AFL 2024: All the news and standouts from Adelaide Crows internal trial
While Adelaide thinks Izak Rankine will spend more time on the ball this season, there’s no guarantee that will happen every week. Here’s why.
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Adelaide assistant coach Nathan van Berlo says Izak Rankine’s midfield time is set to be a “week to week” balance despite a starring show from the Crows’ star in their internal trial.
With Rory Laird missing because of a wedding, Rankine started at the first centre bounce for the blue “probables” team alongside Crows captain Jordan Dawson and accumulator Matt Crouch.
Crows senior coach Matthew Nicks has said he wants to get Rankine more into the midfield in 2024 and the 23-year-old only fuelled the excitement ahead of his second season at West Lakes with his performance in Adelaide’s internal trial in Port Lincoln on Friday.
Rankine racked up the ball and was consistently damaging when he was in the midfield and finished with two goals in an impressive showing.
Van Berlo said the star Crow being in the midfield was something the Adelaide coaching staff really wanted to see more of in 2024.
“Yeah look we have certainly had Izak around the footy a lot more this summer,” he said.
“We certainly see the strengths that he gives us around the ball, centre bounce is one of them and around stoppage is another.
“So we have certainly worked on his game that way, you will see him more around the footy more than what you did last year.”
But just how much midfield time is in store for Rankine this season is still up in the air.
“As the year plays out we will balance it out as we need to week to week but I think our fans liked seeing him around the action,” van Berlo said.
Also impressing in Port Lincoln was former No. 2 pick Riley Thilthorpe.
After a pre-season in which he focused on adding strength, the key forward and ruck was dominant with his contested marking around the ground and kicked three goals.
“There have been a number of our forwards who have trained strongly over summer,” van Berlo said.
“They have competed strongly against our backs.”
Taylor Walker also kicked three goals as the Crows talisman hinted at another stellar year in his late-career renaissance.
Trying to man Walker early on was the Crows No. 8 draft pick Dan Curtin, who ended up with a valuable learning experience on playing on one of the best key forwards in the competition.
Van Berlo said Curtin impressed with his kicking despite the tough time trying to stop Walker.
“Dan Curtin showed our fans what he is going to be like behind the ball for us,” he said.
The Crows are set to have several players return to action in the coming weeks as they take on Port Adelaide and then West Coast to finish off their season.
Darcy Fogarty was rested as he battles a quad issue, while Jake Soligo (ankle), Jordon Butts (hamstring) and Wayne Milera (hamstring) also missed.
Van Berlo said former captain Rory Sloane was in good spirits after his second surgery to fix a detached retina and the sixth eye issue of his career.
“He hasn’t been able to do a lot over the past couple of weeks,” van Berlo said.
“He is building as much as the specialists allow him to at this point, he is in good spirits and we are supporting him the best we can.”
PROBABLES AND POSSIBLES
While players who featured in the Crows best 22 last year such as Darcy Fogarty (rest), Laird (wedding), Rory Sloane (eye), Nick Murray (knee) Jordon Butts (hamstring), Wayne Milera (hamstring), Jake Soligo (foot) and Harry Schoenberg (Achilles) were sitting out, there were some hints as to what Nicks might be thinking ahead of Gold Coast in Round 1.
With a spot as a tall defender up for grabs, Mark Keane and James Borlase were the two tall defenders for the blue ‘probables’ side along with Josh Worrell and Max Michalanney as hybrid backs.
Elliott Himmelberg started as a key defender for the yellow side, after being shifted to the backline this pre-season.
Top draft pick Dan Curtin also started in defence for the yellow side.
Paddy Parnell and Luke Nankervis, who would have hoped to push their cases for Round 1 with Milera out, started as half-backs for the yellow side.
Lachie Sholl and Chayce Jones were on a wing for the blue side, against Ned McHenry and Billy Dowling.
While he was in the Crows best 22 for nearly all of last season, Lachie Murphy started in the yellow side as a small forward.
New recruit Chris Burgess started for the stronger blue team as a third tall forward.
After the first quarter, the Crows evened up the teams.
MIXING MIDFIELDS
At the first centre bounce it was Dawson, Rankine and Matt Crouch alongside Reilly O’Brien for the blue side against Sam Berry, Charlie Edwards, Zac Taylor and Kieran Strachan.
As expected, the blue side were dominant in the first stanza, with Rachele coming into the mix for Rankine as the quarter went on.
From the second quarter onwards, the Crows mixed up their teams and made it one hell of a battle in the midfield.
Crouch, Rachele and Luke Pedlar changed to the yellow side and were immediately up against Dawson, Berry and Rankine as the Crows’ guns went toe-to-toe.
The big watch will be how Laird’s return impacts the midfield time of Rankine and Rachele when the Crows take on Port Adelaide and West Coast before the first game of the season proper against the Suns.
Given Rankine can be so dangerous as a forward, striking the right balance between him in that position and the midfield could be massive for Nicks’ side.
THRILLTHORPE
It wasn’t just the defenders who had to man Riley Thilthorpe that had a rough evening.
On the back of his best pre-season ever, the 21-year-old started the game in menacing fashion – taking a number of big contested marks early on.
And when he kicked one of his multiple goals, he smashed the window screen of a car that had parked behind the sticks.
The young gun then started the third quarter in the ruck as the Crows look to develop him as a key forward who can ruck.
In the fourth term, he was back forward and was again dominant with his contested marking.
A TOUGH INITIATION
There’s a lot of hype around Curtin after the Crows traded up to pick No. 8 to draft him.
And the young gun had one hell of a challenge first up after he was asked to man Adelaide talisman Taylor Walker for the first half of the internal trial.
Coming off his best ever season, Walker has probably forgotten more about footy than Curtin knows and the 33-year-old used all his experience to dominate the West Australian early in the piece.
While it was tough going against Walker, Curtin did impress with his kicking and got some respite for the second half when he was on the blue team and away from the former Crows captain, who looks like he could, again, define age in 2024.
PUTTING THEIR BEST FOOT FORWARD
They ended 2023 as the Crows two key defender options and Keane and Borlase did their best to try and keep their spots for when Round 1 rolls along.
Borlase in particular impressed in defence, while Keane did a good job on Walker after he was switched to the yellow side.
Nankervis had his moments off half-back and was part of the Crows stronger defence in the second half along with Will Hamill, as did Ned McHenry playing as a forward and on the wing.
After he had a disappointing year in 2023, Berry was solid in the midfield.
Draftee Charlie Edwards also impressed early on, especially since he was up against a dominant Dawson.
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Originally published as AFL 2024: All the news and standouts from Adelaide Crows internal trial
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