Adelaide was soundly beaten by GWS on Saturday in what was the club’s most disappointing performance of 2021.
The Crows gave up a five-goal lead to lose to Hawthorn the weekend prior, which was disheartening enough, before a lacklustre display led to a 67-point defeat to GWS.
It was their heaviest loss in 15 games and has placed Matthew Nicks’ side in a precarious position after just seven weeks.
In the next month, the Crows take on top eight sides Port Adelaide, West Coast, Melbourne and Richmond in what is likely to be a season-defining run.
With that in mind, Kane Cornes has questioned where the Crows are truly at with their 3-4 record and fears for them with what’s ahead in the coming weeks.
“The season is at risk of falling apart,” Cornes said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“They’re 13th right now and with the next four that they’ve got, it’s going to be really tough to hang in there.
“I do have a few concerns about it. The next four is the Showdown this week, they play West Coast away, Melbourne then Richmond, so it’s a pivotal time.
“We identified this three or four weeks ago that they’re going to have to get early wins and the ones that they lost against Fremantle and Hawthorn from very winnable positions are really going to come back to bite them.
“It’s going to get tough.”
Cornes pinpointed Adelaide’s midfield which he believes was freely beaten by the Giants.
The Crows were smashed 41-17 in clearances and it is in that area of the ground where they may have some issues in their upcoming fixtures.
“Every good performance starts in that midfield and how ferocious and hungry they are,” he added.
“After they beat Geelong and had some success early in the year, we said it’s a tough way to play to bring this every week. That ferocious intensity, outnumbering at the contest and winning ground balls is a tough way to do it.
“There’s not going to be any easy wins for Adelaide, all of them will be hard-fought and you get found out. So if they’re matched in the midfield like they were, and they were more than matched, they were smashed in the midfield.
“When you look at Adelaide’s clearances, they had 17 on the weekend which is the second lowest of any side this season. They couldn’t get anything going from the midfield.
“(Shane) Mumford smashed (Reilly) O’Brien, which is an issue, and then the Giants were far too tough. They kicked 1.8 in the first quarter and the game could have been over at quarter time.”
The Crows enter Showdown 49 against the Power at Adelaide Oval this weekend on the back of three straight defeats as they strive to level their season at 4-4.
They have lost their past two local derbies to Port by 57 and 75 points.