Adelaide Crows v St Kilda Saints AFL tips & odds | Sunday 14/5/23

The first of two Sunday AFL clashes will take place in Adelaide as the improving Adelaide Crows take on a revamped St Kilda Saints at the Adelaide Oval. The Crows come home this weekend after having their wings clipped by the Cats, while the Saints had to slug it out with the Roos in a hard to watch win.

If anyone was able to stomach the entirety of last Sunday’s match with the Saints and the Roos first of all, kudos you really love your football, secondly it further proved that Ross Lyon teams are incredibly difficult to score against. The Saints are playing remarkable footy, not always the most entertaining, but uncompromising and electric all the same. Their defence has been so potent, that they have yet to surrender 100 points in a match.

Their opponents are difficult to read. Last year the Adelaide Crows were at times really competitive but still obviously in a rebuild. In the off-season they front loaded their list with talent from other teams, now they have a good complement of experience and exciting youth coming through, it’s hard to say whether you would still classify them as rebuilding. The Crows have been particularly tricky to play this year in their home state having knocked off a couple of finals hopefuls and come close to others.

They will be feeling very confident this week, the Crows were able to match the flag favourites Geelong at their fortress of GMHBA Stadium, and recent performances at the Adelaide Oval would see them favourites in this clash. The question will be whether they can score through the Saints wall of a defence. Unlike North Melbourne, the Crows have plenty of avenues to goal which could make things tricky for the Saints. The thing for sure is that this will be an arm wrestle, but it’s very difficult to look past Adelaide at home at $1.65 at Unibet.

The Crows love to launch long into their forward line, why not, they have very good key forwards and if it falls to ground, then their electric small forwards gobble up the loose footy. However, neither might not get much opportunity with Saints backman Callum Wilkie patrolling the airwaves. Wilkie is in the finest form we’ve seen from a key defender in years, at the very least All-Australian form.

He is so confident with his intercept marking that it’s like each kick going to the opposition is meant for him. On top of that Wilkie is averaging 20 disposals a game, and with the amount of ball likely to get inside the Saints defence, we can expect that Wilkie will find his way to at least another 20 in a possible defensive masterclass ($1.75).

This game will be a contest from start to finish, both teams really matchup well right across the ground. The Crows will look to run and gun their opponents, but that can be difficult with the St Kilda Saints defence. If we learnt anything from last week, it is that the Saints are willing to suffocate any scoring potential if it means that they can score victory. So expect that no matter how hard and fast the Crows try to play this one, that the Saints will be equally as stingy, and that the score of the game will not exceed 161.5 points ($1.88).

Key matchup: Taylor Walker v Callum Wilkie

Charlie Cameron vs Callum Wilkie

You are probably expecting this matchup to be focused on how damaging Taylor Walker can be and that Callum Wilkie will need to be on his guard if the Saints are to win. Yes Taylor Walker is damaging, but it is he that will need to light up the Adelaide Oval if his team is to win. Callum Wilkie is just that imposing at the moment, that he is arguably a match-winning key defender, just think about how crazy that notion is.

‘Tex’ Walker may be getting on in age but he still has plenty of tricks and has yet to lose too much athletic ability. He is still incredibly quick on the lead, a strong contested grab, and a prodigious kick at goal. This weekend, Walker will need to make his opponent accountable and prevent him from stopping offence for the Crows and setting up offence for the Saints. Whether it’s kicking goals, or even ensuring Wilkie can’t intercept and bring the ball to ground for his talented small forwards, Walker will need to be at his absolute best to ensure his side’s victory.

Adelaide v St Kilda betting strategy

Adelaide v St Kilda same game multi

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