The Crows' clearance king, Patrick Dangerfield, is being shut down by opposition taggers. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: The Advertiser
ADELAIDE spent a significant portion of its closed training session at AAMI Stadium on Wednesday working on centre clearances.
After being one of the competition's best in this category last year, the Crows are averaging an AFL-worst 10.2 centre clearances a game this season and have continually put themselves on the back foot.
The problem has stemmed from a worrying start to the season by ruckman Sam Jacobs.
Jacobs is winning less than 40 per cent of the centre hit-outs, forcing the Crows' on-ballers to adapt to reading off the opposition ruckmen.
Patrick Dangerfield and Scott Thompson - who were both in the top 10 in the competition for centre clearances last year - appear to be struggling in this area as their combined output has dropped from 5.7 centre clearances a game to just 2.7.
Sanderson said their numbers were down because "we're experimenting with them in different roles".
While it's true in Dangerfield's case, particularly last week when he spent time in attack, Thompson is attending 80 per cent of the Crows' centre bounces - the same figure as last year.
And Dangerfield's drop from attending 76 per cent of centre bounces last year to 68 per cent this year hardly justifies a near 60 per cent drop in clearances.
"The boys are trying hard in there. We'll just keep working on our method inside the centre bounce," said Sanderson after his side lost the centre clearances 13-5 to Will Minson and the Bulldogs.
"Minson is a very good ruckman - he controlled it in there."
Adelaide experienced success last season with a four-man combo of Jacobs, Thompson, Dangerfield and either Nathan van Berlo, Rory Sloane or Richard Douglas.
But it struggled when Matthew Wright was the fourth member, winning the centre clearance just 40 per cent of the time.
Surprisingly it has been this combination - Jacobs, Thompson, Dangerfield and Wright - that has become Sanderson's favourite this season.
Whether that changes today against the Blues - who have been scored against heavily from centre clearances this season - remains to be seen.
"It is an area we have been working on," Sanderson said.
"We did a lot of work (on Wednesday) on the centre bounce and stoppages."
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