Adelaide Crows grind out crucial Round 2 win over Sydney to get their season rolling
Adelaide found a way to win — against Sydney, under pressure and away from home — without playing anywhere near its best footy. And there were plenty of good signs for the Crows, writes Reece Homfray.
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Adelaide has found a way to win — against Sydney, under pressure and away from home — without playing anywhere near its best footy.
The usually free-flowing, high-scoring Crows had to grind this one out at the SCG where they made just as many mistakes particularly going forward as they did in Round 1 — but this time didn’t pay the price.
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This time they kicked the big goals in the big moments when they had to like Taylor Walker from 50m, Josh Jenkins from 55m and his 40m snap, Paul Seedsman from 60m and Riley Knight twice with clutch set shots.
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Ruckman Sam Jacobs left the ground before half-time and spent 15 minutes of the third quarter in the rooms with what appeared to be a leg injury but returned to play out the game.
Unlike last week when they won contested possession, clearances and disposals but lost to Hawthorn, the Crows were slightly down on those KPI’s against Sydney but got the win.
“It was fantastic, a good response from our group after last week, we were clearly disappointed in how we played and to come to Sydney to play Sydney (both at 0-1) it was always going to be a challenge and to our guys’ credit I thought they hung tough and got it done,” coach Don Pyke said.
“It ebbed and flowed, in the second quarter Sydney got on top, but I thought their workrate and effort throughout the night (and) we had some good passages of ball movement, we just hung in there and the guys found a way at the end.
“You always want to get a win on the board early in the year and you’d rather be coming away 1-1 than 0-2, but for us it was more about getting back to ‘what is it going to take for us to win tonight?’ and to our guys’ credit they found a way when they were challenged.”
Pyke said ruckman Sam Jacobs “tweaked” his knee and the club isn’t exactly sure what damage has been done but will investigate.
“He’s OK, he was obviously good enough to come back on so fingers crossed it’s nothing significant, it certainly doesn’t appear that way so we’re pretty hopeful he’ll be all right.”
FORWARD PRESSURE
Adelaide’s pressure around the footy was huge and once the ball went inside 50m they did their best to keep it there.
Knight’s tackle on Harry Cunningham early in the second quarter resulted in a goal, Eddie Betts pushed up to half-back to harass the Swans and Lachlan Murphy and Chayce Jones did the same whenever the ball was in their area.
Walker’s influence was telling as well. He presented across half-forward and the wing and his ability to bring the ball to ground for Tom Lynch to kick a goal just before three-quarter-time was crucial at that time of the contest.
WELCOME BACK, SEED
No wonder the Crows were so keen to bring Paul Seedsman straight back into the side after he’d recovered from his finger injury.
The creative wingman was on fire from the start, tallying 10 disposals at 90 per cent efficiency in the first quarter to go with five marks and two inside 50s.
His 60m torpedo goal from the boundary after the quarter-time siren was a throwback to the 1970s and 80s. Seedsman had a free kick when the siren went and while some players made their way to the bench, Seedsman had other ideas.
He went back and drained a barrel straight through the goal posts as John Longmire entered the ground stony faced and Seedsman’s teammates mobbed him in celebration.
FORWARD FAULTS
The Crows kicked 12 goals but they were still plagued by poor decision making and poor kicking going inside 50m.
In defence of the midfielders, quite often they didn’t have much to kick to when they looked up to find a stagnant forwardline or their forwards were outnumbered.
Jacobs, Murphy, Alex Keath and Bryce Gibbs all kicked it straight to Aliir Aliir in the third quarter.
And they were inaccurate again. After kicking 7.13 in last week’s loss to Hawthorn, Adelaide finished with 12.16 against Sydney last night and will want to brush up on that before playing Geelong next week.
MILERA STANDS UP
With Rory Laird tagged at half-back by George Hewett it was up to Adelaide’s other creative defenders like Brodie Smith and Wayne Milera to get their rebound running going.
Both were very good and Smith even got forward for a shot on goal, but Milera did the eye-catching things like his decision to bump Zak Jones front on, win possession and spin his way out of trouble in the second quarter.
Milera took some of the kick-ins and his pinpoint 50m pass found Chayce Jones in the third quarter and a double 50m penalty took him from the half-back flank to the top of the square.
Milera was kept in check in the third quarter but still finished with 22 touches.
BUDDY’S BRILLIANCE
A few questioned whether Lance Franklin was fit enough to inflict the type of damage only he can after last week’s loss to the Western Bulldogs but he put that to bed last night.
Last week Franklin had just seven disposals and 1.2 after a limited pre-season and no JLT Series games due to groin surgery. Back on his home deck the SCG last night he gave Crows defenders nightmares because every time he went near the footy he looked like scoring. Daniel Talia won his share of one-on-ones against the superstar but give Franklin an inch and it’s all over.
His first goal midway through the second quarter helped turn the tide for Sydney when they trailed by 17 points. On the boundary from 50m with Alex Keath closing in fast, he put it through with his laser-like left foot off two steps to ignite his side.
His third goal from the boundary early in the fourth term was breathtaking.
ADELAIDE 4.5 6.10 9.15 12.16 (88)
SYDNEY 1.2 6.6 6.10 8.14 (62)
BEST — Adelaide: Sloane, Walker, Milera, B. Crouch, Seedsman, Smith, Knight
Sydney: Kennedy, Aliir, Lloyd, Franklin, Parker, Rampe.
GOALS — Adelaide: Jenkins, Knight, Mackay 2, Walker, Seedsman, B. Crouch, Atkins, Lynch, Betts
Sydney: Franklin 3, Hayward 2, Ronke, Blakey, Reid,
UMPIRES — S. Meredith, R. Findlay, C. Fleer.
CROWD — 32,575 at the SCG.
Originally published as Adelaide Crows grind out crucial Round 2 win over Sydney to get their season rolling
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