No Taylor Walker, no Jake Lever, no problem for Crows as team effort too much for Giants

NO Walker. No Lever. Who did the Crows miss more on Sunday? Neither. In the absence of two stars, Adelaide proved that team football can overcome much adversity, says Michelangelo Rucci.

Mitch McGovern ... stood up in absence of Taylor Walker. Picture: Tom Huntley

NO Walker. No Lever. Who did the Crows miss more on Sunday?

Neither. A key pillar was kept out of the Adelaide attack at Adelaide Oval as the Crows decided not gamble on captain Taylor Walker’s dodgy hamstring.

And still Adelaide broke the watershed 100-point counter – in time-on of the third term with one of the AFL’s more-imposing and diverse forward systems. Let’s call it “team attack”.

No Walker – and young forward Mitch McGovern steps up, even with a “party trick” goal kicked along the ground in the third term to break Eddie Betts’ monopoly on all the breath-taking goals in Crows games at Adelaide Oval.

A key pillar was absent in defence too. No 195cm Jake Lever - who did not play in the pre-season, also because of a hamstring injury – and early it seemed a problem as Adelaide worked 194cm Andy Otten against 207cm giant, GWS key forward Rory Lobb.

And yet the 178cm Rory Laird, the smallest player in the Adelaide defence, remarkably made the difference (as he does so often).

And the other kid who, like Laird, who came off the much-criticised rookie list, 189cm Jake Kelly, knows how to pitch in too. Here is the merit of “team defence”. Everyone playing a part, to ensure any gaps created by injury are not so obvious.

On an opening week of remarkable upsets, Adelaide achieved a significant result in beating Greater Western Sydney, the early premiership favourite, by 56 points at Adelaide Oval on Sunday. More so when two major cogs in the line-up, Walker and Lever, were missing.

The out-of-contract McGovern will have his value increase again. There already is anticipation, created by gossip on the radio waves, that Adelaide this week will announce a contract extension for either Lever or McGovern or another sponsor as the Crows seek to break the $50 million ceiling on their revenue streams. The Crows fans will keep praying it is McGovern.

Difference maker ... Rory Laird turns on a dime to escape a Giants tackle. Picture: Sarah Reed

Opening day in Adelaide began with the club-produced “Crows Show” on Channel Seven at noon with the first segment highlighting coach Don Pyke’s first team meeting at West Lakes on the return from the October-November holidays.

“Nothing new here,” said Pyke (somewhat surprisingly) as he put up the pre-season program on his whiteboard.

It is a brave coach in this ever-changing AFL to stand firm to his plan to find that improvement Pyke constantly refers to.

More so when so much has been made of Adelaide not closing a deal, particularly for midfielders, in the October trade market to rely on its development programs – that “organic growth”.

But clearly Adelaide believes in its playbook, in its squad and in its ability to impose its way in a game regardless of the names on the team sheet.

Those 43,993 who ventured to Adelaide Oval, to be part of the sauna by the Torrens, saw the sparkle of a new premiership trophy brought to town by the history making Crows AFLW women’s team.

Bec Goddard’s playing group defied so many doubts to become champions in a year when Australian football found something new.

This is the 20th anniversary season of Malcolm Blight’s crew doing the same for Adelaide’s first AFL flag – without injured stars Tony Modra and Mark Ricciuto in the 1997 grand final – the oldest theme in football remains true.

It’s those players who take to the field – and not those who sit in the grandstands – who make the biggest difference.

[e-mail]

Originally published as No Taylor Walker, no Jake Lever, no problem for Crows as team effort too much for Giants