Adelaide has breathed new life into this year’s SANFL finals race with a clutch 14-point victory over South Adelaide at Noarlunga on Saturday afternoon.
The 10.17 (77) to 9.9 (63) result was Adelaide’s fourth consecutive SANFL victory and moved the Crows to within two games of the fifth-placed Panthers with three matches remaining.
Adelaide led by 20 points at the final change and had the aid of a strong southerly breeze in the last term, but a string of five behinds halted the visitors’ momentum.
Three quickfire South Adelaide goals - including a controversial free kick to Jackson McMahon which gifted the home side back-to-back majors from the goalsquare - put the Panthers back in the hunt in the dying stages.
The game then hit a frenetic pace with the result in the balance, before Crows speedster Anthony Wilson ran into open goal to slot the sealer at the 22-minute mark and keep Adelaide’s 2015 SANFL finals hopes alive.
Matthew Wright threw himself at everything in his first SANFL game since Round 21, 2013. The hard-nosed onballer had a team-high 28 possessions, nine marks, eight tackles and seven inside 50ms and relished the blustery conditions at Hickinbotham Oval.
Left-footer Mitch Grigg helped kickstart Adelaide in the second term and finished with 24 touches, seven tackles, five clearances and a goal. Sam Kerridge was also influential with 24 disposals of his own along with five clearances and five inside 50ms.
Former South Adelaide junior Matthew Spencely worked hard for his 18 possessions, seven marks and five inside 50ms on his old stomping ground. He also slotted an important goal late in the second stanza to help the Crows to a handy 15-point buffer at the main break.
Defenders Andy Otten (20 possessions, nine marks) and Sam Shaw (12 possessions, five rebound 50ms) controlled Adelaide’s half-back line, particularly when the Crows went against the wind in the first and third terms.
James Podsiadly used his size and height advantage to great effect and helped steady the Crows ship with several pack marks during the tense final term. Adelaide's leading SANFL goalkicker, Podsiadly finished with eight marks (three contested) but kicked 1.3 as the Crows' inaccuracy made the win much tougher than it needed to be.
Adelaide had 10 individual goalscorers and almost kicked itself out of contention with a 1.8 final quarter. The Club's AFL team was also wasteful in Friday night's clash with Richmond kicking 11.22, but similarly managed to escape with the premiership points.
Coach Heath Younie said the spate of inaccuracy would be addressed during the week.
"It’s a little bit of a reflection of last night’s AFL game," he said.
"We weren’t able to keep scoreboard pressure on. We kicked 10.17 - if you kick 17.10 you obviously win a lot more comfortably. I think it’s just down to skill execution. We had our opportunities and we didn’t take our chances.
"We’ve done a lot of work on it, but it just shows that we need to go back to the drawing board and do more work on that area."
The SANFL Crows are now within striking distance of a maiden finals berth, but still require other results to go their way in the closing rounds to steal fifth place.
"We haven’t really thought too much about finals," Younie said.
"Would it be great to play finals? Yeah, for our young guys to get exposed to playing on that next stage and another step closer to AFL standard.
"We’ve just got to keep winning games of footy and we’ll get what we deserve in the end."
Harry Dear enjoyed a dream start in his return from a shoulder reconstruction. The 197cm forward danced around his opponent in the opening stages to kick a well-deserved major and was quickly mobbed by his teammates. It was Dear's first outing since April and just his second game for the Club since joining the Crows via last year's National Draft.
The Club reported no new injuries from the contest, although young backman Harrison Wigg was a late withdrawal with minor hamstring soreness.
Adelaide’s next SANFL clash is against League leaders Woodville-West Torrens on Sunday afternoon.
ADELAIDE 2.1 7.6 9.9 10.17 (77)
SOUTH ADELAIDE 4.1 5.3 6.7 9.9 (63)
GOALS
Adelaide: O’Brien, Dear, Podsiadly, Osborn, Ellis-Yolmen, Spencely, McGovern, Callinan, Grigg, Wilson
South Adelaide: McMahon 3, Gulden 2, Veide, Eddy, Macleod, Rankine
BEST
Adelaide: Grigg, Spencely, Wright, Otten, Kerridge, Podsiadly, Shaw
South Adelaide: Cross, Bass, Rose, Daniel, McMahon, Gulden
INJURIES
Adelaide: Harrison Wigg (hamstring soreness) replaced in selected side by Steven Wellington
South Adelaide: Nil
