CROWS coach Neil Craig says the sooner his core group of youngsters receive close attention from the opposition, the better.
Earlier in the week, West Coast coach John Worsfold vowed to pay more respect to emerging Crows like Bernie Vince, Nathan van Berlo, Chris Knights and Jason Porplyzia, players he believed had slipped under the radar of some teams this season.
Each member of the talented quartet has averaged around 20 touches per game this season. Vince and Porplyzia have also been damaging around goals.
Craig’s response to Woosha’s approach was one of:‘bring it on’.
“That’s great. If they do get that attention from the West Coast players, it will be another great experience for them,” Craig said on Friday.
“A couple of weeks ago we spoke about Jason Porplyzia, his performance against North Melbourne and how outstanding it was, and it was, but Jason is yet to be heavily tagged.
“He’s yet to demand the respect of opposition players and coaches and it’s the same for Bernie Vince, Chris Knights, Nathan van Berlo, Jon Griffin, Ivan Maric and Kurt Tippett.
“That type of attention only comes with performance, so the better the performance of the guys, the more respect they’ll get and then they’ll get an opportunity to develop again in terms of their career.
“It’s great and I say the sooner the better.”
Adelaide travelled to Perth on Friday morning ahead of Saturday night’s clash with the injury ravaged West Coast.
The Crows, despite having a dismal record at Subiaco Oval, will start the game as warm favourites.
“It’s a good opportunity to for our playing group to take the challenge of winning at Subiaco on board,” Craig said.
“Our record over there is poor, really poor, so the opportunity presents and we need to take it.”
“It’s important; one, for the development of the younger guys and their need to practise in the different situations that confront them and, two, with the way the round has unfolded and who is playing who, it’s an important game.”
Craig said his young brigade would also have to learn to deal with the weight of expectation that comes with being outright fourth on the AFL ladder.
“We want to be favourites in every game that we play in, but for our younger guys to deal with the expectation of what people think should happen, is a pressure they need to experience, embrace, accept and perform with it,” Craig said.
“That will be our challenge.”
Luke Jericho, who kicked three goals in one quarter last week, travelled to Perth as emergency.
Jericho was dropped from the side that beat Melbourne, to make way for Brent Reilly and Richard Douglas.
“It was tough to leave Luke out, but we’ve got some internal competition at the moment and I’ve spoken to Luke about that,” Craig said.
“He’s got some areas he still needs to address and he is addressing them.”
