Sydney produce stunning performance to beat league leaders Adelaide at Adelaide Oval
SYDNEY has continued its stunning winning run and recent dominance of Adelaide to move into the top four while the Crows face some major decisions.
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DO not hand the premiership cup to Adelaide just yet.
While dual North Melbourne premiership player David King during the week declared the Crows were “the most powerful and complete team in the competition’’, their thrilling three-point home loss to Sydney has thrown the flag race wide open.
And it has left Adelaide with some thinking to do before Sunday’s clash against West Coast in Perth and its September finals campaign.
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The Crows will claim their second McClelland Trophy as the AFL minor premier if they beat the Eagles but the Swans loom as a major flag threat after they fought back from nine points behind with six minutes left at Adelaide Oval to pinch a crucial win.
Sam Reid and Tom Papley kicked two goals in the last six minutes to clinch the win for Sydney after it lost a 29-point second-quarter lead and looked to be gone in the final term.
The victory, described by triple Coleman Medallist Lance Franklin as one of the best he had played in, was a testament to the Swans’ ability to stand up under pressure.
And it continued their dominance of the Crows.
The Swans, who knocked Adelaide out of last year’s finals, have now won six of their past seven matches against the Crows.
Adelaide coach Don Pyke said Friday night’s match would be a good indicator of how much his side had improved from last year’s six-goal finals loss.
And while they controlled the second half they were unable to seal the deal and allowed Sydney, which started the season 0-6, to keep its top-four hopes alive.
The Crows finished with 51 more disposals, 21 more contested possessions and 21 more inside 50s than the Swans but still lost.
This was partly due to poor conversion, with Sydney kicking 13.5 to 11.14 as Adelaide butchered opportunities in front of the sticks.
Captain Josh Kennedy and Franklin, who kicked a Goal of the Year contender after gathering the ball on the wing, and George Hewett starred for the Swans while Rory Sloane, Rory Laird, Matt Crouch and Mitch McGovern (four goals) were standouts for the Crows.
The match pitted the AFL’s highest-scoring team, Adelaide (113.2 points), against the best defensive unit (Sydney 75.7).
The Swans, who had won nine of their previous 10 games after a horror 0-6 start to the season, welcomed back Kennedy from a strained hamstring and he was straight into the action in the centre square.
Sydney showed it meant business before the opening bounce with its midfielders smashing into Sloane in a clear plan to rough him up.
Isaac Heeney was handed the run-with role on the Crows vice-captain, who passed a late fitness test on a sore knee to play, and he and the rest of the Swans on-ballers made sure he knew they were there.
The Crows took a punt by starting former first-class cricketer Alex Keath on Franklin and the move backfired.
While Keath did a good job on Essendon star Joe Daniher last week, Franklin proved too good for him.
He set the ball rolling for the visitors when he pushed Keath under a high ball to mark and goal from 50m.
Sydney was at his aggressive best early, dominating contested possession 21-10 in the first half of the quarter to kick the opening four goals and race to a 24-point lead.
Franklin’s class and brute strength forced Pyke into moving Keath off him – and his best defender Daniel Talia onto him - when he again proved too powerful in a one-on-one contest, pushing Keath aside and snapping a brilliant goal from 40m.
Talia had started on Reid.
With the Swans holding an 11-3 dominance in inside-50s, former Crow Kurt Tippett got into the act, cleverly outmarking Jake Lever to hit the scoreboard and drawing jeers from the crowd.
Adelaide, off the boil under Sydney’s intense heat, took 20 minutes to register its first major.
It came after some trademark, coast-to-coast transition work and ended with the speedy Brodie Smith finding McGovern in space to run into an open goal.
The Crows, with Sloane being rewarded with four early free kicks for the off-the-ball treatment he was copping, started to get the game on their terms late in the quarter and drew to within 17 points when he accepted a handball from Hugh Greenwood to goal from 55m.
When Sydney kicked the opening two goals of the second quarter in the first four minutes through Zac Jones and Kennedy its lead had blown out to 29 points and it looked in total control.
But Sloane single-handedly kept the home side in the game with a fierce appetite for the ball and contest and it roared back to kick the next five goals to take its first lead early in the third term.
VOTES
3. J. Kennedy (Syd)
2. R. Sloane (Adel)
1. L. Franklin (Syd).
ADELAIDE 2.2 5.5 8.10 11.14 (80)
SYDNEY 5.1 7.1 11.3 13.5 (83)
BEST
Adelaide: R.Sloane, M.McGovern, R.Laird, M.Crouch, T.Lynch, B.Crouch
Sydney: J.Kennedy, L.Franklin, G.Hewett, J.McVeigh, L.Parker, D.Rampe, H.Grundy
GOALS
Adelaide: M.McGovern 4, E.Betts 2, R.Sloane, T.Lynch, M.Crouch, T.Walker, J.Jenkins
Sydney: L.Franklin 3, S.Reid, G.Rohan 2, J.McVeigh, K.Tippett, Z.Jones, J.Kennedy, K.Jack, T.Papley
INJURIES
Adelaide: D.Talia (ankle)
Sydney: Nil
REPORT: Z.Jones (Sydney) by field umpire Pannell for rough conduct on B.Crouch in the fourth quarter.
UMPIRES: C. Donlon, C. Deboy, T. Pannell.
CROWD: 51,466 at Adelaide Oval.
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