Adelaide’s young SANFL side deserves its chance to pursue finals success as much as any other team, says Crows State League coach Heath Younie.
The Club fielded 18 AFL-listed players against Central District in Saturday’s Elimination Final win, albeit more than half had never played at game at the elite level. Only five had played AFL this season.
“The great thing about having our own team is (our players are) able to do it on a big stage like today. It’s fantastic for those guys to experience it, and to play in a real high-intensity game,” Younie said.
“It’s really interesting. A guy gets drafted and he doesn’t automatically get 100 games of experience in his back pocket. He’s got to learn his craft. To get the result can only grow belief for those guys.”
The Crows’ SANFL team, which featured 10 players aged 21 or under on Saturday, is competing in its first finals series since entering the competition in 2014.
The Club’s presence in the State League has prompted criticism, some of which has been misguided, from rivals and certain sections of the South Australian football community.
“I want to send out a really big thanks to all the Crows supporters who came today,” Younie said.
“It’s really important for our guys as obviously we don’t have a home venue throughout the course of the year.”
SANFL Stats: Elimination Final
The Crows showed great character to topple Central District and played a disciplined and hard-running brand of football, booting the first four goals of the game and restricting the opposition to its only goalless first term of the season.
Adelaide then held its nerve throughout the second and third quarters to hold the battled-hardened Bulldogs, who have featured in 16 of the past 17 final series, at an arm’s length.
Saturday’s result also ended a five-game losing streak against Central District which handed the SANFL Crows their equal-worst loss when they last met.
"I’m really proud of the playing group,” Younie said.
“We planned really strongly throughout the course of the week and they were able to execute exactly what we wanted.
“We spent a lot of time on how we wanted to defend the ground.
“We get to train here a lot, and I felt our guys were able to defend well and they weren’t able to penetrate through our defence.
“Full credit to our guys - not just the defenders - but also the midfielders and forwards.”
The Crows play South Adelaide in a Semi-Final clash at Adelaide Oval next Sunday afternoon, which will be less than 24 hours after the senior side tackles North Melbourne at the same venue.
“It’s just great for the footy club,” Younie said.
“We go into this week both teams, all players fully engaged in our program, going into our second week of finals in the SANFL and obviously a really important game against North Melbourne on Saturday night.
“I encourage everyone to get here Saturday night and make some real noise but also to get back down here Sunday and cheer on hopefully another win.”
