Crows shattered after close defeat

Updated September 23, 2012 11:15:12

A classic us-against-everyone mentality nearly paid off brilliantly for Adelaide, but instead the Crows were shattered after the AFL preliminary final loss to Hawthorn.

After slumping to 14th last season, the Crows won the pre-season competition, finished second in the home-and-away season and on Saturday came within five points of their first grand final since the 1998 premiership.

First-year senior coach Brenton Sanderson was full of praise for his team and readily admitted they wanted to prove the critics wrong.

"There are a lot of tears in the changeroom," Sanderson said.

"I don't think I've seen a group so disappointed and I think it's because we really wanted to shock you (media).

"No one picked us, no one thought we'd get to this far let alone that point in the game.

"But we had strong belief within our group that we could win today."

Sanderson said throughout the season, Adelaide defied outside expectations.

The team played poorly in the qualifying final against Sydney, but then rallied brilliantly to beat Fremantle in a semi-final and came so close to an epic upset against Hawthorn.

Adding to the pain of the loss, it was the last game for Crows veteran Michael Doughty.

Sanderson said over the off-season, Adelaide would have to manage much greater expectations about its performance.

"Next year, we will be expected to finish where we left off this year," he said.

"We have to live with that through the summer and field questions about that over most of the summer."

For all the bravery of Saturday's loss, it was the club's fourth preliminary final loss since the 1997-98 premierships.

Sanderson said there was a good feeling at the pre-game meeting as the Crows went over their plan to beat the Hawks.

One of the keys was shutting down what Sanderson called Hawthorn's "mark chains" - their ability to set up team-mates down the ground with accurate kicks.

He and Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said separately that the third term was crucial.

Hawthorn kicked four unanswered goals to take the initiative from Adelaide and set up the epic final term.

Sanderson said they would now use the game as a teaching tool for the players over the summer - and no doubt to spur them for greater efforts next season.

"I'm sure we'll look at that game a lot, as painful as it might be, just to see areas where we could have improved and maybe used the ball a little bit better," he said.

"God, they're hard - they're so hard to win and it's almost like Hawthorn now, they get to a grand final and the pressure is off.

"It's a big game for them next week.

"Everyone wrote us off, that's fine, because Hawthorn should have been the favourites.

"But the underdogs, sometimes you never know."

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, adelaide-5000

First posted September 23, 2012 11:14:03

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McLeod shattered at Crows' racism row

Updated March 18, 2012 12:39:12

Adelaide's games record holder Andrew McLeod says he is shattered his AFL club is embroiled in a racism row.

The Indigenous McLeod would not pass judgement on ex-recruiting manager Matthew Rendell, who quit on Friday for saying the Crows would not draft any player who did not have one white parent.

"What I do know is that in all my dealings with Matt Rendell, I have never seen it (racism)," McLeod said in a statement on Saturday.

"I will be as keen as anyone to hear him explain his side of the story."

McLeod, considered among the greatest Adelaide players, said it was an understatement that he was disappointed with the controversy.

"Quite simply, I am very shattered that my football club has been questioned over its attitude to not recruit Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island players if they have two black parents," he said.

"If this was the case and I had an inkling that my club was racist, I wouldn't have spent 16 years in that establishment.

"I simply cannot sit by and let a club I consider like family - a place that I was nurtured in and gave me an opportunity to achieve a boyhood dream without any bias or prejudice - be dragged through the mud and have its name tarnished as racist."

McLeod retired in 2010 after 340 games for the Crows.

He said the club would acknowledge "instances where they could have done things better in regards to the way they have handled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, or any other player for that matter regardless of their background".

"I know for certain, though, that the comments being bandied around at present accusing the Adelaide Football Club of being racist are unfair and unwarranted," he said.

Rendell, who was Adelaide's recruiting manager from 2007, said his comments were taken out of context.

But Adelaide hierarchy said Rendell's position at the club was untenable in the wake of the remarks.

General manager for football operations Phil Harper told Grandstand on Saturday morning that he has never heard anything of the sort said in any recruitment meetings he has attended.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, adelaide-5000, sa, australia

First posted March 18, 2012 10:18:11

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