Adelaide suffers three-point loss to Hawthorn: Close look at Riley Thilthorpe’s debut
The rebuilding Crows didn’t get the four points against Hawthorn. But they did get a look into a future which includes Riley Thilthorpe kicking bags of goals.
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When the first kick of your highly anticipated debut is straight into the man on the mark and the opposition go immediately down the other end and kick a goal, it takes something special to ensure that isn’t the enduring moment of your first game.
But Riley Thilthorpe ensured some early blips in his first game at AFL level were only that, as Adelaide’s highest ever draft pick showed just why the Crows are so excited by him as he kicked five goals on debut - albeit in a loss to Hawthorn.
After biding his time in the SANFL so far this season, the prized No. 2 pick of the 2020 Draft was unleashed at UTAS Stadium in Launceston by Matthew Nicks.
The location of Thilthorpe’s debut alone could be used in sports trivia quizzes in Adelaide in the coming years.
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The outcome of his first kick at AFL level could also form a question in footy quizzes in the future, with Thilthorpe kicking it straight into the Hawthorn player on the mark and then the Hawks quickly going down the other end to kick the first goal of the game after three minutes.
When he announced that Thilthorpe would be making his debut, Nicks warned it was “going to be a challenge” and said Crows fans needed to be realistic about how the key forward would perform first up.
A missed target by foot shortly after the kick into the man on the mark had Nicks’ warning looking spot on.
But then Thilthorpe showed just why the Crows took him with the prized pick.
He doesn’t move like a 200cm key forward, and Thilthorpe showed his incredible ability to cover ground by claiming three disposals in the centre square and three out on the wing in the first quarter.
In the second he showed the focal point he can be for the Adelaide forward line for years to come.
In five minutes he kicked three goals, all showing the skills he can bring in the forward 50.
The first came after 395-gamer Shaun Burgoyne held him when going up for a mark, the second when he plucked the ball out of the air and quickly put it onto his boot for a smart goal.
And for the third, Thilthorpe stole a march on Sam Frost and held on strongly for a good contested mark.
From error-strewn in the opening minutes of the match, Thilthorpe was dominating a pulsating game.
And he didn’t stop there.
He marked strongly again in the opening exchanges of the third, taking advantage of a smaller Jack Scrimshaw for his fourth.
And when he outmarked Scrimshaw and Hawks captain Ben McEvoy and slotted the goal he kicked the most ever by a Crow on debut and the highest by any current player in the AFL.
Nicks said he spoke much of the character of Thilthorpe, that he was able to bounce back from the early mistakes.
“I thought at the start it looked like the game was pretty quick for him but good players slow the game down quickly and it’s a really exciting thing for our footy club to have such a professional footballer starting their career the way he did,” he said.
“Without being too harsh on him there was another handball and kick but the fact he was finding the footy and he was busy and he was straight into the game.
“It’s more a marathon than a sprint, and hopefully we can see the start of a promising career.”
WE MUST GET TOUGHER: NICKS
Adam Smith
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has declared his young group must get mentally stronger when matches are in the balance are failing to nail down victory for a second consecutive week.
The Crows were flying high after a barnstorming second quarter where they kicked 10 goals straight to lead Hawthorn by 25-points at the long break, a margin which extended to 32 when exciting talent Riley Thilthorpe kicked his fifth major on debut 13 minutes into the third term.
However the Hawks clawed their way back and kicked the last five goals to emerge with a three point win.
It further deflated Nicks, who after watching his troops squander a second half lead against Fremantle last week, slipped back to a 3-3 record for the year.
“Really disappointing last quarter… we just got a lot of things wrong in that last quarter,” Nicks said.
“Unfortunately we looked a little bit rattled. It will be talked about fitness and so on, but that’s not what it is, we need to be mentally stronger in that period of time.
“We allowed them to intercept the ball, they had eight intercept marks, we weren’t competing.
“They had some momentum coming in I think to that last quarter but we dropped away, unfortunately, and it cost us the game.
“We had a chance towards the end, but we would have ended up probably stealing that one from them if we take a mark inside 50 and kick a goal or ‘Keaysy’ [Ben Keays] knocks that one through.
“Unfortunately, a really good lesson for us again.
“Probably the positive of it, if you are in our change rooms, they are sick of getting lessons as a young group.”
CRAZY RECORD CAN’T SAVE CROWS FROM COLLAPSE
Adam Smith
Hawthorn has survived a scintillating debut from Riley Thilthorpe to edge Adelaide in an AFL thriller on its return to its UTAS Stadium fortress.
Playing their first match in Launceston in 638 days, the Hawks recovered from a 32-point deficit in the third quarter and a halftime AFL-VFL record from the Crows to cling onto a 15.12 (102) to 16.3 (99) victory.
The Crows’ highest ever draft pick, Thilthorpe booted five goals – his first three during a five minute burst in the second quarter – to show exactly why there is so much excitement around the 200cm key position prospect.
But Hawthorn fifth gamer Jacob Koschitzke answered with five goals of his own as the hosts booted the last five majors of the match to overrun the Crows.
Hawthorn regained the lead when O’Meara missed a running shot midway through the final term, one of several chances the Hawks frittered away during a dominating stretch.
The Crows then were left ruing several missed opportunities themselves, with Shane McAdam and Ben Keays both spraying late set shots which would have given their side the lead.
Adelaide had an astonishing 14.0 at the main break, an AFL-VFL record for the most goals without a miss in the first half, set up by a second term avalanche where they piled on 10 straight.
But just when the visitors threatened to blow the contest apart in the third stanza the Hawks found another gear to drag themselves back off the canvas.
Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell had just five possessions between them in the first quarter before finishing with 31 and 25 respectively, while Changkuoth Jiath again impressed off half back with 26 touches.
Keays was a standout for Adelaide with 31 disposals and 11 tackles, with Rory Laird (32) and Paul Seedsman (27) also prolific.
DRIVING FORCE
Adelaide wingman Paul Seedsman has started 2021 in arguably career best form and continued his blistering touch in Launceston. Armed with a booming right foot Seedsman, who averaged 554m gained through the first five rounds, had more than 700m by halftime and finished with an incredible 996m gained.
HAWKS 5.2 9.5 13.6 15.12 (102)
CROWS 4.0 14.0 16.1 16.3 (99)
SMITH’S BEST Hawks: Koschitzke, O’Meara, Mitchell, Phillips, Jiath, Bruest Crows: Keays, Thilthorpe, Laird, Seedsman, O’Brien, Walker
GOALS Hawks: Koschitzke 5, Bruest 3, Lewis 2, O’Brien, Phillips, Scrimshaw, O’Meara, Impey, Crows: Thilthorpe 5, Walker 3, Himmelberg 2, McAdam 2, Schoenberg, Keays, Seedsman, McHenry,
INJURIES Hawks: Burgoyne (ankle). Crows: Hamill (ankle)
UMPIRES Fleer, Howorth, Haussen.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
ADAM SMITH’S VOTES
3 Jacob Koschitzke (Haw)
2 Jaeger O’Meara (Haw)
1 Ben Keays (Ade)
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