Several young Crows made early claims for a round-one berth at Friday’s intra-club match.
Norwood premiership player Luke Brown, who played three AFL games last season, played well across half-back, while his teammate in the ‘Red’ team Brad Crouch continued to show why he’s so highly rated at West Lakes.
Rookie Rory Laird impressed for the victorious ‘Gold’ team. Draftee Rory Atkins showed off his neat kicking skills in his first outing for the Club. Three players out to cement a regular place in the team, Brodie Martin, Aidan Riley and Jarryd Lyons, also won plenty of ball for the Gold team.
Experienced heads Jason Porplyzia (three goals) and Richard Douglas (two goals) combined well for Gold, while Sam Jacobs (two goals) had a good battle with Red ruckman Shaun McKernan (one goal). Veteran Brent Reilly was solid in the under-siege Red defence.
Coach Brenton Sanderson said he was happy with the overall performance of the squad.
“It’s always difficult when it’s Adelaide v Adelaide and you have two teams playing the same structure,” Sanderson said.
“It’s hard because if you do something good in attack it means the other team wasn’t defending well and vice-versa. We moved the ball well and defended well at times. We kicked goals from stoppages and created turnovers.
“Taylor Walker’s (Gold) team kicked 16 goals and Tex didn’t kick any. It’s a good sign that we had such an even contribution of scorers.
“It was great to have a proper hit-out. The internal trial always signals the end of pre-season, and the start of the real games.”
Only a handful of players, including Bernie Vince and Jared Petrenko, who are both on the comeback trail from shoulder injuries, and Graham Johncock and Cam Ellis-Yolmen (Indigenous All-Stars) didn’t take part in the match. There were no injuries out of the 80-minute trial, which was held behind closed doors at AAMI Stadium.
Sanderson said Crows fans would have plenty of opportunities to see the team in action over the coming weeks, with the NAB Cup kicking off next week and a free trial match against Fremantle to coincide with Members Day on Saturday, February 23.
“If closing a session such as today gives us a competitive edge over an opponent in the regular season, I think our members and supporters would understand why we do it,” he said.
“We hope to see the 19th Man out in force throughout the NAB Cup and also encourage everyone to come along to watch us play Freo on the 23rd.”
Sanderson said it would be tough picking the squad for the opening round of NAB Cup matches against St Kilda and Port Adelaide next Sunday.
“We’ll certainly give our young players plenty of opportunity to show us what they’ve got during the NAB Cup,” he said.
“At different times, some of our experienced players won’t be playing and we’ll get a chance to see who out of those young guys stands up. We’ll try to give almost every player on our list a bit of exposure.”
SCORE
Crows Gold: 16.8 (104)
Crows Red: 7.6 (48)
GOALKICKERS
Crows Gold: Jason Porplyzia 3, Richard Douglas 2, Ben Dowdell 2, Sam Jacobs 2, Josh Jenkins 2, Brodie Martin 2, Ian Callinan, Rory Laird, Aidan Riley
Crows Red: Lewis Johnston 3, Shaun McKernan, Nathan van Berlo, Brent Reilly, Scott Thompson
