Bennell’s back in fine form
ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks has blasted his players for “bruise-free footy” in a record 75-point AFL loss to cross-town rival Port Adelaide.
The first-year head coach was blunt when asked what disappointed him most about the meek loss on Saturday.
“Our inconsistency. Our lack of contest. Bruise-free footy,” Nicks said. “We put 10 minutes of footy out on the ground and looked pretty good early and then, unfortunately, we completely dropped away.
“It’s a really embarrassing performance.”
The Crows kicked the initial two goals but mustered only three more for the game.
Port’s impressive victory was the Power’s biggest win over the Crows — and was also Adelaide’s lowest score against its bitter South Australian foe.
““We allowed them to play football the way they wanted to play football,” Nicks said.
“Some of the off-ball stuff, we’re not going to accept it moving forward. I don’t care who it is, we don’t discriminate.
“It’s not a lack of effort, I want to point that out.
“Our guys are trying their guts out, they are just getting their method wrong.”
Adelaide’s loss was soured by captain Rory Sloane suffering a game-ending corked thigh.
“It was a really solid cork, unfortunately,” Nicks said.
“He wanted to continue on but the last thing we wanted to do was make that worse . . . we just had to make the decision for more of the he medium-longer term m for him.”
Defender Jake
Kelly was concussed in the opening quarter when attempting to tackle.
The winless
Crows and unbeaten
Port depart for a
Gold Coast hub this s week before at least st three matches in Queensland.
Nicks said having g his players in a hub was, s, in a football-sense, a bonus. nus. “We were really looking forward orward to getting over there as a group,” he said. “The toughest t part of it is families — we respect pect that, we understand that, I have got a family, so that’s going to be tough to not have them there.
“But I think for our young group it’s going to be a real positive to be over there together. “We will do our best to spend as much time as we can trying to work on some of these areas.”
C. Dixon, J. Westhoff, X. Duursma 3, S. Motlop, T. Marshall 2, B. Ebert, C. Rozee, T. Boak, Z. Butters
B. Crocker, B. Crouch, B. Smith, D. Fogarty, R. Sloane
C. Rozee, S. Motlop, X. Duursma, T. Boak,
R. O’Brien, M. Crouch, D.Talia
MELBOURNE will continue to closely monitor Harley Bennell’s workload but expect the injury-prone star to feature in round three after completing a successful AFL comeback.
Bennell, who was given a career lifeline by the Demons in February, had 14 disposals in Saturday’s tense one-point win over Carlton at Marvel Stadium. It was an emotional return for the former Fremantle and Gold Coast player in what was his first match at senior level since 2017 because of a careerthreatening succession of calf injuries.
“It was just great to have him back out there,” Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said.
“It’s an unbelievable story, not only for Harley but for our footy club. He worked his way into the game and he looked like he still needs a bit of footy to be right at his best, but he has missed so much.
“He’s just going to keep improving with the more footy he plays. You can see when he’s got the ball in hand he does use it well and does connect.”
Bennell has been on a specialised program since joining Melbourne via the pre- season supplemental-selection period.
The 27-year-old will continue to work under close attention from the club’s fitness guru Darren Burgess and, barring any unexpected issues with his post-match recovery, is expected to play against Essendon in round three.