2008 NAB CUP Round 2 Preview – Game 4

February 23, 2008 | Filed Under AFL News

Adelaide v Fremantle – AAMI Stadium, 4.40pm
Well Adelaide were the pick of the sides along with Geelong in Round 1 of the NAB Cup. They look a bit more advanced in their progress than other clubs and displayed a good skill level which was a rare sight. Admitadly the Pies were not ready to play in Dubai but nevertheless the Crows looked the goods. With their midfield of James Porplysia, Chris Knights, and Scott Thompson looking fantastic and getting plenty of the ball it enable Neil Craig to restructure his forward line, which is now without Scott Welsh, and we saw Skipper Simon Goodwin and Andrew McLeod spending a lot more time there and let me tell you they both looked quite comfortable as leading forwards. Many had thought that when Rhett Biglands went down that they would be in trouble in the ruck department but it looks as if the youngsters in Kurt Tippett and Ivan Maric may just be able to fill the void. It will be interesting to see if their young bodies can continue the battering as the year progresses. The other one to impress in Round 1 was James Seller, he was very good in the Crows Forward line and lead strongly and looks to have a good set of hands. He will be keen to back up that performance with another good one.

For the Dockers, they look like making quite a few changes this week. Paul Haselby is out for the year and will be a big loss. The Dockers rotated 16 players through the midfield last week as Mark Harvey tries to work out his best midfield group. Des Headland started extremely well last week and is looking very fit and set for a big season. Fremantle look to have an exiting brand of football in store for us in 2008 and will need some consistency to challenge for the finals. A player that impressed me though the middle was Daniel Gilmore who racked up 23 touches and looks ready to take a role in the middle, while youngsters Rhys Palmer collected 14 disposals and a goal from limited game time and Marcus Drum had 20 disposals. Ex Bomber Dean Solomon had 21 disposals and looks very fit and needs to keep adding the possessions and goal kicking to his game because we all know he is great at the 1% things and if he can get his hands on the footy more it will be a great advantage for the Dockers.

Final Thoughts
Mark Harvey has learnt a lot from his time with Kevin Sheedy, he is already playing cat and mouse with the opposition not naming who the inclusions will be and he told the press that we wants Adelaide to do a bit of study on that. I liked the look of the Crows in Round 1, they seemed to have changed the way they are going to play, rather than choking sides they look be playing a more free flowing and attacking game which was good to watch. I just think they are more advanced in their preparations at the moment and will take care of the Dockers.