Rankine Returns in Adelaide's Last Home Game for 2024.

Adelaide will play in front of its home fans one last time in Season 2024, taking on the Western Bulldogs. The Dogs firmly find themselves in the hunt for finals footy, coming into the game in 7th. The Crows, meanwhile, are 15th, having won just two of their last five games.

In good news, Izak Rankine will return after serving a suspension from the Crows’ loss to the Lions in Round 17, after hitting Brandon Starcevich off the ball. The young Crow signed through to the end of 2027 during the week.

“It was nice to see him out on the track,” Matthew Nicks said ahead of the game.

“We tried to calm him down during our match play. The enthusiasm [is] probably at its highest for him. I don’t think enjoys watching football, but he loves playing the game.”

In terms of where Izak will play, Rankine feels ready to play a full game in the midfield.

“He’s ready as far as he’s concerned. He’s in great condition,” Nicks continued.

“He can play a number of different roles for us, but the expectation is it may take a little while for him to come back.

“Although if there’s a player that you can probably trust that can come back in and have some natural talent he’s one of them.”

With several experienced players returning, Nicks said that while developing the youth is important, the Crows will continue to select the team that gives the best chance to win games for the rest of 2024.

“We are picking the best team for this week, but there is also a balance amongst that decision of what we feel is going to be important for us going forward and some of that is around the cohesion of our group.”

Nicks went on to mention some players that have been unearthed in 2024, with Keane, Soligo, Berry, Dowling and Nankervis all earning Nicks’ praise heading into the game with the Dogs.

“We’ve played some young kids [this year]. Although the results haven’t gone well, we’ve got some things right.”

The Dogs are in fine form, but the Crows aren’t shying away from the contest if you ask Nicks;

“[The games] are not getting any easier for us at this later part of the year. We’re running into some teams in some rare form and the Bulldogs are as good as anyone.

“We know we are gonna [need to] have a certain amount of run in our forward line. We could get exposed a little bit, coming out the other way.

“The Bulldogs are one of, if not the best, teams in the competition in exposing you if you don’t have forward half pressure.

“Our focus is to really come out and perform well as a team.

“We had our opportunities against Geelong, we were quite pleased with the way the guys went about it. [We were] disappointed with result.”

Daniel Curtin is another youngster who is playing some great footy at Adelaide. Matthew Nicks confirmed that he’ll be taking on the Dogs this afternoon;

“DC [Dan Curtin] will be playing. I know everyone will be looking at it, hoping he gets a little more time.”

Curtin played under eight minutes of football last week against the Cats, but Nicks believes that it’s water under the bridge;

“We talked through in the post game around why that decision was made. We made a decision on the weekend, we might look back on that and go, we could have gone the other way.

“[He’s] a really great young kid, he’s still learning the craft of the game. He’ll get a crack at it this week.

“I work with Dan around how we develop him. [He’s] a key defender, probably one of the toughest positions to play in the game.

“We are mindful of the history we’ve seen in that position for high draft picks. Those guys take a number of years to develop.

“[Curtin] has a couple of other strings too. He’s shown he can play on ball, so we continue to work in a couple of areas at the moment that might expose him, to see something different from him.

“The weekend was a tough one for him, so we make sure there’s a follow-on conversation around that, around why we made the decision. He’s a mature kid when it comes to that.”

When asked what Nicks wanted out of the last games of 2024, his response was simple;

“We’re hoping to put a performance out there that everyone walks out and goes, that’s our Adelaide Footy Club. That’s the team we come to watch.

“The next step for us is learning how to win. Perform the way we want to, show our DNA, and then win the game.”

The first bounce is from 3:40 PM, Adelaide time.