By Steve Barrett
Adelaide continue to rapidly trim the gap between intoxicating potential and eye-catching performance, announcing themselves as a genuine top-eight prospect while exposing Carlton as a premiership pretender with a 56-point drubbing.
The best Crows team since 2017 all but put the first Gather Round fixture to bed with a first-quarter goal avalanche, putting eight six-pointers through from eight individual goalscorers to send the previously undefeated Blues thudding back to earth with an almighty thud, 18.10 (118) to 9.8 (62).
Josh Rachele of the Crows celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Carlton suffered a body blow 10 minutes before the opening bounce when key defender Mitch McGovern withdrew after suffering calf tightness during warm-ups.
Their big man stocks copped another jolt when ruckman Marc Pittonet suffered a nasty gashed eye late in the first quarter, forcing his second-quarter substitution.
By that stage, though, the damage had been well and truly done.
Rory Laird’s hard-hatted hunger for the disputed footy combined with captain Jordan Dawson’s lethal left foot driving out of the centre-square set the Crows’ murderous machine repeatedly into motion.
Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps had his hands full with both men and undoubtedly had his colours lowered.
His personal tallies of four touches and five tackles by quarter-time epitomised his – and the Blues’ – dire plight.
Multipronged Adelaide boasted significantly more disposals (128-61), marks (29-11), clearances (16-8) and inside-50s (20-12) in their opening-quarter masterclass.
Darcy Fogarty (five goals) made a triumphant return from a knee injury and was ably supported by Taylor Walker and Ben Keays (three each).
Tom Doedee imposed himself on Carlton in defence and Chayce Jones enjoyed, arguably, his best game in Adelaide colours.
The Blues, unbeaten across the season’s opening month but yet to ever taste victory at Adelaide Oval, were in danger of being absolutely humiliated and needed to mount some sort of response.
Led by Adam Cerra, Sam Walsh and Jack Silvagni, the visitors spun it around at the contest after their opening-quarter shellacking, gained some territorial ascendancy but couldn’t capitalise and went some way towards pruning some of that early damage with four unanswered majors.
Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay always looked a threat in attack, and they combined to trim the deficit to 18 points.
For large stretches, the middle two stanzas were played on Carlton’s terms, but their inability to lower their eyes by bombing indiscriminately to Curnow and McKay in attack undid their toils.
At the other end, Adelaide’s efficiency in attack was a feature.
Walker started the third period with a bang, converting truly after soaring for a spectacular pack mark against Jacob Weitering and Adam Saad.
Keays twice got under Saad’s guard to further extend the Crows’ third-quarter advantage before Fogarty iced the drubbing by matching his career-best fistful.
WELCOME BACK WALSH
Making his first appearance for 2023 following back surgery, superstar Sam Walsh blew off some early cobwebs to be among Carlton’s best in his comeback.
Walsh, one of three key inclusions along with Matthew Kennedy and Blake Acres, busted open a 13-minute, second-quarter stalemate when he fashioned some space from Jake Soligo during a forward stoppage and bounced through a superb snap.
With Walsh leading the charge, the Blues held a glimmer of hope.
RANKINE’S RESPONSE
Gun recruit Izak Rankine backed up his Showdown heroics with another fine performance in Adelaide’s win against Fremantle last Saturday, but his exciting fortnight finished on a crushing note when he was racially abused on social media following the Dockers match.
The Crows rallied around Rankine during the week and they gathered right around him in the opening minute of the Carlton clash when he kick started Adelaide’s goal avalanche.
With the handball from Chayce Jones, Rankine goaled with a wonderful snap over Saad from the scoreboard pocket, which he is fast making his own.
If the great Eddie Betts is indeed still the landlord of that patch of real estate, then Rankine is surely turning into the perfect, long-term tenant for the next decade.
Best: Adelaide – Dawson, Laird, Fogarty, Jones, Doedee, Walker, Keays, Rachele. Carlton – E. Curnow, Walsh, Newman, Acres, Cerra.
