In-form Saints marching to Adelaide Oval ready to turn up the pressure on struggling Crows midfield

Adelaide’s on-ball brigade was smashed by the Blues and with a number of in-form Saints marching in to town, the Crows’ engine room is set to be challenged again.

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Adelaide’s midfield was smashed last week. And it wasn’t just by one man.

While Patrick Cripps finished with 39 disposals, 24 contested possessions and 19 clearances, his young teammate Sam Walsh had 16 contested possessions and seven clearances of his own.

Ed Curnow and 18-game mature-age recruit Michael Gibbons also had six clearances each.

That’s 32 clearances from four Carlton midfielders.

Ruckman Reilly O’Brien recorded a team-high of seven but Adelaide’s ball-winners Rory Sloane (5), Brad Crouch (4) and Matt Crouch (4) had just 13 clearances between them.

“Clearly from a numbers viewpoint it comes down to our contests and today we were beaten badly in the contest,” Crows coach Don Pyke said after the 27-point loss to the Blues.

Pyke’s side lost the clearance battle by 23, its biggest differential since Round 17 last year.

And the other numbers weren’t much better.

Adelaide and Carlton meet at the centre bounce during last week’s clash at the MCG. Picture: Matt King/Getty

Its contested-ball differential of -22 was its second-worst for the season and a disposal differential of -42 its third biggest defeat of 2019.

In the loss to the Bombers a week earlier, Adelaide were beaten in the contested-ball count by 11 and in the Showdown 46 fadeout, the Power recorded 18 more clearances.

“It’s been a trend. When we’re losing the contest, our ability to win games of footy is challenged.” Pyke said.

Midfield numbers

	Adelaide v Carl R19	Season rank	St Kilda R18-19	Comp rank
Disposal diff	-42	3rd-worst	+32.5	2nd
Contested poss. diff	-22	2nd-worst	+6.5	6th
Groundball-get diff	-14	4th-worst	+2	7th
Clearance diff	-23	Season-low	+7	5th

And with a number of in-form Saints marching to Adelaide Oval on Saturday, the Crows engine room is set to be challenged again.

In the past two weeks, under caretaker coach Brett Ratten, St Kilda have been impressive at the contest.

While Ratten has only made “subtle little changes” or, as defender Callum Wilkie put it, more just “refocused on points from the game plan we went away from earlier in the year”.

But it’s working.

The Saints boast a disposal differential of +32.5, the second-best in the competition, while its clearance differential of +7 ranks fifth.

And a midfield, led by Seb Ross, Jade Gresham and a breakout ruckman Rowan Marshall, won the contested possession battle by 11 against the Demons last week and by three against an in-form Bulldogs outfit in Round 18.

Jade Gresham breaks away from Melbourne’s Jack Viney and Max Gawn in Round 19. Picture: Michael Klein

In the 19-point victory over the Demons — the fifth-best contested ball team in the competition — Ross (15), Gresham (13), Luke Dunstan (12), Jack Sinclar (10) and Marshall (10) saw the Saints finish with 142 contested possessions.

The Crows final tally against the Blues was 123.

Marshall has been doing it all year — and an intriguing battle with fellow ball-winner big man O’Brien looms — but it’s the rise of Gresham as a full-time midfielder and the resurgence of SA-born Dunstan which could catch the Crows off-guard.

A week early against the Bulldogs, Gresham tallied 11 contested possessions and six clearances, while Dunstan finished with 12 and seven.

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“His impact and his ability to win the 50-50 and use his legs to get out, he’s so dynamic in the contest,” Ratten said of Gresham’s 31-disposal performance against the Demons.

And, while he’s been inconsistent this year, Ross played his best game in his most recent outing.

In a complete performance, the 26-year-old tallied 31 disposals, 15 contested possessions, nine tackles, six clearances, two goals and 159 Champion Data ranking points.

Rory Sloane and Patrick Cripps collide at the MCG. Picture: Michael Klein

Cripps and Bomber Zach Merrett have got away from the Crows in the past two weeks, will a Saint do similar on Saturday night?

With the inclusion of Bryce Gibbs, who finished with 40 disposals, 10 tackles and 10 clearances in the SANFL last week, Pyke’s hoping his on-ball group can respond.

“Our numbers don’t lie. Our contest and our tackle work when that’s to a high standard, we win games of footy.”

Rectifying those numbers is proving easier said than done for the eighth-ranked Crows.