Adelaide Crows find the grit to overcome Fremantle and clear the doubts before Showdown 46 with Port Adelaide
Adelaide has leapfrogged Port Adelaide on the AFL ladder after beating Fremantle in a dour contest at Adelaide Oval, setting up a classic lead-in to Showdown 46 on Saturday.
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What a lead-in to Showdown 46 this weekend.
Question is: Which of the SA rivals is looking better prepared for the derby that — thankfully — is never made by pre-game form or standings on the ladder?
Port Adelaide was taught a lesson by a genuine AFL pacesetter in 2018 grand finalist Collingwood at the Melbourne Docklands on Friday night. No better game than a derby on Saturday night for a response, right?
As Crows co-captain Taylor Walker noted on Sunday night: “They’ll have fire in their belly” … even if there will be some deep-running questions in their minds and dents in the Power’s collective confidence after that Magpies mauling.
By contrast, the resurgent Crows came through a finals-like pressure cooker by a would-be measuring stick in Fremantle at Adelaide Oval on Sunday evening. No better way to warm up for a Showdown than proving your grit with a patient dismantling of a dour Dockers’ unit, right?
“We’re building (good form),” noted Walker.
What a fascinating build-up to Showdown 46.
The SA-based AFL clubs are both 4-3, separated between sixth and seventh spots with percentage favouring Adelaide … and the bookmakers challenged to split them as they open the betting market for the 46th derby.
Winning form is the best indicator, surely? And the Crows have now won three consecutive games for the first time since … entering Showdown 44 with three successive wins from Rounds 5-7 last year.
In a season when everyone has been waiting for Adelaide to return to its high-scoring ways of Season 2017, a seven-goal return from the Crows has never appeared more reassuring for Crows coach Don Pyke.
But it was not a game to reassure the AFL masters that their tinkering with rule changes is the answer to saving the game from ultra-defensive themes.
Pyke resisted giving this dour game a tantalising sub-plot by running Adelaide co-captain and midfield spirit Rory Sloane against Fremantle captain and Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe in a classic duel. He preferred having Cam Ellis-Yolmen shadow Fyfe, who still led the Dockers’ possession count with 32 disposals at half-time (while Ellis-Yolmen had 33!).
Adelaide’s goalkicking yips continue, as highlighted by the 1.6 in the first half when every scoring opportunity was so difficult in its earning that poor finishing was infuriating. For one of the game’s master finishers, Eddie Betts, to miss two “simple” set shots in the first half leaves more to wonder as to why goalscoring is below par across the national league this season.
Between Adelaide’s opening goal from Walker in the 11th minute of the first term to the Crows’ second from Hugh Greenwood in the eighth minute of the third there were seven quite basic scoring opportunities burned.
It was only Fremantle’s inability to score in the second term — as the Dockers struggled to isolate any of its go-to forwards in a restocked attack — that stopped the Crows being scorched.
But persistence — of which Adelaide clearly has plenty — won out. And this might count the most in Showdown 46.
Who else, but Eddie Betts?! #AFLCrowsFreo pic.twitter.com/kIb7xh3QE5
— AFL (@AFL) May 5, 2019
FOURTH QUARTER
ADELAIDE 7.9 (51)
FREMANTLE 5.4 (34)
Adelaide’s game-high 19-point lead was immediately challenged by Darcy Tucker scoring his second goal with a long shot — and his Dockers’ team-mates repeatedly hitting the Crows defence hard creating their next goal from Michael Walters off a Kyle Hartigan turnover. Crows defender Alex Keath scoring his first AFL goal — after Tucker gave away a 50-metre penalty on an out-of-bound on the full call — sealed the game with six minutes to play.
THIRD QUARTER
ADELAIDE 5.9 (39)
FREMANTLE 3.2 (20)
More of the same — intense football with go-to forwards having to deal with extra defensive numbers collecting intercept marks inside-50. The Crows missed basic chances at the northern end until Hugh Greenwood went long and accurately in the eighth minute. Matt Taberner scoring Fremantle’s third goal minutes later put the game at a 20-20 deadlock until Himmelburg, Murphy and Brodie Smith scored three in the last five minutes.
#AFLCrowsFreo Not sure if it's the worst game I've seen but could be in the top 5. Pressure does not make for a good spectacle
— Graham Cornes (@Cornesy12) May 5, 2019
SECOND QUARTER
ADELAIDE 1.6 (12)
FREMANTLE 2.2 (14)
INTENSE play with strong defensive edge with both teams unable to isolate their go-to forwards inside-50 from the start of this scrappy term. Adelaide’s goalscoring yips continued with Tom Lynch hitting a post while running to an open goal in the fourth minute and Eddie Betts doing the same with a set shot in the 18th. Fremantle did not score.
The Dockers' squeeze is working... and Darcy Tucker put it home.#AFLCrowsFreo pic.twitter.com/BD2Aw2gPlk
— AFL (@AFL) May 5, 2019
FIRST QUARTER
ADELAIDE 1.3 (9)
FREMANTLE 2.2 (14)
Strong start by Adelaide with almost a lock on keeping the ball in its forward half, as measured by an inside-50 superiority of 13-9. But misses from Eddie Betts and Lachlan Murphy (at set shots) and Hugh Greenwood (snap to an open goal) denied the Crows any lead at quarter-time against the more-efficient and accurate Dockers who were winning more of the contested ball (41-39).
ADELAIDE V FREMANTLE
Sunday, May 5, 4.10pm, Adelaide Oval
TV: Fox Footy, Seven (LIVE)
Radio: Triple M, ABC, FIVEaa
Live stream: Kayosports.com.au
CROWS
B: A. Keath, D. Talia, K. Hartigan
HB: B. Smith, R. Laird, D. Mackay
C: R. Knight, M. Crouch, R. Atkins
HF: H. Greenwood, T. Lynch, L. Mutphy
E. Himmelberg, T. Walker, E. Betts
Followers: R. O’Brien, R. Sloane, B. Crouch
Interchange: Gibbs, Gallucci, Kelly, Ellis-Yolmen
IN: Gibbs
OUT: Poholke
DOCKERS
B: J. Hamling, A. Pearce, L. Ryan
HB: R. Conca, N. Wilson, E. Hughes
C: E. Langdon, N. Fyfe, B. Hill
HF: M. Walters, A. Brayshaw, T. Colyer
F. Hogan, M. Taberner, B. Matera
Followers: R. Lobb, D. Tucker, D. Mundy
Interchange: Nyhuis, Switkowski, Cerra, McCarthy
NO CHANGE
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