THE CROWS are looking for impressive first year tall Kurt Tippett to ‘stand-up’ in the second half of the season.

Tippett, 21, has played all 12 games this season and earned a NAB Rising Star nomination for his four-goal haul against Melbourne in round eight.

The Queenslander, who will return home to play at the Gabba this weekend for the first time since coming to Adelaide at the end of 2006, has booted just one goal in trying and often wet conditions over the past month. Coach Neil Craig said Tippett would have to learn to deal with the increased level of respect from opposition players.

“Opposition sides aren’t going to let a guy of 200cm stand there unattended and take catch after catch, so welcome to the big time Kurt,” Craig said.

“Kurt understands that. Even though he hasn’t taken a lot of marks up forward [recently], he’s been really competitive in the air, which we want.

“He hasn’t gone in there and been out-marked. His second efforts are still really good. He’s got a fierce competitive attitude and I think he’s going to be a very good player.”

Adelaide’s forward line coach Paul Hamilton said it was important to remember where Tippett had come from. The former basketballer was drafted by the Crows on the back of no more than 25 games of Australian Football.

“My cousin who plays in under-14s has actually played more games of football than Kurt Tippett, so he hasn’t played a lot of footy and we always have to keep that in mind,” Hamilton said.

“But what Kurt has done is provide us with a reasonable sort of structure to work with. It’s been difficult for him in the last few weeks because of the wet and slippery conditions we’ve been playing in, but his off-ball contributions have been terrific and his chasing has improved a lot from the start of the year.

“We think he’s taking some steps forward, but he’s got to do a little bit more yet. If we’re going to have a reasonable side in the second half of the year, we’re going to need someone, like Kurt, to step up.”

The club is expected to incorporate contract negotiations with Tippett’s Queensland-based manager when the Crows head to Brisbane on Friday to prepare for Saturday night’s game at the Gabba.

Tippett’s name has already been mentioned in association with the AFL’s proposed new Gold Coast franchise and Hamilton said he wanted to see the pharmacy student remain at West Lakes long-term.

“I’ll leave the contracts to John Reid to follow through on, but we’d like to see him here for a long time,” he said.

“How we go about doing that and making sure he stays here is not just about the contract. It’s about how we work with him, how he develops, the friendships he builds and the way the club looks after him.”

Hamilton said fans should also be excited by the progress of 18-year-old forward Taylor Walker. Walker was Adelaide’s first signing in the NSW Scholarship program and has booted bags of nine and five in his past couple of outings with SANFL club Norwood.

“This year, we were probably expecting Taylor to be playing seconds for Norwood; that was what we were envisaging,” Hamilton said.

“We were hoping he’d do more than that, but he certainly has gone a long way since the start of the year.

“Over the last two weeks, his efforts have been terrific, so he’s another one that puts pressure on the guys in the side.

“It’s really pleasing. It’s really good to have those difficulties when it comes to certain areas of selection and, hopefully, that continues for some time.”