ITWASN’T the successful homecoming David Hale was hoping for, but the bigKangaroo ruckman was delighted to be back on the Gold Coast on Saturday night.
Haledid not make the journey north on either of the Roos’ two previous visits to Carrara in 2007, but linedup in the ruck and across the forward line in the 46-point loss to the Crows.
Thebig No.31 learnt his craft on the coast, playing with local AFL Queensland teamBroadbeach before the Roos lured him south.
Andwhile the contingent of family and friends didn’t see the best from Hale or theRoos, he said the support at Gold Coast Stadium had been superb in each of thethree games there this season.
“Myfirst one, it would have been nice to have a win but we didn’t get over theline today which was a bit disappointing,” he told kangaroos.com.au.
“Inall the games we’ve put up a good effort. Today was obviously our mostdisappointing performance but hopefully they come back next year and build onthe crowds we’ve got this year.
“Itwas a bit flat today, but a bit hard to get into it when the boys are down.They’ve come out and support every game so you can’t ask for much more.”
Halesaid the result was a simple case of Adelaidewinning most of the one-on-one contests and the Kangaroos not being able tomake the most of their chances.
Heand Hamish McIntosh battled in the ruck with Crows big man Ben Hudson in afascinating duel.
OnceAdelaide jumpedto a 22-point quarter-time lead, the Roos struggled to close the gap.
“Theboys were a bit sluggish today,’’ Hale said.
“Wegot beaten around the stoppages and didn’t capitalise when we went forward. Wekicked 3.7 in the first half and you’ve got to put scoreboard pressure on andwe didn’t do that.
“Ourdelivery into the forward line was pretty ordinary also. [Adelaide] probably had a few defenders thereand we kept kicking it to them.”
Halelamented the Kangas’ inability to convert from set shots. He himself was guiltyjust before half time, missing a shot from 35m after marking on the lead.
Therewere others on a night when the Roos were just below their best.
“Shagga[Shannon Grant] is usually a pretty good kick and he missed a couple and Archas well, but probably the forward delivery was the main problem,” he said.
“We’dlike to fight it out but they kicked a couple of late ones, which doesn’t helpthe scoreboard. It didn’t help the boys and we’re disappointed in the endresult.”
Halesaid he rated Adelaidehighly after three seasons of excellence and was keen to right the ship afterthe mid-season break.
“Wewould have liked to have won but we’re seven and five and still in the top half,”he said. “We’ll take a look at it this week and see where the year’s gone sofar and set our goals for the ret of the year.”
