Crows name extended squad for Sunday’s AFLW grand final against Carlton

The Crows will wait until Saturday to test whether joint vice-captain Courtney Cramey has recovered from concussion and will take to the field in Sunday’s grand final against Carlton.

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The Crows will wait until Saturday to test whether key utility — and joint vice-captain — Courtney Cramey has recovered from concussion and will take to the field in Sunday’s grand final against Carlton.

Cramey took a head knock during the Crows’ 11-goal preliminary final win and didn’t play out the game, but coach Matthew Clarke felt confident she would recover in time for Sunday’s AFLW grand final at Adelaide Oval.

“She’s progressing really well, but there’ll be no official call on her until Saturday,” he said.

“They tend to leave it to the last moment, but if I was guessing, I’d say she’d play.”

As Clarke announced his extended squad for Sunday’s game, he said it had stayed largely unchanged, with the exception of Sally Riley coming into the 23-player squad for Jessica Sedunary who reinjured her foot playing in the SANFLW for Central District last weekend.

First-year player Nikki “Turbo” Gore is also again in the extended squad.

The final 21 will be announced on Friday at 3pm.

He said the squad was staying largely unchanged, considering it goes into Sunday’s match on the back of consecutive 10 and 11-goal wins.

“Ultimately the team that’s played over the last two weeks has performed really strongly,” he said.

Clarke admitted that his was a difficult squad to break into — even for fan favourites like Sarah “Tex” Perkins — but selected or not, those fringe players were vital to the team.

After Sunday’s 66-point prelim win over Geelong, the whole bench ran out onto Adelaide Oval to celebrate and the entire squad — including those who hadn’t played the game — sang the club’s song arm in arm in the middle of the ground.

Crows co-captain Erin Phillips said that celebration happened as a completely natural thing.

“We are a one team, for the girls who unfortunately aren’t picked they’re still part of it,” she said.

“It’s really, really difficult because there are so many girls who miss out.

“It’s the hardest part of sport and it’s the hardest part for coaches too, especially this week to say; ‘You’re not in’.

“They have been absolutely outstanding in their attitude of supporting us. It’s a credit to them.

“When we win, we win together.

“When we lose, we lose together.

“But it is really difficult, because you wished that nobody missed out but that’s unfortunately sport.”

Crows players sing the club song after winning the AFLW Preliminary Final against Geelong by 66 points. Both those who had taken the field, and those not selected from the squad, sang together. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Clarke said there zero chance that the Crows would be complacent against the underdog Blues, whom he said had made it into the AFLW decider on the back of impressive form.

“Clearly, their performance on the weekend (beating favoured Fremantle by 36 points), indicated they’re in great form and they’ve got high-end talent not just in the forward line but are really balanced and that’s what presents in making this a really great game,” he said.

“If you were to assess backs versus backs, mids versus mids, forwards versus forwards, at either end, it looks like it’s going to be a really good contest and I’m pretty sure that’s what will happen.

“It’s a grand final and both teams will be at their best and it should make for a really good game.”

When the Crows last played Carlton they beat them by 13 points in a come-from-behind victory in round two, but the Blues were without their high-marking, goalkicking star Tayla Harris.

The Crows were similarly underdone, without co-captain defender Chelsea Randall, and Clarke said there was a possibility they two could match up on Sunday.

“Both are dynamic athletes and have high-end athletic capabilities on both fronts, so they’ll probably end up in pretty similar parts of the ground, you’d imagine,” he said.

“Once again, that’s another exciting part of the weekend is that match up.”

First bounce in Sunday’s grand final is at 12.30pm. The AFL is hoping for a crowd over 20,000, which would be the record attendance for season three (after Geelong played their first AFLW game in front of 18,429 at GMHBA Stadium).

Entry on Sunday is free.

AFLW GRAND FINAL

Sunday, March 31

Adelaide v Carlton

Adelaide Oval, 12.30pm

ADELAIDE

B: D. Cox 31 S. Allan 39 J. Mules 23

HB: M. Rajcic 32 C. Randall 26 A. Foley 3

C: E. Phillips — C 13

HF: D. Ponter 15 C. Scheer 4 C. Cramey 22

F: E. Jones 2 S. Thompson 14 D. Varnhagen 9

Foll: J. Foley 24 A. Hatchard 33 E. Marinoff 10

I/C from: H. Martin 6 R. Forth 27 S. Li 19 A. Considine 16 N. Gore 7 S. Riley 8 J. McCormick 5

In: N. Gore, S. Riley

Out: None

CARLTON

B: J. Van Dyk 36 K. Harrington 9 N. Stevens 21

HB: C. Dalton 15 C. Wilson 20 G. Pound 6

C: B. Davey — C 1

HF: L. Brazzale 12 B. Moody 16 T. Lucas-Rodd 18

F: D. Vescio 3 T. Harris 7 B. Walker 14

Foll: A. Downie 30 M. Prespakis 4 S. Hosking 10

I/C from: G. Gee 19 J. Edwards 25 J. Hosking 11 A. Mullane 8 K. Loynes 2 R. Hicks 24 N. Plane 32

In: R. Hicks, N. Plane

Out: None