The Crows have included Ian Callinan, Ricky Henderson and Jared Petrenko in a squad of 25 to play North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Callinan and Petrenko have been added to the squad following strong performances in the SANFL. Henderson was the non-playing emergency for Adelaide’s clash with St Kilda last weekend.
The Club is yet to confirm any changes to the team that beat the Saints.
On Thursday, coach Brenton Sanderson said it was possible the Crows would name an unchanged side for a second consecutive week.
“I do like our form from the last three weeks … it’s going to be hard for guys to break into the side this week,” Sanderson said.
“There’s a strong case for Petrenko. His form has been good in the SANFL and he was really unlucky to go out of the side in the first place. Callinan kicked 40 goals for us last year and is such a smart footy person. I’m keen to get him back into the side because he gives us a different option as a crumbing forward, but I like the way we’re playing at the moment with a lot of different faces going through the forward line.
“I think we’re playing some decent footy. Hopefully, we can take that across to Etihad this week.”
Josh Jenkins, who hyperextended his knee in the win over St Kilda, will line up against the Roos.
“We were very controlled with Josh at training today. He’ll certainly play this week. He’s not in any doubt,” Sanderson said.
“When you look at the incident again in slow motion … gee, we dodged a bullet with that one. It’s almost a carbon copy of what ‘Tex’ did a few weeks earlier.
“We’ve had a bit of bad luck with injuries this year, but that’s one we’ve had a bit of good luck with.”
The Crows will celebrate Indigenous Round and honour the contribution of Indigenous players – past and present – by wearing a specially-designed guernsey. Sanderson was a driving force behind the one-off guernsey and said it would be great to see the team run out in it on Sunday.
“It’s great. With already two of the colours of the Indigenous flag, a simple change from navy blue to black means that in Indigenous Round we get to play in Indigenous colours,” he said.
Young midfielder Brad Crouch will play for West Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
Log onto afc.com.au at 4:30pm on Friday to see the final team to play North Melbourne. Match day information about the Round Nine clash is available here.
The squad of 25 is:
B: Luke Brown, Ben Rutten, Andy Otten
HB: Brent Reilly, Daniel Talia, Brodie Smith
C: Bernie Vince, Patrick Dangerfield, David Mackay
HF: Rory Sloane, Josh Jenkins, Jarryd Lyons
F: Sam Kerridge, Tom Lynch, Richard Douglas
RUCKS: Sam Jacobs, Scott Thompson, Nathan van Berlo
INTERCHANGE FROM: Ian Callinan, Ricky Henderson, Rory Laird, Shaun McKernan, Jared Petrenko, Jason Porplyzia, Matthew Wright
IN: Ian Callinan, Ricky Henderson, Jared Petrenko
OUT: -
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