Brisbane v Adelaide - 18/08/12

Brisbane vs Adelaide – Saturday night 18th August

Adelaide team:

B: Sam Shaw, Ben Rutten, Michael Doughty
HB: Graham Johncock, Daniel Talia, Brent Reilly
C: David Mackay, Scott Thompson, Nathan van Berlo
HF: Richard Douglas, Taylor Walker, Jared Petrenko
F: Matt Wright, Kurt Tippett, Ian Callinan
Ruck: Sam Jacobs, Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane
INT: Luke Brown, Josh Jenkins, Chris Knights, Bernie Vince

EMERG: Lewis Johnston, Aidan Riley, Richard Tambling

IN: Luke Brown, Chris Knights, Kurt Tippett
OUT: Lewis Johnston (omitted), Aidan Riley (omitted), Brodie Smith (calf)

Adelaide is obviously continuing it’s policy of rotating fringe players ahead of their finals campaign, with the unlucky Johnston & Riley making way for Brown & Knights. That said, Tippett is named but may not play, so those lads might get a chance to pull the boots on yet.

On paper Adelaide should win this one comfortably, but the road trip to Brisbane is never an easy one so I would think they will be very happy if they can get up there, do the job, and get back home with the 4 points.

Points of Interest:

- If Tippett plays it will be interesting to see how he slots back into the side, particularly with all the speculation surrounding his future.
- Is Walker on the verge of cracking a game wide open? His work off the ball has been an absolute pleasure to watch this year and a big factor in Adelaide’s resurgence.
- Dangerfield is shaping up as a real big game player, but will Brisbane be enough of an opponent for him it crank up to top gear? He seems to only feature prominently in the big games (not a problem at all, but will be interesting to watch this weekend).

Tip – Adelaide by 40 points

Great write-up, GN.

This is the type of game Adelaide have tended to win against the odds when they're struggling and lose, against the odds, when they're travelling OK.

You would think Tippett will play regardless of his decision and Adel;aide really should win this comfortably.

On a side note, West's Rory Laird was Adelaide's 1st rookie pick last year and he's established himself in the Blood's team and is playing really good footy. Very composed and excellent skills. I'm enjoying watching him.

As for Brad Crouch: - GUN!!!

As I mentioned, it was the sort of game they'd lose when they're travelling well.

I missed the first quarter, listened that they were a machime, switched on the TV and watched a lot of crap footy.

It's all to do with attitude and the thought the had it won at 1/4 time.

They hadn't.

Yeah disappointing after quarter time but I'm not overly surprised. Thought we would lose one of these 2 away games (against Brisbane and Melbourne). Just hope we don't lose next week as well.

For someone who does so many excellent things, Taylor Walker does so many dumb things as well.

I still dont see the Tippett excitement. Very overrated IMO and I think the Crows can win out of a trade here. Just a clumsy player.

Callinan should get dropped shortly just doesn't do enough.

waddayamean wrote:I still dont see the Tippett excitement. Very overrated IMO and I think the Crows can win out of a trade here. Just a clumsy player.

Callinan should get dropped shortly just doesn't do enough.

Agree on Tippett unfortunately.

Hope you were joking with Callinan. Kicked 4 goals tonight and was very good.

My husband says the same thing - and I had to hear it allllll night He's not a Tippett fan I don't think...lol

Did anyone else get sick of the commentators - they drove me batty - "Oh the crows are going to lose this" "The crows are going to miss out on finishing top or second" "The crows blah, blah, blah" - They hardly said anything about if Brisbane were playing well or not.

We lost - oh well - we're still up there.

Nexxxxt.....lol.

BloodnTars wrote:

waddayamean wrote:I still dont see the Tippett excitement. Very overrated IMO and I think the Crows can win out of a trade here. Just a clumsy player.

Callinan should get dropped shortly just doesn't do enough.

Agree on Tippett unfortunately.


.
Hope you were joking with Callinan. Kicked 4 goals tonight and was very good.

No wasn't joking about Callinan but I wasn't just commenting on tonights performance .I didn't see all of tonights game and he may have had a blinder but not from the bits I saw.

waddayamean wrote:

BloodnTars wrote:

waddayamean wrote:I still dont see the Tippett excitement. Very overrated IMO and I think the Crows can win out of a trade here. Just a clumsy player.

Callinan should get dropped shortly just doesn't do enough.

Agree on Tippett unfortunately.


.
Hope you were joking with Callinan. Kicked 4 goals tonight and was very good.

No wasn't joking about Callinan but I wasn't just commenting on tonights performance .I didn't see all of tonights game and he may have had a blinder but not from the bits I saw.

Fair enough. He did go through a rough patch for a little while where he didn't get a great deal of the ball, but his last 2 weeks have been alot better imo.

Tippett is a class player and will be a big loss if he goes.

He did nothing tonight, but it was his first game for weeks.

Well in Tippett's defence R&B that's what I was saying to my husband - along the lines of give him a break it's his first game back...lol.

Well, beware the team with nothing to play for. This time of the season is always tricky, playing the lower sides is by no means as easy as it looks with them looking to snare a big scalp and salvage something from their season.

It was always a danger game that one, and very disappointing to see Adelaide lose it, particularly after being in such a commanding position at quarter time. However, after quarter time Brisbane played excellent football, take nothing away from them.

One thing I have noticed in the last month or so is that teams are going one on one across the ground against Adelaide to choke up their run, and squeezing big numbers around each stoppage to cramp things up and take space away from the likes of Dangerfield, Thompson & Sloane. Brisbane did if after quarter time again, clamped right down, and it worked beautifully.

Adelaide didn’t help their cause by continuing to bomb big high loopers into their forward line for Merrett and co to pick off. A better tactic would’ve been to chip things around a bit and wait for the right opportunity to present itself, but I think the fear of losing to a lowly ranked side got the better of them and they panicked too often.

History is littered with upset late season losses like this, so I’m not all that concerned about it. No doubt this adds to the question marks surrounding Adelaide, but so be it. The reality is at the start of the season Sanderson would’ve been projecting a return to finals, and best case would be to progress to the second or third week. Barring an absolute disaster they have all but guaranteed that. They have increased their wins from 7 last year to potentially 17 this year, and many players have shown significant improvement, with plenty more to come (how good is our midfield going to be once young Crouch slots in next year??). Definitely disappointed with the loss, but as an Adelaide fan I couldn’t be happier with this year.

As for Tippett, he would be rusty after playing bugger all football for two months, and he got terrible delivery all night. Merrett isn’t the shabbiest defender in the game either. He’ll come good over the next couple of weeks.

Thud

Do you need a hand up Brodlach

It seemed to be a 'switch-off' in attitude after the first quarter.

That reinforced it would be an easy game in their minds, I think and once momentum shifts, it's hard to get it back.

Brisbane's lesser lights all stood up and contributed.