The form

Hawthorn
The Hawks will be keen to bounce back from what was possibly their most disappointing performance of the season last Friday night.

Alastair Clarkson’s team was comprehensively beaten by the Roos and outplayed for the majority of the game, lacking their usual domination in the midfield.

That means proud players like Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis will be keen to atone for last Friday night and will most likely lead by example.

Before last week’s effort, the Hawks had won five games in a row, so Clarkson will be hoping his side can re-capture that winning form.

Adelaide
In contrast to Hawthorn, the Crows are heading into Friday night’s clash in great form, having beaten then-ladder leaders Port Adelaide two weeks ago.

The Crows outplayed the Power and then backed up their performance with a big win over the Giants last Saturday.

Adelaide have hit their straps, winning four of their past six games and their guns – Patrick Dangerfield, Scott Thompson, Roray Sloane are playing well and now Eddie Betts is coming to the fore.

They are now pushing for a finals berth.

Recent history

The Hawks have won four of the past five games against the Crows but their last two clashes haven’t been easy.

While the Hawks have enjoyed great success in the last two years, the Crows have posed a significant challenge, with Hawthorn winning by just 11 points at AAMI Stadium in Round 6 last year and by five points in the 2012 Preliminary Final.

Before that, the Hawks cruised to a big 56-point win in Round 3, 2012.

The Crows last beat the Hawks in Round 1, 2011 when they prevailed by 20 points at AAMI Stadium.

Here comes Eddie

While most of the focus is centered around Taylor Walker and his tall forward teammates Josh Jenkins and James Podsiadly when it comes to discussing Adelaide, some forget about a player named Eddie Betts.

Now 15 games into his career with the Crows, Betts has re-captured the form that made him hot property on the Free Agency table last year.

In his last four games, Betts has kicked a total of 15 goals, including a season-high bag of five against the Giants last Saturday.

Before that, he had been held goalless only twice this season with his previous best four goals against the Power in Rounds 2 and 15.

Betts is Adelaide’s leading goalkicker with 33 for the year; four clear of Jenkins on 29 and 13 clear of Podsiadly with 20 (Walker had kicked 12 goals since returning from injury in Round 9).

But Betts’ value is more than just kicking goals, he’s also ranked number one at the his club for goal assists, giving off an average of 2.2 per game – he has assisted on 16 goals this year to be ranked sixth in the competition.

The Hawks have had trouble containing small forwards this year, with Chad Wingard the one that sticks out when they were last at Adelaide Oval.

A mercurial player not unlike Betts, the explosive Power player was one of his side’s best in their win over the Hawks with 15 disposals, three goals from six shots and assisted on two others.

Taylor Duryea could be the man to stand Betts after holding North Melbourne small forward Lindsay Thomas to just one goal last week.

How the Crows beat the top sides

Hawthorn will need to be prepared for a tackling onslaught on Friday night if Adelaide’s past efforts against the top teams is any indication.

When the Crows beat the Power two weeks ago, they laid a massive 91 tackles, which forced their opposition to make quick and poor decisions with ball in hand and forcing more handball.

Against the Pies in Round 9 the Crows were even more ferocious, laying 93 tackles in a stunning performance.

Interestingly, the Crows are actually not normally a high tackling team, ranked 17^th in the league with an average of 61.6 per game.

They simply raise the bar when they’re looking to claim a big scalp.

Key area: Midfield

It is the battle that’s most important in most games but it’s crucial on Friday night.

The Crows might have the edge in the ruck, with Sam Jacobs destined for All Australian selection after another outstanding year – he is arguably their most important player.

Jacobs gives the Crows first use, ranked fifth in the league for hit outs but that hasn’t translated to his midfielders being able to win the clearances.

The Crows are ranked 11^th in the league in that area, while the Hawks are ranked third, with an average of 41.3 per game. That would be an area the Hawks will highlight to exploit and thus reduce Jacobs’ influence on the game.

That’s where Jordan Lewis, Shaun Burgoyne and Sam Mitchell come into it.

Lewis has been the Hawks’ best clearance player all year, averaging 5.6 clearances per game, while Burgoyne is ranked second. Mitchell, meanwhile wasted no time in showing his value to the Hawks in his return last week, with a team-high eight clearances for the game.

The clearances is clearly an area in which the Hawks have the edge but they’ll be up against it trying to shark off Jacobs and read the footy better than Scott Thompson (6.2), Patrick Dangerfield (6.1) and Rory Sloane (4.0) who have been Adelaide’s three best clearance players this year.

Hawthorn’s strength – how do the Crows go?

The Hawks are still the number one scoring team in the competition (averaging 116 points per game) and the most accurate (converting at 58.3 per cent), so the Crows will need to have one of their best defensive performances of the year on Friday night to win.

With that in mind, that’s where their tackling game comes into it, having held Collingwood to just 55 points in Round 9 and Port Adelaide to just 76 points in Round 15 – their two best tackling performances of the year.

The Crows concede on average 85 points per game this year though and with options aplenty for Hawthorn, the Crows might struggle to contain them.

Jarryd Roughead (40 goals), Luke Breust (39) and Jack Gunston (36) are the most dangerous trio in the league and now occupy three of the top nine spots in the race for the Coleman Medal.

Daniel Talia, Ben Rutten and Luke Brown who will likely get Breust will need plenty of help from their teammates.