Adelaide Crows can win the 2017 flag after thumping Richmond
NO-ONE wins AFL premierships in April. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t previews as to how September can feel early in the season, just as Adelaide proved and Richmond learned on Sunday night.
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NO-ONE wins AFL premierships in April. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t previews as to how September can feel early in the season, just as Adelaide proved and Richmond learned on Sunday night.
And it can be said right now that the Crows are definitely capable of winning the AFL flag, 20 years after their first national title, with a hard-running, high-scoring game that highlights attack is the best form of defence.
Adelaide’s commanding 76-point win against the previously unbeaten Richmond leaves the Crows in a class of their own.
At 6-0 with 100-plus scores in all six games this season and captain Taylor Walker kicking five goals in a busy attack, there is an argument to make that the only team that can beat Adelaide is Adelaide itself.
Richmond put up 30 minutes of resistance before Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs and midfielder Rory Sloane thrived to a match-winning tandem.
The Tigers were outworked, out-run and very much outscored – 15.14 to 4.1 - after quarter-time. Richmond may be bound for finals this season.
The Tigers may win their first since 2001. But they are not a threat to Adelaide’s flag hopes – and this can be said, even from games in April.
There is something about Adelaide this season after a reset. It almost makes Crows 97-98 premiership coach Malcolm Blight’s call for basketball-like “time-outs” more interesting if they were on offer to Don Pyke on Sunday.
Pyke’s ability to get his team to respond to his firm call at quarter-time for a dramatic change in actions should put every AFL rival on notice that these Crows are far too difficult to deflate or distract.
As if they can work a switch, Adelaide’s second term emphasised why the Crows are setting the benchmark for September.
They took charge at the game’s hot spots – as highlighted in the break-open second term by the 11-8 advantage at clearances and 54-36 count at the contested-ball count that Pyke emphasises – to dominate possession.
This forced Richmond to empty its attack while the Crows loaded up the scoreboard with a 6.6 surge built on run again.
Those 49 handpasses – 38 of which opened up the ground in the second term – were the bolt cutters Adelaide needed to rid itself of Richmond’s early chain.
Richmond’s start set the tone for turning Adelaide Oval into a finals-like cauldron – and also for highlighting the best way to stop the Crows, as the league’s highest-scoring team, is to put pressure on its defence and at the contest.
The Tigers’ nine-point lead at quarter-time was far from a meaningful reward considering their work in a quarter that will be watched again and again by other AFL clubs searching for a way to crack Adelaide.
There is hardly anything extraordinary in how Richmond put the brakes on the AFL’s most-imposing team. The Tigers won the contests – 14-12 at clearances and 52-38 all across the ground – and they put so much pressure on the Adelaide half-back line that the usual rebound run with Brodie Smith and Rory Laird that sets up the Crows attack was stifled.
Richmond scored three of its six first-quarter goals from turnovers generated by putting on 27 “pressure acts” in the Adelaide’s defensive 50. But it is demanding – too demanding for the Tigers – to put a clamp on the Crows and make it stick for more than 30 minutes.
The key indicators that highlighted Richmond’s strength in the first term were reversed in Adelaide’s favour in the second. And the Crows made it count more, by 36 points to be precise.
The match race within the game was with the clubs’ stand-out forwards, Jack Riewoldt (Richmond) and Eddie Betts (Adelaide), closing in on their 500th career goals.
Betts started the game with a 498-497 lead on Riewoldt. They were both on 499 late in the second term when Riewoldt scored in second after they opened with a goal each in the first quarter.
And it stayed at 499 for each of Betts and Riewoldt.
SCOREBOARD
ADELAIDE 5.0 11.6 18.11 21.14 (140)
RICHMOND 6.3 7.3 8.3 10.4 (64)
BEST – Adelaide: Sloane, Jacobs, Walker, M. Crouch, Laird, Lynch, Atkins. Richmond: Cotchin, Martin, Lambert, Rioli, Grigg.
GOALS – Adelaide: Walker 5, Lynch, Sloane 3, Cameron 2, Betts, M. Crouch Douglas, Jacobs, Jenkins, Milera, Otten, Smith. Richmond: Markov, Riewoldt, Rioli 2, Butler, Lambert, Martin, Short.
UMPIRES: B. Rosebury, A. Stephens, B. Hosking.
CROWD: 51,069 at the Adelaide Oval.
MERV AGARS VOTES - 5, R. Sloane (A); 4, S. Jacobs (A); 3. T. Walker (A); 2. M. Crouch (A); 1. R. Laird (A).
THE STAR
RORY SLOANE
The All-Australian vice-captain just runs and runs and runs to so many contests – even with a shadow, as he had last night in Kane Lambert – and always finds the ball and a way to significantly influence the game.
The 26-year-old midfielder is in career-best form and pointing to being mentioned more often as a Brownlow Medal contender. His high count in contested possessions highlight his strength is wherever the ball is hot.
KEY STAT
CONTESTED FOOTBALL
This is the category Crows coach Don Pyke put on the agenda in the pre-season.
This is the key indicator that defined the top-of-the-table clash at Adelaide Oval on Sunday night.
Richmond won the first term 52-38 and led by nine points.
Adelaide won the second 54-36 and delivered more by winning the term by 36 points.
This quarter-by-quarter change further underlines why Pyke was so strong on this performance indicator. Adelaide’s third-term advantage, 53-26, measured up as a 7.5 to 1.0 surge on the scoreboard.
THE VERDICT
UNBEATABLE
ADELAIDE is unbeaten after six games, it also does indeed appear to be an unbeatable side.
There is too much firepower in a diverse attack. Also, there is plenty of grunt in the midfield where the agenda is set by Rory Sloane.
And so much drive from defence where Rory Laird puts himself in the line of so many opposition sorties that he stands as a genuine radar.
This is clearly the best-ever Crows unit since the 97-98 premiership double.
Originally published as Adelaide Crows can win the 2017 flag after thumping Richmond
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