Eddie Betts believes Adelaide can overcome what remains arguably the toughest trip in the competition this Saturday against West Coast.
The Crows will fly to Perth ahead of this weekend’s clash with the Eagles at Domain Stadium, who are undefeated at home this year. West Coast dropped just two games at the venue last season, with losses in Round Three’s local derby against Fremantle and eventual premiers Hawthorn in Round 19 the Eagles’ only blemishes at the venue in over a year.
Betts knows better than most just how tough the trip can be. The former Blue has played seven games against West Coast at Subiaco throughout his 12-year AFL career for just two wins.
He’s yet to taste victory at the ground as a Crow, but Betts said the Club was well placed to challenge the Eagles inside their own stronghold.
“With Carlton we won one or two over there. It’s a tough ground to play at with the West Coast crowd,” Betts said on FIVEaa radio on Thursday.
“They’re very vocal, like the Adelaide crowd, (but) we should have confidence in the way that we’re playing at the moment.
“We’re coming off three good wins so we’ll go over there with a lot of confidence and hopefully play our way and get the win.”
The ground also poses a test simply due to its unique dimensions.
Domain Stadium is the longest in the competition at just over 175 metres, while it is comparable to Adelaide Oval in width at 122 metres.
“We did talk about it. We did some measuring yesterday actually,” Betts said.
“There’s a big gap from the (centre) square to the 50. It’s about 15-20 metres.
“We’ve just got to play our way and get it forward and hopefully our forwards can kick goals.”
After Saturday’s clash, Adelaide breaks for its mid-season bye before returning to action in a Thursday night blockbuster against the top-of-the-table North Melbourne at Adelaide Oval.
Adelaide currently sits in eighth spot on the AFL ladder, behind only West Coast and Greater Western Sydney due to percentage. A win could see the Crows push into the top four, while a loss could see Adelaide slip as far as 10th and leave a bitter taste bubbling over the break.
Betts said this week’s contest was massive in the context of Adelaide’s season.
“We’re 7-4 and we’ve got a bye next week, so if we win this week we’ll be 8-4 and it will set us up for the second half of the season,” he said.
“People say that we probably had the toughest draw coming into the season, and I guess nobody would’ve though (we’d be) where we are now.
“We know what’s riding on it, but we’ll go there and play our way. The boys know that we have a bye (the week after) so we have to go out there and give it our all and leave nothing in the tank.”
