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2017’s biggest improver takes on the year’s biggest slider when the ladder-leading Adelaide Crows host the 17th-placed Hawthorn Hawks at the Adelaide Oval. Join The Roar for live scores, analysis and highlights from 7:50pm (AEST).
In an open season, the race for the premiership is as wide open as it has been in years, but the Crows have staked a claim as the team to beat over the first half of the season.
Their results have been mixed since a barnstorming six-win streak to start the season had many questioning whether they would even lose a game this year, but with a host of star players in top form and plenty of young up-and-comers impressing as well, the Crows are primed and ready for a crack at their first flag since 1998.
While the likes of Eddie Betts, Rory Sloane and the Crouch brothers take up most of the spotlight, their younger brigade have been equally important, with Jake Lever in All-Australian form in defence and a pair of mature-age recruits in Hugh Greenwood and Jonathon Beech giving Adelaide’s squad a depth that has been missing in recent years.
While the Crows’ rapid improvement has caught many by surprise, the Hawks’ sudden fall from grace has been one of the biggest shocks of season 2017.
A straight-sets exit from last year’s finals series appeared to call to a close the dominant Hawthorn era which yielded three consecutive premierships from 2013 to 2015, but some shrewd off-season trading was enough to suggest they would be there and thereabouts again this year.
But of those high-priced recruits, only Tom Mitchell has been truly outstanding, with Tyrone Vickery failing to take his game to the next level as the Hawks would have predicted and Jaeger O’Meara’s knees still a weekly concern.
With O’Meara now looking unlikely to feature again this season as he continues to manage the injuries that have seen him play just four games since the end of 2014, the Hawks’ season has gone from bad to worse.
To add insult to injury, their first draft pick at the end of this year now belongs to St Kilda after trading it as part of their plan to get the former Sun back to Victoria.
Prediction
Just two weeks ago, we saw 17th knock off first when Carlton trumped GWS, but it would be an even greater upset were Hawthorn to triumph here. The Crows are in form, are armed to the teeth with forward firepower, and if that wasn’t enough, a hostile home crowd gives them an extra edge. The Hawks will find it hard to even come close.
Adelaide by 58 points
Most of the attention has been focussed on Mitchell, O’Meara and Vickery among the Hawks’ new faces, but a former Crow in Ricky Henderson has been quietly putting together a solid season in the brown and gold, and the dashing half-back will notch up his 100th career game against his old side.
Can Henderson get the last laugh on his former teammates as the Hawks cause a major boilover? Or will the class of the Crows tell in the end?
Tune into The Roar from 7.50pm (AEST) for all the highlights and our rolling blog of the match, and don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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