Crows come home with a wet sail to halt Saints

Adelaide has rained on St Kilda’s parade after it pipped the premiership favourites last week, overcoming the visitors by 32 points in a slippery slog at Adelaide Oval.

Adelaide has rained on St Kilda’s parade after it pipped the premiership favourites last week, overcoming the visitors by 32 points in a slippery slog at Adelaide Oval.

As the rain tumbled down and only intensified just prior to half-time at Adelaide Oval, the scoring conversely dried up, however the Crows’ late breakthrough via Billy Dowling, substitute Riley Thilthorpe (two goals) and Josh Rachele was enough to nudge them over the line 10.11 (71) to 5.9 (39).

St Kilda looked primed to grind their way back into the contest after Mattaes Phillipou nailed a long-range major on the run which skidded through the goal-line to shrink the deficit to a point after a goalless 23 minutes to open the third term, however struggled to lock the ball inside its forward half from that point on as the Crows kicked away.

Rory Laird and Sam Berry were prolific in the Crows’ clearance comeuppance (54-46) after trailing in the stat at the main change, combining for 14 clearances and 25 tackles between them to break the Saints’ back.

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (29 disposals, 648 metres gained) provided some much-needed finesse for the Saints and helped gain crucial territory in the rain-soaked game, while leaders Rowan Marshall (47 hit-outs, 20 disposals) and Jack Steele (19 disposals, nine tackles) toiled hard to give their side opportunity. 

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The Saints started brightly with a brace of goals to Cooper Sharman (two) and Mason Wood (two), however only mustered the one goal through Phillipou after that point as the home side bagged seven of the next eight in the wet.

Both sides missed gettable chances both weather-affected and otherwise, yet the Saints’ inability to pin the ball in their forward half, retain possession and — compounded by unclean entries — score readily opened the door for Adelaide.

Darcy Fogarty kickstarted the run much to Ross Lyon’s frustration, whose phone in the coaches’ box received a lashing as a result, before Dowling's major (the first time the game had reached a double-digit margin) initiated four-goal final quarter to all but solidified the result. 

More to come…

INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
St Kilda: Battle (leg)

SUBSTITUTES
Adelaide: Riley Thilthorpe replaced Elliott Himmelberg at three-quarter time
St Kilda: Ben Paton replaced Riley Bonner (tactical) at three-quarter time

CROWD
34,549 at Adelaide Oval