AFL Adelaide v GWS: Crows’ improved defence leads to crucial victory

Much has been made of Adelaide’s three key forwards in attack, but against GWS it was their back six that won them the game. One of their star defenders reveals how they shut the Giants out.

Fittingly, when a scrappy game with the lowest combined half-time score of any AFL match in six years needed a spark, it came from a defender.

Max Michalanney booted the first goal of his career, 41 seconds into the third quarter, launching the ball from 45m off two steps.

Michalanney was one of the stars of a Crows backline that was immense in the 18-point home win over GWS on Saturday.

Adelaide’s defence had entered the game in the spotlight.

The team was coughing up high scores and butchering the ball in dangerous areas in its defensive half.

Max Michalanney boots a goal

Going into the round, the Crows had conceded the seventh-most points in the AFL.

The perception was that their backline remained a little shaky.

And that the team needed to take a scalp after losing to two widely expected finalists and beating three sides tipped to miss the top eight.

They rose to the occasion on Saturday, restricting the third-placed, perennial contender GWS to just 4.10 (34) from 43 inside 50s.

It was the Giants’ lowest score since round 17, 2022 and the fewest points the Crows had conceded since 2019, before Matthew Nicks became coach.

The conditions, which included a swirly breeze across the ground and heavy rain during the third quarter, made it difficult for both sides to kick goals.

So did the respective backlines.

The Giants’ defenders kept their side in it after a barrage of Crows inside 50s – it was 16-8 at quarter-time, then 30-12 to the main break.

Michalanney was crucial to Adelaide’s stingy performance, holding GWS captain Toby Greene goalless.

“We’re pretty proud of how we went about it defensively,” Michalanney told this masthead.

“They’re a really good team at the moment and have quality across the field.

“For us to stop that, as a team, is something we’re really happy with and focused on throughout the week.

“A lot of it was mindset and our ability to defend before we turn the ball over.

“Our mids did that really, really well this week and made it really hard for GWS to get any flowing footy.”

Nicks added: “We were defensively a lot stronger today to what we’d been to this point in the season.

“That’s an area we needed to improve on and it was a great step in the right direction.

“There’s not many teams that win a grand final that have 100-plus points kicked against them week in, week out.

“We were under a lot of pressure in that third quarter, but our backs held up and stuck it out. “Michalanney, (Josh) Worrell, (Nick) Murray back in brings an energy.”

Murray solidifies Adelaide’s defence when he plays.

The Crows’ have won seven and lost five of their games with him in the side over the past two seasons.

Without him they are 5-1-10.

He was sidelined for the past three matches because of a knee issue and missed all bar the last nine games of 2024 after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament the previous season.

Worrell and Mitch Hinge had tough nights in the Gather Round loss to the Cats, but both bounced back strongly.

Worrell’s desperate lung backwards to prevent goal with two minutes remaining was emblematic of the Crows’ stingy defending.

Hinge, whose poor turnovers resulted in easy goals twice last week, led Adelaide with nine intercept possessions.

Mitch Hinge was one of the many Adelaide defenders who contributed to the win. Picture: Getty Images

Intercept marking was a feature in the Crows’ backline.

Michalanney left Greene to take one early.

The Giants star had kicked 14 goals from the opening five rounds, including five last week, and 14 from his past four matches against the Crows.

But Michalanney helped keep the three-time All-Australian to 0.1 from 13 disposals on Saturday.

“His first five rounds, he’s been dominating,” he said.

“I take a bit of confidence out of the coaches putting trust in me to stand some of the best players each week.

“It was probably my third or fourth time playing on him, and it’s been good fun.

“It’s always a good duel.”

Michalanney highlighted half-forwards Alex Neal-Bullen and Ben Keays’ hard running up along the weak side of the ground and pressuring of Giants players rebounding from their back half as being instrumental to the Crows’ defending.

For the first time under Adam Kingsley, GWS did not kick any goals from back-half transition on Saturday.

“We know they’re a good handball side and rebound really well, so their ability to stop that made it a lot easier for our backs,” Michalanney said.

Neal-Bullen ranked No. 1 on the ground for distance covered (15.9km) and pressure acts (24).

Keays was third (14.7km, 22) in both those statistics.

Nicks said of Neal-Bullen: “It was amazing how many contests he was involved in or if he wasn’t he was right in the periphery on the right spots. He played a really important but slightly different role for us tonight. We had a plan with the Giants and he was instrumental. We felt like our forwards tonight did a truckload of work against a super dangerous backline.”

Neal-Bullen’s snapped goal during the third quarter fired up the crowd and the Melbourne premiership player.

Michalanney’s major earlier in the term might have surprised his teammates.

“The boys have been into me the past couple of weeks saying I’ll never kick a goal,” he said.

“I’ve finally got one on the board.

“I panic when I get that up the field, so I was pretty happy to hit it well and watch it sail through.

“I had Soli (Jake Soligo) hugging me as it was going through.

Max Michalanney enjoys his first career goal. Picture: Getty Images

“It was a great memory and one I’ll cherish forever.”

Adelaide planned to watch the moment back that night.

“To have that little bit of polish at the end of it ... and to knock his first one through, it was good for the team and gave them a bit of energy at that stage,” Nicks said.

Michalanney has seemed mature beyond his years since arriving at the Crows as a father-son selection at the end of 2022.

Mature is also a word to describe Adelaide’s win, coming off consecutive defeats.

“There’s times in the past we’ve let go of leads like that,” Michalanney said.

“To hold on in trying conditions is something we’re pretty happy with.”

PRE-GAME: FOGARTY’S TEX ADMIRATION

- Jessica Robinson

Star Crow Darcy Fogarty says the Adelaide forward 50 still belongs to Taylor Walker despite having multiple Coleman Medal fancies making up a potent attack.

Fogarty enters a highly-anticipated clash with the Giants with 16 goals to his name, which is enough to sit equal-third in the competition.

But Fogarty told Code Sports he was still taking direction from the veteran on and off the field.

“It’s still his (Walker) forward line definitely, and he’s still letting all of us younger fellas know about it,” he said.

“What he does just to stay involved in games and be a really consistent player is probably the main thing I’ve taken from him.

“He’s obviously in his 18th year, he’s found a way to get through and perform at a really high level, so there’s a lot of week-to-week stuff that he’s helped me with in terms of how to prepare and how to get the most out of pre-seasons to prepare yourself.”

Darcy Fogarty says Taylor Walker still leads the Crows' forward line. Picture: Toyota Australia

Fogarty and fellow Crow Riley Thilthorpe (15 goals) are both top five in the Coleman race, while Walker sits just outside the top 10 with 12 majors.

While Fogarty and Thilthorpe are seen as the future keys to Adelaide’s forward line, the star Crow says he still finds himself watching ‘Tex’ as a fan.

“Sometimes you sort of sit back when you shouldn’t and become a spectator on the field and watch him, you can turn into a fan out there which is pretty cool,” he said.

“Playing with him is so special, he’s a great player, a great fella and he’s still doing really special things.”

Taylor Walker kicks a goal

Adelaide’s potent forward unit will face one of the league’s staunchest defences in GWS Giants, and Fogarty says the Crows are expecting a battle.

“We went away from what was working when Geelong turned it on (in that last quarter), we stopped being predictable to ourselves,” the key forward said from a Toyota activation.

“The main thing is how we control ourselves and execute our game plan when the pressure turns up.

“So that’s a big one, that’s something we trained this week.

“GWS being such a good team, the pressure is obviously going to be there, so how can we continue to sort of play our brand of football even when the heat’s turned up.”

Ahead of round six, the Crows big man attack had them sitting number one for points scored (600).

However, the Giants’ defensive lineup has proved tough to crack, GWS second league wide in points conceded (335) compared to the Crows in seventh (460).

And Fogarty says the key position match up against the likes of Harry Himmelberg and Sam Taylor is a key focus.

“You want to go up against the best players and challenge yourself, so we’re going to try and throw the first punch and get on top of them early and then go from there as a forward line,” he said.

Fogarty has started the season strongly. Picture: Michael Klein

“We’ve got to create a lot of pressure so they can’t just run it out and do what they like coming out of our forward 50.

“So we’ll have a big focus of trying to pin the ball in, get it into good spots where it’s easy to defend and we can also score off and set up the ground really well defensively.”

We’re going to try and be really composed this week, we’re gonna tighten up defensively, but we’re not going to change too much of the way we play.”

After missing the last two matches, Nick Murray’s inclusion provides a boost to the Crows’ defensive unit.

Giants have won four of their past five clashes but Adelaide took the win at their last meeting.

After playing in front of 50,000 fans at Gather Round, a return to Adelaide Oval has Fogarty pumped for another big challenge.

“I think that might have been the biggest crowd in Adelaide that I’ve played in front of, it was so good.

“Hopefully they (Crows fans) keep backing us in, I know we’ve lost two in a row now, but hopefully they can see the football that we’re trying to play and know the football that we can play.”

Originally published as AFL Adelaide v GWS: Crows’ improved defence leads to crucial victory