Port Adelaide, Crows name AFLX squads with surprises

ROBBIE Gray returns to action — after beating cancer — as captain of Port Adelaide’s AFLX side while Adelaide holds back its stars from short-form game.

CROWS coach Don Pyke has put a big X on the AFL’s new short-form game by holding his back his stars from the quick-fire football at Hindmarsh Stadium on Thursday.

None of Adelaide’s team leaders - and not even a future leader such as club champion Matt Crouch - will feature in the AFLX as the Crows focus on the AFL premiership.

Robbie Gray will captain the Power in AFLX. Picture: Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images

Jake Kelly is one of the few Crows with AFL experience picked for AFLX. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Adelaide and Port Adelaide - which has Robbie Gray marking his return to competitive football after beating cancer as the Power’s AFLX captain - were favourites to contest the first AFLX grand final in the speculative markets offered at the weekend.

But the Crows’ 18-man squad is so short on experience - and even deprived of perfect AFLX talent such as speed machine Paul Seedsman - that the odds of Adelaide topping Pool B by beating Collingwood and an equally meek West Coast now appears an outside bet.

Pyke makes no apology for using the 20-minute games as a trial series for his novices or a “catch-up zone” for players such as Curtly Hampton who was restricted by injury to just nine AFL matches last season.

“We’re thinking it’s an opportunity for a lot of our younger guys and guys who didn’t get to play a lot of AFL footy last year,” Pyke said. “(They) not only experience AFLX, but to get a run under their belts.”

Adelaide’s AFLX squad has just two players from the losing grand final 22 - young defender Jake Kelly and experienced utility Andy Otten. It also has the Crows’ 2016 first-round draftee Jordan Gallucci, who is in the catch-up zone after having his season derailed by a broken jaw late last year.

The Crows have filled out their squad by calling up all six rookie-listed players, including father-son recruits Jackson Edwards and Ben Jarman and midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen who is on the comeback path after damaging a knee in last year’s pre-season series.

There are 10 players who have not represented Adelaide in an AFL game - Edwards, Jarman, fellow rookie-listed players Patrick Wilson, Lachlan Murphy and Paul Hunter and senior squad members Elliott Himmelberg, Matthew Signorello, Harry Dear, Tom Doedee and Ben Davis.

PORT Adelaide has put four of its new recruits on display in AFLX - 2008 No. 1 AFL draftee Jack Watts and fellow former Melbourne team-mates Jack Trengove and Dom Barry and former Gold Coast defender Trent McKenzie.

The Power’s 19-man squad has seven players from the team that lost to West Coast in extra time of the AFL elimination final at Adelaide Oval in September - Robbie and Sam Gray, highly touted forward Todd Marshall, defenders Jasper Pittard, Dan Houston, Dougal Howard and Tom Clurey.

Port Adelaide opens the AFLX series against Geelong at 6.10pm on Thursday and completes its Pool A games against Fremantle at 8.02pm.

Adelaide opens Pool B against Collingwood at 6.38pm and faces a makeshift West Coast group at 7.34pm.

AFLX SQUADS

ADELAIDE

Jordan Gallucci, Jake Kelly, Curtly Hampton, Jackson Edwards, Andy Otten, Kyle Cheney, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Patrick Wilson, Elliott Himmelberg, Matthew Signorello, Paul Hunter, Harry Dear, Tom Doedee, Ben Davis, Alex Keath, Reilly O’Brien, Lachie Murphy, Ben Jarman.

PORT ADELAIDE

Robbie Gray, Trent Mckenzie, Todd Marshall, Karl Amon, Tom Clurey, Jimmy Toumpas, Jack Trengove, Jack Watts, Kane Farrell, Riley Bonner, Joel Garner, Jasper Pittard, Dougal Howard, Jake Patmore, Jarrod Lienert, Dom Barry, Dan Houston, Cameron Hewett, Sam Gray.

COLLINGWOOD

Jarryd Blair, James Aish, Tom Phillips, Steele Sidebottom, Josh Thomas, Jack Crisp, Nathan Murphy, Tim Broomhead, Will Hoskin-Elliott, Jaidyn Stephenson, Brayden Maynard, Ben Crocker, Josh Smith, Jack Magden.

FREMANTLE

Griffin Logue, Brandon Matera, Danyle Pearce, Nat Fyfe, Andrew Brayshaw, Bradley Hill, Michael Walters, Tommy Sheridan, Mitchell Crowden, Darcy Tucker, Connor Blakely, Cameron McCarthy, Ed Langdon, Brady Grey, Cameron Sutcliffe, Brennan Cox, Luke Ryan, Bailey Banfield, Stefan Giro, Taylin Duman.

GEELONG

Brandan Parfitt, Daniel Menzel, Tim Kelly, Wylie Buzza, Lachie Fogarty, Jordan Murdoch, Mitch Duncan, Aaron Black, Jed Bews, Tom Hawkins, Sam Menegola, Jordan Cunico, Gryan Miers, James Parsons, Zach Guthrie, Jackson Thurlow, Tom Stewart, Mark Blicavs.

WEST COAST

Jarrod Brander, Liam Duggan, Daniel Venables, Jack Petruccelle, Hamish Brayshaw, Francis Watson, Tom Cole, Jackson Nelson, Ryan Burrows, Brayden Ainsworth, Josh Rotham, Malcolm Karpany, Matt Allen, Willie Rioli, Jake Waterman.