Happy Rankine, happy team: Crows coach on Gather Round opener win
Rankine made a welcome return to form and Rachele rocked the stadium as Adelaide cut loose in the Gather Round opening game on Thursday night.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks was rapt after one of their most important players impressed in the Gather Round win over Carlton.
Izak Rankine looks like he is regaining his mojo, delighting coach Matthew Nicks as Adelaide try to find consistent AFL form.
One of the highlights for Nicks out of Thursday night’s 17.12 (114) to 12.14 (86) win over Carlton at Adelaide Oval was that Rankine played better.
Their star utility is yet to find his best form this season. Rankine has played the last three games after serving a four-match ban for a homophobic slur.
The suspension meant Rankine missed last year’s finals, when the Crows crashed out in straight sets.
Rankine spent time in the middle against the Blues, going toe-to-toe with Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, and kicked a goal late in the last quarter.
“We saw his energy, didn’t we? That was the one,” Nicks said.
“The main thing we’ve been looking for is our ability as a team to inject Izak into the game.
“We just love the fact that he has that smile back on his face.
“When he’s a happy footballer, we’re a very happy team.”
You might like
But Nicks was most unhappy at quarter time after the Crows had another sluggish start and their midfielders struggled.
“It looked a little bit rougher than maybe I thought it was,” Nicks said of his animated discussion with the midfielders at the quarter-time break.
“I think I started the conversation with ‘I’m not going to yell’. I may have gone there.
“To their credit, they turned it around instantly in the second quarter.”
Overall, Nicks said the win was unquestionably a step forward for Adelaide. And the crowd roared early on when Josh Rachele snapped two stunning goals from the same pocket.
“We found patches of ourselves again,” he said.
“It was a really positive step for our group. We started slowly again, which is going to be a work-on, but to turn that around … we got a glimpse.
“Some of our best footy was back tonight.
“Our best, we believe, is at the level it needs to be. We’re just dropping away a little bit too much.”
One setback was a hamstring injury to defender Mitch Hinge, who was taken out of the game at halftime.
“We think hamstring – to what grade, we don’t know yet,” Nicks said.’
“It didn’t seem that good.”
Michael Voss on Carlton’s loss
Meanwhile, Michael Voss urged Carlton’s midfielders to share the load better after Patrick Cripps’ absence at a crucial moment in their AFL loss to Adelaide.
Stay informed, daily
The Blues coach scoffed when asked about the start of the second term on Thursday night, when their two-time Brownlow Medallist had a spell on the bench.
Cripps had been influential in the first term, but was off the ground when the Crows started cutting loose.
Adelaide opened the second quarter with five goals in eight minutes and that proved pivotal in their 17.12 (114) to 12.14 (86) win. Cripps was resting until about five minutes into the term.
“The way forward is share the load and we don’t ask any player to play 100 per cent of game time,” Voss said.
“I can’t believe those sorts of things are still questions. It’s our midfield group that gets the job done.
“The skipper started great, he had a very good night and there were some players who returned to form.
“We also have to be better than a team that has to have him in there for the entirety.”
Fellow midfielder George Hewett was dropped, but Voss stressed he would be back soon.
“He has a role to play for us. He’s a special human being,” Voss said.
The opening game of Gather Round was Carlton’s third-straight loss, keeping the pressure on their embattled coach.
But it was an improved performance and they could regain defenders Jacob Weitering and Harry Dean next Thursday night against arch-rivals Collingwood.
“More guys playing better tonight, to get themselves in form, helps us,” Voss said.
“We got a shift today and we’ll keep exploring that.”
Harry McKay worked hard for little reward, only kicking one goal, and Voss wondered aloud whether their key forward should have had a better run from the umpires.
“He could have been a little bit luckier, maybe, tonight in some contests,” he said.
“He could have been rewarded a little bit more.”
Ollie Hollands can expect match review scrutiny after his late challenge in a marking contest felled Taylor Walker, gifting the Crows veteran a 50m penalty and a goal.
-with AAP
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
