Crows sweat on match review panel

Having taken one step through the AFL finals, Adelaide coach Don Pyke could take another without two defensive pillars.

Crow Kyle Hartigan is certain to be sanctioned after being reported for tripping during Adelaide’s 62-point elimination final thrashing of North Melbourne.

And his fellow tall backman Daniel Talia faces scrutiny from the match review panel after felling Kangaroo forward Drew Petrie with what appeared to be a forearm strike.

Hartigan’s trip of North’s Lindsay Thomas was blatant – the Crow thrust out his left leg, making contact to the Roo goalsneak’s knee and causing him to fall.

But it’s up to the match review panel to decide whether the act was severe enough to warrant a suspension which could rule Hartigan out of Adelaide’s away Saturday night semi-final against Sydney.

Pyke, asked if he was worried about the Hartigan report, replied: “I can’t really comment on that. We will see what happens out of that over the tribunal process.”

Pressed as to what it could potentially mean to his defensive stocks, Pyke said: “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Talia’s uncharacteristic aggression on Petrie will also be examined though replays appeared inconclusive as to the force, and where the contact landed.

The Crows can ill afford to lose either defender for their away clash against a Swans outfit seeking to respond to a heavy qualifying loss to Greater Western Sydney.

“(Beating North) is one step, the first step for us in terms of where we’d like to take our finals campaign,” Pyke said.

“And the next step is Sydney in Sydney so a terrific challenge.

“I saw only a bit of the (Sydney) game before we came to our game so I will have a look at them closely.

“But clearly they are going to be disappointed from the result and we’ll expect a fired up Sydney next week.”

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