The Lowdown: All the likes and dislikes from round 18

Two years ago, Adelaide’s recruiting team took a leap of faith and jumped ahead of WA clubs to take Dan Curtin with pick 8. It could become one of the club’s best-ever moves.

Adelaide enhanced its top-four credentials with a statement 11-point win over the Western Bulldogs in a top-eight shaping clash at Marvel Stadium, then Port overcame a shaky start to topple bottom-placed West Coast by 26.

Here are our likes and dislikes from round 18.

LIKES

1. DAN CURTIN

Swapping Chris Groom for Andrew McLeod will be hard to beat for the most significant Crows trade.

Adelaide’s draft night deal with GWS two years ago is one the club’s recruiting team will already be looking back on fondly.

The Crows swapped picks 11, 15 and a 2024 second-rounder for eight and 17 in order to take Dan Curtin.

Two slight drops down the order and a future selection is looking very cheap.

Curtin has been a huge influence on the club’s finals charge this year.

Daniel Curtin has bloomed this season. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

The West Australian has played all 17 games for Adelaide and is having a fantastic latter half of the campaign.

A fortnight ago, this column highlighted Curtin on the back of a career-best performance against Richmond at the MCG when he kicked two goals from 26 disposals.

The 20-year-old had another 26 touches on Saturday, in one of the club’s best wins of the Matthew Nicks era.

Champion Data ranked him as the fifth-highest rated player on the ground

The utility is now up to equal-15th in the AFL for most contested marks this year with 22.

Curtin is also second-favourite with bookies for the Rising Star Award.

He would become just the second Crow to win that gong, joining Daniel Talia (2012).

2. DARCY BYRNE-JONES AND OLLIE WINES

Zak Butters gets plenty of plaudits, Jason Horne-Francis’s battle with Harley Reid will be talk-show fodder and Joe Richards is fronting the media after his two-goal haul.

So we thought former leadership group members Byrne-Jones and Wines deserved kudos in this segment.

With heart-and-soul leader Sam Powell-Pepper’s season over because of a knee injury he suffered last week and the Power’s workrate down early on Sunday, the duo were two of the players who willed their team back into the contest.

Ollie Wines was inspirational for the Power on Sunday. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Byrne-Jones’s forward-line efforts, including being No. 8 on the ground for pressure acts (18), were rewarded with two majors.

Wines was third for pressure acts (20) and No. 1 for clearances (10, three more than any other player).

Champion Data rated Wines as the second-best on the ground, behind Butters, and Byrne-Jones fifth.

In a game where myriad teammates struggled or started slowly, the veterans refused to let their side suffer an upset.

DISLIKES

1. PORT’S POOR FIRST QUARTER

The Power started Sunday’s game like a team that was underestimating its opponent and had little to play for.

Not coincidentally, Port’s slim finals chances were all but squashed a week prior with a competitive loss in Brisbane and bottom-placed, two-win West Coast was given little chance of causing an upset.

Coach Ken Hinkley assured supporters leading into the match that his team would “play in the right fashion”, even if a top-eight finish was out of the picture.

“I’m really confident that our players behave like that, they act like that and they train like that, so that gives me great confidence that regardless when the season finishes we’ll have the right energy and desperation, and passion to play the right way,” Hinkley said on Tuesday.

But it failed to do so in the opening term.

Travis Boak and the Power were jumped early. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Captain Connor Rozee labelled the first-quarter energy and pressure “pretty low”, saying its DNA and contest was missing.

Cheap turnovers and lacklustre defending helped the Eagles jump out to a 6.3 to 2.2 advantage at the first break.

It took a quarter-time spray from Hinkley to kickstart the Power.

“He brought us straight in and it was well deserved,” Port veteran Travis Boak told this masthead.

“He didn’t want us to play like boofheads – I think that was the term – and respect the game a little bit because we weren’t defending well enough.

“In any professional sport or any game where you’re coming up against an opposition you’re ahead of on the ladder that are having some challenges and are a young side, there’s definitely some mental challenges there, but we spoke about playing our brand regardless of the opposition.”

West Coast led by 25 points at quarter-time before the Power piled on 10.13 to 3.4.

THE LOWDOWN ON …

Adelaide has ticked one of the last boxes it needs to be considered a legitimate threat to have a deep September run – take a scalp on the road.

Losses to Collingwood at the MCG, Fremantle in Perth and Hawthorn in Launceston left the lingering question about whether the Crows could beat the best sides away from home.

They had defeated Essendon, Richmond and Sydney, but what about the Western Bulldogs in a top-eight shaping clash at Marvel Stadium?

Adelaide’s confidence, maturity, firepower and toughness were all on display in the 11-point victory, looking too physically imposing for the hosts at times.

How far can the Crows go in 2025? Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Its next three matches are massive – and all at home: Gold Coast, Port, Hawthorn.

From there, the Crows take on strugglers North Melbourne and West Coast on the road with a home clash against flag fancies Collingwood at Adelaide Oval in between.

A top-two spot is not unrealistic, which will be a brilliant effort if it happens.

No doubt, Adelaide will be looking no further ahead than the Suns though.

And it will feel it owes them one after losing to them by one and six points in their past two meetings, both on the Gold Coast.