Adelaide book home preliminary final after commanding win over GWS
ADELAIDE was without gun midfielder Rory Sloane but it made no difference as the Crows underlined their status as premiership favourites with a huge win over GWS in the qualifying final.
NO Sloane, no problems.
With the Crouch brothers standing up in vice-captain Rory Sloane’s absence and pocket rocket Eddie Betts turning Adelaide Oval into his playground, the Crows on Thursday night emphatically marched into their first AFL preliminary final since 2012.
While they were rocked early by the loss of rebounding halfback Brodie Smith with what appeared to be a serious right knee injury, Don Pyke’s resilient side thumped upstart Greater Western Sydney by 36 points to earn a crucial home preliminary final and a week’s break.
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Chasing its third premiership and first since back-to-back triumphs in 1997-98, minor premier Adelaide illustrated why it is a deserved flag favourite by destroying a team many predicted would win the flag in just its sixth season in the competition.
Midfield ball magnets Matt and Brad Crouch were the stars for the Crows, playing so brilliantly against a team widely considered to have the best on-ball brigade in the AFL that they covered the loss of arguably Adelaide’s best player Sloane, who cruelly missed the qualifying final following an emergency appendectomy 10 days ago.
Newly-crowned All-Australian Matt had 31 disposals while older brother Brad, finally free of the injuries that curtailed the early part of his career, had 27 and 11 inside 50s.
Their midfield supremacy was matched up forward by Betts, who kicked three goals and assisted in two others while opposed to the experienced Heath Shaw.
Forward Tom Lynch and veteran utility Richard Douglas were other strong performers for the Crows in an impressive team performance.
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The convincing win, which propelled Adelaide to its eighth preliminary final, capped an emotional week for the club.
Apart from the disappointment of losing the important Sloane after a week of speculation over his fitness, the players also carried a heavy heart for popular ruckman Sam Jacobs whose older brother Aaron died last Wednesday.
But they pushed that — and the early loss of Smith to what appeared to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament — aside to continue their dominance of the Giants, who again struggled under the real heat of battle.
Three of sloppy and undisciplined GWS’s six goals came in a seven-minute spell at the start of the third quarter.
The Crows have now won eight of the nine clashes between the teams.
The Giants opted against a late call-up for triple Geelong premiership forward Steve Johnson, who instead will be asked to find form in the club’s reserves trial against the Crows’ SANFL team at Football Park on Friday.
The visitors started brightly and drew first blood through an unlikely source.
Harrison Himmelberg — the older brother of untried Crows key forward Elliott — found himself in a mismatch with the smaller Luke Brown to outmark him and goal from 40m.
It was just Himmelberg’s fourth goal in his 14th match.
Smith then got the ball rolling for Adelaide.
He gathered a loose ball 60m from goal, ran five metres and then unleashed a trademark booming kick which went flying over the goal umpire’s head.
But Smith’s night would prematurely end a minute later.
His right knee twisted as he lunged to tackle Josh Kelly in the defensive 50 and he thumped the ground in anger before being carried from the field in pain by two trainers.
Rather than be rocked by the potentially-serious injury to their best rebounding defender, the Crows gained momentum.
Paul Seedsman, playing just his third match for the season, got on the end of an Betts pass to goal from a tight angle from 40m and when Betts ran into an open goal minutes later Adelaide had jumped to an early 13-point lead.
The Giants were winning their share of the ball but were guilty of turning the ball over against the AFL’s No. 1 ranked side for winning the ball back off the opposition and then punishing them on the scoreboard.
And it all unravelled in the second term.
The Crows, with the Crouch boys dominating, started to take control in the centre square and with such a potent forward line they took full advantage of the 18 inside 50s for the quarter.
Betts shook off Shaw and with key forwards Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins and Mitch McGovern all having an influence and hitting the scoreboard the home side banged on five consecutive goals to power to a match-winning 44-point lead at the long break.
Adelaide went into half-time having kicked eight unanswered goals while GWS’s half-time score of 1.5 (11) was the lowest in a final since Collingwood managed 1.0 in the 1960 Grand Final against Melbourne.
ADELAIDE 3.4 8.7 12.8 12.12 (84)
GWS 1.4 1.5 5.7 6.12 (48)
BEST — Adelaide: M. Crouch, B. Crouch, Betts, Lynch, Douglas, Mackay, Brown.
GWS: Kelly, Coniglio, Ward, Scully, de Boer.
GOALS — Adelaide: Betts 3, Douglas 2, B. Crouch, Jenkins, Seedsman, Walker, Lynch, Smith, McGovern.
GWS: Coniglio 2, Greene, Ward, de Boer, Himmelberg.
INJURIES — Adelaide: Smith (knee). GWS: Cameron (hamstring).
UMPIRES — J. Dalgleish, B. Rosebury, S. Ryan.
CROWD — 52,805 at Adelaide Oval.