Adelaide

Yep, I think you're on the money there AH. That one was far worse than the one last Saturday. I wouldn't even call Saturday's a sling personally. He tackled him to the ground but hardly dumped him.

A lot of talk about the Walker ban today. Really is a shame to see him miss games when in such good form but so be it. That's the nature of AFL footy these days.

I guess the question is, can we win without him? I think it will be a great challenge for Sanderson and the team to tackle two quality outfits without a key player. In a strange way I'm actually looking forward to seeing how they deal with it this weekend. If we are to be truly considered a premiership threat, then we have to be able to cover the lost of a key player like Walker.

I personally think Shaun McKernan will be a more than capable substitute. He's got a great pair of mits and loves a contested mark, and I think his height will stretch the Carlton defence, particularly if the Adelaide midfield keep winning the ball so convincingly. He's also a pretty handy kick at goal.

The other selection dilema is Vince, will be interesting to see where Sando squeezes him in. If he can slot into that already purring midfield and find some form then Carlton will have some worries this weekend.

On last nights effort, I think we can beat Carlton, even without Walker.

I can see both sides of the argument about Taylor Walker's incident, but if I had to lean one way or another, I'd probably agree with the penalty. He had wrapped up the player and probably didn't need to take him to ground.

I would say I've watched Taylor since 2008 and am a big fan, however tackling is not a natural part of his game. It is something he has worked on, but he's still not good at it. He is tentative at best when tackling because he's still not entirely sure what he should do.

I remember all the attention when he was dropped by the Crows for not tackling, so he started laying all sorts of crude tackles and was getting into strife for it. I thought media criticism was just as much to blame for these incidents as Taylor.

I'm not sure what the answer is, all I know is if Taylor continues to tackle in this manner, he will continue to cop treatment from the MRP. Whether we think it's correct doesn't matter, we all know the AFL are not accepting of what Taylor did, so he must correct this. Hopefully he will, he's too good a player to have this ruin a career.

Buddy Franklin had the same problem in that he is not a natural tackler, but is getting better at it with each passing match. He has begun to understand the requirements of the AFL. The taller you are, the harder a skill like tackling becomes, especially with smaller players ducking under tackles all the time.

After reading some of the absolute garbage on BigFooty about the Walker incident, largely from Crows supporters (including some Crows supporters allegedly phoning up and abusing the club receptionist because the club chose not to contest the charge), at last there's a couple of rational points about the situation, and I agree with what AH has said above.

Considering Walker already had 90-odd points, 2 matches was always going to be the least Walker could have expected from the tackle. I also have enough faith in the club that they would have done their research into challenging the ruling (and risking a 3 match ban, effectively 4 weeks including the bye) and saw that the chances of successfully challenging the ruling would have most likely been slim at best.

Hopefully Walker can use the couple of weeks off to fine tune his tackling skills so when he tackles, he can do so without risking suspension.

At the end of the day, I think the worst damage that will happen is Walkers' chance of sneaking the Coleman Medal. The side is not a one-man team, and in fact had 13 different goal scorers on Saturday, and while he's been in great form, I think the Crows can easily cover for him the next 2 weeks.

I had a bit of a chuckle this morning listening to Kevin Bartlett on SEN. They were talking about the Taylor Walker suspension, and mentioned there was some legal person from the Crows who had spent hours looking at the case to determine whether they should appeal.

KB says, "I took one look at the incident, it took me 3 minutes to decide he was guilty, and yet here's someone spending hours looking at it ... some people have too much time on their hands".

If a legal person spent hours looking at it, imagine how much was wasted in legal fees

With the Taylor Walker incident behind us, it's time to look forward to the Carlton v Adelaide match on Sunday.

There's a couple of things going for Adelaide on Sunday. First is their form. They are in red hot form at the moment with a spirited win over the Swans and a rampaging win over the Cats. Carlton, on the other hand, were ordinary, very ordinary on Monday night. The second thing is the break - Adelaide have had 2.5 days extra break than Carlton. This didn't stop Hawthorn belting the Crows in round 3, so I take this advantage with a grain of salt.

This will be a brilliant game of football, and is a great opportunity for Adelaide to shake it's Melbourne monkey off its back (Adelaide's last win in Melbourne being round 22, 2009 - ironically also against Carlton).

Despite Adelaide being the underdogs this week, I think they are a strong chance of winning. Yes, Carlton are formidable opposition, but I believe Adelaide has the resources to defeat them by 23 points.

I agree with your thoughts Bruce.

We traditionally do very well against Carlton, particularly at Ethihad. Even last year when we were ordinary at best we nearly knocked them off.

Discounting our form over the last couple of years which was terrible everywhere, we also generally play quite well at Ethihad.

I said to myself at the start of this 'tough month' that every win would be a bonus and I will still be switching on the TV with that frame of mind tomorrow, but I do think we are a real good chance to take this one. I can't actually believe the bookies are offering over $3.00 for an Adelaide win TBH.

If Adelaide jag this one, then I think a few people will really sit up and take notice. Mind you, I'm quite happy for the general footy public to keep underating us.

I'm trying to keep a lid on things, but I must admit I'm starting to get some '1997 vibes'.......

Well how about that folks?!

No point writing the game up really, it was just pure brilliance from start to finish!

Now, off to clear out September in the diary.....

Dangerfield = absolute animal.

i don't watch much of the competition but i did watch today & if Carlton are a top 4 team as i've read & heard then Adelaide would have to be the real deal

I couldn't take myself away from the TV - loved every minute of it...

All but that split second where I thought Dangerfield had hurt himself - but alas - no he hadn't... lol.

No - was really good

It seems Adelaide is much improved this year and Melbourne is worse. Food for thought.

The game started out as a tight arm wrestle between the two sides as they traded goals. After quarter time though, it became a procession for Adelaide as they did what they wanted, and Carlton crumbled.

What I loved about today's match was that we played 4 solid quarters of football. There was no third quarter lapse. There was no taking the foot if the pedal. The club wanted to make a statement today that they are a genuine contender and they stamped their authority on the match - and kept on stamping.

The Crows are now, amazingly, in 2nd place with the best start to a season they have ever had, and we enter next week's match against Collingwood full of confidence.

How about Jenkins yesterday? Was thinking a couple of times during the game yesterday that poor old McKernan must've been kicking himself for opening the door to this bloke by getting suspended.

Jenkins has been fantastic the past two weeks, and has well and truly kept his spot. Loved that goal that he kicked yesterday as well.

Hard to believe he used to play for the Townsville Crocodiles!

Just got home from Melbourne. Awesome win. Patrick Dangerfield was brilliant. Fantastic turnout from crows supporters too. Loved seeing the carlton supporters head to the exits after Dangerfield kicked the first goal of the last quarter. Also loved the atmosphere in the after match function. Reckon I might start sving my pennies for the finals (not getting ahead of myself though )

Actually, I was looking at possibly going over for the Melbourne v Adelaide game in round 22, but with the chances of making finals increasing after each win, I'm thinking of just holding out for a couple more weeks and going across for any finals we may have over there.

Brucetiki wrote:Actually, I was looking at possibly going over for the Melbourne v Adelaide game in round 22, but with the chances of making finals increasing after each win, I'm thinking of just holding out for a couple more weeks and going across for any finals we may have over there.

Start looking into GF tickets! We will be there!!!! Best side in the comp by 5 goals at least at the moment... cant see that changing anytime soon - we will only get better whilst other temas fall away.... here comes number 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big call @ round 8 there BC.

Remember 2006? No one was anywhere near us until about round 18 when it all went tits up.

I'll count it when it's safely locked in the trophy cabinet. Until then I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the weekly displays the lads a putting on, and we'll see what happens.

Gingernuts wrote:
I'll count it when it's safely locked in the trophy cabinet. Until then I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the weekly displays the lads a putting on, and we'll see what happens.

Same here. Just keep enjoying each win as it comes - though each wins gives me more confience we can finish top 4 and not 5-8 as I originally anticipated.

Weather could be a concern for this weekends game. I'd prefer to see the game being dry conditions TBH.

Wet weather could tighten things up and give the Pies a sniff, whereas I think we're a good chance to give'em a hiding if the conditions remain dry.

I'd like to thank bigclock for being the first to make my day. Memory bank has just had a small piece of information added in.

Please Lord, don't give Booney an excuse to dig that one up in 6 months time.

I've been away for 3 weeks and what a difference in that time. I've come back to Adelaide on 7 and 1 and Dangerfield now a superstar.

What happened in that 3 weeks??

Tough game last night.

Collingwood were superb. It was obvious from the first bounce that they'd done their homework and they executed their plans to perfection.

They clamped down on Adelaide's prime movers, clogged up their run, and set up a wall across Adelaide's half forward line that was near on impossible to penetrate.

Harry O'Brien & Heath Shaw were excellent across half back for the Pies. It looks like Adelaide might be vulnerable to the loose man/sweeper set up, when they lost to the Hawks Gibson had a field day in a similar manner to O'Brien.

Despite this, for the first 3 quarters I thought Adelaide were excellent in still staying in the game despite it not going their way.

In the end I walked away from the game thinking the loss will most likely be more constructive than the win for boys. A good wake up for them and for the supporters also. It's evident that there is still a lot of work to do for their brand of football to work under the pressure of a quality opposition at the pointy end of the season.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a cheque I need to cash at the bank of reality. Heading down early, hopefully I beat the queue.

BTW - Speaking of getting ahead of yourself, memo to club admin - fireworks as the team ran on?? Really?? Whoever organised that should be shot. Even I cringed when I saw them go off. Talk about premature celebration.

Gingernuts wrote:
BTW - Speaking of getting ahead of yourself, memo to club admin - fireworks as the team ran on?? Really?? Whoever organised that should be shot. Even I cringed when I saw them go off. Talk about premature celebration.

They had them for the Bulldogs game as well. I saw it as more of a entry statement as the side ran out on the field for night matches than any premature celebrations (somewhat like what you see with T20 cricket and several sports in the US).