Crows galvanised by tragic past few years
THE strength Adelaide has drawn from pulling together through tragic off-field events will be its “little edge” in tonight’s preliminary final against Geelong, veteran Richard Douglas says.
As Adelaide prepares to fight for a place in its first grand final since 1998, Douglas said the Crows had emerged through the “tough times” as a more mature and closer unit.
The Crows were hit by the shock death of former senior coach Phil Walsh in 2015, which came the year after the loss of assistant coach Dean Bailey to cancer.
“We’ve been through some tough times and come out the end and really grown as a group and matured, and I think that is going to hold us in good stead against Geelong and hopefully what’s to come,” Douglas said.
“It probably can’t help but galvanise the group. Obviously it’s pretty unique circumstances but I think the great thing about being around a football club is you all gel together and lean on each other and that’s something we’ve certainly done.
“A by-product of that I guess is that we have become closer as a group and that can only help you on game day.
“We will draw on that throughout Friday night and I think that might be the little edge that we have got over the Cats.”
The Crows will also draw on the support of their raucous home crowd in the preliminary final.
Douglas has described the Crows’ Adelaide Oval advantage as “huge” and said making a strong start to capitalise on that support would be crucial.
“It’s deafening, we love playing there, our fans are incredible,” Douglas said.
“In the qualifying final against the Giants, we certainly felt we had one extra man out there with the amount of noise they were making.
“For us the start is huge, if we can start really well and put Geelong on the back foot, it will go a long way to getting a result.”