Crows seek hard AFL edge against Giants

The Adelaide Crows believe an inside edge, rather than need for speed, is key to halting Greater Western Sydney’s record AFL winning streak.

While most marvel at the Giants’ flashy speed, the Crows have studied their knack of winning contested ball ahead of Saturday night’s encounter at Adelaide Oval.

“Rather than speed, it’s going to be the ability to win the ball at the contest and try and limit their ability to spread and run off us,” Adelaide assistant coach David Teague told reporters on Friday.

“Their speed is enormous when they have got the ball. If we have got the ball, it’s going to be our ability to move the ball quickly against them.

“We feel if we can win the ball and move the ball forward, we can test them out too. We have got some handy players forward of the ball that they have got to defend.”

The Crows are highest-scoring team in the league and the Giants, on a club-best six-game winning streak, are second-highest.

GWS lost Tim Mohr (hamstring) and Matt Buntine (concussion), recalling Adam Tomlinson and Jack Steele for the night match.

Eighth-placed Adelaide named an unchanged side with Luke Brown passing a fitness test on an injured ankle.

Brown’s defensive speed is vital for the Crows, who Teague said were improving at covering the slick spread of opponents after being caught out in a loss to Geelong a fortnight ago.

“It is something we have focused on and we were a lot better last week,” he said.

“The challenge this week is a different opposition .. but we need to make sure we can match them on the inside and then when the ball leaves, that we spread.

“We will go into the game playing our style. We believe that our best is good enough to beat GWS … we have got a strong belief that we can get the job done playing our way, our style and our brand.”

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