The Adelaide Crows travel to Sydney to take on the ladder-leading Swans in the final round of the home-and-away season on Saturday night.
The SCG contest will be the last game of the Crows season, with Adelaide sitting in 15th position on the ladder in what has been a disappointing season for the South Australian team.
The Crows are coming off a 22-point loss to cross town rivals Port Adelaide in a brutal Showdown where star Izak Rankine was heavily concussed. As a result, he will miss the trip to Sydney, but the Crows welcome back former skipper Taylor Walker while Josh Rachele has been dropped. Irishman Mark Keane misses the match as he returns home for family reasons.
The Swans will be without Tom McCartin who has been managed and Corey Warner who has been omitted, but Chad Warner returns from a tight calf and Aaron Francis comes back into the senior side. Joel Amartey celebrates his 50th game for the Swans.
The last time these two sides met it was Adelaide who shot out of the blocks at Adelaide Oval and held a 23-point lead in the second quarter before the Swans clicked into gear, eventually running away with the game by 42-points. Amartey kicked a staggering nine goals for the match while Errol Gulden gathered 35 disposals. For the home side Rory Laird picked up 34 touches while Darcy Fogarty kicked two goals.
Before jetting off to Sydney on Friday morning, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks addressed why young star Josh Rachele has been dropped for the match.
“Its about values and the standards we are looking to uphold consistently, centre of that is being team first,” Nicks said.
“Josh and I have had a number of conversations, its not isolated to recent events, this is something we have been working on for a long time now.
