JEREMY Cameron is officially suffering the first real form slump of his excellent young career but his coach won’t hear of any excuses.
Cameron struggled through another tough day in the Giants' defeat to Adelaide on Saturday, being thoroughly beaten by Daniel Talia.
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He has managed just 10 goals from his past six games and recorded double figure possessions in just three of his 12 matches this season.
"Jeremy would be disappointed in the way he's going at the moment," GWS coach Leon Cameron said after Saturday's game.
"He'd love to be hitting the scoreboard more and he'd love to be having some more footy.
"He's not on his own. There was probably half a dozen of our key players that were really disappointing today.
"But I'm confident we just need to keep working on the basics with Jeremy.
"We understand he's had an injury-interrupted year, but that's not an excuse.
"He'd like to get back to where he was last year and the year before and we're confident we can do that with him.
"He's a terrific kid, a terrific player for our footy club, and we'll work with him closely to keep chipping away."
The Giants coach, who felt Cameron would be ready to take a step up against Adelaide following a good week on the training track, said confidence was the problem, rather than fitness.
"Jeremy would be disappointed to blame fitness," Cameron said. "We're not here to blame fitness at all.
"It's just confidence. He's going through a spell at the moment where his confidence is really low.
"Whether it's his leading patterns or ability to produce a goal when we know he can, his confidence is very low.
"As a young key position player, he's got to be able to work through that and we've got to help him work through that."
Cameron kicked 29 goals in 16 games as a rookie in 2012 to finish runner-up in the NAB Rising Star award before taking a quantum leap forward last year.
A further 62 goals from 21 matches earned him All Australian honours and a club best and fairest at the ripe old age of 20.
But repeated ankle injuries and a perforated eardrum have impacted upon his form this season, while he also faced some unwanted speculation earlier in the year about a possible desire to return home to Victoria.
That was swiftly denied by Cameron and GWS and the forward appears committed to the cause, but a return of six touches, three marks and one solitary goal that came deep into the final term on Saturday is undoubtedly a concern.
Cameron could still find some positives from the 68-point loss to Adelaide, singling out the returning Zac Williams for praise.
He also felt Shane Mumford battled hard after a below-par start in his match-up with Adelaide's Sam Jacobs, eventually winning the hit-outs 38-28.
But the clear standout for GWS was key defender Tim Mohr.
In his sixth game back from foot and knee injuries, Mohr kept Crows spearhead Taylor Walker to three kicks, three marks and 1.1.
Mohr also contributed 12 possessions, five tackles and five rebound 50s of his own.
"I thought Tim Mohr was terrific at centre half-back. He had a really good game against Walker," the GWS coach said.
"We understand Walker is coming back from a knee reconstruction, but I thought Tim just kept hanging in there."
