (centre bounce attendances) to 20. That’s a big jump!”
Buckley: “Centre bounces aren’t the be-all and end-all of midfield time.”
Cornes: “Yeah, but he got him in there and his first kick of the game he hits Fogarty out wide who hits Rachele who hits Walker. It was a complete shift and an easy move to make.”
