Can the Greater Western Sydney Giants open their account in 2013 against the Adelaide Crows? We’ll have live scores and a blog from 1.10pm AEST.
After the top-of-the-table clash on Friday and a number of big match-ups yesterday, it’s a bit of a letdown with both of the expansion teams scheduled this Sunday afternoon.
First up we have the Giants hosting Adelaide, a match-up the Crows should be expected to win comfortably.
GWS have fallen into a consistent pattern this season, being competitive, or sometimes even more than competitive, for most of the game before fading badly at some point in the second half.
Last week they even held a solid lead at half time over the mighty Bombers before being overwhelmed.
It should be expected that a team mostly made up of raw youngsters would struggle to run out games, and maybe Sheedy and co are content that their charges are at least staying in the contest for long stretches, but nonetheless that’s the big reason why the Giants are zero and six.
If GWS are going to record a win this year, at some point they’ll need a stronger finish.
Adelaide are entering an interesting phase of their season.
No doubt they’ve made a disappointing start to 2013, and the injury to Taylor Walker has put a serious dent in their aspirations, but they would have been encouraged by a dogged performance last week against Hawthorn, even if they ultimately fell short.
And they have the chance to notch up a couple of wins against the Giants and the Saints before a run of fixtures against teams they’ll want to beat to play finals in 2013, including North Melbourne, Fremantle, and Richmond.
Today they would be expecting a win, confident of a solid percentage boost, and hopeful that one of their second-string key forwards can step up, kick a few goals, and gain some confidence ahead of those important games.
Josh Jenkins had some good moments last weekend, and mid-sized forward Tom Lynch has also looked impressive further up the ground. Shaun McKernan will offer another tall target this afternoon.
Sanderson will be keen for them to do some damage on the scoreboard this afternoon.
At the other end of the ground, Jeremy Cameron was in sparkling form with six goals last weekend. He might find the going tougher today with Rutten and Talia possible opponents.
Skipper Nathan Van Berlo returns to the Crows midfield, which looks pretty formidable.
While Treloar, Scully, Ward, and Coniglio should be competitive in patches for GWS, you’d expect Adelaide to get first use of the ball pretty regularly.
Today both teams will be looking to the future.
The Giants, as always, will be hoping to continue the development of their promising youngsters, while the Crows focus will be more short-term.
In a tight finals race, percentage can be vital, and Adelaide won’t want to look back and rue not taking full toll of their one game against the league’s weakest side.
Even more so, today is a chance to get some confidence up among their young forwards following a rocky start to the year.
I expect this game to follow a familiar pattern, with the Giants hanging in there for a half or so, before the Crows clear away to win by a big margin.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
"and was shown up badly by football who operate on 1/100th of the budget" 1/5th, but whatever.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
I caught part of Melb v GC on Fox - one of those sunday afternoon dramedies.
Jimbo
Guest
On FTA TV Giants and Crows was live across NSW and SA GC Suns game was live in QLD, and most of NT, and remote and central SA.
Stavros
Guest
When you consider that the A League final got 297k, then 237k for Melb v GC is a great figure. Also, the match was on 7 Mate as well.
Jimbo
Guest
Surely this can't be right, here are the fox ratings for arguably the 2 worst AFL games ever. GWS V Adelaide 152k Melbourne V GC Suns 237k They are actually decent ratings.
TomC
Roar Guru
This is a live blog page. In my opinion, it is not an appropriate place for yet more code war debates.
db swannie
Guest
Do you mean the VICTORIAN way of life?
junkmail
Guest
the 5.8k announced would have been an ok crowd if GWS actually got that many to the ground. There were really only 3-3.5K at the game and half the crowd were crows fans. Almost 2/3 of the bays were completely empty almost all the other bays were lucky to be 10% full. The racist comments aren't going to help this....
JAJI
Guest
Why then is the NRL big in Sydney's West AFL - A pimple on the buttocks of world sport lets face it, barely has enough fans to support one side in NSW let alone 2..... Demetriou can throw as much money as he wants - its not working...and was shown up badly by football who operate on 1/100th of the budget
MV Dave
Guest
The fact that Sheedy's comments haven't even raised an eyebrow in the Melbourne media says all you need to know about the AFL media down here.
MV Dave
Guest
And of course you can't be assimilated until you follow GWS...LOL. Great work TC. Also notice more AFL fans ejected for racial abuse over the weekend in Melbourne...
Stavros
Guest
They are trying to assimilate them into the Aussie way of life. It will take a while but they will get there.
Jacques
Guest
Can you imagine the headlines if someone from soccer( football) would be if they said what Kevin Sheedy said?
Nathan of Perth
Roar Rookie
That's a horrible thing to say about people's mothers.
Nathan of Perth
Roar Rookie
And well they should. A lot needs to change, front office and back office over at the Giants.
Allan
Guest
Because they had this mistaken belief that we are an area of 2 million 'grey' people who were floating in sports purgatory and were just waiting for the saviour that is the AFL to come along and show us all what real sport is all about.
Matthew
Guest
Disgraceful comments, bordering on racism. Way to go Sheedy, how many stupid comments us that now? This guy is a liability.
Titus
Guest
Maybe there was some kind of pet expo on.
Sports Candy
Roar Pro
Then why did they try and set up an AFL team there?
Rusty0256
Roar Rookie
How to win friends and influence people.......NOT!