The Crows are like a box of chocolates – fortunately on Saturday we got the mushy pea cream centre. The sort of chocolate the South Australian home supporters find acceptable because folks have been telling them since they were kids that it tastes OK – but everyone else knows it’s awful.
It has been a down few weeks since the bye and despite wins in the last two, they were against 17th and 18th. So the last two rounds of 2019 give us proper games against teams vying for the eight and Saturday took the boys over to Adelaide to take on the Crows. After a reasonably even but unexciting first half, the boys took the game away in the third quarter with six goals to one and unlike the previous couple of weeks, they didn’t take the foot off in the last and came away with a 66 point win. By my reckoning, this is the first four quarter performance since round five when we beat Brisbane by 10+ goals.
The big story of the day was Billy Elliot. Bucks left him alone deep in the forward line and the other forwards played the plan well and gave him space to run into. The delivery was good and they weren’t putting it on Billy’s head and he took home a handful of majors. Multiple goals from other forwards in Josh Thomas, Hos and Varcoe had us providing a threat from every angle. Interesting that the only really quiet forward on the day was Checkers with only twelve disposals and a behind but he was due an off day. It looks like the Crows put too much energy into him and didn’t pay enough attention to the others.
I’ve been a fan of Mason Cox and stuck by him due to the flexibility he gives and the old “they don’t get any shorter”. But apart from a good game against the Eagles he has been badly out of form and the forward line has looked more functional without him. This is a choice Bucks won’t have to make now with a one-eyed Cox, out for the season.
Around the ground, Pendles and Ads were dominant and Bucks stuck with the Grundy – Roughead ruck combination. Probably because Adelaide went in with two ruckmen in Jacobs and O’Brien. The big hipster got 35 hit outs compared to the Adelaide pair’s combined 27 so while Roughead didn’t have a big impact, the Pies’ talls easily took out the honours.
So this Friday night it’s a clash against the old foe, the Bombers. If Adelaide is like a box of chocolates, we are hoping Essendon is too and that they pull out the steaming turd centre that they offered up against Footscray a couple of weeks back. A win over the Bombers means we can sit back and cheer for Brisbane over Richmond like 2002 and 2003 never happened.
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AFL 2019 ROUND 22
ADELAIDE 0.5 2.6 3.8 6.12 (48)
COLLINGWOOD 2.2 5.5 11.8 17.12 (114)
GOALS
Adelaide: Fogarty 3, Douglas, Lynch, Betts
Collingwood: Elliott 5, Thomas 3, Adams 2, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Phillips 2, Varcoe 2, Maynard
BEST
Adelaide:Smith, Seedsman, Laird, B.Crouch
Collingwood:Elliott, Treloar, Pendlebury, Maynard, Crisp, Howe
INJURIES
Adelaide: Riley Knight (hip soreness) replaced in selected side by Chayce Jones
Collingwood: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Dalgleish, Chamberlain, Ryan
Official crowd: 48,175 at Adelaide Oval