Adelaide: Geelong’s Chris Scott has called for coaches not to have to walk through the crowd after quarter breaks after an incident at three-quarter-time of his side’s nail-biting loss to the Crows on Thursday night.
Scott spoke with Adelaide Oval security as he walked out to the Cats’ huddle after fans he later labelled “nuffies” interacted with him with his side trailing by two points.
While Scott said he didn’t say anything to the fans in question, he admitted they had plenty to say to him, adding with a laugh: “Of course … they’re nuffies, but that’s OK”.
When asked in his post-match press conference if he thought it was right that coaches had to navigate their way onto the playing surface, through the crowd, Scott said, “This is one of the best stadiums in the world – I love it – [but] no, it’s an oversight that the coaches should have to walk through the crowd. I don’t want to do it at any ground”.
Almost exactly five years ago, at the same ground, Scott made eerily similar comments.
“I tripped on someone’s leg,” Scott said after a match against the Power, which the Cats won.
“[It was a] strange situation given the meticulous way the SA Government has looked after us over the last 24 hours that we’re still walking in that close proximity where people are brushing past us in the crowd.
“In the most respectful terms possible, when you have a stadium of this quality, renovated, to overlook the fact the coaches have to walk through the crowd is a bit silly.”
Adelaide were left to count the cost of their titanic win on Thursday – 11.9 (75) to 10.14 (74) – which came with three down on the bench.
They were down to a single rotation for part of a carnage-filled last quarter when Callum Ah Chee, Jordon Butts, Toby Murray and debutant Hugo Hall-Kahan all left the field injured.
Ah Chee, who was superb on star Cats defender Tom Stewart, exited the contest after re-aggravating his troublesome right hamstring and was put on ice early in the final term. That marked his fourth hamstring issue for the season already.
But the hits kept coming.
Butts came off with an apparent calf injury, before Murray and Hall-Kahan smashed into each other in a sickening, bloody collision.
Hall-Kahan, who this time last week was working in retail before being picked up in Tuesday’s mid-season draft, came back to finish the game in a debut he’ll never forget.
Additionally, Taylor Walker looks set to face the heat of the match review officer.
Walker, who made his way back into the Crows’ senior side through the SANFL, returned at the expense of the suspended Riley Thilthorpe and could face a holiday, himself, after pushing young Cat Connor O’Sullivan into the path of Adelaide skipper Jordan Dawson in the third stanza.
O’Sullivan was uninjured, but the incident drew the ire of Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Jason Dunstall, who was commentating the game for Kayo Sports.
“I don’t want to see ‘Tex’ Walker suspended because I like watching him playing the game, but if you need to eliminate this act from the game, don’t just worry about the result and whether someone is concussed,” Dunstall said in the post-match.
“Every time someone does this, suspend them. Eliminate that act, otherwise players will roll the dice knowing that if the other player doesn’t get concussed, then you get off.
“There is danger in that. We have to rub that out and suspend everyone who does it.”
David King, also commenting on Kayo, said at the time of the incident: “That’s an absolute no-no.
“Tex [Walker] is in some bother. There is not a lot in it, but you don’t need to do a lot in that instant.”
Crows coach Matthew Nicks was asked about the incident in his post-match press conference.
“We will hope there wasn’t much in it, but I can’t comment on it as I haven’t had a good look at it,” he said.
Ah Chee’s prospects of playing the Western Bulldogs next Thursday appear slim given his latest injury, but he was also involved in an incident with Stewart when the Cats star bumped him.
Stewart was upfront about his take on it when interviewed by Seven at half-time.
“I thought I got him up the middle,” Stewart said of the incident late in the second quarter.
“I hope I didn’t get him high. My intent was never to get him high.
“I think he bounced back up, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t get him high.”
This game had everything – injuries, incidents and a huge scrap behind play between Bailey Smith and James Peatling, in which the Cats superstar lost his headband and half his guernsey in the process.
It also featured a first-quarter masterclass from Patrick Dangerfield, who was thrown into the centre square and responded by winding back the clock with a vintage opening term, in which he racked up 13 possessions (10 contested), five clearances and a goal.
The Crows led narrowly at the end of each term and were out by 19 points when the inspirational Dawson brilliantly snaffled a one-on-two mark and nailed a bomb from 55 metres out, his third goal and clearly the most telling.
But with Adelaide’s bench resembling a casualty ward, the Cats charged to the finish line, only to be denied at the death.
Darcy Fogarty’s behind – overturned to a behind on score review – at the 27-minute mark was ultimately the difference as a depleted Adelaide hung on by their fingernails.
Ben Keays’ smother of O’Sullivan’s entry, Dan Curtin’s clutch intercept mark and Hall-Kahan’s tackle on the wing epitomised the down-but-not-out Crows’ sheer grit, while an emotional Dawson was shown trying to compose himself soon after the final siren – no surprise given the year he’s had on a personal level.
With Roy Ward
‘Back to his best’, Dangerfield winds back the clock
Geelong forward Shaun Mannagh believes Dangerfield still has plenty to offer as an elite AFL midfielder after the Cats skipper wound back the clock with his vintage on-ball display.
Dangerfield, who had played almost exclusively as a forward this season, turned in a masterful performance against Adelaide but couldn’t quite get his side over the line, the Crows prevailing in a thriller.
After attending just 14 centre bounces all season prior to Thursday night, Dangerfield racked up 19 against the Crows after making a shock start in the centre square and attended.
“Patty Dangerfield was back to his best, wasn’t he?” Mannagh said.
“He set the tone early, and he did that for the whole game.
“He’s the best ever in the game in there.
“Obviously, he’s a bit older and we have to protect [him] more, but in games like tonight, these are his conditions and he’s made a career of it.
“That’s why he’s one of the best players ever.”
Dangerfield burst out of the blocks with 13 possessions (10 contested) and five clearances in the first quarter. He finished with 30 disposals, seven clearances and a goal in easily his best performance since he dominated last year’s preliminary final against Hawthorn.
“I’ve been getting into him that he should play more midfield because he’s so good at it,” Mannagh said.
“He gives us a different look because he’s so powerful.
“He complements Baz [Smith] and Max [Holmes] in there. I love him in there.
“The more times we get him in there, the better, but I don’t think it’s going to be every week.”
Scott had been conscious to not throw Dangerfield into the fray until he was absolutely ready.
And he sure was against the Crows.
“It’s been a bit of a slow build,” Scott said.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but no one has the access that we have internally to [see] where he’s at.
“This is something that wasn’t really available to us five, six weeks ago, and we’ve been building towards it a little bit more.
“It’s not a matter of setting out a macro plan and sticking to it no matter what. He’s going to have some ebbs and flows.
“[But] he definitely showed he’s still got it, didn’t he?”
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