AFL Round 16 Adelaide v North Melbourne: The Crows are embracing the finals talk ahead of eight-point game against Essendon
A win against Essendon at Marvel Stadium next week will entrench Adelaide in the top-eight – so are the Crows embracing the F word? Go inside the club’s recent focus session.
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Only five Crows who lined up in Saturday’s 76-point home thrashing of North Melbourne have played in an AFL final.
Veterans Taylor Walker (10), Rory Sloane (nine), Brodie Smith (eight) and Rory Laird (seven) as well as former Swan Jordan Dawson (one).
Inside the top eight with eight matches remaining, Adelaide’s young squad is embracing the pursuit of the club’s first finals berth in six years.
Making the major round was a goal set during pre-season.
Coming off their round 14 bye, the Crows held a session that focused on what they needed to do to get there, according to ruckman Reilly O’Brien.
They spoke about the need to maintain training their intensity, driving standards on and off the track, including recovering well from games, and not fearing any growing pressure.
“We talked about embracing the challenge of the back end of the year and not going into that fear mindset and shying away from ‘oh no, we’ve got to make finals, there’s expectation on us now’,” O’Brien told this masthead.
“It’s more so going ‘how good’s this? How good’s this opportunity we’ve got?’
“We’re choosing to see it as a great opportunity and a privilege to be able to have a chance to make finals.
“We’re trying to stay in that positive mindset and really embrace the challenge.”
O’Brien was at Adelaide when it last played finals – in 2017 when Sam Jacobs was the club’s No. 1 ruckman.
Since then, the club has won 12, 10, three (in a 17-game season), seven and eight matches.
On Saturday, the Crows’ victory took them to eighth spot and equalled their number of triumphs from the whole of last year.
Adelaide beat North Melbourne at home in a similar result – by 57 points – almost 12 months ago to the day, on June 26, 2022.
That was the Crows’ fifth win for the season and they lost their next four matches.
O’Brien said being in finals contention at this point in the year for the first time since 2019 was ensuring a “different feel” and exciting vibe at West Lakes.
“At this stage of the year the last three years the season had probably been over and we’d been playing without the hope of making finals, but now every game’s got a lot of weight on it,” he said.
“We can’t slip up now … but we’re enjoying the challenge.”
Much has been made of Adelaide’s away record this season, which only shows one win from six matches.
That victory was against struggling Hawthorn by three points in Launceston in round 6.
Notching a second road win, against fellow contender Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, would be a significant boost to Adelaide’s finals hopes.
“It’s huge … they’re one of the teams we’re fighting with for a spot in the eight,” he said.
“It’s almost like a final in that context, almost like an eight-point game for both clubs.
“We can’t wait.
“We’re not going to shy away from that or think about losing, we’ll think about taking it up to them because if we do that and play our brand of footy, we’ll win.”
Adelaide has lost six of the seven matches it has played in the Matthew Nicks era at Marvel Stadium – the victory coming against Hawthorn in 2021.
The Crows have not played at the venue since falling to the Hawks in round 17 last year.
“We don’t necessarily perform that well at the ground but that’s part of our journey,” Nicks said.
Asked if Sunday’s game was the proverbial eight-pointer, Nicks said: “Yeah, I think most of them are now”.
“We need to play every week like it’s our last because it almost is,” he said.
“If you look at statistics, we’ve got to win a certain amount of games to do it (make the finals).
“Last night I was watching Sydney and Geelong trying to work out who to barrack for.
“We’re in a position now where we’re in the fight and if we can continue to get the job done like we did today, it’s really up to us.”
So how does such a young team with just five players with finals experience and a senior coach who is yet to lead the club make sure it stays focused on the present, rather than the pressure or end goal?
Nicks said the side was “real about where we sit”.
“We’re not going to hide from it and not talk about it,” he said.
“We openly discuss exactly what we want but then we come back to what it is we’ve got to do to get there.
“We’ve got a really tough run as far as what we need to win from our remaining games.
“But if we get ahead of ourselves and stop thinking about that, we’re not concentrating on Essendon.”
O’Brien played perhaps his best game of the season on Saturday, registering two goals, 52 hit-outs, five tackles, six clearances and 15 disposals.
He said getting to the finals for the first time was something that was driving him.
“It’s nice if teams on similar points lose, but we don’t want to focus on that, we want to focus on winning games,” he said.
“And not just winning games, but also playing our brand and building this momentum towards the end of the year because we don’t want to just make finals, we want to win finals.”
Nicks’ Ted Lasso-esque message that sparked Crows blitz
- Jason Phelan
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks reminded his players to smile and have a bit of fun at half-time against the Kangaroos, and the happy-go-lucky Crows responded with a devastating second-half demolition that shored up their position in the top eight.
Despite leading by 26 points, Nicks sensed the frustration of his charges after they traded blows with the Roos in a first-half shootout at Adelaide Oval.
But in a Ted Lasso-esque coaching move, rather than channel that frustration, Nicks urged his players to lighten up a bit and let their well-drilled game plan come to the fore.
“We had a conversation at half-time about putting a smile on your face,” Nicks said.
“We were angry and a little bit frustrated in that second quarter.
“We came down into the rooms and it was like, ‘What’s the point of being angry?’
“We’re going to play footy for our local club if we’re not here and pay for our shorts and socks.
“We had that conversation.
“We’re all mates, we’ve built that connection as a group, so in the second half we went out to enjoy ourselves and play our footy.”
Izak Rankine took his coach’s message to heart, the smiling assassin helping himself to a career-high five goals as Adelaide kicked nine goals to three in the second half to finish with seven multiple goalkickers.
The Crows’ second-highest score for the season propelled them to an 8-7 record that tightened their grip on a top-eight spot, with a clash against fellow finals aspirant Essendon at Marvel Stadium next up.
“We’re in the fight now and if we continue to get the job done like we did today then it’s really up to us,” Nicks said.
“Part of maturing as a group is maturing to the point where you now know what it takes to hold onto (your own destiny) and that’s where we sit at this point.
“We need to play every week like it’s our last because it almost is now.
“It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be a tough road for us, but today is a good step in the right direction.”
Key defender Jordon Butts will miss the clash against the Bombers after he was concussed in a head knock.
Nicks praised the efforts of Mitch Hinge after he played a key role in a reorganised defensive unit.
“That was the best game that Hingey has played for us,” the coach said.
“It wasn’t only about the intercept, it was his ability off that to be composed.
“We lose a back nearly every week because our guys put their bodies on the line.
“Buttsy was unfortunate today, but that’s what he does every week, he puts his body on the line.
“He was feeling a lot better in the rooms but he’s disappointed because he’s going to miss next week.
“But for others to step up has been a real positive for us.”
Rankine runs riot on Roos after Butts’ brutal head clash
It was a shootout at Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon, with five-goal star Izak Rankine leading the Crows’ band of merry gunslingers to a 66-point thumping of North Melbourne.
The combatants combined to put 20 goals on the scoreboard in a free-flowing first half, but the Roos couldn’t go with the high-powered Crows after the break, the home side rumbling to a 21.12 (138) to 11.6 (72) win.
Reilly O’Brien put in a commanding performance with 52 hitouts and was one of Adelaide’s seven multiple goalkickers, as Matthew Nicks’ side improved to an 8-7 record to solidify its hold on a top-eight spot.
Coleman Medal leader Taylor Walker joined the party after a goalless first half, booting back-to-back majors in a game-defining run of seven unanswered goals either side of half-time.
Walker nonchalantly stroked home his third from where the 50m arc meets the boundary line to move to 46 goals for the season.
North was trying to avoid a 13th loss in a row and become the first team to avoid this season’s post-bye bogey that had seen nine losses and no wins for teams coming off the break against sides that played the week before.
The visitors gave a good showing in the first half, but slumped to a 2-13 record, with caretaker coach Brett Ratten still looking for his first win after six games in charge.
Roo praises ROB
O’Brien was outstanding throughout and was on career-high pace early with 19 hitouts in the first quarter.
His deft palm down that set up a superb running goal by Rankine won high praise from Adelaide legend Mark Ricciuto.
“That there was Reilly O’Brien’s best ever hitout in his career … I’m not joking,” Ricciuto said on Fox Footy.
O’Brien also soccered through a goal in a lively opening, Adelaide leading by as much as 23 points before settling for a 19-point advantage at the first break.
Tarryn Thomas provided the spark for the visitors with back-to-back goals and Jy Simpkin slotted a stunning goal from the boundary line as the Roos showed they were up for the fight.
Ricciuto went again after O’Brien kicked two goals in a game for the first time when he let one fly from the 50m arc to start the second half.
“I think that’s his best goal ever as well,” Ricciuto said.
Fiery first
Tempers flared as an entertaining opening term came to a close when Callum Coleman-Jones cannoned into the back of Nick Murray as he courageously marked running back with the flight.
Murray’s teammates remonstrated strongly with the Roos ruckman as the Crows defender took his 50m penalty.
Walker missed the resultant set shot after the siren, which heralded another all-in wrestle as Adelaide players made their displeasure known.
Larkey goes loud
Jordon Butts kept Nick Larkey goalless in the first quarter, but the Adelaide defender was subbed out after a head knock late in the opening term.
With his teammates winning the clearance battle up the field, Larkey took full advantage with three second-quarter goals taking his season tally to 42 and helping the Kangaroos to their biggest first-half score of the season.
The margin was just six points shortly after Larkey’s third major, but Darcy Fogarty and Rankine each booted their third goals of the day as the home side went into half-time with a 26-point advantage.
Izak’s back
Rankine sent a scare through the home camp when he was left writhing in pain after laying a tackle in the shadows of the famous scoreboard in the third quarter.
The boom recruit was in the hands of trainers for several minutes before regaining his feet and playing out the match, with replays showing he had only jarred his back.
SCOREBOARD
CROWS 7.2 12.5 17.8 21.12 (138)
KANGAROOS 4.1 8.3 9.3 11.6 (72)
PHELAN’S BEST
CROWS: O’Brien, Rankine, Keays, Hinge, Dawson, Laird, Sloane, Fogarty. KANGAROOS: Sheezel, Thomas, Ziebell, Wardlaw, Larkey, Tucker, Scott.
GOALS
CROWS: Rankine 5, Fogarty 4, Walker 3, Thilthorpe 2, Pedlar 2, O’Brien 2, Keays 2, Murphy. KANGAROOS: Larkey 3, Thomas 2, Stephenson 2, Zurhaar, Simpkin, Scott, Davies-Uniacke.
INJURIES
CROWS: Butts (head knock). KANGAROOS: Nil.
35,226 at ADELAIDE OVAL
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 O’Brien (Adel)
2 Rankine (Adel)
1 Keays (Adel)
Originally published as AFL Round 16 Adelaide v North Melbourne: The Crows are embracing the finals talk ahead of eight-point game against Essendon
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