Jake Soligo's emergence as a midfield force is underpinning what the Crows hope is their AFL revival, coach Matthew Nicks says.
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Soligo enters Friday night's fixture against Essendon at Adelaide Oval in career-best touch, with 27 disposals and six clearances in each of his past two games.
The 21-year-old has combined with Izak Rankine to spark Adelaide's on-ball brigade in a burgeoning partnership that excites coach Nicks.
"Just rock solid, Solly, in just everything we're asking of the group," Nicks said of the 42-gamer.
"He's a standout for such a young player who hasn't got a lot of games under his belt necessarily, he's just playing at such a high level, consistently competing.
"He has got a great balance in his game with inside and outside ... he's playing at a level probably above where most would expect this time in his career."
Soligo and Rankine attended two-thirds of Adelaide's centre bounces in their upset two-point win over Carlton, the first victory for Nicks' club this season.
Rankine collected 23 disposals and booted three goals in a template performance.
"It's probably a sign of where we're heading, it's centre bounce," Nicks said.
"We changed the numbers, I know Izak had a lot more of them, he has had that licence for most of the year - I thought he was a standout, one of the most influential players on the ground.
"And it's not necessarily the case that he's playing midfield right throughout ... there's other things we do with that.
"But it was nice to have him in around the footy ... finding that balance in there and what we feel keeps us fresh but gets the job done is the important part for us."
The Crows replaced injured defender Jordon Butts with James Borlase and suspended midfielder Matt Crouch with Lachlan Sholl as they seek to snap a six-game losing streak against the Bombers.
Ninth-placed Essendon (3-2) haven't lost to Adelaide since round 21, 2017, and recalled promising midfielder Elijah Tsatas as a replacement for Jye Menzie (shoulder).
And while the Crows took great heart from pipping Carlton, Nicks said the late great escape had been kept in perspective after a 0-4 start to the season.
"It's such a fine line between winning and losing," he said.
"We knew we weren't far away. We feel like now, even though it's one win, we have some momentum.
"We've been able to work back to our system, work back to our processes about what gets the job done."
Australian Associated Press
