No Porplyzia means toil for Crows - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

No Porplyzia means toil for Crows

By Daniel Brettig 05/09/2008 03:49:33 PM Comments (0)

To borrow from Churchill, Adelaide coach Neil Craig has nothing to offer his forwards for Saturday's elimination final against Collingwood but "blood, toil, tears and sweat".

Lacking the magic of Jason Porplyzia, who this week finally gave in to the demands of an ever-loosening shoulder by deciding to sit out the rest of the year, the Crows' forward line will be staffed largely by triers reliant on strong delivery and their own work ethic.

Nick Gill, Richard Douglas, Brad Moran, Tyson Edwards, Scott Stevens and perhaps Nathan Bock, Andrew McLeod or Graham Johncock should all see time in attack for Adelaide on Saturday.

Craig pointed out that Adelaide had been able to win three games late in the year minus the help of Porplyzia, but said it was now up to others to take the strain.

"Jason is a talented player, but we haven't got him and, up until last week, we didn't have him for three weeks and we were able to win three games," Craig said on Friday.

"We wanted Jason to play, but we made the decision that it wasn't the best thing for him or the footy club, so he's now no longer there. So now other people will have to step up.

"It will be people his size that will have to step up. It will be midfielders who now have to go through there (the forward line), like Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson and Tyson Edwards.

"You saw Tyson last week do a great role there for our footy club, that's where it's going to have to come from because we haven't got any magic."

In midweek Porplyzia still saw himself as part of the attacking ensemble to face the Magpies, and reckoned Adelaide had the latent firepower to be dangerous if given suitable delivery.

"Our forward structure is pretty rock solid, we've kept the same sort of basic format for most of the year and we've kicked high scores," Porplyzia said.

"I think the key to the forward line working well is making sure they get enough delivery from midfield and making sure the entries are quick so we can get one-on-one contests and allow the guys to work to their structures."

At the other end, Collingwood's combination of bullocking marking target Travis Cloke and the likes of Paul Medhurst and the recalled Dale Thomas will be given plenty of respect by Craig.

"I really like their forward line, it poses a big problem for us, their forwards, because they've got some talent, they've got some height," Craig said.

"Cloke, Thomas comes back into that area of the ground, you've seen Medhurst play his role, then you've got some of their midfielders like Swan going through there as well, so it'll be a huge challenge for us."

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