Adelaide SANFL coach Heath Younie believes the Crows are the underdogs heading into Sunday’s SANFL Semi-Final against a strong South Adelaide.

Adelaide advanced to the second week of the SANFL Finals series after cutting a five-game losing streak against Central District in last weekend’s Elimination Final. It was the first time the Crows had downed the Dogs in over three years.

Some raised their concerns following the performance, questioning Adelaide’s place in the League in what was the Club’s SANFL finals debut.

Younie felt the criticism was misguided and said his team would need to be at its best again to match South Adelaide on Sunday.

“We were really proud of our players’ efforts,” Younie said.

“We worked pretty hard during the week with a plan to go against Centrals given the fact they touched us up the last two times. We went in with a really strong plan and the guys executed on the day.

“We had 10 guys who were 21 and under in that game. We had 11 guys with no AFL experience, and we had five guys that have played AFL this year. We’re quite young. We performed really strongly on the day.

“We played Centrals out there (in Round 13) and were beaten by 55 points with 18 AFL-listed players. No one complained then. All of a sudden now we’re being challenged about our performances.

“We’ll go out and try to play as well as we can again. Try telling our players not to win games of footy.”

Crows deserve first SANFL finals chance

The Panthers defeated Adelaide in both meetings between the two teams this year, including a convincing win just a fortnight ago.

“Two weeks ago South Adelaide beat us by 38 points and they beat us by a point earlier in the year,” Younie said.

“We go into this game under no illusions that we’re the underdogs in this game and South deserve to be favourites going in.”

Both Crows teams will be in action this weekend after last week’s AFL bye. The senior side confronts North Melbourne in a do-or-die final at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, before the SANFL Crows take on South at 12.10pm at the same venue.

“Both teams go into this weekend prepared and ready to play in a finals series,” Younie said.

“It can only be a good thing for our Club.”