The Crows have bolstered their ruck stocks for Saturday night’s clash with West Coast, recalling tall utility Shaun McKernan to the team.
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McKernan is the only change to the Adelaide side that beat Gold Coast by 28 points last weekend. The 22-year-old ruckman/forward replaces defender Brent Reilly, who will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.
McKernan, who has played six games this season, last lined up for Adelaide against Richmond prior to the bye. Coach Brenton Sanderson said the young tall would help support lead ruckman Sam Jacobs in his battle with star Eagles duo Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui.
“The debate we had at match committee was whether we needed to bring in another ruckman to combat, arguably, the two best ruckmen in the competition,” Sanderson said.
“We thought it would be foolish for us to go into the game with only one genuine ruckman. McKernan has played six of the last eight games and been pretty good for us this season. Shaun will give Sauce (Jacobs) a chop-out in the ruck and also allows us to keep Josh Jenkins up forward.”
Defender Kyle Hartigan, who was promoted to the senior list in place of the injured Reilly on Thursday, has been named as an emergency. Sanderson said the Club wanted another tall player on its emergency list to complement running players David Mackay and Richard Tambling.
“Cox, Naitanui, Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and Will Schofield … it’s the land of the giants,” he said.
“Because West Coast is such a tall tem, we wanted a tall as a back-up on our emergency list and it’s good recognition for Kyle. Kyle and Luke Thompson have both been playing pretty well in the SANFL.”
David Mackay, Mitch Grigg, Richard Tambling and Jarryd Lyons are among the players in the SANFL putting pressure on the Crows selectors. But Sanderson said he wanted to reward the team that overcame the odds to beat Gold Coast last Saturday.
“We didn’t play our best footy last week, but we did guts out a win. We had a lot of challenges, with Matty Wright getting injured and Brent Reilly out in the opening 30 seconds,” Sanderson said.
“D-Mac (Mackay) played well at South Adelaide last week. We just want him to have another week of finding a lot of the footy. Jarryd Lyons and Mitch Grigg were in the mix to be emergencies this week, but they both play in the SANFL Friday night, so there was no point having them sit out of that game to be on standby for us.
“They’ve both been in good form and are keeping pressure on the guys in the side.”
Sanderson described Saturday night’s clash between the 10th placed Eagles and 11th placed Crows as “do or die” for both sides.
“It’s a mouth-watering match-up given where both teams are on the ladder and it’s a massive game for us,” he said.
“West Coast’s form is outstanding. They’ve been unlucky to lose the last two games and we need to really flick the switch on our form this week.”
The team is:
B: Andy Otten, Ben Rutten, Luke Brown
HB: Nathan van Berlo, Daniel Talia, Brodie Smith
C: Bernie Vince, Rory Sloane, Brad Crouch
HF: Aidan Riley, Ricky Henderson, Richard Douglas
F: Jason Porplyzia, Josh Jenkins, Matthew Wright
RUCKS: Sam Jacobs, Patrick Dangerfield, Scott Thompson
INTERCHANGE: Matthew Jaensch, Rory Laird, Tom Lynch, Shaun McKernan
EMERGENCIES: Kyle Hartigan, David Mackay, Richard Tambling
IN: Shaun McKernan
OUT: Brent Reilly (shoulder)
