Adelaide have axed ruckman Reilly O’Brien, while spearhead Taylor Walker has failed a fitness test and won’t play against Richmond on Thursday night.
Walker, suffering a recurrence of a back injury, was substituted at halftime from what coach Matthew Nicks describes as the Crows’ worst performance of the year, a lacklustre 27-point loss to Hawthorn last Saturday.
O’Brien has been dumped and the Crows will also be without injured duo Brayden Cook and Matt Crouch, who will miss the rest of the season after shoulder surgery.
Nicks has summoned Kieran Strachan for his sixth AFL game – and first since round 10, 2022, to replace O’Brien.
In addition, Ned McHenry and Will Hamill are back, while Billy Dowling—chosen at pick 43 in the 2022 draft—will play in his first AFL game.
Tim Taranto (broken wrist), Dion Prestia (rested last start), and Shai Bolton (concussion) return to the 17th-placed Tigers, while Jacob Koschitzke is recalled for the Adelaide Oval game against the Crows, who are three spots above them in the standings.
Dustin Martin, the three-time Norm Smith medallist and triple championship hero from Richmond, has been rested ahead of his 300th game on June 15 at the MCG against Hawthorn.
The Tigers have lost Marlon Pickett (calf) and Mykelti Lefau to a season-ending knee injury and dropped Kaleb Smith.
Crows coach Nicks says his team enter the fixture with a collective chip on their shoulder after their loss to the Hawks, which is why he is welcoming the short five-day break between that defeat and hosting the injury-ravaged Tigers.
“What you find out after games like (the Hawthorn defeat), there’s a frustration that you have for a period of time and then you’re able to snap yourself out of that and go, ‘Hey, we have got a job to do’,” Nicks told reporters on Wednesday.
“We don’t want to play games at that level and we believe we’re better than that, so we’re frustrated and we were angry … it wasn’t acceptable.
“A five-day break is a bonus for us because we can play as soon as possible to try and rectify it.
“We’re clear on the fact that (last Saturday) is not acceptable and we’re not going to stand for that.
“So we’ll come into this week’s game with a real chip on our shoulder.”
Crows captain Jordan Dawson, despite nursing a foot complaint last week, has been cleared to play.
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