Prolific Cats to pile on the goals and agony against the hapless Crows
By Tom McLean

Adelaide’s horrific season is only set to worsen this Sunday – taking on a ruthless Geelong side, who made the Crows’ cross-town rival look second rate last Friday night. After going into matches against the out of form Collingwood and Western Bulldog sides with half a chance, only the most one-eyed Crows fan would give their team even the slightest chance of coming away with the four points against Geelong.

Adelaide showed small patches of improvement against the Bulldogs; on two occasions throughout the match the Crows kicked three consecutive goals, but the Dogs kicked nine unanswered goals between this, to put the match beyond doubt. Marcus Bontempelli was BOG with 33 disposals, 12 clearances and two goals. He was supported by Lachie Hunter’s 29 disposals and a goal in his first game back from his car wrecking night of madness, as the Bulldogs midfield won the clearance count 44 to 19. This enabled Dogs forward Aaron Naughton to record a career-best haul of six goals – from his first six kicks of the match.

Tom Hawkins is the man the Crows will hope to contain, after a magnificent individual display against the Power, taking seven contested marks to finish the night with six goals (and two assists) to lead the Coleman Medal by three. Spoon-feeding Hawkins was Patrick Dangerfield (24 disposals and three goal assists), while Cam Guthrie (27 touches) and Sam Menegola (21) were also influential in the Cats’ win. 

With Tom Doedee joining the list of hamstrung Crows, Adelaide’s backline will find stopping Hawkins a near-impossible task. Brad Crouch, Tom Lynch and Andrew McPherson are also unlikely to play against the Cats with hamstring injuries. While Adelaide’s injury list continues to grow, Geelong are looking to be back at full strength in coming weeks with Jack Steven and  Esava Ratugolea a good chance to return this weekend. Gary Ablett will need to complete his two weeks of quarantine in Queensland before he can play again, but may begin doing so very soon.

Ruckman Rhys Stanley (Berri) will be the Geelong’s only South Australian to travel to Adelaide to take on the Crows. Interestingly the Cats have six other South Australians are on their list – all yet to make their AFL debut.

Geelong to win by 49-60 points

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