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Craig hands out the praise
Four-goal on-baller Hayden Skipworth, ruckmen Rhett Biglands and Ben Hudson, and midfielder Scott Thompson received some special praise from coach Neil Craig af
Four-goal on-baller Hayden Skipworth, ruckmen Rhett Biglands and Ben Hudson, and midfielder Scott Thompson received some special praise from coach Neil Craig after Adelaide's 10-point win against the Kangaroos at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.And Craig also made a special mention of mercurial midfielder Andrew McLeod's role as a tagger."Andrew's playing a role for us I'm happy with," Craig said. "His performance today, in terms of where we are and what I ask Andrew to do … did anyone see Andrew go and tag players today?"They're the sort of roles that are starting to unfold for Andrew and some of our senior players. Some of that work will go unnoticed from the general public. It certainly doesn't go unnoticed by his teammates and the coaches."Andrew McLeod is a very important player to our club. He has been for a long period of time and I think some of the things Andrew is now doing will leave a very, very good legacy for the rest of our playing group."Craig said Skipworth had been 'good all year'."He's coming along," he said. "He's continuing to improve. He's starting to get a real picture in his head, I guess, about what it takes to play AFL footy, and the commitment and work-rate."So it's a credit to him. His next challenge will be to continue to try to put those performances on the board."Craig said Biglands and Hudson were 'a lot better' against the Roos than they had been the previous week against the Western Bulldogs."To get back into what we call competitive mode in the centre square for both those guys was outstanding," he said. "I thought it was a big response by those two big guys and they should feel good about themselves in being able to put that sort of performance together."Of the ever-improving Thompson, Craig said: "Scotty had a really interrupted pre-season. In the last few weeks he's spent more and more time on the ground."He's got some really good attributes. He's got some areas he knows he has to improve on and we're working with him on that, but his performances are getting better and better."I just love the way he goes about it, I love his attitude to the game, I like his attitude to the profession - the way he prepares himself - so he'll be a very, very good acquisition for us."Stressing that the conditions were 'really slippery, really tough for both sides' and that the Kangaroos had won their first five matches this season, Craig said: "We didn't expect to sit there and watch four quarters of footy unfold all our own way."He conceded the Crows had gone 'a bit wide again' when moving forward, particularly early in the match, but he was pleased with other aspects of the strong performance that produced their fourth win."The areas of tackling, what we call half wins, closing down opposition, zoning … I thought those areas of our game were outstanding," he said."And when they are, when we are able to tick those boxes in terms of the level we want, they are as good as any in the competition, and we saw that today."
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