Adelaide fluff their lines on the city’s big opening night but the Demons show their strength in depth
The pressure that was on Adelaide heading into Thursday night’s Gather Round opener will only intensify now. That’s the reality of being winless in a two-team, one-newspaper, footy-mad town. After last week’s loss, the back page of the local rag had them trudging off under the headline “Easter Bunnies”. They were better on Thursday, and far from disgraced against a well-organised and defensively sound Melbourne. But the problems that have plagued them all season were still evident – the dinky nine irons, the sideways kicks, the plain midfield, the stodgy ball movement, the determination to make life as easy as possible for the opposition interceptors.
Their deficiencies are well-documented. But their biggest problem was their opponent. Oh, for an easy kill. Instead, they drew a very accomplished, in-form Melbourne, a team fresh off a win over Port Adelaide, and whose strengths were always going to trouble them. The Crows have been unable to circumnavigate the better intercept defenders so far this year. They served up a feast to Tom Stewart against Geelong, while Freo’s Alex Pearce and Luke Ryan picked them off repeatedly on Good Friday. You can’t bomb and hope against Melbourne. Their entire system is designed to gobble up sloppy forward forays. You have to be smart, keep your head, work your angles, and pick your holes. At various stages, the Crows did that. But too often they blasted, and Steven May and Jake Lever, with a dozen intercept marks between them, did the rest. With his broken ribs, May was as resolute as ever. He’s the goalkeeper, the organiser, the thumper, the thwarter, and the toughest of opponents.