The revolving door at Adelaides selection table is hurting the Crows chances of contending again this season.
Adelaide are again using fewer players than most other teams, as they did in 2017, but this year they are unable to keep them all on the park for consecutive games.
Adelaide used only 31 players last season, fewer than any other side, and won through to the Grand Final as a result.
This year, they have used only 30 players in the opening 12 rounds, with North Melbourne (29) the only team to field less.
But the injuries that have seen Adelaide players move in and out of the side since the start of this season didnt affect them in 2017.
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And so with important names on the bench they sit 6-6 and are in a massive fight to push back in to the top eight, let alone contend for another grand final appearance.
Coach Don Pyke is keeping faith though and says that if they can settle their side down they can again push the top sides in the competition.
Out of synch: Adelaide coach Don Pyke forecasts more line-up changes after the bye.
Photo: AAP
“We are better and more capable than we are showing at the moment, but we have to get the belief back,” he said.
“We're lacking a little bit of connection – a bit of synergy, which historically has been there. There is some new personnel and guys returning so that synergy, building that, is important.
“We're not flowing the ball like we have in the past. We need to keep looking at ways to build that into our game.”
Pyke said that they were confident of going into Sundays game against Fremantle, believing they had a side that was capable of winning.
They had a total of 988 games more experience on the ground than the Dockers; with 10 players who had played at least 100 games, compared to Fremantles five.
Fremantle won by three points.
As a result, Adelaide now have to beat Hawthorn at the MCG on Friday night if they want to keep their chances of playing finals alive.
But they are likely to make more changes this week, with Rory Laird and Tom Lynch set to come back in.
And Pyke said there are more changes to come after the bye.
“We'd be hopeful both (Laird and Lynch) would be right next week – we'll have to see how they have gone over the weekend,” he said.
“Rory (Sloane) is probably likely after the bye at this stage, the way he is tracking.
“(Mitch) McGovern is still a way off; (Brodie) Smith not until later in the year.
“We had enough players out there to get a result. It's a matter of now building, hopefully building enough continuity into those guys to get them to play together regularly and back to playing a style we're capable of playing.
“We're just not in synergy at the moment; not in synch.”
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