TAYLOR Walker’s match-winning performance in local football has him poised for an AFL recall.
Playing his first SANFL game since 2014, Walker kicked five goals two weekends ago as the Crows upset last season’s grand finalist Glenelg by seven points.
Coach Matthew Nicks said provided there are no problems through the week at training, the veteran key forward will return to their senior side in Thursday night’s massive home game against Geelong.
Walker has been out of the AFL team since suffering a hamstring injury in the round eight Showdown win.
“To his credit, he led extraordinarily well,” Nicks said before Monday training.
“It’s amazing when we get reports back from our young players on things they experience, and how they talk about his leadership, you know, on field, even leading into the game.
“If he’s good to go after training, he’ll come in.”
The Crows and their SANFL team are coming off the bye. Adelaide is eighth in the AFL with a 6-5 record, while the Cats are fourth at 8-4.
Adelaide lost to Hawthorn in Launceston before the bye and fell to Geelong away in round three.
“It may be that you’re not seeing a product that’s exactly where we want to be, and we openly talk about that,” Nicks said.
“We’d like to get a little bit more attack and a little bit more zing off half-back in our game, and off intercept.
“That’s something we’ve been working on for months now, and we’ll continue to work through that. We know that we’re going to have to be better than what we were in the first half of the year.
“We also have confidence in what we’re doing, we believe in our gameplan.”
