ADELAIDE 4.5 Â 12.8 Â 18.12 Â 22.17 (149)
GOLD COAST 1.2 Â 4.3 Â 7.4 Â 11.8 (74)
Goals: Adelaide: T Walker 5 M McGovern 3 W Milera 3 T Lynch 2 B Smith C Cameron D Talia J Jenkins J Lyons L Brown P Seedsman R Atkins R Douglas. Gold Coast: P Wright 3 B Matera 2 J Grant 2 T Lynch 2 D Currie R Davis.
Best – Gold Coast: Wright Lonergan Prestia Rischitelli Day Martin. Adelaide: Lynch Walker Douglas Talia Jacobs Milera.
Injuries – Gold Coast: Ah Chee (concussion). Adelaide: Brown (ankle).
Umpires: Troy Pannell, Jordan Bannister, Jack Edwards.
Venue: Metricon Stadium.
There must have been a scary sense of déjà vu in the Gold Coast Suns' camp as they looked forlornly through their injury list going into this game.
No Gary Ablett. No Jaeger O'Meara or David Swallow. Dion Prestia was there, but Aaron Hall and Touk Miller weren't. In defence, neither was Rory Thompson, Steven May or Adam Saad.
The list goes on. For coach Rodney Eade, it's like 2015 all over again. Coaches don't like making excuses, but that's too much talent to expect any club to cover, particularly against a side as hot as the Adelaide Crows were at Metricon Stadium. By half-time, they'd sunk the Suns with a rampant eight-goal second quarter.
It hadn't been a capitulation on the Suns' part. They'd just been beaten for class by a team that look every inch a September contender. They were smashed in close: Adelaide waltzed the ball out of the centre 21 times to 11, resulting in 71 forward 50 entries to the starved Suns' 35.
Tom Lynch – the Adelaide version – is a very different player to his Suns' namesake but he is a brilliant half-forward, whether linking up for goal or kicking them himself. He is the perfect foil for Taylor Walker (five goals) and Josh Jenkins (one). Eddie Betts was quiet, but he is a luxuriously good player to have at their feet.
It's an incredibly awkward forward line for any opposition defence to counter, but the Crows also find plenty of scoring power from further afield, finishing with 13 goalkickers. Wayne Milera already a seriously damaging player in his first year, and Paul Seedsman's outside run and speed is sorely missed at Collingwood.
The Crows' defence was tight, too, not that they had a lot of work to do for much of the match. Even so, Daniel Talia distinguished himself as one of the best afield keeping the Suns' Lynch to two goals. And Sam Jacobs kept feeding the ball to his midfield on a platter. It all adds up to a tremendously well-balanced unit.
It spoke volumes for the Suns' plight that Seb Tape, hitherto a brave but undersized defender who's struggled to get a game, was starting in the centre square. The sole bright spot was Peter Wright, who is making huge strides in his second season as a key forward and second ruckman, covering well for the loss of Charlie Dixon.
The Suns' woes are even worse when you consider that only five of their listed players lined up in the NEAFL: ruckman Tom Nicholls, Clay Cameron, Jarrod Garlett (in his second year), Mackenzie Willis (his first) and rookie Cameron Loersch. It's not like Eade has any depth to call on, much less form.
By the final quarter, a three-figure drubbing was very much on the cards, but the match meandered to its conclusion. The Suns salvaged a little pride with four goals as the Crows appeared to conserve some of their energies for next week, when they'll face a much sterner test against Greater Western Sydney. Both look September-bound.
VOTES
T Lynch (Adelaide) 7
T Walker (Adelaide) 7
R Douglas (Adelaide) 7
D Talia (Adelaide) 7
W Milera (Adelaide) 7