It's Tex's time on Crows' frontline

Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson with key forward Taylor Walker. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: The Advertiser

CROWS coach Brenton Sanderson speaks of his now big-gun forward Taylor Walker as if he is correcting popular perception of the history left by Neil Craig.

By year's end, if Walker proves Adelaide can live without Kurt Tippett, Sanderson may find fewer eyebrows being raised when "Tex" is the topic of debate.

Walker is an extraordinary talent. But he also is just 22 - and he has played only 64 AFL games. It is a skinny record on which to place extraordinary faith for an AFL premiership tilt in 2013.

But Sanderson is not one to look at any glass as half empty.

"He is, he is," says Sanderson to the question of Walker's readiness to carry the major burden in Adelaide's attack.

"He is still really young and he has so much to learn about the game.

"But, fortunately for him, it comes naturally. Some players work really hard to get better.

Taylor Walker, centre, working hard in the pre-season with Jason Porplyzia and Scott Thompson. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

"He is already good and he will, and is, working hard to get even better.

"He has a lot of things to learn but the beauty is he is easy to coach.

"That might come as a surprise to some people, but he is one of those players who takes in everything we give him.

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"We have a meeting that goes for 45 minutes, he absorbs the information, he understands it. So when you reflect with him or you ask him questions, he has picked it up straight away.

"So he is a really easy player to coach in that regard.

"He has come a long way in 12 months. I know the players really respect his leadership that he has improved on the past 12 months.

"He's a really important player for our footy club now."

So important that every AFL rival will be aware of the theory that double-teaming Walker - as Sydney did in its qualifying final win at AAMI Stadium last September - exposes the Adelaide attack as impotent.

"We've talked about that a lot," Sanderson said.

"It is something we are going to have to overcome.

I know the players really respect (Walker's) leadership that he has improved on the past 12 months

"First, we need other players in his area, the other five forwards must make sure they are in form and they're getting respected (by the opposition).

"There is going to be lots of strategy going into preventing (Walker being double-teamed) from our point of view. It certainly is going to an option for the opposition."

All this would never have consumed Adelaide's strategy sessions in the summer had Tippett not defected to Sydney in a move that exposed the Crows to draft penalties for its secret deals with the Queenslander.

Sanderson does not hide how he was rocked by Tippett's decision to leave.

"I was confident he was going to stay," Sanderson said. "(When he quit) I spent two hours with that sick feeling in the stomach. I was disappointed.

"Kurt rang at 9am on a Monday when we were just going into a coaches' review meeting of the season and a planning-strategy meeting for the 2013 pre-season.

"I came in and told the coaches and we sat around for a couple of hours, not so much in shock, you always prepare for the worst, but  ...  

"After those two hours of going through alternatives we pretty well got on with business. You can't dwell. We got on with things pretty quickly.

"So did the playing group. Some players shrugged their shoulders and got on with it. Some of the guys he was closer too may have taken longer to get over it.

"As a footy club we now are well and truly looking forward.

"For me, I probably spent two hours on it, which probably sounds a bit shallow. You can't look at the rear-vision mirror for too long in this industry."

Sanderson is not vindictive, although the cost of losing Tippett has become far more than just the headache of restructuring an attack.

Being denied first and second-round draft picks last year and this season is a lingering sting.

"The money situation - I know money is important in most people's lives. The money Kurt was being offered was very similar from Adelaide and from back in his home state (Queensland at Gold Coast and Brisbane)," Sanderson said.

"But the Sydney offer was for him a little bit like Nathan Bock, Phil Davis and Gary Ablett at the expansion clubs. The money from Sydney was too hard to ignore."

Money cannot get Adelaide beyond its draft problem but Sanderson expects his club to be sharp in negotiating outside the draft table during trade week and with free agents.

"We have spent a lot of time on that," Sanderson said.

"We have a great list manager. David Noble is doing a tremendous job in that area. We have to really explore opportunities to get back into the first round.

"With the depth of our squad we can be quite aggressive with that.

"At the same time we have to explore free-agency, mature-age recruits in the SANFL, VFL and WAFL. Our age profile is still quite young. So we can still have the opportunity to bring in a mature-age player.

"We'll try to trade. There are lots of different ways to bring quality into your club.

"It's not ideal. You can't keep not having first or second-round picks forever. Two years is a really harsh penalty."

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