Showdown 49: All the news and build-up to Port Adelaide v Adelaide
Adelaide skipper Rory Sloane has been given the all-clear to play on Saturday night. But coach Matthew Nicks has also confirmed three other big inclusions. See the teams.
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Adelaide captain Rory Sloane has been given the green light to return and headlines four Crows changes for Saturday night’s Showdown.
Sidelined since Round 3 because of eye surgery for a detached retina, Sloane was passed fit after a light training on Friday and received approval to play from a specialist on Wednesday.
He will be a huge addition to a Crows team looking to bounce back from its worst loss of the season – a 67-point home hammering by GWS.
Luke Brown (achilles) and Will Hamill (foot) also passed tests to prove their fitness, while Darcy Fogarty was recalled after being an unused medical substitute against the Giants.
Fogarty impressed in the SANFL on Sunday, recording 18 disposals, seven clearances and seven inside 50s.
Andrew McPherson, Shane McAdam, Nick Murray and Jackson Hately were all omitted.
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‘BODIES FLYING’: INSIDE STORY OF THE FIRST SHOWDOWN
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said the club was comfortable Sloane was ready.
“This morning was just that last tick-off to make sure he felt right to go,” Nicks said.
“From a footy point of view, he’s had just over a month out and it’ll be a challenge for him coming back in but we know what sort of player he is – he’ll put his head over it.
“It’s a hard one to keep him out of.
“Brown and Hamill are two really good ins – Brown is really important for us down back, Will is very much part of the future.
“When we look at our opposition, we’ve got huge respect for their speed ahead of the ball and Will brings that.”
The Crows were smashed 41-17 in clearances, 135-116 in contested possessions and 60-43 in tackles against the Giants.
Adelaide also struggled in its two pre-season meetings with the Power.
Nicks said his side knew what it needed to do to beat Port Adelaide, but “it really comes back to ‘can we do that?’”
“That’s our challenge,” he said.
“The weekend was a real drop-off in what we’ve been bringing.
“We know if we bring that again, we’ll get touched up by a real quality side.
“We’d like to think and pride ourselves that we’ll bounce back from last week.”
Tom Lynch will not feature on Saturday night after having arthroscopic surgery on his left big to.
It will sideline him for more than two months.
Nicks said Lynch, who was missed for last week’s loss to the Giants, had not improved enough being managed so the veteran and club opted for surgery.
“As weeks went by, Tom began to struggle a little more with the body,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things we’d like to look back over and maybe change the way we went about it.”
PORT ADELAIDE v ADELAIDE
Saturday May 8, 7:10pm (local time) at Adelaide Oval
POWER
B: R.Burton, T.Clurey, A.Aliir
HB: H.Hartlett, T.Jonas, D.Byrne-Jones
C: W.Drew, O.Wines, K.Amon
HF: O.Fantasia, T.Marshall, S.Motlop
F: C.Rozee, C.Dixon, R.Gray
FOLL: S.Lycett, T.Boak, D.Houston
I/C: M.Bergman, M.Georgiades, K.Farrell, S.Powell-Pepper
EMG: M.Frederick, P.Ladhams, T.McKenzie, B.Woodcock
IN: T.Boak, K.Farrell
OUT: M.Frederick, B.Woodcock, S.Mayes (all omitted)
CROWS
B: J.Kelly, J.Butts, L.Brown
HB: B.Smith, T.Doedee, D.Mackay
C: L.Sholl, B.Keays, P.Seedsman
HF: N.McHenry, E.Himmelberg, S.Berry
F: J.Rowe, T.Walker, L.Murphy
FOLL: R.O’Brien, R.Laird, R.Sloane
I/C: H.Schoenberg, W.Hamill, D.Fogarty, R.Thilthorpe
EMG: A.McPherson, C.Jones, J.Worrell, B.Frampton
IN: L.Brown, R.Sloane, W.Hamill
OUT: A.McPherson, S.McAdam, N.Murray, J.Hately (all omitted)
Lynch blow exposes Crows’ sub disaster
Two weeks ago, Adelaide considered Tom Lynch’s sore toe fine enough to play.
Now the 30-year-old has had arthroscopic surgery on his left big toe and is set for more than two months on the sidelines.
Lynch had been able to play with the help of painkillers, including in the Round 6 loss to Hawthorn in Launceston, when he made headlines for needing to go into the change rooms and get his boots after being activated as the medical substitute.
The club had defended its decision to play the veteran despite him training mostly being closed doors in the lead-up to the game and missing last week against GWS.
Adelaide hoped easing Lynch’s training loads would reduce the soreness.
Crows football boss Adam Kelly said the forward’s “degenerative toe problem” had not improved.
“The path we chose has not worked,” Kelly said.
“Tom had been able to carry the injury up until and during the Round 6 game when he was the substitute and had 20 minutes of game time.
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“He then sat out last week’s match against GWS and we had hoped those couple of weeks with a lighter load would assist in his recovery.
“That has not eventuated and while it is disappointing to lose a player of Tom’s quality and leadership, we are confident he will recover in time to play a role for the team in the latter stages of the season.”
CROWS SKIPPER PUSHING FOR SHOWDOWN RETURN
Liz Walsh
Only three weeks ago, Crows captain Rory Sloane was lying on his side, forced to spend a week in exactly the same position as he recovered from corrective eye surgery that had repaired a detached retina.
By Saturday night he hopes to be back running through Adelaide’s midfield, looking to snap his side’s three-game losing streak against Port Adelaide in Showdown 49.
His first hurdle will come on Wednesday when he has a check up with his eye specialist, then he will need to get through Thursday’s main training session and Friday’s captain’s run.
But the 31-year-old is confident he’s fit and done everything necessary to make a comeback.
“From a physical point of view, I feel fine,” he said.
“After the procedure there was a bit of blurriness and, obviously, your vision’s affected, but then as the weeks have continued, your sight gets back to pretty much 20:20 vision again.
“It feels very normal, I suppose.
“All the damage was internal and that got fixed pretty quickly, I was really lucky I got on to it so quickly and I think having had a little tear in the retina before helped me pick up that I had something wrong with this one.
“The first week (after the operation), the way the procedure works … I had to lie on a certain angle, on my side for basically seven days.
“I think that affected (wife) Belinda more so than me, she had to look after three boys for a week, which was a little tough on her.
“All I did, was get up to eat and go to the toilet and back to lie down again, it was an interesting week.
“It could have been a whole lot worse, I’d previously had a tear in the retina, this one was a detachment, knowing … the signs and symptoms, it was lucky I got on to it so quickly.”
But no matter how hard it’s been for him watching from the sidelines as his side has lost three straight games – including last weekend’s 67-point thrashing by Greater Western Sydney – he won’t be taking any chances and will listen to the advice of experts.
“If I’ve learnt anything over the years, it’s that your eyes are extremely important, so I’ll definitely be listening to the specialist and if there’s any risk whatsoever, I wouldn’t play, absolutely,” Sloane said.
“But if he declares me fit and fine, which hopefully he does, then I’ll be right to go.”
Sloane said he’d been proud of the way the Crows midfield group – including the likes of Rory Laird, Sam Berry, Ben Keays and Harry Schoenberg – had stepped up in his place.
With the likes of Jordan Butts and Riley Thilthorpe potentially playing in their first Showdown, Sloane said he’d tell those players to embrace the unique atmosphere of one of footy’s most enduring rivalries.
“We can win any game of football, that’s the attitude we go in with … we’ll certainly leave everything out there this Saturday night,” he said.
Showdown injuries: How long will Power be without Rocky?
Port Adelaide’s veteran midfielder Tom Rockliff has avoided season-ending damage to his left knee, after landing awkwardly during the club’s SANFL win on Sunday.
The fear had been the 31-year-old had torn his anterior cruciate ligament when he twisted his knee after landing in a contest, but scans on Monday cleared him of the devastating injury.
Instead, Rockliff will miss between six-to-eight weeks with a sprained medial collateral ligament.
Up until the injury late in the Magpies’s 60-point thrashing of Woodville-West Torrens, Rockliff had collected 34 touches and was among his side’s best, before he hobbled from Alberton Oval in the final term.
Rockliff played in the opening two AFL games for the Power, before being sidelined with concussion in early April after suffering a head knock playing in the Magpies’ season opener.
His MCL strain will now further delay any return to the senior side.
The Power’s All-Australian defender Darcy Byrne-Jones said the team was disappointed for the 208-game veteran’s latest injury setback, but were relieved he’d escaped a torn ACL.
“It’s a disappointing one because even though he wasn’t playing in the AFL side, he was just bringing so much to the group, when he was playing as the (medical) sub,” Byrne-Jones said.
“And then playing in the Maggies he was giving those young boys great support.”
Meanwhile, scans have also cleared defender Ryan Burton of any structural damage to his ribs, which were bruised during the Power’s 49-point loss to Brisbane.
It’s expected Burton will be cleared to face the Crows in Saturday night’s Showdown 49 at Adelaide Oval, while midfielder Travis Boak could also return after sitting out a week with a sore quad.
Young Crow set for big task
Adelaide’s young defender Jordan Butts might have fewer than 10 AFL games to his name, but his teammates think he’ll be the likely candidate to stop Port Adelaide’s big-marking Charlie Dixon on Saturday night.
Butts’ fellow defender Jake Kelly said the nine-game 21-year-old was in the right kind of form to take on the Power’s 160-game, 30-year-old key forward.
“The talent (that Port have) got in that forward half’s incredible,” Kelly said.
“Obviously Jordan Butts has been playing some good football, so he’s most likely to take Dixon, but they’ve got five or six other guys who are just as dangerous, so it will be a big challenge for our back six.”
It will be Butts’ first Showdown, after he debuted in the Adelaide tricolours in Round 13 last year.
The 198cm defender played two games in 2020, but has played every game so far in 2021, averaging 11.5 disposals and four rebound-50s.
The Crows head into the Showdown at Adelaide Oval on the back of a three-game losing streak, including last weekend’s 67-point loss to Greater Western Sydney.
But Kelly said the side would hopefully be boosted by the return of captain Rory Sloane, who was a chance to play after the veteran underwent surgery on a detached retina.
“He came back out last week to main training and trained fully and with great energy, the way he was training he could have potentially played (against the Giants), but with those eye injuries you’ve got to be very careful,” Kelly said.
“I think he’s been given the all-clear medically to put his hand up for this Saturday.”
While it remains to be seen whether Sloane will play, Kelly said stand-in captain Tom Doedee would be fine for the Showdown, despite spending time on the bench in the last term of Adelaide’s Round 7 loss to the Giants.
“The fact that he spent the last 10 or so minutes on the bench in the fourth quarter was just precautionary to make sure that he’s right to go this Saturday,” he said.
Kelly praised the likes of midfielder Ben Keays for lifting in the middle during Sloane’s absence.
“I don’t think he gets the recognition he deserves,” Kelly said.
“For a guy who’s been delisted two years ago, he’s playing some pretty good football, but obviously having a guy like Rory come back in will make a huge difference.”
It will be a Power home game with the Oval returning to 100 per cent capacity for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.
But Kelly – who will play his 97th AFL game on Saturday – said he loved playing in front of a Port crowd.
“I think their pre-game stuff is really good, it gets me excited and I feel against these boys excited every time we play,” he said.
And don’t expect a repeat of the 75-point defeat the Crows suffered in 2020 in front of only 2500 spectators.
“The great thing about us this year is that we are going to always revert back to that first game (win over Geelong), we know if we can play our best football then we can compete with anyone in the competition … we’ve got to make sure each time we go out we bring that intensity we bring that effort and attitude,” he said.
Byrne-Jones: Bring on the capacity crowd
Darcy Byrne-Jones says the potential for a full capacity crowd at Adelaide Oval at Saturday’s Showdown has the Power players pumped.
Tickets to Showdown 49 – a Port home game – will go on sale to Port Adelaide members on Tuesday morning, with the general public able to snap up remaining seats from Wednesday.
And for the first time since the COVID pandemic started in early 2020, the Oval’s capacity has been lifted to 100 per cent.
“To have a capacity crowd is huge,” Byrne-Jones said.
“It’s going to be exciting and the fans here for both sides are very vocal and very loud so it’s going to be a great experience.
“It’s a normal game in terms of the four points, but there’s so much more riding on it.”
Both teams head into Showdown 49 on the back of big losses, but Byrne-Jones said Port was looking to put it’s 49-point drubbing at the hands of Brisbane at The Gabba well and truly behind them.
“I feel like, we didn’t play our best footy (against Brisbane), we got beaten up around the contest a little bit, our forwards and our backs didn’t play to the level we expect,” he said.
“It’s obviously disappointing to perform like that, but the beauty with footy is there’s always next week and the next week being a Showdown makes it even bigger.”
He said the Power would take full confidence out of the fact they beat the Crows by a record 75 points the last time the sides faced on in a home-and-away game in Round 2, 2020.
“And we played them twice in the (2021) pre-season as well and we were able to win both of those games, so we take great confidence from those,” he said.
Despite rotating through the Power’s midfield against Brisbane, Byrne-Jones said he’s expecting to start in the backline against Adelaide.
“I think I had about five touches in a half (in the Lions game), so I don’t think I’ll be up there again,” he said with a laugh.
The 25-year-old ran through the centre as the Power looked to cover the loss of veteran Travis Boak (quad) and Ryan Burton (who was subbed out of Saturday’s game with sore ribs).
Byrne-Jones said both Boak and Burton were on track for Saturday’s Showdown.
“Boaky is one of the premier midfielders in the competition so any time you get a guy like him back in the team, it will make a big difference,” he said.
“(Burton) obviously copped a knock and had some sore ribs, but I think he’s come through pretty well and we’re hopeful he’ll get up for this week.”
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