The first qualifying final may not have been the thriller we all hoped for, but it was a game that still had massive implications not just for both teams, but the shape of the 2017 finals series as a whole.
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Heartbreak for Brodie Smith
An ACL injury is about the worst you will find in the AFL to begin with – it robs a player of roughly a season of footy, and you’re never quite the same when you get back as you were before. It’s rotten luck.
But to do an ACL in the first quarter of the opening match of a finals series, just as your team goes on a rampage and puts themselves to the front of the queue as premiership contenders? That’s a whole other cosmic level of unfortunate.
Unfortunately premierships often wind up having these hard luck stories attached to them along the way. Bob Murphy is the obvious example from last year but there have been plenty of others over time.
Ben McGlynn would have to be one of the most unlucky the game has seen – Sydney played three grand finals while he was at the club, he missed the one they won through injury, and played in the two they lost. Gary Rohan would tell you a similar story.
Seeing just what an absolute heartbreaker an event like this is for a player is something that reminds us all just how much we value the flag – we wouldn’t crave it nearly so much if it wasn’t so hard to achieve, if missing out were not so cruel.
That’s of little comfort though I imagine. Nothing will be, except maybe seeing your teammates get the job done. Chin up, Brodie.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Shaw versus Betts barely a battle in the end
Heath Shaw started the night lined up on Eddie Betts and by the end of the night, Betts had comfortably taken the points.
Eddie has had a few questions asked of him just quietly in recent weeks, as his form dipped in the second half of the year.
But he answered all and sundry with a superb three-goal display on Thursday night. It was just the second time since Round 10 than he has booted more than two.
Shaw, on the other hand, has worryingly dropped away in form this year, and while you can escape scrutiny in the regular season to some degree, there is no place to hide in finals.
If you look at Heath Shaw's year in isolation, he has fallen off the cliff #AFLCrowsGiants pic.twitter.com/1HOkNAZrAd
— Eddie McGuire FC (@RohanCT) September 7, 2017
Shaw’s decline is emblematic of perhaps the biggest reason why the Giants have failed to improve this year – they built their team around a core of veterans brought in from elsewhere, but those players have moved past their prime.
Steve Johnson was on the sidelines for this one after his form failed him. Ryan Griffen missed too, having barely played all year because of injury. Shaw, Shane Mumford and Brett Deledio had almost no real impact on the contest.
If these players really have gone over the hill then it might be a while yet before the Giants genuinely contend.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Unsung Crows midfielders give much-hyped Giants a decisive defeat
If you were to look at the final score and final stats without having watched any of the game you might think it was a reasonably watchable affair, with the Giants’ failure to convert their forays forward ultimately being their doom.
Amazingly, GWS broke perfectly even on both clearances (42-42), inside 50s (52-52), were narrowly ahead in disposals (354-340) and contested possessions (160-159), and laid many more tackles (110-88). How then were they so soundly beaten?
The truth is that most of the evening out of the numbers was done in the second half, after the Crows had already decisively won the battle with eight consecutive goals to just one from GWS in the first half.
If they had no motive other than to embarrass their opponents the Crows could easily have wound out the result to a ten-goal caning in the second half or even much more than that.
What makes that result all the more remarkable is that Adelaide did it without their best player and central midfielder in Rory Sloane.
Watching the first half you would never have known he was missing – the likes of Brad and Matt Crouch and Richard Douglas all stepped up in a big way to shoulder the load.
Douglas was the Crows’ only midfielder taken in the first round of the draft in their side on the night – though Brad Crouch, who was a mini-draft pick that they did trade a first round pick for, would come close to qualifying. Even Sloane himself was drafted in the 40s.
GWS, on the other hand, had five first-round midfielders, six if you count Brett Deledio as a midfielder, seven if you count Dylan Shiel who was a priority selection but surely would’ve gone in the first round if on the open market. Three of those seven were No.1 picks, two more of them No.2 picks.
It wouldn’t be news to anyone, but there’s a lot more to this game than having high draft picks.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
GWS forward line far too Giant for wet weather footy
There have been a few concerns during the year about the height of the Giants’ forward line – as a rule, they’ve been better off playing two of Jeremy Cameron, Jonathan Patton and Rory Lobb than they have three.
Bringing in Harrison Himmelberg then and asking him to play a defensive role up forward on Jake Lever only made things trickier, and on a wet night when smalls were bound to have more impact than talls, it was a recipe for disaster.
In the end none of GWS’ talls had any real impact on the game, and the coaching staff quickly resorted to throwing them around the ground. Rory Lobb spent some time playing a loose man in defence with no real impact, the kind of experiment that a qualifying final is not the time or place for.
With Steve Johnson out it left Toby Greene as really their only reliable goalkicker who could be expected to have an impact, which is just not enough options when playing against a team with such forward line potency as Adelaide.
The Giants just aren’t a team built for wet weather regardless – they are built on speed and skills, which is great, but rain is a great leveler in footy that brings the classy to the level of the grinders, and GWS are no grinders.
It’s easy to look at a flat performance like this and think that straight sets is a real chance – and maybe it is. They’ve definitely got some significant considerations to make at team selection next week.
However, give them a nice sunny day at Spotless Stadium and I’d still wager they’ll wipe a dry floor with whichever of Port Adelaide or West Coast goes through to play them.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
Adelaide vs Sydney grand final off the menu
A real bummer from the result last night is that the grand final many of us had predicted and dreamt of, the Crows and the Swans, is now impossible – the two can meet in a preliminary final if the Swans win through, but the winner of that will play someone else in the decider.
Admittedly, that’s almost as tantalising a prospect as a grand final between them would have been, and it’s a real boon for Adelaide who know that if they do go up against the Swans, they’ll play them at home rather than the neutral ground of the MCG.
It may create a bit of an odd memory of this year’s finals series where that hypothetical prelim is remembered as the ‘real’ grand final, as right now you’d probably back the winner to comfortably defeat any grand final opponent they may come up against, if not too badly battered by the prelim.
There’s some significant water to go under the bridge before even that happens of course – Sydney need to beat the Bombers on Saturday and then whoever the loser is of Geelong and Richmond next week.
That match would be at the MCG too, so even if they do get through there it’ll be a big ask for them to back it up with a second away trip against the Crows, or even then a third at the MCG again for the grand final. That 0-6 start may really come back to bite them.
Still… you wouldn’t count them out. Not by a long shot.
We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
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