Australian Football

Match Report

Adelaide took the momentum it gained through winning the NAB Cup by trouncing a disappointing Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium. Crows on-baller Scott Thompson backed up his extraordinary 51-possession game against the Suns in 2011 with another 39 touches. The 28-year-old was again left unattended through the majority of the contest, as he went head-to-head with Suns skipper Gary Ablett, who managed 42 disposals himself and kicked two brilliant running goals. Adelaide key forward Taylor Walker was the subject of trade rumours throughout 2011 after an up and down year. But Walker looked to be a revitalised player as he booted five goals, including several from way outside 50. Although there were many positives for the Suns in their debut season in 2011, they suffered plenty of severe losses and their game plan was heavily criticized. Judging by their first game of 2012, not much has changed during the off-season. Ablett is still carrying the side and the defence is leaking too many easy goals. Suns coach Guy McKenna will be looking to his younger players to step up during the coming weeks to ease the burden on the more senior members of the side.

GOALS
Gold Coast: Ablett, Brown, Bennell 2; Smith, Swallow, Prestia, Caddy

Adelaide: Walker 5; Tippett 4; van Berlo, Callinan, Dangerfield 2; Sloane, Douglas, Porplyzia, Lynch

BEST PLAYERS - AFL.COM.AU
Gold Coast: Ablett, Harbrow, Bennell, Brennan, Brown, Iles

Adelaide: Thompson, Sloane, Tippett, van Berlo, Walker, Jacobs


BEST PLAYERS - THE AUSTRALIAN
Gold Coast: G Ablett, Brown, Rischitelli, Bennell
Adelaide: Thompson, Tippett, Jacobs, Sloane

COACHES COMMENTS
Guy McKenna (GCS): Everyone knows about contested footy and our numbers were down in that area in the early part of that first quarter. I would have thought that was a huge strength of ours last year. When you're nine-zip (down) out of the centre that makes it fairly tough.

Brenton Sanderson (Ade): The world was looking at how we would respond to the NAB Cup success and it probably couldn't have been better from my point of view. If I was an Adelaide fan I'd be pretty happy because they're seeing some attractive footy. The boys are playing some really aggressive footy, they're winning contests.

Umpires: Pannell, Wenn, Ryan

Official crowd: 12,790 at Metricon Stadium