Adelaide vs GWS: R24
Saturday night at the Adelaide Oval was all about one man for the home side, Taylor Walker.
It was a night to remember for Walker in his last minor round appearance, the Texan’s Crows getting home by 56 points over a GWS team that went into the night unable to make finals, 24.13.157 to 15.11.101.
Pre-game celebrations highlighted the Texan’s legendary career, before Walker wound back the clock, kicking two of the first four, and three for the first quarter.
He wasn’t the only Crow that had a good first quarter, with Jordan Dawson, Izak Rankine and Hugo Hall-Kahan having a lot of disposals, and plenty of impact.
Rankine has been one of the best players in competition over the past month, and he’s hitting a rare patch of form heading into the pointy end of the season.
Tonight, he started the game by exploding from stoppage and hitting the scoreboard multiple times.
Rankine was part of the Crows engine room that was consistently getting first use, taking the football from the centre as their Giants counterparts barely offered resistance.
GWS by contrast couldn’t find a way through the Adelaide team, turning the ball over in dangerous positions as the Crows collected the football from defence and drove it inside forward 50.
When the first siren mercifully blew, the Crows were nearly eight goals to the good. The Giants had a better start to the second term, but centre clearances were still a major issue.
However, they made less mistakes with the football as they tightened the margin from eight goals to five.
With Toby Greene’s size 11 boots left in Sydney, he’d desperately turned to the South Australian public for assistance.
Whoever’s shoes Greene was using were a poor fit, missing his first three shots before he was given the unmissable from 20 metres out.
With less than a minute to go in the half, the Giants turned two centre clearances into goals, with both teams struggling to defend the ball if it came quickly.
When the half-time siren went, both teams had been far from perfect, GWS’ missed opportunities were the difference at the main break.
Not helping the Giants was the injury sustained to their key defender, Sam Taylor, who was taken from the ground with concussion in the second.
The third-term belonged to those leaving their clubs, Stringer kicked the first of the term, before Walker’s fourth had both Adelaide and Broken Hill in raptures.
However, the Crows would win out, Josh Rachele finishing off two goals within minutes of each other, with Adelaide starting to win the ball out of centre again.
The Crows also hurt the Giants in transition.
That transition football led to Walker’s fifth of the game, and his second of the quarter had the game virtually out of reach.
All night, it was about the centre clearances, which the Crows had a stranglehold over. In the third term, at the 24 minute mark, the Crows had won six clearances for four goals, while GWS had won three for one goal.
With a margin of 35 points at the final break, two quick-fire Crows’ goals in the last quarter earned them the week off, as the Giants players began to think about pre-season.
Crows: 9.2 11.5 17.8 24.13.157
Giants: 1.4 7.8 11.9 15.11.101
Crows: Walker 6, Rankine 4, Thilthorpe 3, Fogarty 3, Keays 3, Rachele 2, McAndrew, Curtin, Cumming
Giants: Stringer 6, Cadman 2, Rowston, O’Halloran, Madden, Hamilton, Gruzewski, Greene, Brown
Injuries:
Crows: Zac Taylor (hamstring)
Giants: Sam Taylor (concussion)
Best, (alphabetical order):
Crows: B. Keays, I. Rankine, T. Walker
Giants: K. Briggs, C. Oliver, J. Stringer
Crowd: 52 332