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On Thursday night, the Adelaide Crows return from their bye weekend to face Collingwood in a match that is likely to determine their destiny in 2014.
While the bye can have its disadvantages, it could not have come at a more prime opportunity for the Crows in the wake if their disastrous loss to Melbourne a fortnight ago.
The three-point loss was nadir for a club that has suffered a frustrating few seasons of mediocrity and false hope.
Patches of quality football have been overshadowed by sloppy business dealings, crippling injuries and a growing realisation that the 2012 preliminary final effort was a mere aberration.
Coupled with the herculean resurgence of their bitter rivals in Port Adelaide, the Crows are no longer the Pride of South Australia it sings about.
On top of another thousand questions that CEO Steven Trigg coach Brenton Sanderson and co. must find answers for, one particular question requires deep thought.
How relevant are the Adelaide Crows in the current South Australian sporting landscape?
On-field, they play risk-averse, indecisive football, while Port Adelaide continues to win plaudits for their free-flowing game. Combine this with the resurgence of Adelaide United and the Adelaide 36ers, who have revitalised their entertaining brands, and the Crows look out of place in a competitive landscape.
Off-field is another place where the Crows must ask some hard questions.
For the first time in living memory, Port Adelaide drew a bigger home-and-away crowd to a regular game when 47,000 watched the Geelong match – only 44,000 suffered the Crows-Melbourne clash.
Furthermore, Port Adelaide cracked 50,000 members for the first time in 2014 while the Crows, by last count, had just over 53,000 paying supporters. The club trumpets this figure as record-breaking, but considering Adelaide had a competition-high 51,000 members in 2005; it represents a decade-long stagnation.
In the same time Collingwood, West Coast and Hawthorn have combined success with record levels of membership. Even Richmond – whose trophy cabinet in the past 30 years strongly resembles the Washington Generals – have managed to double their membership in the same period.
Worryingly, the media reports discussing how the new Adelaide Oval became feasible, show that the Crows have been second to the contest on every effort to modernise South Australian football over the last decade.
From stadium deals, to SANFL reserve teams, to licence independence and the move to the Adelaide Oval, the Crows were the recalcitrant to change while Port Adelaide courageously took the lead on these issues – even if it cost people their jobs.
As a result, Port received the plaudits for their courageous efforts to modernise South Australian football, while Adelaide looked like a cranky old grandparent who was resistant to a changing world.
The club’s management has shown itself to be relics of the old football establishment, who never really wanted to vacate Football Park or break-free from the grips of the SANFL.
It would be easy for the club hierarchy to dismiss all of this as a rough patch.
They’ll point to the Power in the early 2000s, when they were the darlings of South Australia before their stagnation, while crowd figures for the 36ers and Adelaide United fluctuate based on their success.
Yet somehow I don’t think this is another rough patch, I think this may be the beginning of a new dynamic in South Australian sport.
If the Crows fail to attain success and embrace modernisation, they may find themselves stuck in a rut, clinging to past glories while watching the New World Order sail into an era of prosperity.
If the Crows don’t adapt, they may find themselves the poor cousin of the South Australian sporting scene.
Follow John on Twitter – @JohnHunt1992
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