ADELAIDE 2.2 5.8 11.14 16.17 (113)
HAWTHORN 6.2 8.3 11.10 13.11 (89)
Goals: Adelaide: D Mackay 3 E Betts 3 T Walker 2 A Otten C Cameron L Brown M McGovern R Atkins R Sloane S Jacobs T Lynch. Hawthorn: L Breust 4 P Puopolo 3 J Roughead 2 C Rioli L Shiels T Mitchell T Vickery
Best – Adelaide: Sloane, Lynch, Walker, Talia, Jacobs, Laird. Hawthorn: Mitchell, O'Meara, Breust, Hodge, Puopolo, Birchall
Umpires: Mathew Nicholls, Dean Margetts, Andrew Mitchell. Â
Official Crowd: 37,420 at MCG. Â Â
It had been six years and one week since Adelaide had managed to beat Hawthorn, the frustration not just about seven successive defeats, but the fact two of them had come in finals, and no fewer than four had been by two goals or less.
The Crows went into Saturday's MCG clash knowing they weren't going to get many better opportunities to put that imbalance right, given how convincing had been their opening win over a flag favourite in GWS, and the Hawks' own struggles. And yet early on, it appeared to be a case of "here we go again".
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Crows fly highest in impressive win over Hawks
Adelaide turned it around at the MCG to end up comfortable winners over the Hawks in round 2.
Within 15 minutes of the start of this game, Hawthorn had slammed on five goals to one and surged to a 25-point lead, seemingly refreshed and reinvigorated.
Small forwards Luke Breust, Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo were proving lethal. Luke Hodge's return had instilled in the Hawks the grunt they had lacked last week, the former skipper lending a hand in three of those first five majors.
Tom Mitchell, the Hawks' best against Essendon, was better again, and fellow recruit Jaeger O'Meara more damaging than against the Dons. And in defence, Ben Stratton was allowing Eddie Betts nary a sniff.
In fact, not much at all was going right for Adelaide, underlined when Josh Jenkins went down after a seemingly innocuous collision with Hawk debutant Teia Miles. It quickly became apparent he was seriously hurt, off to hospital to check on a possible punctured lung, not to return.
Given the early shock to the system and the major injury setback, Adelaide's capacity to regain their composure was impressive. So impressive that the bottom line was a 49-point turnaround, 15 goals to eight after that opening flurry, and a 24-point win which, to be honest, could even have ended up more.
How did the Crows do it? All over the ground. In midfield, they started to win more of the contests, Rory Atkins and Riley Knight upping the possession ante, Rory Sloane inspiring.
He'd finish with 25 disposals and an important goal to open the final term after an uncharacteristic big pack mark. But Sloane's most significant contribution was to the tackle count, where he laid a phenomenal 16 of them, the Hawks never again allowed the sort of freedom they'd had early after that opening flurry.
In defence, Rory Laid and Daniel Talia were impressive. And up forward, even without Jenkins, Adelaide had too much height and strength, key forwards Taylor Walker and Tom Lynch not necessarily hitting the scoreboard themselves, but hugely influential in allowing others their chances.
Walker would finish the day with four score assists, Lynch as the Crows' leading possession-winner with 31 disposals. They're not the sort of categories you often see key forwards leading. But this Adelaide side is versatile, flexible and very, very athletic.
Initially, while Adelaide dominated time in forward half, their mortgage on possession where it mattered produced only a wasteful 3.6 in the second term, while the Hawks still managed to eke out two goals of their own.
But come the second half, the Crows began to turn the screws a little tighter, and now it was Hawthorn wasting their chances, Ty Vickery muffing a couple of relatively regulation marking opportunities, and five behinds added before the Hawks managed near time-on to finally split the middle.
In the meantime, Adelaide had begun to convert. Betts had kicked only five goals in his previous four games against Hawthorn, but now he had three in the one go, the brilliance coming to the fore as he balked James Frawley for the first of two third-term goals, then casually dobbed another of those "impossible" snaps with a checkside from hard-up against the boundary.
The Crows were beginning to dominate contested possession, and those uncontested marks which had enabled Hawthorn to get their game going had dried to a trickle as Adelaide made manning-up a mission.
Now it was Adelaide which looked like going away with it. And indeed, the final term was a cashing-in of sorts.
David Mackay, quiet otherwise, managed to get on the scoreboard twice. Walker got a few of his own rewards after helping out others. Luke Brown bobbed up for the final goal for his team.
And a major hoodoo was not just beaten, but emphatically. The Crows did it their own way last week. This time, they'd had to knuckle down and respond to a challenge. That they did it so well would be heartening. And that it was against a regular nemesis of recent times, more satisfying still.
VOTES
Rory Sloane (Adel) … 8
Tom Lynch (Adel) ... 7
Taylor Walker (Adel) ... 7
Tom Mitchell (Haw) ... 7
Sam Jacobs (Adel) ... 7