Adelaide Crows defeat Sydney Swans by 10 points at the Adelaide Oval in Round 4

IT JUST had to be little Eddie Betts, the crowd darling of Adelaide Oval, to kick the two important goals to seal the match against ladder-leading Sydney.

IT JUST had to be little Eddie Betts, the crowd darling of Adelaide Oval, to kick the two important goals to seal the match against ladder-leading Sydney in football’s best version of the shootout of OK Corrall this season.

He outsmarted two opponents in the 27th minute of the final quarter and then kicked the sealer when he found himself out the back of Sydney’s backline in the 33rd minute after a frenetic display from two clubs that now look like certain top-four contenders.

The Crows found the win with outstanding forward line pressure and tackling but there was more to it than that, because under Don Pyke the club has found another edge as the game has changed and become higher-scoring under the new interchange rules.

It has been noted how the Crows lost best and fairest Patrick Dangerfield to Geelong, not so much how valuable ex-Pie Paul Seedsman and Mitch McGovern are becoming. Both kicked long bombs for goal at important stages and have slotted into this side beautifully.

There were intriguing battles everywhere in this crowd-stopping game. Daniel Talia against Lance “Buddy” Franklin was a masterclass of one-on-one contests, Kyle Cheney versus Isaac Heeney served as an interesting side-plot and the enormous work rate and courage of both Swan Dan Hannebery and the Crows’ Rory Sloane were a peach to watch.

There was also the leadership and grit of Crows captain Taylor Walker, who is beginning to find a rich vein of form and appears to be on the brink of coming away with a big haul but does some of his best work off the ball.

There was nothing in it as the clock was ticking down but some significant trends had developed.

Eddie Betts celebrates his game-winning goal. Picture: Sarah Reed

Sydney is the master of getting numbers to contest, constantly seeking football’s valued “plus one”: having one extra man at the fall of the ball.

And the Swans had a sense of class about them, personified with the poised Isac Heeney and superstar Franklin, who runs like the wind and creates both from the midfield and in attack.

The way he danced around Rory Atkins and Luke Brown to kick a goal halfway through the second quarter was worth the admission price to the match on its own.

He is something else; you could only admire his tricks when he scooped up a ball one-handed in the third quarter at full pace and casually kicked the goal. No other big man moves like that.

Not much later he outmarked Talia and Kyle Hartigan and gave off a handball to Tippett, who walzed into an open ball and kicked it to a loud Bronx cheer. It was on.

Heeney and Ben McGlynn were others who were prominent for the Swans. They stood up in contests and Heeney took some super marks and always landed on his feet.

But the Crows had their own tricks.

Fan favourite Eddie Betts conjured up his trademark magic from his pocket but was also sighted in the midfield and occasionally cleared a ball from defence. He has never been in better form.

Walker worked manfully — often double tagged — and had it not been for his and Richard Douglas’ misses in front of goals the game could have cracked open the Crows’ way before the long adjournment.

While the Swans swamped the Crows and created stoppages, Adelaide’s ace was its quick ball movement.

The Crows are playing first-option football, where they rarely ignore the first chance to pass the ball off, and it has turned them into turnover specialists and a team that can race against sides like Sydney who likes getting numbers back.

There was nothing in the anticipated contest between former Crow Kurt Tippett and Adelaide’s Sam Jacobs in the ruck. Tippett was predictably booed every time he was near the ball, Jacobs just got on with it in his trademark manner.

BEST

Adelaide

Sloane, Betts, Laird, Walker, Thompson, M. Crouch

Sydney

Hannebery, Franklin, Heeney, Tippett, Parker, Kennedy

VOTES

3 Sloane

2 Betts

1 Hannebery

5 THINGS WE LEARNED

1 — Doubt no longer. The Crows are a genuine football team and a genuine football club. They are not certain of anything in 2016 but they are capable of anything.

2 — The Crows pace and fitness is elite. Much has been said about Port Adelaide’s fitness edge and ability to outlast the opposition in recent years — but the Crows may have equalled them if not gone slightly past them.

3 — Adelaide key defender Kyle Hartigan is a genuine player. He is selfless, courageous, disciplined and reliable. Last night was his best performance yet in Crows colours.

4 — Defensive pressure is the name of the game in the current era of football and there are no better teams at it right now than the Crows. The longer the game went last night, the harder the Crows tackled, the further and harder they ran and the tougher they became.

5 — The standard of the game rose substantially this weekend against a genuine finals contender in the Swans — and the Crows raised their standards with it. All praise goes Adelaide coach Don Pyke.

Originally published as Adelaide Crows defeat Sydney Swans by 10 points at the Adelaide Oval in Round 4