Adelaide and Geelong locked in their final teams on Thursday night for a Round 13 meeting at Adelaide Oval, with the match scheduled to start at 7pm ACST. The late changes gave the opening game of the round a sharper edge: Taylor Walker was brought back for Adelaide, while Hugo Hall-Kahan was named to make his debut.
That is the sort of team sheet that gets attention because both clubs arrived with something to prove. Adelaide returned from the bye still chasing a top-six finish, and Geelong came in after beating Sydney and Brisbane before a shock loss to Carlton interrupted its run. The Cats have also won six straight against Adelaide, which has made this matchup a stubborn one for the Crows to crack.
For Adelaide, the selection call came with both reward and pain. Izak Rankine missed with a calf injury, Riley Thilthorpe was ruled out through suspension, and the return of Walker offered experience up forward at a time when the Crows have been leaning on narrow margins. Adelaide has lost four games by single figures this season and was coming off a defeat to the Hawks, so the margin for error was already thin.
Geelong’s final line-up was shaped by its own set of changes. Jack Bowes was recalled after strong VFL form, Jack Martin and Ollie Wiltshire both earned places in the side, while Lawson Humphries missed with an ankle injury, Mitch Edwards was managed and Brad Close was dropped. The reshuffle matters because Geelong had looked sharp against Sydney and Brisbane, but the Carlton result was a reminder that form can vanish quickly even when the underlying numbers still look strong.
For a Thursday night opener to Round 13, that leaves the game with a clean question rather than a tidy answer. Adelaide needs the kind of result that keeps its top-six hopes alive, while Geelong arrives trying to protect a winning streak against the Crows that has lasted through six meetings. At Adelaide Oval, the changes are set; the next judgment belongs to the players.
