Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks is adamant his struggling AFL squad is making progress – now they need to turn positivity into game-day success.
The winless Crows are two games adrift at the bottom of the ladder heading into their round-seven clash with St Kilda at Adelaide Oval on Monday night.
The match will be Adelaide’s first in front of home fans after their difficult block of games in the Queensland hub.
It comes against the hot-and-cold Saints, who have not beaten the Crows in their past 10 attempts.
The match-up would appear to present an ideal opportunity to demonstrate Adelaide’s behind-the-scenes progress on the big stage.
“We’re making ground, we’re seeing growth from a lot of our younger players and there’s some really positive things coming through as far as our younger group goes,” Nicks told reporters on Sunday.
“So what we’re working on now is not so much staying positive, we’re now starting to talk about the mindset of what we’re bringing on game day.
“We’re really positive all week and it’s now a matter of getting to that point where we’re going out expecting to win games.
“We’ve challenged some opposition but we haven’t done it for long enough, so the consistency can sometimes come back to that mindset.”
St Kilda have impressed in parts under Brett Ratten, but with a 3-3 record they have also frustrated their fans, with last week’s six-point loss to Fremantle the most recent example.
For the hapless Crows, the hits kept coming when skipper Rory Sloane broke his left hand in last week’s loss to West Coast.
Nicks said inclusions Taylor Walker and Paul Seedsman have both benefited from a break.
Despite their struggles, there is still no room in the side for once-prized recruit Bryce Gibbs.
“It’s a challenging one because Gibber is doing everything we’re asking,” Nicks said.
“He’s playing some good football at the lower level (but) the challenge for him is to just continue doing that.
“Bryce and I are having dialogue throughout.
“He’s frustrated and that’s a tough thing for Bryce at this point in time but he’ll get his opportunity.”
The Saints have recalled Paddy Ryder and handed Ryan Byrnes his AFL debut, with Ben Long suspended and Jonathon Marsh dropped.