Walsh pleased with Crow ‘buy-in’

NAB: Adelaide head into the start of the AFL season with confidence following a 24-point win over arch-rivals Port.

Rory Sloane looks to deliver the ball into the forward line. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: News Corp Australia

PHIL Walsh has crossed his first major bridge as the new Adelaide Football Club coach – getting a "buy in" from his Crows players.

As the rookie AFL coach put himself up for review from his 281-game, premiership-winning mentor John Worsfold at Football Park on Saturday, the promise of his work across the toughest pre-season the Adelaide players have known since Neil Craig started his revolution in 2005 certainly crystallised for the hundreds of thousands who judge the Crows.

The "Phil Walsh" game – the one he wants judged by actions rather than talk – is becoming easier to understand for those who have watched Adelaide in its three pre-season games against North Melbourne (win), Geelong (loss) and Port Adelaide (win).

NAB: Crows coach Phillip Walsh fronts the media after his side's 117-93 win over Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

But most importantly the Phil Walsh game is clearly understood by his players. The execution may not be perfect as the Crows work away the ingrained sins of the past two years; the output is not always 100 per cent complete, but the Adelaide players have clearly bought into the plan. For a new coach, this makes for a dream start.

So how have the Crows changed in the way they play?

There is more discipline for accountable man-on-man football. There is a seemingly insatiable appetite for the contested ball that stood up with an impressive 151-135 count in Adelaide's favour on the statistical sheets. Walsh prefers to boil down this number by measuring how prepared his players are to dirty their fingernails in winning the ball off the ground – and here he does have a strong buy-in.

Phil Walsh talks to his players. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: News Corp Australia

But the real change in Adelaide's game – one that will define the season for a team that is playing short of key defenders – is how the Crows defend. This stood out on Saturday as Adelaide slowed down and often derailed the Power, the team that is supposedly the quickest on its feet and most dangerous in transferring play from one end of the park to the other.

Adelaide is pretty effective in its end-to-end plays too. And which of these two qualities – team defence or the complete rebounding attacking game – impresses Walsh more?

"I'm happy with the defence – that is what I felt we needed to do the most work on," said Walsh who inherited a team that leaked badly last season. "As a team, we got back to help (defend) really well today – I took a lot of positives from that.

"What I liked is that as a team, when Port Adelaide won the ball and tried to move it, we all moved as a team to get into a defensive structure. In the two games previously, we may have had only three-quarters of the team do that. There was better buy-in today."

And on that alone, Walsh can now work on the three major tasks – kicking efficiency, goalkicking and tackling – that separate Adelaide from an also-ran to be a real challenger for the top eight this season. The long journey has begun on the correct foot.

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