Adelaide v Geelong: Winless Crows showed promising signs in tough battle against Cats

Adelaide has blooded nine debutants this year as it continues its rebuild – and it was the young Crows players who impressed coach Matthew Nicks most in Sunday’s gallant loss to premiership contender Geelong.

Liz WalshAdelaide

6 min read

August 24, 2020 - 8:58AM

Patrick Dangerfield performed strongly against his former side. Picture: Sarah Reed

Crows

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Geelong veteran Tom Hawkins’ third, and final, goal may have ultimately spelled defeat for a Crows side that battled hard all day, but Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says the football world was given a clear glimpse into what his side is able to deliver.

The Crows went down to the Cats by 28 points – their 13th loss of the season – but Nicks had numerous take-outs from the loss that gave him cause to smile.

Whether that be defender Kyle Hartigan’s game on Hawkins that restricted the Coleman Medal leader to 3.3 (Hawkins kicked six against Port Adelaide the previous round), or ruckman Reilly O’Brien finding better connection with his midfielders (Adelaide drew level with Geelong 7-7 on centre clearances), or small forward Lachlan Murphy making cameos in the backline, or captain Rory Sloane kicking a captain’s goal in the second quarter.

Or perhaps the fact his team was only nine points down after three quarters against a Cats team considered a flag contender.

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Coach Matthew Nicks was pleased with the effort from his team against the Cats. Picture: Matt Turner/AFL Photos via Getty Images

But it’s his first-year players who were really pleasing for Nicks.

A “composed” Jordan Butts became the ninth Crow this season to make his AFL debut, and the 38th player Adelaide has used this year.

Nicks makes no apology for using so many players in 2020.

“We have had a focus to get these guys out there and expose them to football at the highest level and that’s where we’re going to improve,” he said post-game.

“I hope our members and supporters saw today (Sunday) a glimpse of where we’re heading, because that’s what we’re about as a group: coming off after a quarter and feeling like that was our quarter.

“We had moments where we owned that game and that’s why we were pleased with the performance for three quarters, with such a young group from an experience point of view, we’re going to make mistakes here and there that are going to cost us some games and we did that today (Sunday), we made a number of big mistakes that was a 12-point turnaround.

“We’ll learn from those and slowly over time, we won’t make those mistakes again.

“In fact, it turns really quickly, so it’s a real positive for us and we’ve now go to come up again in nine days and put on another performance against another good side (in Hawthorn on September 1).”

Crow Matt Crouch dishes out a handball against Geelong. Picture: Matt Turner/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Harry Schoenberg, in his fourth game, kicked his first AFL goal and his first half in particular pleased Nicks, while Shane McAdam – who came off with a hamstring concern in the last quarter – out-chased four Geelong defenders to kick a clever goal off the ground in the third.

“We give three really positive quarters of effort and intensity and what’s needed to compete with one of the best sides in the comp, and not quite able to finish it off in the end.

“I was really proud of what it looked like, it’s a game plan we’re working on, we’re learning as we go and it’s taking longer than we’d like … but I was really pleased to see what we want to look like, today.

“We saw ferocious; a competitive battle inside; we saw a really structured defence; we were able to limit their score, and limit one of the biggest weapons in the game at the moment, in Hawkins, ahead of the ball – that was really pleasing for our young guys to nail that.

“In the end, we were 800-plus less games than our opposition, but at times we were able to look like we owned the game.”

CATS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF

The win wasn’t easy, but Geelong coach Chris Scott, says the most pleasing thing about his side’s 28-point win over the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Sunday is just simply that: the four points they walk away with.

As well as the fact the Cats have the likes of Cam Guthrie (33 disposals) and Sam Menegola (24 touches) who can cover for veterans Joel Selwood and Gary Ablett, who were both missing from Sunday’s side.

“Going back a bit, we’ve probably been a bit more dependent on Selwood and (Patrick) Dangerfield than we are now ... but we’ve just had some organic growth over the last year in particularly, 18 months maybe, through the likes of Menegola and (Brandan) Parfitt and Guthrie, (Mitch) Duncan’s been a good player for a long time,” Scott said.

“It seems to me when you take a step back to be a more even midfield than we’ve had in the past, but we’ve been working away at that for a long time, it hasn’t just happened.”

Cat Gary Rohan and Crow Jake Kelly compete for the footy. Picture: Matt Turner/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The depth of the Geelong midfield shone through in the final quarter against Adelaide, with the Cats winning key stats including inside 50s (42-28), disposals (341-250), clearances (36-31) and contested possession (126-116).

Their marking ability was outstanding, beating the Crows convincingly in that stat: 81-42.

But, Scott left special praise for the versatility of defender/wingman/ruck Mark Blicavs.

Blicavs finished the match with 14 disposals, seven hit outs, two clearances and his first goal for 2020, but his real influence was behind the scenes.

“He does perform different roles for us week to week and even within games as well, he’s been a critical player for us for a long time and we’ve been very clear internally in what makes him an important player for us – it’s not as obvious to some people, especially on the TV when you can’t see the whole ground,” Scott said.

But still, all of those positives aside, it’s the four points Scott is most pleased with.

“The most important thing is the win, we don’t take them for granted,” he said.

“I’m not sure whether our attitude was a little bit off, if I made that assumption I think it’s being a bit disrespectful, if you take the game on face value, (Adelaide) were pretty hot around the ball early and couldn’t quite take their chances a few times, but they looked really competitive.”

Harry Schoenberg booted his first AFL goal in the opening half. Picture: Sarah Reed

Hawk-eyes

All eyes were on Hawkins, and rightly so, with the 32-year-old in resurgent form having kicked 11 goals from his past two games.

With Daniel Talia out with knee soreness, the Crows sent veteran defender Kyle Hartigan to Hawkins, and he did a solid job, holding the Cat to only one goal and eight touches for the first half.

For Geelong it was the class of players like Mark Blicavs (who kicked his first goal of the season playing at both ends of the ground), Sam Menegola (24 touches), Cam Guthrie (33 disposals, seven clearances).

Rhys Stanley had 25 hitouts and Patrick Dangerfield’s six clearances – and 534m gained – were important.

Tom Hawkins got on top late in the game after being blanketed by Kyle Hartigan. Picture: Getty Images

Half time blues

It hasn’t been unusual this season for Adelaide to be competitive in the first half, only to be blown away in the last.

The Crows’ first half was among its best football for 2020 and by half-time, they were winning contested possession (+5), clearances (+3), and hitouts (+4).

With Adelaide’s veterans Rory Sloane, Rory Laird and Matt Crouch back together in the centre, they won centre clearances (Geelong won no centre clearances at all in the second term) 6-1 for the first two quarters.

And they stuck right with the Cats for the third (somewhat aided by an inaccurate Cats forward line, with behinds to the likes of Hawkins, Duncan and Menegola helping them keep in touch). When David MacKay kicked a goal after the siren, the Crows were well and truly in touch. But the game then went to script, the Crows held goalless in the last as Geelong ran over the top.

"It's gonna take his best."

Mission accomplished from @rorysloane9 ðŸš€#AFLCrowsCats pic.twitter.com/HRJODLUzVY
— AFL (@AFL) August 23, 2020

Milestone man

For those playing the numbers game, Walker – who’s made the No. 13 his own at the Crows – played his 200th game in Round 13 and unfortunately for his side, the milestone ended with the team’s 13th straight loss of 2020.

The former Crows skipper was kept to one touch in the first quarter, but it was an important one: he received a Reilly O’Brien tap near the goal square and handballed it to Tyson Stengle whose dribble kick resulted in the first goal of the game.

For Crows it was youngsters like Harry Schoenberg (one goal, nine touches) and Shane McAdam (one goal and 11 disposals), who showed glimpses of what could lie ahead in the future.