The Lowdown: All the likes and dislikes from the Crows and Power from round 5
The Crows picked themselves up off the canvas for a famous win in round 5, but the poor form of their skipper still looms large. Check out the LIKES and DISLIKES from the Crows and Power.
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It was a bumper weekend of South Australian football as the Crows broke their drought with a win against the Blues, while the Power extended Fremantle’s pain from their two weeks at the Adelaide Oval with another nailbiting — and controversial? — loss.
Simeon Thomas-Wilson and Matt Turner give their likes and dislikes from Round 5.
LIKES
1. Best win of Nicks era?
Geelong and Melbourne in 2021 would be up there, as would the Round 3 Showdown victory in 2022 and the wins over Carlton and Port Adelaide last year. But the win over Carlton on Saturday has a firm case to be the best Crows victory under Matthew Nicks. There have been victories along a similar line, the Crows produce a rabbit out of the hat after copping it for weeks and the direction of the club being questioned. But this one felt just a little bit more significant, and it looked to be reflected in the celebrations by Crows players once the final siren sounded. Of course the big aspect of it is that it happened away from Adelaide Oval, with the Crows under Nicks never beaten a top eight side on the road. Carlton have also been the masters of a close finish and the Crows beat the Blues at their own game. But the big aspect is the Crows’ finals chances would have been all but done at 0-5. Essendon on Friday night at Adelaide Oval and the winless North Melbourne in Hobart are the Crows next two before a Thursday night Showdown. It is still an extremely uphill battle for the Crows to make finals but this keeps the dream alive for at least another week.
2. Adelaide’s midfield mix
Izak Rankine had attended 21 centre bounces across the Crows’ opening four games. He was at 20 against Carlton on Saturday – and crucial to Adelaide’s drought-breaking win. Rankine’s speed and polish stood out on a quick deck at Marvel Stadium, where the Crows got far more bang for their buck going forward, kicking a goal every 3.1 forward 50 entries. By comparison, the Crows had booted a major for every seven inside 50s before Saturday. Here were their centre-bounce attendees: Jake Soligo 22, Rankine 20, Matt Crouch 18, Jordan Dawson and Rory Laird 16 each, substitute Sam Berry five, Josh Rachele two. Dawson, Crouch and Laird’s numbers were all well down on their season averages – and it paid off. Whether the change was made in part because of the venue, the need to change things in desperate search of a win, the match-up against Carlton or a host of other factors, it was crucial on a victory that breathed life into the club’s season. Although his midfield time spiked, Rankine still managed to create havoc in attack, kicking three goals and having nine score involvements. It will be interesting to see what Adelaide’s midfield mix looks like this week.
3. Just find a way
Ken Hinkley summed it up “sometimes you can play well and not get the points and sometimes you can be outplayed around the ball and find a way to get the points,” he said to open up his post-game presser. Two weeks ago Port Adelaide smashed Melbourne in basically every category but somehow lost. On Saturday night, the Power didn’t play all that well and were second best around the footy. But it’s four points on the board and the Power are now in the top four. Good teams find a way to win matches in which they aren’t playing well in and while it is early on in the season the Power are looking like it will be one of the good teams in 2024. At the centre of this was moments. Of course there was Jason Horne-Francis’ goal, but Charlie Dixon’s big mark and goal and Zak Butters’ crunch major were also vital. Port had to just find a way and the Power did.
DISLIKES
1. Port’s on-ball lesson
A lot was made a week ago about the quality of Port Adelaide’s midfield unit, led by Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis. But Fremantle smashed the Power in the middle for most of Saturday night’s game. The Dockers won clearances 40-31, centre clearances 12-6, contested possessions 138-127 and sharked a swag of Port’s hit-outs. Unable to get as much first possession nullified one of the Power’s scoring avenues, so it had to find a different way to win. It was able to do so in a low-scoring arm-wrestle, winning a couple of crucial late clearances. But Port would want to sharpen its midfield work ahead of a huge battle against reigning premier Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
2. Port’s game management in the final moments
The Power snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the Dockers but in the final moments of the game Port looked like it was doing everything it could to reverse this. In the last two minutes after Horne-Francis’ goal Darcy Byrne-Jones kicked the ball out on the full, Ivan Soldo twice did what he needed to do by hitting the ball to the boundary but the Power midfield couldn’t take advantage of this, for some reason Mitch Georgiades played on when Dixon was going to be awarded a free kick with 50 seconds on the clock and then Willie Rioli kicked the ball out on the full. The Power got away with this on Saturday but that might not be the case against the better offensive teams in the competition.
3. Jordan Dawson’s 2024
The type of person Dawson is, the fact the Crows got their first win of the season on Saturday would be all that matters. But the Adelaide skipper is in a funk. It was always going to be a tough task to follow on from his 2023 but so far in 2024 Dawson has not looked anything like the player he was last year, save for the game against Melbourne. He has been still getting the ball in the Crows losses, but was surprisingly inaccurate with his kicking. Against the Blues he had 12 disposals, his lowest since he came to West Lakes, and kicked a goal as he was sent forward in the third quarter. From 2023 to 2024 Dawson’s disposals are down 16 per cent from 27.1 to 22.8 per game, his metres gained is down nine per cent from 510m to 462m, his clearances are down 16 per cent from 3.8 to 3.2 and his score involvements are down 24 per cent from 6.6 to 5. The class is still there though, as evident by his pinpoint kick to find Ben Keays and ice the game at Marvel Stadium after being swung into defence as part of a lever by Adelaide to hold onto the win. The Crows did the right thing in getting Jake Soligo and Izak Rankine in the midfield more. Now they need to fix their out-of-form captain.
AND THE LOWDOWN ON …
Match Review Officer Michael Christian did exactly what he needed to do on Monday morning, come out and explain why Butters wasn’t cited at all for his bump on Fremantle’s Bailey Banfield in the dying minutes at Adelaide Oval and why Crouch copped one-week for his on Jack Carroll. There’s so much confusion regarding interpretation of rules in the game and what incident is going to get a sanction or not that either Butters’ bump was described as a football act with him contesting the ball or as a reportable act with the Power star getting off because we are “protecting the Brownlow”. The slow motion footage of Butters bump also raises questions about it. But by getting on the front foot and clarifying this Christian has now told the footy world what the go is from a MRO perspective, if you have your hands down contesting the ball in a genuine manner then it is a football act. Crouch elected to bump first rather than have his hands down to contest the ball. It is not surprising at all that the Crows elected to not challenge the one-match ban.
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