Crows break their post-bye blues with tough win over hardworking St Kilda
It wasn’t pretty but it was the four points the Crows desperately needed as they battled for a 22-point win over St Kilda to hold on to their place in the AFL top eight after a difficult week.
- Match centre: All the stats and SuperCoach scores
- Analysis: Eddie’s back and so is the Crows forward pressure
IT had been a love-in at Crowland in the lead up to their clash with the Saints and finally – after a string of disappointing losses – there was something to love in the Crows courage and pluck.
Sure, some may criticise the possession-heavy win over the 14th-placed side: but a win’s a win.
In beating St Kilda at home by 22 points, Adelaide stays in the top eight and can shake off a week the coaching staff would rather forget.
The 14.8 (92) to 10.10 (70) win was built on a high-possession, pressure-filled, team game where the likes of Rory Laird shone.
Going into the game having lost four of their past five games, coach Don Pyke turned his attention to helping his players rediscover their love of the game.
He admitted that the post-bye win-loss record had drained the fun from the squad.
“When you’re losing games of footy, that’s not enjoyable,” he said this week.
“So for us, it’s reattaching ourselves to why we love playing the game.”
And there were signs of them doing just that: Rory Sloane’s off-ball influence far outweighed his 23 touches, Taylor Walker kicked four goals, Eddie Betts — back from the SANFL — unselfishly sent handballs his teammates’ way while Daniel Talia and Wayne Milera stood strong in defence.
The win came despite caretaker coach Brett Ratten’s gutsy side refusing to give in.
Saints forward Tim Membrey was able to shake off defender Kyle Hartigan all night and he finished with three goals, while Jack Billings and Sebastian Ross combined for 51 disposals.
Rowan Marshall’s 32 hitouts were immense.
Much of the game looked like an arm wrestle: two Crows goals were replied with two Saints goals and at one point in the first quarter, anyone looking at the stats sheets was doing a double-take at the “disposals”: both teams were locked on 59: both with 34 kicks, both with 25 handballs. Such was the arm wrestle.
But the Crows finally broke the Saints spirit with a string of three unanswered goals in the last, to keep St Kilda’s winless streak at Adelaide Oval intact.
Pyke said despite losing clearances (31-42), contested possession (138-139) and inside-50s (46-53), his side’s winning ways were built on their transition with the ball.
“We were a bit more deliberate with our ball use, which enabled us to set up score from transition versus from stoppage,” he said.
“But that’s two weeks in a row from a stoppage viewpoint we’ve lost those numbers, so that’s not sustainable, but we found a different way tonight.
“I was just proud of the playing group.
“It was a hard-fought win and obviously it had been a difficult win with some of the focus on the club and playing group and so forth, but again, the togetherness of the group and their ability to commit to playing the way we want to play and getting it done wasn’t our greatest performance, but it was a tough-fought win.
“We came to get four points and we got them. So I’m proud of that and proud that throughout the week we were able to stay together and find a way tonight.”
St Kilda’s interim coach Brett Ratten said the Saints weren’t able to put enough scoreboard pressure on the Crows to crack their game.
TEAM SPIRIT
This Crows outfit was clearly determined to play like one. Before the first bounce, the players walked over to the western side of the oval, where they were greeted with applause from the crowd, and they formed a tight, arm-in-arm circle. They did this gesture again as they came out to start the second half, this time the tight circle was formed in the goal square right in front of the cheer squad.
Their team spirit showed in various way throughout the night: Sloane’s stirring moment when he threw himself at the ball in the goalsquare preventing a Saints score in the second quarter. Or when Betts took a spectacular mark with his back to the flight of the ball and kicked a goal. Or when Richard Douglas — also back from the SANFL — kicked a goal in the fourth quarter and he was surrounded by his teammates. And after the forward line being criticised for weeks about being “soft” and players going missing, their tackle count inside 50 was finally impressive: 17 to 6.
MAKING THEIR MARK
The Crows played a high-possession game style and it seemed to suit them. The side won the uncontested possession count, 266 to 209 and up until half time, had taken 80 marks, which according to the AFL’s stats gurus, was Adelaide’s most marks to half-time since round 12, 2008 where they took 81. Their most-ever marks in a match — 168 in round 11, 2016 — looked under threat there for a while. But they finished with 129.
THROUGH THE FOG
The Crows faithful had been calling for it and finally the match committee made the same call bringing Darcy Fogarty in his first game at AFL level since Round 16 last year. He started in the goal square and had collected his first possession by the 45 second mark of the game and kicked a beautiful forward entry. The fans at the point must have thought: is this what we’ve been missing? He tried hard all night, took some grabs, and was finally rewarded for his effort in the last quarter with a booming goal and he was swamped by his teammates for the efforts.
GIBBS BACK
He’d been in purgatory in the SANFL for a month, but Bryce Gibbs was a welcome return to the senior side. His inclusion allowed Wayne Milera to spend more time down back, where he was handy taking strong marks, but Gibbs’ real merit came in clearances. Coming into the game, the Crows had the unceremonious record of having the second-worst clearance differential in the league (over the past month). This was a worry and at quarter time the 4-14 differential was looking like déjà vu. But Gibbs — along with Brad Crouch — helped to vastly improve Adelaide’s stake in this. He finished with 29 disposals — including 10 contested possessions, took five marks, had five tackles and six clearances.
SCOREBOARD
Adelaide: 4.1 6.4 10.7 14.8 (92)
St Kilda: 3.2 5.5 7.7 10.10 (70)
GOALS:
Adelaide: Walker 4, Betts 3, M. Crouch 2, Lynch, Douglas, Fogarty, Smith, Murphy
St Kilda: Membrey 3, Hind, Long, Lonie, Gresham, Ross, Bruce, Parker
BEST:
Adelaide: Laird, M. Crouch, Walker, B. Crouch, Lynch,
St Kilda: Membrey, Billings, Marshall, Steele, Ross
UMPIRES:
Margetts, Brown, Findlay
CROWD:
39,984 at Adelaide Oval
VOTES:
3 — Laird
2 — M. Crouch
1 — Membrey