The whole of Adelaide was tuned in to see what happened on Saturday night in the Adelaide Showdown.
There was much hype over the cross town rivals derby with both teams sitting at the top of the ladder this week. With the high expectations of this game being the match of the round. Did it live up to that hype? You bet it was!
It was an almost packed house for Port Adelaide’s home Showdown at Adelaide Oval with an attendance of 53,698 on Saturday night.
The Crows were able to come home with a 17 point victory. They have now won the past four Showdown’s to square the rivalry at 21 one wins each through the 42 matches.
Port Adelaide came out in the first quarter full of spark. The Power took the game on at every moment and scoring the first 3 goals of the game. It took the Crows until the 19th minute of the first quarter to get their first goal through Eddie Betts, which allowed the Crows to finally start settling into the match. Port Adelaide lead by 9 points at the first break and were looking to hold the early advantage.
In the second quarter, Adelaide were able to gain the upper hand with a couple of goals to Andy Otten and a massive snap kick goal to David Mackay which created a Crows Surge.
After the first half Adelaide blew the lead out to 30 points. Port Adelaide when added two very late goals through youngster Brett Eddy and Chad Wingard, who seems to always have an impact in the Showdown matches. Port narrowed the lead down to 14 points at the last break.
Wingard started the final term with another goal and Post pushed the Crows lead down to just 6 points. Taylor Walker got Adelaide moving in the last quarter with 2 goals along with Tom Lynch and Riley Knight able to seal the Crows the win.
Vice-Captain Rory Sloane showed us why he is an elite midfielder, he won the Showdown medal and finished the game with 31 disposals, nine tackles and a goal. Taylor Walker finished with 4 goals. The Crows win was soured when Mitch McGovern went down in the last quarter with what looks to be a serious hamstring injury.
This week the Crows will be looking to stay undefeated when they host Essendon at Adelaide Oval next Saturday night. Port Adelaide will want to get back on the winners list but face a very tough match on the Saturday afternoon against the GWS Giants at Manuka Oval.
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