Adelaide has answers when Port Adelaide asks difficult questions
ADELAIDE is shaping up as the competition’s great problem-solver after snuffing out a raft of Power challenges to secure Showdown 42 and remain unbeaten for the season, after three significant tests.
ADELAIDE is shaping up as the competition’s great problem-solver after snuffing out a raft of Power challenges to secure Showdown 42 and remain unbeaten for the season, after three significant tests in three rounds of football.
The Crows are discovering one of the game’s most cherished abilities — being able to find a way to win — and did just that when other sides would have wilted under the intensity and energy of Port Adelaide’s raids.
There had been questions over how good the Power really was as it entered the match, before a record AFL crowd at Adelaide Oval, on top of the ladder.
It proved this much: it can score with the thrilling speed of Ken Hinkley’s early years, has discovered important grunt in Sam Powell-Pepper and Darcy Byrne-Jones, and Paddy Ryder is a crucial addition after a year on the sidelines.
But Adelaide had answers even when the Power was firing and it had players below their best. Eddie Betts and Taylor Walker had quiet periods but bobbed up when it mattered for a nice combined bag of goals that first brought them into the game and then shut Port out of it.
Walker’s long bomb from 65m in the final quarter was his second for the term and, along with a similarly calm and long missile from Tom Lynch, underlined the maturity with which the Crows took care of a lively counterpunch from the Power.
Adelaide the problem solver: when Ryder was dominating in the ruck, it sharked off him; when the Power threatened to run away with it, the tempo was slowed and when the Power benefited from turning it into a corridor game, the Crows played a wide possession-style style with the accuracy of Hawthorn during its triple premiership years.
It also had game-breaking spirit in players such as Showdown Medal winner Rory Sloane and Matt Crouch, who were tireless.
Adelaide also took the sting out of the game by stopping Port’s early blitz — keeping the Power goalless from the 10-minute mark of the second quarter to the 20th of the third.
It was a tense as predicted to begin with; neither team looked like having a second to settle or put together a string of clean passes.
It took until the 10th minute for Charlie Dixon’s firm bump to open up some space for Robbie Gray, who ran into an open goal and record the first major score for the day.
A minute later, Justin Westhoff snapped and a pattern was beginning to form.
The Power was playing at speed, of the breakneck variety, and it was created on the cornerstone of ruckman Ryder’s brilliance in the ruck.
Ryder had helped himself to 23 hit-outs before the first adjournment and that was against Sam Jacobs, who played one a game from the top drawer as the Crows beat Hawthorn last week.
Ryder not only directed the ball-ups, he was also flying for marks across the ground and is already underlining how crucial a loss he was to the side last year when he was suspended for his part in the Essendon supplements scandal back in 2012.
Port had most of the early play, but if there’s one player who can turn a game on a 10-cent coin it is crowd darling Eddie Betts.
He did. His bodywork against Tom Jonas — a much bigger player — was sublime in timing and talent and his ensuing curving kick along the ground one that others would be loath to attempt but Betts makes look easy.
Betts kicked another important one to eat away at Port’s early advantage when he managed to get out the back and was at the end of a Charlie Cameron snap. It was turning.
Adelaide was finding answers for everything.
SCOREBOARD
ADELAIDE 3.3 7.9 11.10 15.10 (100)
PORT ADELAIDE 4.6 6.6 9.8 12.11 (83)
BEST — Adelaide: Sloane, Crouch, Douglas, Laird, Lynch, Betts. Port Adelaide: Wines, R Gray, Boak, Powell-Pepper, Ebert
GOALS — Adelaide: Walker 4, Betts 3, Otten, Knight, Lynch 2, Mackay, Sloane. Port Adelaide: Wines, Wingard, Gray 2, Westhoff, Impey, Dixon, Boak, Eddy, Powell-Pepper
INJURIES — Adelaide: McGovern (hanmstring)
CROWD — 53,698 at Adelaide Oval
CHRIS McDERMOTT’S FAST FIVE
1. Tackling has become a great feature of our game. It was once a method of defence but it is now a weapon of attack. Both teams used it to great effect. The Crows did it best. Just.
2. In a tight, brutal tussle in the first half, 11 consecutive inside 50s by the Crows was a big difference. It made all the difference in a tight game. From nearly two goals down to nearly two goals up. It was all it took to decide this one.
3. Contested ball did it again. It rarely fails, if ever. The Crows absolutely dominated here, led by Rory Sloane. It made it hard for the Power to win. Too hard.
4. The Crows played a spare man in defence and the Power never manned him up until it was too late. It proved a fatal mistake by the Port coaching panel.
5. Fitness is still king. The Power’s is much better in 2017 but the Crow’s is ELITE. Arguably the competition’s best. Another great weapon in their armoury.