Birthday boy Taylor Walker kicks three goals in strong return, despite Adelaide’s 37-point loss to Glenelg

TAYLOR Walker passed with flying colours in his return to football on Friday night, despite Adelaide losing by 37 points to Glenelg.

THE knee’s good, the hands still work and the goalkicking boot, well, it’s as trusty as ever.

Taylor Walker’s return to football passed with flying colours last night as the Adelaide forward booted three goals for the Crows’ reserves against Glenelg in an extended comeback that lasted until midway through the final term at Gliderol Stadium.

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The only thing missing in Adelaide’s 37-point loss to the Tigers was singing the song - but, under the watchful eye of coach Brenton Sanderson and virtually the entire Adelaide playing list and football department, Walker’s comeback was never about competition points.

It was about getting through.

And the Broken Hill boy, on his 24th birthday, ticked every possible box despite unexpected drizzle that lasted most of the game.

The final tally was 12 disposals, 10 of them kicks, for 3.3 with six marks, a tackle and three inside-50s.

Playing without a brace or any strapping on the rebuilt right knee he injured 363 days earlier, Walker was strong and certain on his feet.

The star forward played with total confidence as he kicked a goal in the opening quarter and two more when the Crows mounted a third-term charge.

It took just seven minutes for Walker to announce he was officially back. His first major came on a breaking lead that he marked and converted from 40m.

He missed another set shot eight minutes later but soon passed a major test when he gathered, stopped, changed direction and snapped on his left boot.

The shot missed, but the knee held tight.

There were a few scares - Walker almost ran head-first into the Adelaide dugout after marking inside the boundary line, then sent Glenelg players flying like tenpins at another marking contest on the wing.

Having played more time than the half most had expected, Walker was eventually put on ice in the final term when the game was beyond Adelaide’s reach.

FULL MATCH REPORT

BAYS fans, rejoice. Glenelg ended its winless start to the season and dragged itself from the bottom of the SANFL ladder with a defiant 37-point win over Adelaide last night.

The Tigers were wasteful in front of goal - horribly so, at times - but discovered the sort of ticker so absent in the opening three rounds.

A massive crowd of 9299, many no doubt drawn by the return game of Adelaide forward Taylor Walker (three goals), crammed into Gliderol Stadium to see Glenelg fire, falter and fire again with an impressive Anzac Day performance.

Ruckman Lachie Button was a force in the ruck for Glenelg but it was the clearance work of Tigers Sam Lonergan, Andrew Bradley, Hayden Jolly and Brad Agnew that hurt Adelaide.

Adelaide had responded from a first-half lapse with a dominant third quarter to trail by just eight points at the final change before Glenelg kicked back with five goals inside the first 14 minutes of the last term.

By the time Andrew Hooper booted his fourth eight minutes into the last term it was game over and the Tigers’ malaise, for now, was over. The Crows seemed a chance of stealing the points when Brodie Martin kicked Adelaide’s fourth successive goal on time-on in the third quarter. Instead, Glenelg found a way to storm away.

Adelaide started strongly in a messy opening term before Glenelg answered through Hooper, but it was a rare piece of accuracy for the Tigers.

The home side had patches of brilliance, almost always when they were prepared to move the ball quickly, but too often the Tigers wasted the chances convert.

Mitch Thorp held a superb mark running back with the flight on the end of a long Lachie Earl kick, but missed the set shot from 15m. Then, barely a minute later, Andrew Bradley missed another chance from inside the 50.

When Shaun McKernan goaled for Adelaide in the third minute of the second term, it looked like a repeat of Glenelg’s capitulation against Port Adelaide might be on its way.

But suddenly the Tigers got angry. Glenelg kicked seven of the next eight goals in the second quarter to jump 27 points clear.

Perhaps it was the unexpected drizzle, perhaps it was a firm “not again”. But as conditions got tougher, so did the Tigers.

It was classic state league footy - ground-level grit, instinct and quick, direct kicking - that left the handball game of their structured AFL-trained opposition without an answer.

A curling Ian Callinan snap near half-time stopped the bleeding and dragged it back to 22 points before Thorp bagged his third to make it 27 points the Tigers’ way at the break.