With a spot in the AFL top eight tantalisingly close, Adelaide Crows forward Josh Jenkins believes nothing less than his team’s best will be required to beat premiership heavyweight Hawthorn on Friday night.
Despite an indifferent season to date, the Crows can sneak into the top eight if they defeat the Hawks at Adelaide Oval and either Collingwood, North Melbourne or Gold Coast lose at the weekend. But with Hawthorn still smarting from last Friday’s upset loss to the Kangaroos, Jenkins said the Crows would meet plenty of resistance as they chase their third win in a row.
“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves,” he said. “Two in a row’s nothing to write home about, but we’ve finally been able to get two matches in a row where we’ve performed, for the most part, the way we want to. The challenge is to keep that rolling this week against a top-four or premiership-contending side. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us, and Hawthorn are going to look to bounce back as well.”
Aiding the Crows’ cause will be the absence of Hawks key defender Brian Lake, who was suspended for four matches after being found guilty of misconduct following his choke hold on North Melbourne opponent Drew Petrie. Jenkins, however, believes Hawthorn has the depth to cover Lake’s loss.
“He (Lake) is a great player when he’s up and about, but the great thing about Hawthorn is their back six or seven all help each other out so much,” he said. “It (Lake’s absence) probably weakens them a little bit, bit in terms of the way most teams defend now, it’s all about the defensive group.”
