AFL Round 8 Adelaide v Port Adelaide: All the news, analysis and fallout from Showdown 55
In the wake of a win he says ‘couldn’t have been more perfect’, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has hailed Rory Sloane and the unheralded backline that exposed Port’s big problem again.
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Belief is back at Adelaide after the Rory Sloane-inspired Crows held their nerve to vanquish cross-town foes Port Adelaide in Thursday night’s Showdown.
The Power was wasteful in front of goal and lost skipper Connor Rozee at three-quarter time with a recurrence of a hamstring injury, but there was so much to like about the way Matthew Nicks’ men played in what the coach described as a ‘mature’ performance.
It wasn’t always pretty, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to a win, the Crows’ third in a row against Port, that breathes new life into their season with a 3-5 record.
“It may have looked scrappy on the tele, but it couldn’t have been more perfect from our point-of-view,” Nicks said.
“We started really well, we threw the first punch, and we had the ascendancy from that point, which made a few things challenging for our opposition then it was a grind.
“We knew they’d come at us, but for our guys to just dig in and get it done was really pleasing.
“I thought that it was a really mature performance.
“You can believe in yourselves, but it’s when you actually have results that go your way because of the way that you’ve gone about it, it’s more reinforcing.
“You learn so much when you lose games of footy, but when you win them with the way that you went into the game, it’s even more rewarding and brings a lot more belief.
“So, from our point-of-view, we came into the game not worried about the record, but we knew we were playing some decent footy and this just backs that up for us.”
Sloane, who was forced into retirement this week by an eye injury, did a lap of honour before the match and played a big part in Adelaide’s Showdown preparation.
“Having Sloaney speak to the group about what he values, what his career meant to him, and what the football club means to him, I think it made an impact,” Nicks said.
“There are not too many players in the league that have the values that he does and that are so consistent on and off the field.
“So, for us to be able to hear those, and for him to voice them with emotion, I think was huge.
“We were able to use a bit of that pre-game.
“I’d say that 23 players came off the ground saying that they’d lived the values that Rory Sloane played 16 years of footy with, which is really pleasing.”
Before the game, Crows fans got their chance to say goodbye to the much-loved former captain as he did a lap of honour before the first bounce.
Prior to that, fans left messages of their love for Sloane on a special wall in his honour just located inside the southern gate at Adelaide Oval.
While they were his fierce rivals on the field, every Port Adelaide player also showed respect to the retiring champion before they went into the rooms.
Speaking to former Crows teammate Bernie Vince, Sloane said it was all “quite overwhelming”.
“Some of my greatest memories have been here over the past 16 years, some of the hardest too, but these fans and the whole of South Australia have supported me,” he said.
“Thank you so much for absolutely everything.”
Before he set-off on his lap around the ground - with kids Sonny, Bodhi and Summer - to Foo Fighters ‘My Hero’, Sloane said he would miss the fans the most not playing.
“It is honestly the reason football clubs are so great, you are the reason why we play,” he said.
“Oh god I am going to miss this feeling and will have me thinking I shouldn’t have retired but I will miss you all.”
Nicks was also pleased with the way that prized No.8 draft pick Daniel Curtin handled the pressure applied by Port Adelaide in his AFL debut.
“I thought early it was really hot, Port’s pressure was right up, and he was really involved,” he said.
“You talk about Keane, Worrell and Butts, Dan Curtin’s name sits right in there as well, he was as important.
“He had some real key moments.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with what he did.”
Clinical Crows expose Power in Showdown slugfest
– Matt Turner
Port Adelaide looked a long way off a premiership contender for most of Thursday night, while the Crows played like the finals threat the club expected to be.
It has become a bit of a theme for the Power in Showdowns – and in big games.
Port Adelaide has acknowledged its struggles against the best sides.
When the bright lights came on to start the first stand-alone prime time Showdown, the Power was again found wanting.
Adelaide again rose to the occasion.
After four out of five wins in these clashes, including the past three by at least 30 points, the Crows officially has their fierce rival’s number.
Adelaide showed its intent from the first bounce, kicking five of the opening six goals, including the initial three, to lead 30-7 within 22 minutes.
The Power revamped its defence during the off-season but it looked seriously shaky early
when Adelaide got the ball back in the Power’s attacking half.
Call it a fast break, a counter-attack, whatever the term, the Crows were able to punish their rivals going the other way, taking the ball quickly from defence to the forward line.
At half-time, Port led inside 50s 30-20 and clearances 22-11.
But the Power trailed by 19 points, having kicked 3.7 – its lowest half-time score since round 7, 2022 – to 7.2.
At its best, the Power entered the match as the fifth-highest scoring team but looked a shell of that against a miserly Crows backline and fierce Adelaide pressure.
Adelaide’s defence worked well together all night, providing little blocks and looking organised.
Mark Keane blanketed Charlie Dixon for the second consecutive Showdown and was one of Adelaide’s best players.
Keane had 12 disposals to Dixon’s five at half-time.
The Irishman recorded eight intercept possessions to the main break, which was the most on the ground.
Port’s backline was all over the shop at times.
Aliir Aliir’s absence was noticeable early when Adelaide took marks inside 50 that you might have expected him to float over and get a hand on.
“They’ve got some problems Port because they’ve had some dominant patches of the game that they can’t turn it into a score, which is creating some serious issues for them and they’re leaking like a sieve,” Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy at half-time.
David King added: “It’s almost as if the Crows drop into this counter-attack mode and there’s options everywhere.
“I haven’t seen a back six look as confused as this for a long time.
“The Crows’ stroll-in goals are the difference.
“When you take it the full length of the ground, it’s easy to convert.”
Port’s ordinary night got worse in the last half when Connor Rozee, Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades all came off injured.
It rolled the dice on Rozee to play six days after suffering a low-grade hamstring strain and he finished Thursday night’s match where he finished last Friday’s – on the bench.
Rozee, who surprised even himself by being available, went off for 10 minutes during the third term before returning to the action, then he was subbed off at three-quarter time with hamstring tightness with his team trailing by 23 points.
He did not appear himself all night, lacking explosiveness and looking like he held back on kicking.
The Port skipper was smothered twice in the first half and in the third quarter he registered zero kicks and six handballs.
Power coach Ken Hinkley admitted he had mad a mistake after the game to let Rozee play.
“I made a mistake playing Connor Rozee tonight,” he said.
“That was clear. It was obvious.
“All the testing that we’d done, all the medical support we could get, all the information I could get was (telling us that) ‘Connor was able to (play)’.
“I’d seen it with my own eyes — he was able to run as fast as he needed to, kick as long as he needed to — but once fatigue set in tonight, it was clear.
“I can try and hide behind it, but I’m not. I’m not a coward when it comes to owning a mistake, and that was what it was.
“(It was) my call.”
Just how big an injury toll there is and just how much it shapes the Power’s season, time will tell.
Right now, Port has to find answers after stumbling in another big game.
As for the Crows, winning gives their finals hopes a pulse at 3-5 and the team a huge injection of belief.
SCOREBOARD
CROWS 5.0 7.2 9.4 12.6 (78)
POWER 3.4 3.7 4.11 5.18 (48)
PHELAN’S BEST CROWS: Soligo (Showdown medal), Crouch, Dawson, Laird, Worrell, Keane, Butts. POWER: Butters, Bergman, Wines, Horne-Francis, Sweet, Houston, Boak.
GOALS CROWS: Rankine 3, Walker 2, Fogarty 2, Sholl, Rachele, McHenry, Keays, Cook. POWER: Horne-Francis 2, Rioli, Marshall, Dixon.
INJURIES CROWS: Nil POWER: Rozee (hamstring), Georgiades (knee), Marshall (ankle).
UMPIRES Stevic, Fisher, Foot, Deboy.
52,106 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Soligo (Adel)
2 Crouch (Adel)
1 Butters (Port)
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