Adelaide v Sydney

Interesting game this one.

Adelaide has been in solid form for a month now without being spectacular. Several youngsters have had breakout games in the last few weeks including Lynch, Laird & Kerridge. The established players are also on a steady improvement curve.

They have been very competitive with 2 likely 4 sides in Hawthorn & Fremantle, however have lacked the polish in ball movement and in front of goal to get over the line in both games.

I sense that they are not far off their best form, and providing they can get enough wins on the board could be well placed to peak in form and fitness at the right time of year, something they did a little to early last season. To be any chance though they need to start taking some big scalps sooner rather than later.

They missed a golden opportunity last week against Freo, but are presented with another opportunity/challenge this week - and it doesn't come any bigger than Sydney to be honest.

Sydney are without doubt the form side of the comp. They are ticking along beautifully, and when you consider they have Tippett to come in sometime in the next month, come finals time they will be difficult to beat.

My heart says a win on Saturday would be massive and put us firmly back in the hunt, but my head can't see how it can be done.

Adelaide will match them in the middle, but the inexperience of both attack and defence could be dangerously exposed.

I think Sydney will win by 25-30 points.

Adelaide by 15 points. The 19th man will be immense this week!

Teams:

ADELAIDE:

Forwards: 4 Jenkins, 29 Kerridge, 27 Lynch

Half-forwards: 7 van Berlo, 35 McKernan, 23 Petrenko

Centre: 17 Vince, 32 Dangerfield, 9 Sloane

Half-backs: 3 Reilly, 12 Talia, 14 Mackay

Backs: 46 Laird, 25 Rutten, 22 Otten Ruck: Jacobs (24), Douglas (26), S. Thompson (5)

Interchange: Crouch (2), Smith (33), Porplyzia (40), Henderson (45)

Emergencies: Wright (11), Lyons (31), Callinan (37)

In: McKernan, Henderson, Crouch

Out: Martin, Brown (calf), Lyons

SWANS

Forwards: 21 McGlynn, 41 Mumford, 6 Mitchell

Half-forwards: 24 Bolton, 37 Goodes, 14 Bird

Centre: 15 K. Jack, 4 Hannebery, 26 Parker

Half-backs: 43 Rampe, 39 Grundy, 3 McVeigh

Backs: 40 Smith, 25 Richards, 9 Malceski

Ruck: Pyke (38), Kennedy (12), O'Keefe (5)

Interchange: Everitt (13), B. Jack (33), Morton (10), White (18)

Emergencies: Armstrong (19), Lamb (11), Towers (22)

In: White, B. Jack

Out: Jetta (shin soreness), Walsh (hamstring)

I like the Adelaide inclusions. I'm a fan of Henderson - he is tall, quick and versatile. He'll be very handy tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing how Crouch goes back in the team also.

Mackay and Thompson have passed their fitness tests today apparently.

Half time - Sydney are a lean mean fighting machine - hoping the Crows can show some of their normal fight back - even if they don't win

Especially since I have to sit here next to A Dad

A Mum wrote:

Especially since I have to sit here next to A Dad

i'd rather be sitting next to A blonde

as for the footy shortly after half time Adelaide has 2 hitting the posts shots & then goal other end = game over

final margin of 77 points flattered the Crows by a long way

Didn't see the game but very disappointed with that scoreline. Looks like season 2013 is pretty much cooked. :-(

Probably a good thing you didn't GN. We basically sat on our lounge chairs just stunned - but at the same time in awww of the Sydney game, determination and skills.

Sydney were just way too good.
Will be interested to see how Port handle them when they play them next.

Rory Sloan tried his heart out all day - as always. Douglas was really good. Patrick Dangerfield tried numerous times to 'lift' the team. Feel sorry for him that that had to be his 100th game.

I suppose all we can do is fight the season out as best we can. There is so many good young kids coming through - and just hope for a better 2014.

I've enjoyed watching the crows this year - maybe not today - but all other games.

But yeah hopefully we can get some wins again yet this season.

Meanwhile I just want to delete one of my brothers off facebook - full blown port supporter mouthing off and being a real troll on facebook - sorry Booney- but for this reason I hope Sydney beat port by 100pts + !! ....lol

The Crows were a complete and utter disgrace today. After playing well for the first 10 minutes (just didn't put it on the scoreboard). After that, it was all Sydney as the Crows didn't even put up any resistance against the Swans. The most disappointing thing out of tonight's game is the side has the potential to match, if not beat this side, and most of the errors were down to pure laziness or incompetence.

The players should be ashamed of that performance.

Great article Bo jai Bednall in the tiser today. This squad has the talent, but still lacks the experience to match it with the big boys consistently.

Just to elaborate on my previous post (I was posting on my ipod over the weekend - not conducive to detailed posting!).

I didn’t see the game, but that scoreline is truly disappointing. I thought we’d left those types of margins behind, but obviously not.

Adelaide have been very lacklustre this year. I think ultimately our lack of experience has been completely exposed.

There is no doubting the raw talent of this playing group. On top of the continued development of the likes of Sloane, Dangerfield etc, the new faces that have been injected into the side this year have performed pretty well generally. However the experience necessary to consistently perform well is still a year or so off by the looks of things, particularly for the second/third tier players holding down the 12 – 22 spots on match day.

I am very confident that we have the squad & coach to be a legitimate contender at sometime soon, it’s just a bit of a waiting game as the players build on their resumes.

Despite this though I do wrestle with the nagging thought that the Tippett saga may cost us our next shot at a flag. I wouldn’t be lonely in that I’m guessing.