Crows to give AFL cold shoulder to Tippett

Crows players intend to hide any deep-seated animosity towards Kurt Tippett and give the Sydney forward the cold shoulder in Saturday night’s AFL match in Adelaide.

Tippett walked out of the Crows at the end of 2012 in an acrimonious exit that led to Adelaide and the key forward being sanctioned by the AFL for draft tampering.

Tippett will front against the Crows at home for the first time on Saturday night and, while spectators will jeer him, Adelaide’s players will do their best to ignore him.

“The players won’t give him any response apart from he’s wearing a Sydney jumper and we need to defend him when he has got the ball and when he’s in motion,” Crows assistant coach James Podsiadly told reporters on Friday.

“The crowd – it’s entirely up to them.”

Podsiadly said the snubbing of Tippett wasn’t a team tactic, adding his controversial departure was history.

“The players have never got briefed on anything like that,” he said.

“When you’re in the industry, people move and come – and it moves too quickly to actually think about things like that.

“Apart from Kurt being a fantastic player for the opposition, we scout him as an opponent.”

Sixth-placed Adelaide on Friday cleared half-back Paul Seedsman of any lingering effects from concussion suffered in last week’s away win against Richmond.

Seedsman will front against the ladder-leading and unbeaten Swans, who have won their past four matches against the Crows by healthy margins – the closest Adelaide have come in that span is 29 points in round 24, 2012.

“They have had the wood on us and the average losing margin is pretty high over the last two or three years,” Podsiadly said.

“But this year is a different year and we’re looking to change that.”

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