Betts brings up his 300 in style

IT was a day for the milestone men.

Crows favourite Eddie Betts turned Adelaide Oval into his playground in his 300th game with a spectacular six-goal haul that included a Goal of the Year contender against Gold Coast yesterday.

Having already won the AFL Goal of the Year award three times, the 32-year-old added another brilliant major to his personal highights reel to celebrate becoming just the sixth indigenous player to reach the 300-game milestone.

His left-foot checkside kick from the boundary line, 30m from goal, under pressure from Sun Jarrod Harbrow 20 minutes into the final term put the exclamation mark on a breakout game for Don Pyke’s previously struggling team.

Rebounding half-back Brodie Smith, whose 150th game had been upstaged by Betts’ milestone, took matters into his own hands when things weren’t going the Crows’ way early.

With Adelaide treading water in the second quarter and playing the type of slow, error-riddled and clueless football that put them in a 1-3 hole, Smith decided enough was enough.

After both sides had kicked just one goal in 36 minutes of horrible footy, the 2014 AllAustralian — the one Adelaide player to play with dash and dare and hit targets by foot early in the game — took the game over when it was needed.

He courageously thrust his body backwards to take an overhead contested mark, quickly jumped to his feet, charged towards goal and sank a long-bomb major from 55m.

Smith’s goal not only ignited the previously frustrated crowd but also his teammates.

From there the Crows were a different side, moving the ball quickly and with precision to reel off another four goals in eight minutes to blow the game wide open by halftime, leading by 34 points before running away with the match in the second half to win by 73.