Adelaide led 36-18 at quarter-time then Sydney ran riot at the centre bounce and set up a Round 1 victory
All week we’ve been told to keep our hands clean but when Sydney got theirs dirty on Saturday, they beat the Crows in five devastating minutes. Our deep dive into Adelaide’s Round 1 loss to Sydney is here.
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The message to the world this week has been to keep your hands clean but when Sydney got theirs dirty in one five-minute patch on Saturday afternoon, it cost Adelaide the game.
The Crows went to quarter-time in control against the Swans with Taylor Walker, Darcy Fogarty and Tyson Stengle helping them to a 36-18 lead.
But one stat told a very different story, clearances. Sydney led 14-5 at the first break and when they went up a gear again to start the second quarter, the Crows couldn’t go with them.
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In five minutes of football, Sydney kicked 4.2 before the Crows could score and their 18-point deficit became an eight-point lead. They would eventually win by three.
Led by Ollie Florent, Sydney was unstoppable in the middle to start the second term:
1st centre bounce: (O’Brien, Smith, M. Crouch, Jones).
Winner: Sydney. Florent runs onto a loose ball and kicks his team inside 50m.
2nd centre bounce: (O’Brien, Smith, M. Crouch, Jones).
Winner: Sydney. Florent’s handball releases Josh Kennedy who kicks Sydney forward and Nick Blakey eventually snaps around his body for a goal.
3rd centre bounce: (O’Brien, B. Crouch, M. Crouch, Sloane).
Winner: Sydney. James Rowbottom wins the contested ball, gives to Florent who gets the Swans moving again.
4th centre bounce: (O’Brien, Seedsman, Smith, Sloane).
Winner: Sydney. Florent’s clearing kick directly results in Tom Papley’s goal.
Sydney suddenly led 44-36 and won the fifth consecutive centre clearance through Aliir Aliir when he went head-to-head with Billy Frampton.
Adelaide still did enough right on Saturday night and if Walker kicked that goal in the dying moments then the Crows may well have won the game. But they would have pinched it.
Sydney won total clearances 46-25, centre clearances 20-5 and contested possession 136-120. They also won tackles 62-55 which does not make pretty reading for Adelaide when Sydney also had more of the ball.
“That’s (centre clearance differential) a huge number,” Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said post-match.
“What that does is put you on the back foot straight away.
“We’re all part of it, coaches, players, we come in with a certain tactic that we want to look at, and we went away from what we do well at times as players and stuff we’ll look at as coaches that we have to get better at as well.
“The most important part about getting lessons like that is learning from that.
“We used to change our structure completely before it was 6-6-6 at the centre bounce, so it does make it tough, we’re relying on our guys to go to work inside that centre bounce, it’s hard to get another player in there to support and we tried that but as you start to win it, you’re lighter ahead of the ball.
“So we looked at a number of different things but a lot comes back to the basics for us, all credit to them, they’ve got some very powerful on-ballers and experienced players through there but so do we, so there’s no excuses, we just didn’t get it done tonight.”
Nicks has already delivered on his promise to give the Crows’ midfield a new dynamic this season, but it’s clear there will be some growing pains along the way.
We’ve seen Brodie Smith and Rory Atkins go through there in the pre-season and Chayce Jones was always destined for more midfield minutes, but the biggest surprise on Saturday was Paul Seedsman.
An almost permanent wingman/half-forward in previous years, Seedsman started in the middle at the first centre bounce alongside regulars Rory Sloane and Brad Crouch, and found himself there throughout the game. He finished with 14 disposals, two clearances and laid four tackles.
“I’m glad you asked, there were a lot of positives to come out of the game,” Nicks said.
“We played a younger group with Jones through there who is getting some really important time into himself, Seedsman is getting through. At halftime Smith went down with a knock to the chest and we missed him for the third because he’s been our form midfielder throughout the Marsh Series.
“We changed some structure, bringing Brad (Crouch) from a different area and unfortunately it didn’t quite click in until the end of the game and we left our run a little late.”
One lever Nicks didn’t pull was Wayne Milera who was among Adelaide’s best running off halfback.
“We brought him reasonably aggressively up to stoppage but didn’t actually put him in there at this point, a little bit of that is he trained really well at halfback for us over the pre-season and we’d like to back him in there.
“We feel he gives us some really good rebound in that position.”
Another player Nicks didn’t turn to in the midfield was Bryce Gibbs who at 31 now appears locked into the team in defence or not at all.
Gibbs finished with just seven disposals, spent time on Will Hayward and was beaten at the top of the square by Sam Gray, but he still had some nice moments including going back with the flight of a high ball to win an important one-on-one.
“I really liked Bryce’s game to be honest, for what we’re asking, I think there’s always improvement in what we’re looking for.
“Bryce is working on a number of different areas in his game – defence being one of them – and I thought he locked down well again and last week against a tough forward line this week.
“They had a lot of speed down there, they came in a little smaller than we thought they might, but I thought Bryce played reasonably well.”
The Crows will now prepare for the most extraordinary of Showdowns against Port Adelaide next weekend when what is usually one of the fiercest cauldrons in football becomes another empty stadium.
They will be monitoring Smith’s recovery from a heavy chest-knock but one of the biggest dilemmas for players outside the 22 is how they earn a senior call-up when they can’t audition in the reserves?
The SANFL has been postponed until May 31 at the earliest meaning even if AFL football is still going then, only 22 can play each week.
Nicks has told them to focus on the basics and doing them well.
“It’s only over the last few days we’ve had confirmation that at this point they won’t be able to play (practice or trial) games against other clubs,” he said.
“The challenge there now for them is to do everything day to day, get their training to a standard and they’ll get their opportunities.
“The season is going to be an unusual one, we’ve all been asked to be flexible, we don’t really know what’s coming after four weeks but from that point on it’s going to be an interesting year.
“Players will get an opportunity. We’ll play the side that we believe is the best side that weekend, it doesn’t necessarily mean the same 22 will play next week, it’s not all about your form coming in but if you’re training well – and we have guys ready to step up that didn’t play this game.”