Defender Daniel Talia says the Crows are “pumped” for the challenge of taking on an in-form team of the competition, Richmond, at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
Adelaide is looking for its first top-eight scalp since beating North Melbourne in Round One. The Club’s last attempt against a finals fancy resulted in a disappointing loss to Sydney at the SCG on Saturday night.
Talia said his team was keen to avenge the loss and test itself against the Tigers, who have won five of their past six games including an impressive victory over reigning premiers Hawthorn last week.
“It’s a massive game. You want to beat the teams around you and play well against the good sides,” Talia said on Wednesday.
“We haven’t been able to beat a top-eight side this year and that’s something we’re really looking forward to, to taking on a great side that’s probably in (the best) form of the competition.
“Going into this week, we’re pumped that we’re up against a good side and we’ll challenge ourselves this week.”
Adelaide’s poor performance, namely in the first half, against the Swans started in the midfield.
Talia said it was important the Crows got back to the basics of getting first hands on the footy.
“The major thing is getting back to our strength, which is winning the ball at the coal face and playing the game in our half. That’s how we want to play our footy,” he said.
“Getting back to what we do well, that’s what we’ve worked on this week.
“We’ve won two of our last three games, so we don’t want to jump at one loss. We’ve tried to keep things as positive as possible and we had a really good session just now (Wednesday morning) … and trained really hard.
“We’re looking forward to playing on the Friday night stage against the Tigers.”
Talia said the Crows would also need to be stronger at the contest this week against the Tigers, who were very physical in their gutsy win over the ‘unsociable’ Hawks.
“We’ve just got to focus on what we’re doing. We can’t worry too much about what the Tigers are doing,” Talia said.
“At AFL level, you can’t go into a game without it being physical. Our guys prepare for that each week, but last week we didn’t bring it. That’s the best thing about footy, the week after you get another opportunity to rectify it.
"Of course the game is going to be physical on Friday night. It’s going to be a massive build-up and we can’t wait for the first bounce of the ball and to get out there and hit some bodies.”
Adelaide will be without key midfielder Richard Douglas on Friday night.
Douglas was ruled out of the blockbuster after having his appendix removed on Monday.
The Club has a number of in-form midfielders pushing for a recall, including young players Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Rory Atkins, Mitch Grigg and Sam Kerridge, as well as veteran Nathan van Berlo, who was Adelaide’s best player in the SANFL win over Norwood on Saturday.
Brodie Martin could also be available after being a late withdrawal from the loss to Sydney because of illness.
“It’s going to be a big loss, losing Dougy, but in saying that someone from the SANFL gets to step up and has an opportunity,” Talia said.
“Dougy has been a great for our Club for a long time. He can break the lines, defend and take the game on. But we’ve got guys who are in good form. ‘VB’ brings his leadership and has been a great for a long time as well. The young guys are hungry and playing really good footy.
“‘Campo’ (Interim Coach Scott Camporeale) will make that call later in the week, but it’ll be one of those midfielders (to replace Douglas) I’d imagine.”
