Adelaide\u2019s 57-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night<\/a>, captain Dawson exploded for three opening-quarter goals to set the tone for the evening. <\/p>\nHe finished with 32 disposals, 17 contested possessions, seven clearances, those three majors, three goal assists, six inside-50s and 570 metres gained, to be by far the highest-rated player on the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a player he has become. I marvel at what he\u2019s able to do with this group – his impact on this group,\u201d dual flag-winner David King said on Fox Footy post-game. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey (his teammates) love him. They genuinely love him. He\u2019s been to hell and back this year, and you just feel this has created an emotion at this football club that they\u2019re all attached to now. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all in. They\u2019re all invested. They\u2019re beautiful places, football clubs, when you\u2019re going through some turmoil personally. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve rallied, and they are now rolling. That is a performance that says: \u2018We can mix it with the best in the competition, in a year that\u2019s still pretty open.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old missed two games earlier in the campaign following the tragic passing of his brother in April, but in an inspirational show of courage and resilience, he\u2019s since exerted his on-field influence massively. <\/p>\n
Year-on-year, Dawson is winning more of the footy – 25.8 disposals – while he\u2019s averaging an elite-rated 1.5 goals per game as a dual-threat weapon, en route to a likely All-Australian blazer. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he does, he brings a calmness to the group as well, I think. He\u2019s got a real level head,\u201d dual All-Australian Saint Leigh Montagna said on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s one of the greats of the game at the moment \u2026 he just does everything the team requires; it\u2019s not just about him getting the ball and doing all the offensive things. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s leading magnificently, and the rest of the team has jumped on board; jumped on his back and just followed him in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crows coach Matthew Nicks added on Fox Footy post-game: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have asked for a better start \u2026 led by our captain – god, the form he\u2019s in. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s leading by example; I thought that (his first term) was one of the best quarters of footy I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson is capable of getting his hands dirty at the coalface, but he\u2019s expanded his game as an outside damaging force while a couple of midfield sidekicks instead get busy in the contest. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to do it at clearance, because Berry\u2019s doing the heavy-lifting (at contest), and he is the first guy to the outside of the pack, now. And this is where he does his damage,\u201d King said. <\/p>\n
Montagna added: \u201cThat\u2019s the great blend \u2026 to have Berry and Peatling rolling the sleeves up, and he being this guy who can skirt around the outside to do maximum damage with ball in hand. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible, and it feels like he\u2019s doing it easily. It just feels like he\u2019s in autopilot at the moment; he\u2019s in that flow state where the very best in any sport in the world are just \u2026 at the top of their game, and he is absolutely there right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson dominates Dogs in 1st half | 02:09<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nicks made a reveal over his positional conundrum regarding Josh Rachele, whose impact in the forward half has been profound despite initial midfield plans for 2026. <\/p>\n
Rachele booted four goals from 17 disposals in a sterling display against the Bulldogs, with Nicks quizzed on Fox Footy about the livewire\u2019s role going forward. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a hard one, because he played a couple of games as a midfielder this year where he was outstanding,\u201d Nicks began. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that (ability) sits there. We also love what he does ahead of the ball. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the balance of our team at the moment – with the way Jordan\u2019s playing, the way Peatling\u2019s playing, the way Sam Berry\u2019s playing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to continue to look at that balance. It\u2019s a nice position to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall suggested Rachele\u2019s abilities as a pure forward were more precious than what he could potentially do as a ball-winner between the arcs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of dominant midfielders around – you can find them. You can\u2019t find these players that can turn something into something special up forward,\u201d Dunstall said on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd having that ability to kick goals, to create goals, to look dangerous – I think they\u2019re even more valuable than quality midfielders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montagna concurred, adding: \u201cAnd even when he was playing well, it wasn\u2019t necessarily helping the team – they weren\u2019t playing their best footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it looks better with him forward of centre. And now, with Rankine coming back next week, and Dawson in the form he\u2019s in who can do it forward and in the midfield. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s starting to give Nicks some chess pieces that he can manoeuvre and have a look at, and find out the best mix, getting ready for September.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan Dawson is in rare form, and his teammates are \u201crallying\u201d with him as the Crows turn their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,404,27231,15968,3951,27224,17561,27220,17523,27230,27228,564,7392,525,3716,539,27222,27225,27219,27232,27229,27223,27226,27218,27227,27221,3048],"class_list":["post-29645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-chess-pieces","tag-crows-coach","tag-david-king","tag-dominant-midfielders","tag-dual-flag-winner","tag-dual-threat-weapon","tag-football-clubs","tag-goal-assists","tag-hawthorn-legend","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jason-dunstall","tag-jordan-dawson","tag-josh-rachele","tag-matthew-nicks","tag-midfield-sidekicks","tag-offensive-things","tag-on-field-influence","tag-opening-quarter-goals","tag-personal-circumstances-means","tag-quality-midfielders","tag-rare-form","tag-real-level-head","tag-sam-berry","tag-sterling-display","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}