Crows “didn’t know” a home final was on the line
Adelaide Crows players were not told they were still in the hunt for a home final against Geelong last Saturday, despite the Brisbane Lions staging a come-from-behind win over the Bulldogs in a concurrently-played game.
The Brisbane game began 40 minutes after the Crows long-awaited bout with the Cats, who ultimately prevailed by 39 points.
The Crows were just 11 points down against the Cats at three quarter time; at the same point in the Brisbane match, the Lions had just clawed back a five goal deficit to sit eight points behind the Bulldogs at half time.
But Adelaide skipper Taylor Walker told InDaily the score wasn’t relayed to the players.
“It wasn’t even spoken about, mate,” he said.
Asked whether that was an oversight, he responded: “I don’t think so (because) then you lose focus of what’s at hand.”
Midfielder Richard Douglas told InDaily the Crows players “didn’t know the score at any stage”.
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“We were more concerned about how we were playing and trying to fix what was going on,” he said.
“We were just worried about beating Geelong … you can’t think about any other game while you’re in the moment playing another one.”
The Crows rallied after a slow start to claw within a point of Geelong in the third quarter, but the Cats put the foot down again in the final term.
Douglas said the Lions’ eventual win, and its ramifications for Adelaide – who would have secured a home final if it had managed to run over the Cats – “was only an afterthought once we’d lost”.
“That’s when we thought about what could have been,” he said.
“We controlled our own destiny … we got what we deserve.”
The surprising admission that the Crows did not realise they were potentially playing for hosting rights in Saturday’s elimination final – after the deliberately-depleted Kangaroos’ Friday night loss to Richmond had seemingly robbed them of the opportunity – is another footnote to a controversial final round of football that has clouded the first week of the finals.
Commentator and one-time Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy firmly believed the Crows would have been keeping tabs on events up north, telling FoxFooty’s On The Couch last night that “the jungle drums would have been beating in their clubrooms (with score updates) and it just goes to show how difficult it is to change attitude in a 10-minute cycle”.
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“I don’t think you can flick the switch,” Walker conceded, “but you’d like it to happen in a minor round game than in a finals game.”
“I don’t think any of the players went out and said ‘we’re not going to play footy’, we’re not questioning that at all… We’ve spoken about that and it’s time to move on.”
Indeed, Adelaide is keen to forget the final round hiccup, with Walker marking it down to “flirting with form” and the fact “our KPIs weren’t at the level we wanted them to be”.
Those key performance indicators, he explained, included winning first use of the ball and “getting up in the face of the opposition”.
“We dealt with it,” he said.
“I think we’ve got to move forward now and embrace the atmosphere and exciting times of this week that finals footy brings.”
But it also brings its share of controversy. Adelaide will face the Bulldogs on Saturday night, with both teams smarting from a surprise loss and the hosts aggrieved that the AFL has fixtured the match at the MCG, rather than Etihad Stadium, where they boast an imposing 11-2 record.
Walker insists the winning equation for the visitors remains the same: “Kick goals.”
Coach Scott Camporeale is more contemplative. While confident “our game-plan stands up at any ground”, he notes that Australian football’s spiritual home is a more traditional “oval” than the narrower confines of the Crows’ Adelaide Oval homeground.
“The way we move the ball will help us through the MCG, no doubt about that, (but) there’s obviously a bit more territory to defend,” he said.
“That comes with a positive and a negative, I guess…when you’re defending you need to make sure you’re alert and up in the opponent’s face.”
Which is one “KPI” the Crows are keen to rectify, ASAP.
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