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The Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide Power paid tribute to Phil Walsh with a thrilling Showdown on Sunday, ending in a 3-point win to the Crows.
>>MATCH REPORT: Crows pip Power in Showdown 39
Port trailed all day but pushed for a comeback in the last term, only to fall short in the closest match between the two sides in history.
Adelaide’s Scott Thompson won the Phil Walsh Medal for his best on ground performance.
Adelaide 18.8.116 def. Port Adelaide 17.11.113
The Port Adelaide Power host state-based rivals, the Adelaide Crows, at Adelaide oval on Sunday afternoon. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 3:20pm (AEST).
Showdown 39 in normal circumstances would have the state of South Australia divided in two. One side in black, white and teal, the other in red, yellow and blue.
However the situation we find ourselves in is anything but normal.
Just 16 days after the tragic death of Adelaide senior coach Phil Walsh, two of the clubs he dedicated so much of his life to will do battle once again on the almighty Adelaide Oval, in front of a footballing state, united by loss.
To celebrate the life of Walsh both teams will run through one banner, both cheer squads will march to the ground together and a one-off Phil Walsh medal will be awarded to the best on ground.
Now let’s focus on the football, as I’m sure Phil would have wanted us to do.
The Power scraped home to a narrow three point win against the Pies last week, but need another solid performance if they are any hope of making the finals from here.
The Crows were beaten by a strong West Coast side showing their heartbreak as they walked off to an away-crowd standing ovation.
This is going to be a high intensity game right from the first bounce, proven by history with the average combined game score just over 200 points in the last five clashes.
Contested kings Ollie Wines and Patrick Dangerfield will be going head to head in the middle trying to feed the ball to their respective forward pairings of Schulz/Gray and Walker/Betts. This is ultimately where the game will be decided.
Prediction:
Whoever wins the Danger vs Wines battle will lead their team to victory through their sheer ‘see ball, get ball’ mentality.
Crows by 4 (Danger with 35+).