Adelaide’s win over the Western Bulldogs returned the Club to the top of the AFL ladder percentage ahead of Greater Western Sydney, who played a draw for the second straight week.

Don Pyke has coached the Crows to top spot on the AFL ladder in 11 weeks – the most of any coach in the Club’s history. Remarkably, Adelaide only spent one week in first place under the guidance of Malcolm Blight, who led the Club to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998.

Weeks in top spot on ladder for @Adelaide_FC coaches

11 DON PYKE

10 Neil Craig

4 Graham Cornes

3 Phil Walsh

1 Robert Shaw

1 Malcolm Blight — Swamp (@sirswampthing) July 9, 2017

Defender Rory Laird and midfielder Matt Crouch collected an equal-game high 32 disposals on Friday night. Laird record 19 effective kicks – ranked equal-first for the round.

According to the new AFL Live stats, Laird covered more ground (14.3 kilometres) than any other player at Adelaide Oval on Friday night. The in-form Crow ranked fifth for metres gained (646) for the round.

Another Rory – Rory Atkins – equalled teammate Riley Knight for the most kilometres clocked at high speed (2.5km), while Eddie Betts had 25 sprint efforts, which was five more than the next-best player (Knight).

Laird also hauled in a match-high 12 marks. Josh Jenkins and Jake Lever (11 each), and Andy Otten (10) also reached double figures for marks.

Otten had 21 disposals at 95.2 per cent efficiency – the highest efficiency of any player on the ground. Lever (22 possessions), Riley Knight (15 possessions) and Wayne Milera (11 possessions) also operated at above 90 per cent efficiency in the wet conditions.

Despite the weather, Adelaide had more effective kicks (170) than any other team in Round 16. The Crows also pressured the Western Bulldogs into having the fewest effective kicks (110).

Led by Jenkins and captain Taylor Walker (three each), the Crows took the second-highest number of contested marks (20) for the round, while also limiting the Bulldogs to the fewest (four).

Jake Kelly played arguably his best AFL game. Kelly amassed 17 possessions at 88 per cent efficiency. He applied a game-high nine tackles, took eight marks and effected eight spoils. The former rookie didn’t concede a goal to his direct opponent according to Champion Data statistics.

Crows vice-captain Rory Sloane generated a game-high eight inside 50ms. Sloane also applied the second-most pressure acts (30) of any player in the League over the weekend.

Jenkins (four) and Walker (three) combined for seven goals.

Since returning to the AFL team in Round 10, Jenkins has kicked 18 goals in six games – ranked equal-No.1 in the competition.

On Friday night, Walker became just the second player behind Betts to kick 100 goals at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

Walker won a career-high 13 contested possessions against the Bulldogs.

Betts had a round-high five goal assists, becoming only the second player in history to reach 250 career goal assists. Betts (252) needs only two more to overtake Greater Western Sydney and Geelong star Steve Johnson (253) for the most goal assists ever.

The Crows held the Bulldogs to 45 points on Friday night. It was the Dogs’ second-lowest score of the season and the second-lowest score Adelaide has limited an opposition to in 2017.

Match statistics

Disposals

Adelaide – 396

Western Bulldogs – 366

Disposal efficiency

Adelaide – 76%

Western Bulldogs – 65%

Kicks

Adelaide – 248

Western Bulldogs – 210

Handballs

Adelaide – 148

Western Bulldogs – 156

Clearances

Adelaide – 21

Western Bulldogs – 42

Inside 50ms

Adelaide – 54

Western Bulldogs – 57

Contested possessions

Adelaide – 151

Western Bulldogs – 157

Uncontested possessions

Adelaide – 256

Western Bulldogs – 203

Tackles

Adelaide – 84

Western Bulldogs – 75

Hit-outs

Adelaide – 42

Western Bulldogs – 23