Tigers, Crows walking two very different paths

The footy world is staring down the barrel of another ripping round of action this weekend, with a second grand final rematch between Richmond and Adelaide at the MCG on Friday night one of a handful of promising matches.

Since the stunning 2017 grand final upset between the Tigers and Crows it’s been a very different journey to early July for both clubs.

For Richmond, things really couldn’t have gone much better.

Currently on top of the ladder, with 11 wins and only four losses, the Tigers have looked unassailable for large stretches, winning every match played in Victoria and sitting in the top four since the early days of the season.

Their injury list features just six names and only two of them – Bachar Houli and Reece Conca – are regulars in the best 22 anyway.

But enough about the Tigers, I’m sure fans from the 17 other clubs are well and truly sick of hearing about how good they are.

For the Crows, the tragic end to 2017 quickly seeped into 2018 with a (supposedly) disastrous pre-season camp, followed by a Round 1 loss to Essendon.

In the opening ten rounds, Adelaide recorded important wins against Sydney and Richmond but dropped games against Collingwood, Melbourne and Port Adelaide, painting an image of wildly unstable and unpredictable outfit.

These results quickly coupled with one of the worst injury lists in the AFL – supposedly ranked the third worst, but I have a hard time seeing how the Crows don’t have the definitive worst list. Only Collingwood, the Gold Coast and the Western Bulldogs are on a similar level.

Heading into this match, Tom Lynch and Riley Knight both remain in doubt, while Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Eddie Betts, Mitch McGovern, Andy Otten, David McKay, Brodie Smith and Brad Crouch will all be notable absentees.

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So far this season, Adelaide have repeatedly been forced to line up without key players including skipper Taylor Walker, Rory Sloane, Matt Crouch and Luke Brown along with many of the names listed above – it really has been a nightmare run. Apologies if I missed anyone, there have been so many.

But steering the ship towards more positive waters, the Crows have done a good job making the most out of what they have had – splitting the ledger with seven wins and seven losses and now sitting in 11th – just one win and a fair chunk of percentage outside of finals contention, and with plenty of ticks left in the clock left for them to make it up.

Are we giving Adelaide much of a chance of getting over the Tigers this weekend? In truth, not really.

While the whining and complaining about the advantage of being Victorian in the Australian Football League is growing stale, Richmond’s record within their home state really is something to be concerned about for interstate travellers.

After getting the job done against Geelong in Round 13, the Tigers recorded their 16th consecutive victory at the MCG and with Adelaide in the crosshairs on Friday, Richmond are shooting for the all-time record of 17, set by Melbourne in the 1950s.

But there’s a lot more to a game of footy then where it’s played and Adelaide have recent history on their side, defeating the Tigers in the first grand final rematch, in Round 2 of this season – getting up 18.10 (118) to 12.10 (82) – despite five goals to midfielder Dustin Martin.

Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Steaming into this match, after a huge win against top-four prospect West Coast, Don Pyke was enthusiastic in his post-match presser looking towards Richmond.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to come out and play some strong footy, head over to the MCG and get a win,” the Adelaide coach said.

“We’ve always said that we play our best footy when we get a great even contribution and the guys did that tonight (against West Coast) and we managed to get that result.”

It will be fascinating to see if the belief and self-respect developed as a result of the win back in March and then again against West Coast last round is able to carry into a second encounter with the Tigers – or if the toll of the journey so far, combined with the sheer weight of the Tigers’ gravitas, is able to drag the luckless Crows into obscurity once again.