A broken jaw for Kurt Tippett means he will not be able to take the field for Sydneys semifinal against Adelaide at the SCG on Saturday. It also means that for once the Crows will be facing a highly rated opponent without having to contend with a player once counted among their number.Alongside Tippett, Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong), Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) and Phil Davis (Greater Western Sydney) were all Adelaide draftees, learning their trade in the AFL and showing enormous promise before choosing to leave the West Lakes nest that had nurtured them. Had that quartet remained in Adelaide, the Crows first 22 would be the envy of the league, but as it is they haunt the club like the ghost of Christmas past, come to visit Ebenezer Scrooge.As with Scrooges Yuletide introspection, their departures led to questions about how the Crows functioned, and about Adelaide as a place. While interstate recruits invariably discuss the go home factor with potential clubs at draft screening and in their early days after arrival, Adelaide seemed more affected than most.This had a history going back numerous years before the Dangerfield generation. The likes of Kane Johnson, Chris Knights, Jonathon Griffin and Nathan Bock all fled the Crows when presented by opportunities either for a home posting or a rich contract to set them up for life after football. Bocks departure to the Gold Coast was compounded when Davis, the man groomed to replace him, elected to accept the entreaties of GWS.Plenty of contention surrounded Gunstons desire to return to Melbourne right at the moment he looked to be maturing into a forward of considerable skill, and the Hawks have read the benefits of Adelaides earlier nurturing work. Hawthorn supporters have taken to singing You wish you had Jack Gunston to the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas: nary a Crows supporter or administrator can fail to wince at that one. In the same year Gunston left, the re-signing of the unassuming wingman David MacKay was looked upon as something of a minor miracle.Of course it was Tippett who but epitomised Adelaides sheer frustration about retaining players. In a saga daubed across newspaper back pages for far longer than anyone at West Lakes would have liked, the salary cap transgression designed to keep Tippett in Adelaide for the short-term, cost the club enormously in terms of draft penalties and staff bans, before the Swans were able to pick him up for no gain by the Crows. It remains the most embarrassing chapter in club history.The lesson learned at the time was twofold. First, there seemed little point in stretching the rules to accommodate players who did not want to remain in Adelaide. Secondly, the market pressure created by the addition of Gold Coast and GWS to the AFL had allowed players to be far more aggressive in chasing home pastures or bigger contracts. The Crows had been caught in a major storm, and hurt themselves further by trying to swim against the current.Since then, smoother waters have been sought and largely found. Ironically, the circumstances in which Adelaide have settled their list down and become more successful at retaining players actually revolve around the bonds formed by draftees from outside South Australia. Daniel Talia, who joined the Crows in the same year Tippett signed his fateful three-year contract extension in 2009, summed up how things had changed -- Adelaide is now a desirable place in which to grow together.Its funny, a lot of the guys at the club now are from interstate and I feel like thats really bonded us closer, Talia (Calder Cannons) said of a group featuring the likes of Rory Sloane (Eastern Ranges), Rory Atkins (Calder Cannons), Tom Lynch (St Kilda) and Josh Jenkins (Essendon). With the events of last year were a really tight knit group and our cultures one of our strong points.Weve got a great culture and guys want to hang around and be a part of that. Weve got a core group who are 18 to 25 and we dont have many senior guys other than Thommo [Scott Thompson] and Dougy [Richard Douglas] and those kinds of guys. Were all growing up together, playing footy together and developing as a group. Its a really exciting time to be around the club and guys want to be a part of that, says Talia.Many of the old headlines were dredged back up by Dangerfields decision to return home to Geelong at the end of 2015, a decision he had made some months before but kept quiet. However it is now possible to view his exit as something of an outlier to a wider trend, for young interstate players of promise to decide that Adelaide isnt just the place to be for a football education, but as a club to make your home.Certainly, and with more games of footy and the more we play together I feel like the more were going to improve, Talia said. Its an exciting time, an opportunity for our group to play some good footy and win finals. We dont just want to make up the numbers, we want to go the whole way.Added to the sense of togetherness at Adelaide is the fact that the team have not been built through the pick of the national draft, nor the generous concessions offered to new clubs elsewhere. Instead this is a group carefully compiled from lower draft choices, rookie draft selections and trades. Contentions that the Crows lack the star power of other clubs may actually be a strength: they know they must work for each other to be a chance, whether on the field or at contract time.Crows re-signed in the past two years: Brad Crouch, Daniel Talia, Brodie Smith, Josh Jenkins, Rory Atkins, Mitch McGovern, Tom Lynch, Rory Sloane, Sam Jacobs, Richard Douglas, Rory Laird, Luke Brown, Jake Lever, Charlie Cameron, Jake Kelly, Kyle Hartigan, Riley Knight, Reilly OBrien Green Air Max 2018 . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Cheap Air Max 2018 China .ca. Hey Kerry, big fan of yours, just finished reading your book. I think that we all saw the Canucks/Flames line brawl just after puck drop. It was obvious that something was about to happen, even to the referees because the fourth lines were on to start. http://www.cheapairmaxsaleonline.com/ . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rookie outfielder in the starting lineup. Wholesale Air Max 2018 . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Air Max 2018 Outlet . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. DALLAS -- Baylor coach Jim Grobe stood defiant Tuesday in the face of questions about the culture at his school in the wake of sexual assault allegations that led to the departures of the university president, athletic director and football coach.That is not a culture at Baylor University, Grobe said during his news conference at Big 12 media days. We dont have a culture of bad behavior at Baylor University.Grobe was hired May 30 amid a turbulent environment as scandal raged on the Waco, Texas, campus. Three Baylor players had been arrested on sexual assault charges under the watch of former coach Art Briles.The problems that were dealing with at Baylor and have dealt with at Baylor, to this point, are problems that are probably at every university in the country, Grobe said Tuesday, echoing comments made Monday by Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. I wouldnt say every one, but I would guess that most universities are having some of the same issues that weve had at Baylor.You can make a call as to whether you think Baylor was too strong in the way they dealt with it. Unbelievably, Ive had people tell me they dont think they dealt with it strongly enough.Grobe clarified his comments Wednesday on ESPN Radios Mike & Mike.When you start talking about that type of culture, you again throw a blanket over all the guys, and its been my experience that the guys weve got going forward at Baylor right now are great kids. Im not going to say we wont have issues going forward. I hope theyre not serious issues, but we have a lot of great kids, we have a lot of great students at Baylor, he said.Some of them have misbehaved and in some cases its been serious misconduct but what I wanted people to know is I want people to understand there is no culture in our football program right now and on our football team of misbehavior.Baylor interim president David Garland, regents chairman Ronald Murff and David Harper, academic and student affairs committee chairman, met with the Big 12 board of directors for more than two hours Tuesday to discuss the schools handling of the sexual assault criisis.ddddddddddddBoard chairman and University of Oklahoma president David Boren said the board was satisfied that Baylor would be more transparent with the league in regard to how it is handling the crisis. The Baylor officials also assured the board that the school was committed to being Title IX compliant in the future.Questions and answers were received, and I would say we were very pleased, Boren said.Baylor suspended Briles on May 26 and reached an agreement in June to terminate his contract. Briles entire staff, including his son, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, and son-in-law, passing game coordinator Jeff Lebby, was retained by Grobe.Grobe, 64, a former Wake Forest coach, said hes focused on helping the current players and coaches at Baylor.The majority of our kids are great kids -- I mean great kids, Grobe said. And its a shame when a few guys can really hurt a large group of people in a devastating way, really. From our standpoint, what I want to do is let people know that our kids are fantastic kids.Im here to help. Im here for the players first and foremost and secondly to help this coaching staff get back on track.Grobe said he had no concerns about the conduct of the Baylor assistants who recruited and coached the players at the center of the scandal.If our assistant coaches conduct had been bad, Grobe said, if anybody told me that, if anybody can come to me to point out that the coaches have not behaved properly, then I would have no problems making changes.Grobe said hes probably more excited than any coach in America to start the 2016 season. He plans minimal changes in football-related areas.Im an old West Virginia hillbilly, and weve got that feeling, he said, If it aint broke, dont fix it ...Its been a journey, to be honest. I think weve gotten to the point now where the players trust in me. I think they understand that Im here to help. Im not here to change things.ESPNs Mark Schlabach contributed to this report. ' ' '