1. Phil's path to respect
Adelaide coach Phil Walsh said during the week it was imperative the Crows won games away from home, so the rest of the "Melbourne-centric" competition took them seriously. Just two games into the season, not only has Walsh shown the 17 other teams that the Crows will be a physically tough team to play against, but he's taken the players to Melobourne and returned with a hearty 27-point win over a traditional Victorian power. There was black and white everywhere you looked at Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening but even the blinding flashes of Magpie "theming" around the LED fencing didn't distract the Crows, as they recorded their second win from as many games.
VOTE: Choose your 3-2-1 from Saturday's match in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.
2. Black and white scoring drought
In the first quarter, the Magpies simply didn't have opportunity to make an impact on the scoreboard, with the Crows dominating inside 50s 19 to eight, and racking up nine scoring shots to the Pies' three, which included Travis Varcoe's after-the-siren set shot that fell short. It took nine minutes into the second term for Collingwood's first goal – a set shot by Jarryd Blair – and they were only able to add one more before half-time as the Crows raced to a 37-point lead. The Pies added just one more in the third quarter as the Crows cut them up in open space, before Buckley's men stepped up to at least fight the game out with six goals in the final term. While it was a nice win for the Crows, it could have been by a lot more given their wasted opportunities (18 behinds) and the way they let the Pies have more of a say in the final term, particularly after best-on-ground Brodie Smith was stretchered off following a nasty incident where Taylor Adams swung him head-first into Varcoe's shin.
3. Sharing is caring
As barren as the Pies' scoreline was for three quarters, the Crows' was a healthy representation of a team not reliant on a few players. For the second week running, they shared things around in attack, which was also an indictment on the Pies' defence given the way the visitors were able to flick the ball between multiple options. In the third quarter, Taylor Walker selflessly passed off a goal to Charlie Cameron before Eddie Betts allowed Patrick Dangerfield to get in on the action with a major late in the term. The team-first style is certainly working for the Crows so far and could see them become a contender if they can develop a killer instinct that turns easy wins into landslide results.
4. Convincing Crows?
Former Adelaide captain and current board member Mark Ricciuto said this week he believed Patrick Dangerfield was a "50-50" chance of staying a Crow when his contract ended this season. With Geelong circling for Dangerfield's services, given he grew up on the Victorian surf coast, a comparison between the 2015 Crows and Cats is sure to start creeping into the midfielder's mind. The Cats were sorely beaten by Hawthorn last weekend while the Crows are playing an exciting brand of football that will land them in the finals if they keep it up. Could the ledger tip in the Crows' favour and convince Dangerfield to put pen to paper if they continue to rise?
VIDEO: "We didn't use it well enough," - Buckley.
5. Shocker for Sinclair
After hamstring problems on both sides restricted his output to five senior games in 2014, 23-year-old Ben Sinclair would have entered this year ready for a change of luck. He'd had a decent summer and had 16 touches against the Brisbane Lions last week, before picking up Patrick Dangerfield when the star Crow drifted forward on Saturday. However, as he chased a loose ball near the interchange bench late in the first quarter, Sinclair pulled up sharply and limped straight off the field – he looked the picture of a man who knew exactly what he'd done to the back of his leg, and resigned to another frustrating spell on the sidelines.
