Crows to miss hamstrung tagger
The Sunday Age
Sunday August 23, 2009
ADELAIDE will go into next Saturday€™s twilight game against Carlton, with a home elimination final on the line, but without specialist shadow man Robert Shirley.Shirley strained a hamstring minutes before half-time while playing his 150th AFL game in the Adelaide Crows€™ clash with the West Coast Eagles yesterday, and willundergo further assessment this morning. The Crows thumped West Coast by 74 points at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide.The injury to Shirley will also certainly mean regular half-back Michael Doughty will be given the tagging role on Chris Judd, after taking on the difficult task earlier thisseason with success. Adelaide will find out tomorrow if key forward Brett Burton will be available after suffering from a bruised buttock, and the likelihood of defender Nathan Bock playing in the finals will be a day-by-day proposition after he began walking freely yesterday in his recovery from a foot injury.Also, Patrick Dangerfield will play in the SANFL today, and is expected to come back into the Adelaide side in place of Shirley. Adelaide coach Neil Craig said heenjoyed the way his side sought contested possessions against West Coast.€˜€˜That fell away a little bit in the third quarter, particularly around stoppages, but apart from that it was quite outstanding,€™€™ Craig said. €˜€˜We had 30-odd more tackles and to win with that margin was probably the best we have tackled this year, what with the speed at which we got at people and the execution of the tackle.€™€™ West Coast coach John Worsfold said his players learned a lot. €˜€˜We have a long way to go, and youth and inexperience is not an excuse we want to use for a longperiod of time,€™€™ he said.
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