Crows to use own formula

Hawthorn bid to be SA-style

IT’S the “Crows way” – and no other way for Adelaide coach Scott Camporeale tonight.

The Crows tonight at the MCG will seek to become the fourth – and last – team to depose AFL premiers Hawthorn in the past two months.

But Camporeale (pictured) insists he will engineer an upset with “Crows footb football” rather than by imitatingted the playbooks used by Richmond, Port rt Adelaide and, in last st week’s qualifying final, al, West Coast, to beatat the Hawks recently.

“It’s more about ut how we want to play,” ,” Camporeale says as he leads Adelaide for the 11th time since being charged with continuing Phil Walsh’s legacy of the “Crows way”.

“You can fall into a trap if you start watching opposition teams and try to pick things out that they’ve done really well because it’s hard to implement. We will back our systems in to get the job done.

“Some of those teams (Richmond, the Power and West Coast) play similar sort of footy to the way we want to play. We’d be silly to sit here and say we’re going to do exactly what West Coast did.

“We have enough firepower forward, we have a really strong midfield and our defence has held up really well. So we will back them in.”

The “Crows way” will have to strengthen in the midfield after Adelaide has lost the key indicators on contested football in the centre square in the past fortnight against Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.

Camporeale has drawn the link between losing centre st stoppages by 10 ag against the Western B Bulldogs and putting ti the Adelaide d defence under intense te pressure.

“Whichever team youyo play, you have to be winning the ball at ground level,” said Camporeale. “And we have to defend (after giving up 65 inside-50s to the Bulldogs) better than we did at the weekend. The other night we got away with it. To win (midfield) gives you opportunities inside-50. It’ll be critical (tonight).”

Camporeale is not doubting Hawthorn will seek to rekindle the “unsociable football” tactics used on small Crows forwards Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron, who were targets for off-the-ball hits from Hawks defenders. But he has no concerns for how his raw, finals-inexperienced players will handle the intimidation.