ADELAIDE has recorded its first win of 2009 with a commanding 67-point NAB Challenge victory over a makeshift Hawthorn side in Berri on Saturday afternoon.
Played at Berri Oval in the town of around 7200 people near the South Australia/Victoria border, the Crows triumphed 15.10 (100) to 5.3 (33).
The depleted Hawks, who fielded seven Box Hill players and just as many rookies, battled manfully to keep their opponents goalless in the opening term, but the superior class of the Crows eventually came to the fore.
Adelaide, which rested stars like Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards, piled on nine goals to two in a landslide 40 minutes of football to establish an insurmountable lead.
Trent Hentschel continued his comeback from a serious leg injury with four goals in a promising display and young duo Kurt Tippett (two goals) and Taylor Walker (three goals) added two more prongs to the Adelaide attack.
Chris Knights (two goals), Bernie Vince and Graham Johncock were all instrumental and Jared Petrenko and Andy Otten did their round-one selection chances no harm with solid performances.
The reigning premiers, who fielded only back-up ruckman Brent Renouf from the Hawks' 2008 flag-winning 22, managed just five goals for the match.
Tippett got the Crows on a roll with two majors to open the second quarter and subsequent goals to Hentschel and Walker triggered the start of the onslaught.
Hawks’ ruckman Simon Taylor did his best to keep the inexperienced side in the game with a clever goal from the boundary line, but he couldn’t prevent a 24-point deficit at half time.
Morton gave Hawthorn fans a glimmer of hope when he cut the margin to 18 points with a beautiful long goal, but it proved to be one of few highlights for the interstate team.
Johncock, Petrenko, Otten and Vince combined to generate some penetrating attack and Alastair Clarkson’s Hawks had no answers.
The bigger-bodied Crows slammed on five unanswered goals to go into the final change with a comfortable buffer.
A goal to All-Australian centre-half-back Nathan Bock ruled out any comeback, but the Hawks kept at it, and scrambled late goals to Steve Kenna and Sam Isles.
Brent Reilly, who shared the match-day captaincy duties with Bock, replied with two goals of his own to consolidate the big win.
The Crows will now play the Sydney Swans at AAMI Stadium next Friday night in the final round of the NAB Challenge and coach Neil Craig said he was happy with the attitude and ball movement of his players on Saturday.
"I really enjoyed the attitude of the players and the energy they played with, we spoke about that in yesterday's meeting," he said.
"Hawthorn had a lot of young kids in their side, I appreciate that, but our ball movement didn't change for that, they (the young players) were still trying to do it.
"So it's really positive for us, we understand the composition of both teams and what it was for us, but it's been a good week."
Hawthorn football operations manager Mark Evans said last year's Coleman Medallist Lance Franklin (thumb/shoulder) was one of a number of players with a chance of returning to action on Friday when the Hawks take on West Coast at Visy Park.
Skipper Sam Mitchell, Jarryd Roughead and exciting youngster Cyril Rioli will also come into contention.
ADELAIDE 0.2 4.7 10.7 15.10 (100)HAWTHORN 0.1 1.1 2.2 5.3 (33)
Goalkickers
ADELAIDE: Hentschel 4, Walker 3, Tippett, Knights, Reilly 2, Martin, Bock
HAWTHORN: Taylor, Morton, Kenna, Isles, Lowden
Best
ADELAIDE: Vince, Knights, Hentschel, Walker, Tippett, Johncock, Otten, Petrenko
HAWTHORN: Suckling, Kenna, Shiels, Taylor
Injuries: Nil
Reports: Nil
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
