Crows coach wary of Suns
ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke has singled out the Gold Coast’s midfield as an area that must be respected as the Crows face the Suns at Adelaide Oval tomorrow night.
Nobody gives the Suns much of a chance of an upset: bookmakers have them at $8.50 for a win while the Crows are at $1.08.
To make matters worse, the Crows will be boosted significantly in the midfield by the return from injury of vice-captain Rory Sloane (foot) and club champion Matt Crouch (hamstring).
But Pyke has warned that it is in the midfield that the muchimproved Suns have made a rapid charge this season. And if Gold Coast get first use of the ball, they have significant targets in their forward line.
“From a coaching viewpoint, they’ve changed,” Pyke said.
“They bring in Stuart Dew, who’s clearly brought a methodology and style of play. And they’ve got some more maturity into their players.
“They’re playing some good footy at the moment.
“They’re sitting on 3-2 and as I keep saying – in this comp there are no easy games.
“They’ve got threats across the lines.
“They’re pretty strong in the ruck – (Jarrod) Witts is a pretty effective ruckman and they’re a strong clearance team. And they’ve got some dangerous forwards with (Sam) Day and (Tom) Lynch down there as well as some small forwards who can hit the scoreboard.
“They’ve had one bad game but as we’re seeing in the comp this year, there aren’t too many teams yet who haven’t had a bad day.
“We’ve got to prepare for their very best and they’ve got a good strong forward line and midfielders who can generate the ball and win clearances.”
Gold Coast are yet to beat the Crows from 10 matches and are also winless at Adelaide Oval from three games.