Australian Football

Match Report

After starting the season in mostly competitive fashion, Greater Western Sydney’s younger bodies began to tire and their opposition became more ruthless. As the battle for spots in the top-four became extremely hard-fought, the sides wrestling for those spots were taking any opportunity to crush weak opposition for an easy percentage boost. That is exactly what Adelaide did against the Giants. It didn’t matter that the Crows’ two key forwards, Taylor Walker and Kurt Tippett were missing through suspension and injury, Adelaide still managed to win by 119 points. An 18-goal to three second half highlighted the significant gap between an expansion team in their first season and a genuine premiership contender. An ankle injury to Ricky Henderson and a hamstring strain to Brodie Martin were the only real negatives for the Crows ahead of next week's blockbuster showdown with West Coast. Scott Thompson was terrific in the midfield for the Crows, while they had a plethora of goalkickers. Even full-back Ben Rutten was able to slot through a major.

GOALS
GWS: Cornes, Haynes, Davis, Greene, Patton, Treloar, Ward, Wilson
Adelaide: Porplyzia, Callinan 4; Sloane, Vince 3; Douglas, Jacobs, Thompson, Lynch 2; Smith, Jenkins, Van Berlo, Rutten, Mackay

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Ward, Greene, Treloar, Davis, Cornes, Coniglio
Adelaide: Thompson, Vince, Reilly, Porplyzia, Jacobs, Wright

BEST - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
GWS: Greene, Cornes, Ward, Coniglio, Hampton
Adelaide: Vince, Thompson, Wright, Reilly, Porplyzia, Sloane

COACHES COMMENTS
Kevin Sheedy (GWS): If we're going to be any good, we're going to suffer some penalties along the way and get some smackings from other clubs. It's up to the coaching staff to absorb that, not necessarily the players, and to not get frustrated with it

Brenton Sanderson (Ade): We'll look at this game and how we can get better, (but) West Coast provide a new challenge next week, one of the form sides of the competition.

Umpires: Fleer, Hosking, Mollison