Patrick Dangerfield showed his versatility by playing at half forward for most of the first half. He was able to isolate tagger Nick Lower to kick the first two goals of the game. Liam Picken was then given the job on Dangerfield but the star Crow kicked a beautiful goal around the body to have three for the first half. As it turned out, Dangerfield’s individual effort was just short of what the Bulldogs could manage for the whole game.
2. In the dog house
The Bulldogs' lack of forward options was highlighted again as the visitors only kicked two goals in the first quarter and two more in the last quarter. Those goals all came from midfielders and the first two came from their stars Adam Cooney and Matthew Boyd. Both were on the run. They were held scoreless for 58 minutes until late in the third quarter. It got worse for the Doggies when the normally reliable Luke Dalhaus hit the post when running into an open goal.
3. Tex taken out
Taylor Walker rarely gets beaten physically let alone left gasping for air. A tough contest with former Norwood teammate Nick Lower in the forward pocket put Tex on his haunches in the third quarter and he was visibly affected by the hit. Brenton Sanderson clearly didn’t want to risk his star forward and subbed him off early in the fourth quarter.
4. Fair weather fans
The heavens opened up in the first quarter which made clean handling of the football extremely difficult. The Bulldogs won the contested possessions in the first quarter but Adelaide regained the ascendency in the middle and its skills were much more polished around the ground. The wet and windy weather kept the fans away too, with less than 25,000 fans turning up to AAMI Stadium.
5. Crouch class
The AFL world caught a glimpse of what young Crow midfielder Brad Crouch can do with a stunning running goal in the third quarter. He won a hard ball at half back and then through a series of handballs and quality gut running, streamed inside the forward 50 to kick the goal of the day. Not a bad way to kick your first goal in the AFL and showed why Adelaide was so keen to pick him up last year as a 17-year-old even though he couldn’t debut until this season.
