As it happened: Adelaide Crows stamp top-eight credentials with clinical win over Carlton Blues to start Gather Round

Adelaide continue to rapidly trim the gap between intoxicating potential and eye-catching performance, announcing themselves as a genuine top-eight prospect while exposing Carlton as a premiership pretender with a 56-point drubbing.

The best Crows team since 2017 all but put the first Gather Round fixture to bed with a first-quarter goal avalanche, putting eight six-pointers through from eight individual goalscorers to send the previously undefeated Blues thudding back to earth with an almighty thud, 18.10 (118) to 9.8 (62).

Josh Rachele of the Crows celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images

Carlton suffered a body blow 10 minutes before the opening bounce when key defender Mitch McGovern withdrew after suffering calf tightness during warm-ups.

Their big man stocks copped another jolt when ruckman Marc Pittonet suffered a nasty gashed eye late in the first quarter, forcing his second-quarter substitution.

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Thanks for following tonight’s blog.

It was a big win to the Crows, somewhat of an upset as the Blues went in as narrow favourites before the match.

But Adelaide have certainly stamped themselves as a much improved side in 2023, and potentially a finalist.

We’ll see you back here tomorrow night for the big game between the Tigers and the Swans. Good night.

Michael Voss has spoken post-match:

What went wrong in that first quarter? “We were heavily beaten around the ball, and when you lose that battle, you lose important territory around the field, and then we weren’t able to turn the tap off in terms to their efficiency going inside 50. You can have quarters when that happens. There was a response with the playing group, so I’m proud they stuck that out for two-and-a-half quarters, and we had a throw at it at the end and that went against us on the scoreboard.

The Blues were no match for the Crows tonight.Credit: Getty Images

Was Carlton poor or Adelaide too good? “We tip our hat to our opposition. They were too good. We needed to turn up better than that, and we didn’t. We knew what their capacity was. We spoke about this round, what the round means. We had a great opportunity to kick off the weekend. We didn’t do the right thing tonight. At an away venue on a really important occasion, we were on the back foot.

On how to review that result: “What we’ve got to do is pick apart what worked and what didn’t work, look at it and see what we can put into action immediately. We get two or three days away, so we’ll have a rest, we need it, and then we’ll get into next week.

On Pittonet’s eye injury: “I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was. He certainly couldn’t see out of that eye for a while, but I couldn’t tell you what that was.”

Matthew Nicks speaks post-match.

How do you feel after that? “Proud, impressed. Proud more than anything. We stuck tight, good connection and it all came together on the big stage. I thought we responded really well tonight. Carlton are a fantastic side. Thursday night with every single football person in the state, there was a lot going on.

“We fought early, the contest was huge for us and we knew what would come, and we weathered the storm ... to not let them get back in it. Really pleased.

The Crows were too good tonight.Credit: Getty Images

Did you see this coming? “You can be improving out of sight but not seeing results. You can be improving on-field, off-field and not getting wins. We’ve been doing that for a number of years. We’re improving. Form’s fickle, it can disappear really quickly. We want our group to remain confident and believe in what we’re doing. That’s our challenge, to do it again.

How do you keep the players’ feet on the ground? “We’ve got a very high-quality group of men, that have humility, they’ve got a balance. They’re enjoying their footy. We want them to stay in that space. We’re seeing teams in the comp do that at the moment, and we’re trying to take a leaf out of their book.

On winning in Gather Round: “The occasion, Thursday night of Gather Round, we’ve never seen it before. Even I lost my composure for five or 10 minutes, but our players remained focused. Most of our players haven’t played with a stage on the oval. As coach, you never know what sort of energy you can burn going into a game like this, but that adds to the win.”

Adelaide continue to rapidly trim the gap between intoxicating potential and eye-catching performance, announcing themselves as a genuine top-eight prospect while exposing Carlton as a premiership pretender with a 56-point drubbing.

The best Crows team since 2017 all but put the first Gather Round fixture to bed with a first-quarter goal avalanche, putting eight six-pointers through from eight individual goalscorers to send the previously undefeated Blues thudding back to earth with an almighty thud, 18.10 (118) to 9.8 (62).

Josh Rachele of the Crows celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images

Carlton suffered a body blow 10 minutes before the opening bounce when key defender Mitch McGovern withdrew after suffering calf tightness during warm-ups.

Their big man stocks copped another jolt when ruckman Marc Pittonet suffered a nasty gashed eye late in the first quarter, forcing his second-quarter substitution.

READ MORE HERE

The first 30 minutes was the difference.

The Crows won the contested possessions by 22, won the clearances by eight, had eight more inside-50s than the Blues and led by 38 points.

The Crows put on a clinic.Credit: Getty Images

The Crows dominated as far as disposals are concerned, touching the footy 78 more times.

The Blues had two more inside-50s than the Crows, but they went at less than 40 per cent efficiency inside-50, whereas the Crows went at 64.7 per cent, taking an incredible 20 marks inside-50 to the Blues’ seven.

Carlton won the clearances, 42-37, but the damage was done in the first quarter, when the Crows absolutely dominated from stoppage.

The Crows were too good tonight.Credit: Getty Images

The Crows won the centre bounces 18-12, which gave them the territory, and their ball use going inside-50 was clinical.

Jordan Dawson was sensational, with 32 disposals and seven clearances. Rory Laird had 39 touches, nine clearances and a goal.

Darcy Fogarty kicked 5.3, Taylor Walker kicked 3.3 and Ben Keays also kicked three goals.

Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Corey Durdin each kicked two.

Abbey Holmes spoke to Rory Sloane on Seven.

Rory Sloane, how about that. You must be super proud of this group and the way that they were able to get that done tonight.

“Yeah, especially Thursday night, in front of a huge crowd, yeah, we prepped well for it I think. Five-day break and it’s just nice to get some momentum roll, found a groove.”

You dominated in the air. There is not too many flaws in that performance.

“Started hot but they have been in unbelievable form. It was a huge challenge for us. We wanted to keep our form rolling.”

The Crows were clinical tonight over the Blues.Credit: Getty Images

You handed over the baton to Jordan Dawson this season. He’s now captain of this footy club. Gee he’s impressive.

“He’s unbelievable. He is footy smarts game day. You probably don’t see it but his ability to control the game and see it, it is, yeah, that is next level. It’s nice we have got a few leaders, three captains, Tex, myself, Dawson, so we’re just trying to help lead this young group.”

How about you, you missed a lot of footy with your ACL last year but you must be loving running around with this group.

“It is incredible. I watched way too much footy last year, I’m enjoying it. It is so nice to be back out. I take a few moments to look around, look at this crowd, it is pretty special.”

Gather Round in your home state, it is pretty special.

“I might get up to the hills. I love hills footy. Mount Barker will be an unbelievable crowd. That will be the pick of the bunch for me.”

Full-time. A clinic from the Crows sees them win by 58 points, 18.10 (118) to 9.8 (62).

Most of the damage was done in the first quarter, and then they put the icing on the cake in the last 10 minutes.

Crows won by 58 points.Credit: Getty Images

“We were really excited to get a Thursday night slot, I think off the back of the last two weeks we had confidence, we came out hot,” Rory Laird said on Seven.

“So it was a good start.”

FT: Crows 18.10 (118), Blues 9.8 (62)

Icing on the cake.

Fogarty takes a one-on-one mark inside-50 and then slots his fifth from a set shot.

He’s growing into some sort of player, helped by the fact Taylor Walker takes the best defender and Riley Thilthorpe stretches the opposition height wise.

Crows 18.10 (118), Blues 9.8 (62)