1. Unfortunately the away game performance monkey is still on the Eagles back after another substandard performance against the Crows. The signs were ominous early when Adelaide rattled on three of seven first quarter goals before fans had even settled into their seats and the Eagles never managed to pull it back. Adelaide sliced through their opponents who seemed reactive and indecisive with the ball in their hands.
2. The Crows were far more efficient with the ball (80-70 percent according to statistics) and that was indicative of the pressure that one team imposed on the other. The Crows swarmed around the contest, running in waves and when the Eagles did have possession, the pressure often caused ball handling errors. A key stat was that Adelaide had 147 more possessions (410 to 263) which is an alarming discrepancy.
3. So dominant were Adelaide that there was only a couple of brief patches in the second and third quarters where the Eagles were able to play anything close to their brand of football. In those two periods of about 10 minutes the Eagles kicked four of their five goals. One of them was off the back of some stoppage brilliance from young gun Harley Reid when he crashed through a ball-up and muscled through a third-quarter goal.
4. One of the prerequisites for the team this year has been to play with spirit and effort, but there were only a few moments in the game where they met their own standards. One of them came in the second quarter with a brilliant run-down tackle from young wingman Campbell Chesser who gave a good account of himself. Crows midfielder Jake Soligo was breaking out of the square, had three bounces and was charging towards goal before Chesser closed him down and won a free kick.
5. The inability of the Eagles to win the ball at the coalface was evident in the fact that only two players featured in the top 10 possession winners in the game. One of them, was key defender Jeremy McGovern (fifth) and the other was Tim Kelly (seventh). Those numbers are reflected in the Crows winning the hit outs 45-23, clearances 37-35 and contested possessions 131-107.
