Midfielder Rory Sloane says the Crows can take a leaf out of Port’s book when it comes to applying defensive pressure and ‘two-way’ running.
Adelaide will take on top-of-the-table Port Adelaide in Balfours Showdown XXXVII at Adelaide Oval on Sunday afternoon. Sloane admitted it would take a “huge” effort for the inconsistent Crows to upset the more-fancied Power, but said his team’s best was good enough.
“Our good has been really good, but our poor has been below-par. It gives us confidence that when we play our best we can match it with some top-four and top-eight sides,” Sloane said on Tuesday.
“Port are playing with so much confidence and are setting the mark with their pressure and spread. You watch Trav (Boak), Ollie Wines, Robbie Gray and Brad Ebert and the way they spread in the midfield. It’s something (for us) to learn from; the way they help out their defence and really challenge teams by pushing forward.
“By no means is it going to be easy, but we know if we bring our best and that means our pressure around the ball and running as hard as these (Port) guys we can certainly match it with them.”
The up-and-down Crows have followed a frustrating pattern of win, loss, win, loss for the past two months. Sloane said maintaining good training standards would help Adelaide end its rollercoaster run.
“Judging by form, we’re meant to be back up this week so it’s good timing,” Sloane said tongue-in-cheek.
“In the last month, we’ve had a huge focus on making sure that everything we do during the week is spot on. We’ve trained really well and going into games we’ve been feeling good, so I think we’re on the right track to making sure we’re at the highest level for every game. We had a poor start on the weekend, but for the remainder of the game we played some really good footy.
“We need to keep training well during the week and doing things right to give ourselves every chance of playing some good footy.”
Sloane is sharing the game-day captaincy duties with Patrick Dangerfield in the absence of injured skipper Nathan van Berlo. Five of Adelaide’s six wins have occurred when Sloane's name has been on the team sheet.
“That’s just on the team sheet. We share the (captaincy) load during games,” he said with a laugh.
“Maybe, we can just write my name down every week though.”
Dangerfield suffered a knock to his leg in Adelaide’s loss to Essendon, but was able to play out the game. Sloane said the damaging onballer would line up against the Power.
“He always cops a couple of knocks. It’s just the way Danger plays,” Sloane said.
“He throws his body in, so he’s always going to be sore but he pulls through for every game. He’ll be fine and ready to go this weekend.”
The Crows match committee will have a few decisions to make ahead of the Balfours Showdown, with forward Tom Lynch, utility Ricky Henderson and brothers Brad and Matt Crouch pressing for selection.
Henderson will have to prove his fitness at training after suffering a corked thigh in Adelaide’s SANFL win over North Adelaide on Sunday.
“Ricky had a run around today. I’m not sure about selection. Obviously, he didn’t play a full game, so that will depend on how he goes during the week. He’d be a handy player to have return in the Showdown,” Sloane said.
“Matt Crouch played a really good game. Brad missed last week through suspension, so it might be tough to bring him in straight away especially after he’s missed most of the year. Matt will definitely be up for selection. His response after being dropped was what we expect from every player. He went back at had 30-odd touches and won a lot of clearances.”
“It was great to have Tom Lynch in good form and Matty Crouch was great again. It’s good to see those guys play well because they’ll be putting pressure on us (players in the AFL team).”
The Crows will field a new-look side compared to the one that lined up against Port in Round Two.
Missing from the Adelaide team in that game were Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch, Josh Jenkins, Andy Otten, Rory Laird and Ricky Henderson, while Brad Crouch was injured in the last quarter.
