AFL Adelaide v Port Adelaide: All the news and fallout from Showdown 50
Port Adelaide has called out racist abuse on social media after Showdown Medallist Aliir Aliir was targeted online after Saturday night’s game.
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Port Adelaide has called out racist abuse on social media after Showdown Medallist Aliir Aliir was targeted online after Saturday night’s game.
After the build-up to Showdown 50 was overshadowed by former Adelaide captain Taylor Walker being investigated for, and receiving a six-match ban for a racial slur against a SANFL player - the Power released a statement on Sunday condemning racial abuse against Aliir following the game.
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Aliir won the Showdown Medal with a dominant performance - clocking up an equal AFL record 10 intercept marks to go with 21 disposals.
But potential recruit of the year for the Power was the subject of racial abuse on social media after Port posted a photo of him with the medal.
An account, which appears to only have been created on Saturday night, posted racial abuse towards Aliir in Port’s photo.
When called out by fellow Twitter users, the account said it was doing it for attention.
In its statement Port said those comments had no place in society.
“Our game is built on bravery and courage, commitment and togetherness,” the Power said.
“There is nothing brave or courageous about using social media to racially abuse or personally vilify a player.
“Racism is divisive and hurtful and has no place in our game or in society more broadly. It has to stop.
“We will continue to challenge and report racism. There is simply no room for it online, in the stands or in our homes.
“We need to be better.”
AFL Players Association Paul Marsh, whose reference to Walker’s nickname ‘Tex’ in his organisation’s statement on Friday raised eyebrows, posted on Twitter that the individual being able to hide behind an anonymous account was making the issue worse.
“Another abhorrent example of racism on social media, made even worse by the person hiding behind an anonymous account,” he said.
“Extremely disappointing given the sharp focus on the issue this week.”
It’s not the first time players have found themselves racially abused after or during a Showdown.
In 2017 Crows star Eddie Betts and Power gun Paddy Ryder were both subject to racial vilification.
While a year earlier Betts had a banana thrown at him.
In both instances Port have banned its members found responsible.
Player ‘shocked’ by Tex slur as Crows overcome tough week
Third-year Crow Chayce Jones says he was shocked when he found out about Taylor Walker’s racial vilification but the squad tried to stay focused on the Showdown and “stick tight”.
Walker missed Saturday night’s four-point loss to the Power after receiving a six-game ban for a slur about North Adelaide’s Robbie Young at a SANFL game between the Crows and Roosters at Prospect Oval on July 17.
Jones told News Corp he had not spoken directly to the former Adelaide captain, who apologised to teammates and staff at the club on Friday then did not attend the Showdown.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks on Friday could not guarantee if Walker would be at West Lakes in 2022 despite having another year on his contract.
Jones said “there’s been no update on when he’s coming back”.
“Like everyone, I was a bit shocked (at Walker’s vilification),” Jones said.
“But we’ve got to deal with it as a group, do all the right things moving forward and build that relationship back up.
“We’ll work through it as a club and what the right process to do it will be figured out.
“The best way to push ahead and get past it is to focus on the next week and we just tried to focus in on this game – that was the best way to move forward.
“We’re always going to stick tight.
“As a club, there’ll be a due process to come.”
Jones, who was playing his 36th game since joining the Crows via pick nine in the 2018 national draft, said the week had been difficult and the biggest of his career for media attention.
Nicks addressed the squad on what was going on but “due to the process there wasn’t a whole lot divulged”, according to Jones.
Although Walker had attracted the spotlight since news broke on Wednesday of the AFL Integrity Unit’s investigation into his comment, the 31-year-old was not spoken about by Nicks pre-match.
Whatever weight the scandal had placed on Crows players, it did not show on the field.
A $7 outsider with the bookies, 16th-ranked Adelaide put aside a tumultuous few days to jump out to a 19-point half-time lead and continued to fight until the final siren.
It might have pulled off a famous Showdown victory against the premiership-contending Power if not for losing Brodie Smith and Will Hamill to concussions after the main break.
“To have that sort of performance after the week that we’ve had is an amazing effort,” said Jones, who played one of his best AFL games, impressing in his new half-back role..
“Having that attention on the club and the group is always tough.
“There’s been some off-field stuff we had to handle, but as a playing group we were always ready to go.
“We’ve been motivated all week still to get into the game and perform like we did.”
Port Adelaide ruckman Scott Lycett said Power coach Ken Hinkley spoke pre-match to his squad about how the Crows’ week could galvanise them and anything could happen in Showdowns.
“With things like that (Walker suspension), there are a lot of questions coming at their group from the outside, the media and stuff,” Lycett told News Corp.
“They’d have been looking at themselves in the four walls and they would’ve been saying they want to give their fans four points.
“They definitely came out to play.”
Nicks said the performance in the circumstances “tells me they’re the group I thought they were”.
“They’re an amazing group of players,” the second-year Crows mentor said.
“I had no doubt they’d come out and perform the way they did.
“It has been a really challenging week, it’s been a challenging 48 hours for our entire organisation.”
Nicks said he remained in constant contact with Walker and he would maintain that.
“I’ll continue to work with our entire playing group week in, week out,” he said.
Nicks became emotional at his Friday press conference when he spoke about recent chats with his close friends and former Sydney teammates Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin.
And about how Walker’s indiscretion had affected the Indigenous community.
One of the Crows’ four Indigenous players, Ben Davis, was the medical substitute on Saturday night and came on for Smith.
Jones said the club, which had two more games remaining this season, would continue to support the quartet as much as it could.
“We just want to get around them boys,” he said.
“(Racism) is something that happens too often.”
Match report: Power reconnected after scare in epic Showdown 50
— Jason Phelan
Port Adelaide has withstood a brave challenge from depleted Adelaide, with Aliir Aliir starring in a thrilling four-point win in Showdown 50 that tightened the Power’s grip on a top-four finish.
The storied rivalry has produced some shock results since 1997, with ladder positions often counting for nothing, and the 50th meeting of the local foes added another epic chapter, with Port coming from behind to score a 7.13 (55) to 7.9 (51) win at Adelaide Oval.
The Crows, still dealing with the fallout from the Taylor Walker racism furore, lost Brodie Smith and Will Hamill to concussion late in the game, but led by 10 points at three-quarter time.
Sam Powell-Pepper goaled to give his side the lead in a pulsating final term, with Charlie Dixon extending that margin soon after, but a Tom Lynch goal set up a frantic finale.
It was only fitting that Showdown Medal winner Aliir Aliir, broke up Adelaide’s last roll of the dice with another of the intercept marks that had thwarted the Crows time and again.
“It was a hard-fought, scrappy win,” Ken Hinkley said.
“In the second half our contested possession (was better). I think that’s how we won, we won just through sheer grit.
“We found a way to win, which in the scheme of our season was really important.”
Travis Boak and Ollie Wines were also important for the Power, who improved its record to 15-5 and made it a clean sweep of Adelaide this season.
The famous victory was their fourth in a row against the Crows and improved the derby record to 26-24 in their favour.
Rory Laird was outstanding for Adelaide with Paul Seedsman prominent on a wing and Jordon Butts a rock in defence.
Test without Tex
Would the racism storm that engulfed Adelaide in the days leading up to match galvanise the team or would the distracted Crows crumble under the pressure?
The answer became apparent as the underdog Crows cracked in early and had their more-fancied opponents on the back foot.
Adelaide led by a point at the first break after Elliott Himmelberg replied to Zak Butters’ opening goal.
They were the only majors for the first quarter, but what the contest lacked in scoring it made up for in pressure, intensity, attack on the ball and work rate from both sides.
Ned nails it
Ned McHenry showed just how much the game meant to Adelaide’s players when he jubilantly grabbed his guernsey in celebration to the home crowd after the first of back-to-back goals late in the second quarter.
Darcy Fogarty was providing a strong presence in attack and he set up McHenry’s second with a brilliant pass that sent his teammate running into an open goal.
Five-time Showdown Medal winner Robbie Gray replaced Todd Marshall in the Power line-up at selection, but the retooled attack registered its lowest half-time score for the season, with just 1.5 to the main break to trail by 19 points.
Injured Crows pair adds to despair
By Matt Turner
Adelaide defenders Brodie Smith and Will Hamill face a week on the sidelines after coming off in Saturday night’s Showdown with concussions.
Smith was crunched heavily by the Power’s Scott Lycett during the third quarter of the thrilling match and had to be helped off by two trainers, while Hamill needed to be stretchered from the field after copping friendly fire from teammate Nick Murray early in the last term.
After spinning out of a Connor Rozee tackle, Smith went head-first into Lycett’s legs, leaving the Adelaide star bloodied and dazed.
Substitute Ben Davis came on for Smith early in the last quarter.
Then 23 seconds into the final term, Hamill smashed into Murray in the Power’s attacking 50.
Port Adelaide forward/ruckman Peter Ladhams gave Murray a shove and the Crows backman cannoned into Hamill, not far from the goal square.
Murray got up and played on, but Hamill stayed down.
Play stopped for seven minutes as Crows trainers checked on Hamill, put him in a neck brace then took him off the field on a medical vehicle.
Hamill missed games through concussion twice last season.
“It was like a traffic accident,” Fox Footy’s Gerard Healy said of the fourth-quarter incident.
“It was a massive hit there for both lads.”
Fellow Fox Footy commentator Mark Ricciuto said Hamill and Murray “went at absolute breakneck speed and couldn’t even get out of the way — that’s how fast they were going”.
Hamill going off left the Crows to finish the match with 21 fit players.
The collision between Smith and Lycett was also accidental.
“He’s not run into the smallest man on the ground,” Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy of Power ruckman Lycett
“It was (impact with) the point of the knee of a man who weighs 110kg.”
Eddie McGuire said there was no issue with what Lycett, who received a four-week ban for his sling tackle on Ned McHenry in this year’s first Showdown, did and Smith’s courage was “everything you love about the game”.
“He’s obviously a lot worse for wear than when he came into the contest but we were a bit worried there for a few seconds,” McGuire said.
Port Adelaide was able to capitalise on the Crows having the two defenders down, as Orazio Fantasia kicked the opening goal of the final quarter.
It sparked the Power onto its victory.
Smith and Hamill will now enter the AFL’s 12-day concussion protocols, ruling them out of Adelaide’s Round 22 clash with Melbourne.
SCOREBOARD
CROWS 1.3 4.6 6.8 7.9 (51)
POWER 1.2 1.5 4.10 7.13 (55)
PHELAN’S BEST
Crows: Laird, Seedsman, Butts, Keays, Schoenberg, Doedee.
Power: Aliir, Boak, Drew, Wines, Burton, Bonner.
GOALS
Crows: McHenry 2, Fogarty, Himmelberg, Keays, Mackay, Lynch.
Power: Butters 2, Georgiades, Wines, Fantasia, Powell-Pepper, Dixon.
INJURIES
Crows: Smith (concussion), Hamill (concussion).
Power: Nil.
UMPIRES
Power, Deboy, Stephens
VENUE
Adelaide Oval
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 A. Aliir (PA)
2 R. Laird (Adel)
1 T. Boak (PA)
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