Australian Football

Match Report

The finishing match for the round takes us to the headquarters of South Australian football at the Adelaide Oval for the AFL reserves mini-Showdown between the Magpies and the Crows. Much like the Panthers vs. Bulldogs game, these sides also opened the season last year. On that occasion the Crows hammered the Magpies to the tune of 62 points as the hosts, but the Magpies held firm in the return match in Round 19 to nick a three-point win to finish off their season. Adelaide did continue to play past this point, but of course we all know that the final word is probably more important for the Port faithful. The Crows' season would come to an end just three weeks later at the hands of Norwood. The Magpies would have a new coach at the helm in the form of former Collingwood player and Power coaching panel member Tyson Goldsack, but here's another spoiler for you folks... another baptism was coming. It didn't happen straight away, things were a little tit-for-tat in the first quarter. But a couple of missed chances for the Magpies would see their AFL rivals ahead by four points at the first change with the scores reading three goals to 2.2. And then came the storm that blew the black and whites away. Going into injury time, Port were just a single kick away from tying up the scores. Their inaccuracy in this term was part of their coming undone, having scored just 1.4 to Adelaide's one goal. In the ensuing nine minutes, the gap went from six points to 26 by half-time, with the Crows scoring 3.2 during this period. The third quarter was owned by the Crows, reducing Port to spectator status for a huge chunk of the term. For 25 minutes, the Magpies had only scored two behinds while the Crows kicked 6.3 to blow the gap out to as much as 63 points deep into time on. A couple of late majors to the hosting side brought the deficit back down to 51 points by the three quarter-time siren. But the Crows weren't done raising the bar... or lowering them in Port's case. They held the 'Pies to just 2.2 in the final term, adding 5.5 to their columns to romp away to a 13-goal victory. Even worse for Port, their seniors were also humbled so for all concerned, the bars were well and truly lowered this day. Harry Schoenberg was Adelaide's best afield with 34 disposals, eight marks and eight clearances. The Magpies named Nick Moore as their best, he chalked up 24 disposals, laid 10 tackles and made seven clearances.