Adelaide veteran Taylor Walker says recruit Finnbar Maley will add an exciting dimension to the Crows in his Club debut on Thursday night.
Maley was unveiled as Adelaide's fourth Club debutant of the season on Monday afternoon after booting six goals across the Crows’ three SANFL trial matches.
Renowned for his athleticism and ability to create a contest, Walker said he was excited to see Maley’s weapons rise to the fore both in the ruck and ahead of the ball.
“We’re probably exploring the avenue of playing two rucks, so he’ll play a little bit of second ruck and then ahead of the ball as well,” Walker told Roo, Ditts and Loz on Triple M Adelaide Breakfast.
“His biggest weapon is he can jump, he gets at the ball and he’s ultra competitive and I’m looking forward to seeing him play on Thursday night.
“He’s going to create a big contest, split packs and jump at everything, he’s very electric so it’ll be exciting to see him out there doing his thing.
“Off the field he’s a very funny bloke, you don’t know what’s going to come out when he opens his mouth and is a very colourful character.”
The Crows are coming off a tight six-point loss against the Western Bulldogs, and Walker says the team’s ball movement will be a key area of improvement this week.
“If you think of a traffic light, so green, orange and red, when it’s green you’ve gotta go and test the rules out and the boundaries, when it goes to orange you’ve got to slow down a bit and find a happy medium or red is you’re slowing the game right down and taking the sting out of it,” Walker said.
“We played a lot of orange and red in the first half, and then in the last quarter you would have seen us go to green when we had to win the game.
“So the challenge for us is we need to find a happy medium between green and orange, so take the game on earlier and put the opposition under the pump - we need to be prepared to make some mistakes, go through the corridor and put the opposition's last line defenders under the pump.
“We probably had it slightly out of kilter in the first half, but there are some things we’ve tried to tweak during the week, and hopefully that will help us.”
The Crows will be seeking their first win in Geelong since 2003 as they battle the Cats on Thursday night.
Walker said the group was confident it could make history after breaking its MCG hoodoo against the Pies in Round One.
“We hadn’t beaten Collingwood for 14 years over the MCG in Round One, so we’re looking forward to getting over to Geelong and trying to change history again this week,” Walker said.
“It’s super exciting to get another prime time fixture, and we’re very keen to give it a good shake down at the Cattery on Thursday night.”
Adelaide takes on Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday night, with the match to begin at 7pm (ACDT).
Fans can watch the game live on Channel 7 Adelaide, Fox Footy and Kayo.
