Adelaide Crows primed to claim third AFL premiership in grand final against Richmond Tigers
THE Advertiser’s Chief Football Writer Michelangelo Rucci looks at this weekend’s AFL grand final match-up between the Adelaide Crows and Richmond.
THE Advertiser’s Chief Football Writer Michelangelo Rucci looks at this weekend’s AFL grand final match-up between the Adelaide Crows and Richmond.
AFL GRAND FINAL
ADELAIDE v RICHMOND
MCG, Saturday, 2pm
CROWS
1. THE PERFECT TEAM?
IT is the complete team. In attack, there are too many goalscoring threats to cover - even if there is a break-even count in the midfield. Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Andy Otten, Tom Lynch and Charlie Cameron will all influence the scoreboard by their own boot or with goal assists.
In the midfield, there is now such meaningful diversity that it begs the question why the Crows wasted so much energy to work a dead-end trade period with Carlton midfielder Bryce Gibbs.
The rise of the Crouch brothers, All-Australian Matt and older brother Brad, to work with the experience of vice-captain Rory Sloane and Richard Douglas while living the dream with the tap work of ruckman Sam Jacobs is making a mockery of early calls - such as that from premiership coach Michael Malthouse - that the Crows midfield was one-dimensional, slow and unaccountable.
In defence, there has been significant improvement during the season when the Crows were tested by not winning the midfield.
The true standouts in this zone are All-Australian Rory Laird and the unheralded Luke Brown.
The most-telling observation of how this team has come together is from coach Don Pyke and Jenkins referring to the strength of “relationships” and “trust” built between the players. Sounds like what Kevin Bartlett and Michael Roach say of Richmond’s last premiership team in 1980.
2. REASON TO CHANGE?
IF - and it is a very big “if” - young forward Mitch McGovern was to overcome his left-hamstring strain, there would be reason to work a change on the team sheet - and most probably end Andy Otten’s incredible storyline.
Otten’s return to the AFL - after two years on the sidelines as he recovered from a serious knee injury and appeared in SANFL ranks to lack the pace to make it back to the big league - is an extraordinary tale of persistence, belief and proof that experience does count.
He deserves an AFL premiership medal, so he would be difficult to take out of the match 22.
There is the unanswered question on how upgraded rookie midfielder Hugh Greenwood came out of the preliminary final win against Geelong on Friday night when he had the least touches among his Crows team-mates.
This will be the first grand final since the first VFL-AFL premiership play-off in 1898 with each player on the park in his first grand final.
There is the question of how the Crows players will deal with the crowd of 100,000 at the MCG.
But after all the Adelaide squad has endured - and overcome - in the past three years, a few people cheering or jeering from the crowded terraces at the MCG should not be overwhelming.
MEDICAL ROOM
M. McGovern (hamstring) test
B. Smith (knee) season
C. Ellis-Yolmen (knee) season
J. Gallucci (jaw) season
E. Himmelberg (foot) season
TIGERS
1. CAN THEY SCORE?
ADELAIDE will certainly defy the impression of grand finals being more about defence than attack. But can the Tigers keep up?
Richmond’s attack is “different” - one key forward with Jack Riewoldt (who has scored 52 goals this season) and a seemingly unconventional group of smaller forwards who need to deal with the big occasion in their first AFL grand final. Daniel Rioli (42 games), Dan Butler (22), Jason Castagna (29 games) and Jacob Townsend (36 games) all have enormous assignments - and challenges - before them.
There also is the direct scoreboard contribution of Brownlow Medal-favourite Dustin Martin.
Townsend, the Liston Medallist as the best player in the VFL competition, has been outstanding since he returned to the Richmond line-up for the last two games of the home-and-away series and the two finals. He has kicked 14 goals in four matches.
Richmond does have to avoid the grand final turning into a shoot-out with Adelaide. This is where the noted pressure the Richmond half-forwards apply to the Crows defence to keep the ball in their forward half will be decisive.
The Tigers were good for 30 minutes - the first 30 minutes when they outscored the Crows six goals to five - in the teams’ only meeting this season, at Adelaide Oval on April 30.
2. CAN THEY DEFEND?
RICHMOND’S defence is the stand-out feature of the Tigers’ season. After conceding an average of 98 points last season, the Richmond defence has tightened up considerably to give up 75 points this year to rank as the AFL’s No. 2 defence (behind Sydney).
There is the All-Australian captain, Alex Rance. His key defenders’ tandem with the much-improved David Astbury is a major factor in the strengthening of the Richmond defensive system.
Richmond’s defensive game - as is the norm in the AFL today - is built on far more than the six defenders in Rance’s unit. Rance noted during the preliminary final win against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG that the work of the Tiger half-forwards in slowing the opposition’s defensive rebound is critical for Rance, Astbury, Dylan Grimes and Brandon Ellis setting up.
This quartet will find the prospect of dealing with Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins and Eddie Betts off the creative set-up work of Tom Lynch will be difficult, no matter how the Richmond half-forwards become part of “team defence”.
MEDICAL ROOM
N. Drummond season
MRP VERDICTS
RORY SLOANE (CROWS)
ADELAIDE vice-captain Rory Sloane will have his second-quarter collision with Geelong midfielder Patrick Dangerfield played again and again, angle after angle, speed after speed, by the match review panel. The key questions - Sloane’s options, his raised forearm and Dangerfield’s ability to play on - should be answered in the Crow midfielder’s favour.
TRENT COTCHIN (TIGERS)
RICHMOND captain Trent Cotchin is the man who can deliver the final nail in the debate to bury the current AFL judicial system. His head-high moment with Greater Western Sydney midfielder Dylan Shiel in the opening term is complicated by the two fines Cotchin has carried to the final series. He either is cleared - or there will be an automatic ban and the inevitable run to the AFL appeals board. Working against Cotchin is Shiel being benched at quarter time by concussion.
BRANDON ELLIS (TIGERS)
RICHMOND defender Brandon Ellis is also up for review for his shoulder clip to the chin of Giants midfielder Lachie Whitfield midway through the last term. Whitfield did play on, giving Ellis comfort that there is no medical report to haunt him when the match review panel finishes watching the vision.
THE ODDS
Adelaide $1.70
Richmond $2.20
NORM SMITH MEDAL
Dustin Martin (R) $5.50
Rory Sloane (A) $7
Matt Crouch (A) $7
Brad Crouch (A) $11
Trent Cotchin (R) $11
Rory Laird (A) $15
THE RECORD
PLAYED: 35
ADELAIDE: 23 wins
RICHMOND: 12 wins
AT MCG: 5-5
FINALS: First meeting
LAST TIME: Adelaide 21.14 (140) d Richmond 10.4 (64) at Adelaide Oval, Round 6
THIS SEASON: Adelaide 1-0
SEASON TALLY
CROWS TIGERS
W-L-D 17-6-1 17-7
SCORE 110 92
AGAINST 79 75
EARLY CALL
CROWS by 39 points
Rucci: Time for clubs to put old rivalries aside
Australian football faces dramatic changes to overcome the damage presented by the COVID19 crisis. It can only survive with unprecedented unity.
There should be no asterisk against 2020 premiership
The team that wins this year’s AFL premiership should be lauded for adapting in the most trying of circumstances. There must be no doubts over the legitimacy of the season, writes Michelangelo Rucci.