In the absence of injured full-back Daniel Talia, Crows coach Brenton Sanderson “put it on” veteran defender Ben Rutten to take down in-form Fremantle skipper Matthew Pavlich.

NAB Rising Star Talia restricted a red-hot Pavlich to two goals when Adelaide and Freo met at AAMI Stadium in Round 20. But a broken arm sustained by Talia in last week’s loss to Sydney, denied Sanderson his first-choice match-up for Pavlich in the cutthroat Semi-Final.

Adelaide’s preferred full-back for the best part of the last decade, Rutten has regularly taken the opposition’s second-best forward this season. However, the 29-year-old showed he was still well and truly up to the task of playing on the game’s best goalkickers on Friday night.

He limited Pavlich, who single-handedly steered Freo to victory with six goals against Geelong last weekend, to a solitary goal - his lowest return in a match since Round Nine. Rutten also edged Pavlich on the stats sheet, collecting 11 possessions to the South Australian’s 10.

“I thought Truck’s (Rutten’s) game on Pavlich was outstanding,” Sanderson said after the game.

“He’ll be the first to admit he got great help from up the field. I don’t think we allowed Fremantle as much time and space to be able to hit Pavlich. But he very rarely got beaten in a one-on-one contest.

“We put it on him within the group that we needed a special effort from him because we saw what ‘Pav’ did to Geelong last week. For Rutten to keep him to a goal and low possessions was just a great effort for the team.”

As Sanderson predicted, Rutten was quick to praise the support he received from his teammates, including evergreen defender Michael Doughty, the in-form Brodie Smith and Luke Thompson, who showed great composure in his first final and only second game for the season.

Adelaide’s defensive effort was even more remarkable given the loss of Sam Shaw to a hamstring injury late in the first quarter.

“It was a big challenge for me personally and the defenders going into the game,” Rutten said.

“Pav has been in some great form, and then we lost Sammy Shaw to injury early in the game. Luke Thompson, Brodie Smith and Ricky Henderson really had to step up in that area.

“For them to be able to hold up the way they did under that sort of pressure in a final was great experience for them going forward.”

Doughty, who has already announced he’ll retire at the end of the Crows’ 2012 campaign, was resolute once again. The reliable backman took six marks and contributed seven ‘one-percenters’ - second only to Rutten, who contributed eight.

“Michael Doughty keeps winding back the clock,” Sanderson said.

“I just told him I was going to call off his retirement. He’s playing some great footy and is really holding that group back there together.”

Where Adelaide’s defence held up well, so did the team’s attack.

In a stark contrast to the rushed forward entries against the Swans last week, the Crows methodically worked their way through Freo’s defence after quarter-time, pin-pointing passes and displaying a willingness to take more risks with short kicks through the corridor.

The result was more than 22 scoring shots against the dour Dockers defence.

“Our intensity and effort was there last week, but it was our composure, poise with the footy and ability work our way through (the defence) that was the difference this week,” Rutten said.

“Freo and Sydney are such great defensive teams. If you don’t think about what you’re doing, you just play right into their hands. I think our ability to use the footy and create a few one-on-one contests with Taylor Walker (five goals) was really good and he finished off the job for us.”

As has been the case for much of the year, many critics wrote the Crows off after their disappointing loss to Sydney. But Rutten said his side never wavered in its self-belief.

“We haven’t lost two games in a row all season,” he said.

“The boys had great confidence in our ability to respond. We’d beaten Freo twice in the two games earlier this season, which we took confidence out of as well. The boys don’t lose that belief and with the work we’ve done throughout the year, we backed ourselves in coming into tonight’s game.”

Rutten will have another big defensive assignment against Hawthorn in the Preliminary Final at the MCG on Saturday evening, with Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead among his possible match-ups.

But the All-Australian said Adelaide’s back six was ready for the challenge.
“Hawthorn has some fantastic players in their forward line and all over the ground. It’s going to be a team effort to be able to stop those guys,” he said.

“We’ll enjoy the win tonight and get back on with business tomorrow (Saturday). They have been in great form. We need to hone in on what we can do and improve on out of today.”