Adelaide have kept their top-hour hopes alive with a gritty nine-point win over a determined Richmond outfit at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The Crows were expected to notch a percentage-boosting victory over the lowly Tigers, but had to dig deep to come away with the four points in driving rain.
Izak Rankine produced one of the greatest individual performances in club history, while captain Jordan Dawson was also instrumental in avoiding one of the biggest upsets of the season.
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Rankine racked up 37 possessions, six marks, six tackles, 12 clearances, one goal and 791m gained to achieve the most ranking points in club history.
The game was in the balance for much of the final term until Zac Taylor nailed a clutch goal in the dying stages.
The victory keeps Adelaide in fifth place, just behind Brisbane on percentage. But with a tough trip to come next week against Fremantle, their position in the top six is anything but safe.
Melbourne are equal on points with Adelaide, while Geelong is just one game behind and have a superior percentage.
Battling Richmond gave Adelaide a mighty fright before going down by nine points. Credit: AAP
Despite coming away with the victory, Crows fans were far from happy.
“Worst win in club history,” one fan raged.
“The worst win in our club’s history we had to get a lift from the umps to beat 17th,” another said.
“Take the four points and run, if we play like that against Freo next week we are getting absolutely smashed,” another lamented.
“Hugely uninspiring. That rubbish will not win a single finals game,” another said.
“Heading into finals… I’m as flat as anything. I don’t have any confidence that our game style and players can do what it takes to win anything,” another said.
“We’re never winning a premiership under Nicks,” another said.
Even club great Mark Ricciuto wasn’t impressed.
“Disappointing. They’ll take the win but they’ve been far from impressive,” Ricciuto said on Fox Footy.
The Tigers held a five-point lead at quarter-time, with Adelaide’s flat opening prompting coach Matthew Nicks to give his players a serve at the break.
Speaking after the match, veteran Taylor Walker said it was fully deserved.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it, but glad we were able to get the four points in the context of our season,” he told Fox Footy.
“He was a bit angry, Nicksy, and rightly so. We were just playing unpredictable footy and not the way we want to play.
“We’ve got some things in our gameplan that we want to execute and we weren’t doing it.
“We deserved it, but it was nice to come away with the win.”
The Crows scored three goals to none in the initial 14 minutes of the second term to create a 12-point advantage but, as heavy rain fell to make an error-riddled contest even more challenging, the Tigers hit back.
Steely Green and Campbell booted goals to shrink their deficit to one point at half-time.
Campbell’s influence magnified in the third term when he slotted two more goals to give the Tigers a 13-point break and alarm the 42,762-strong pro-Adelaide crowd.
Richmond’s advantage should have been greater but stalwart Tom Lynch missed three gettable goal chances before Adelaide responded with two moments of magic.
First, prized recruit Callum Ah Chee kicked a sensational goal on the run from 55 metres in the driving rain.
And 10 minutes later, the dynamic Rankine scored a classy goal from 50m out, also on the run.
Rankine’s stunner was followed by another Ah Chee major as Adelaide reclaimed the lead — four points ahead at three quarter-time.
Adelaide veteran Walker extended the home side’s lead to 10 points before the Tigers rallied again.
A Hugo Ralpsmith goal was followed by Sam Lalor missing a close-range set shot that would have put the visitors in front.
Instead, they were four points down and Adelaide’s Zac Taylor sealed victory with a 50m set shot with under four minutes remaining
— with AAP.
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