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Amidst all the talk of the Tigers’ 35-year grand final drought, it’s easy to forget the Crows’ struggles over the past two decades for AFL’s Holy Grail.
On Friday night, Adelaide steamrolled Geelong to book themselves a place in their first grand final since 1998, breaking their preliminary final curse.
All the wash-up from the 2017 AFL Grand Final
» Match Report: Tigers are premiers
» BUCKLAND: Richmond go from rabble to flag
» Six talking points from the match
» Richmond Tigers player ratings
» Adelaide Crows player ratings
» Watch video highlights from the match
» Re-live the match with our live blog
For the best part of 20 years, Adelaide has been a good club, but never the best club. During this time, the Crows have been considered serious premiership contenders on multiple occasions, only to stumble the week before the big dance.
Since their last flag, they have made the finals 12 times, with four of those resulting in losing preliminary final appearances.
They’ve been good, but just not good enough.
The first came in 2002, with a loss to Collingwood at the MCG, however the stinging defeats came back-to-back in 2005-06, both at the hands of the West Coast Eagles.
Adelaide finished on top of the table in 2005, but just like three years prior, lost their qualifying final (this time against the Saints) and had to do it the hard way. They belted Port Adelaide to the tune of 83 points, before coming up against the in-form Eagles at Subiaco Oval.
After a tight first half, the Eagles ran over the Crows in the third quarter, kicking five goals to one. This ended up being the difference, the Eagles getting home by 16 points.
There was a sense of hope instilled in Adelaide after Week 1 of the 2006 finals, with a win over Fremantle gifting them a week off and a home preliminary final against West Coast at AAMI Stadium. The Crows found themselves 22 points up at halftime after containing the Eagles’ star-studded midfield and looked as if they were headed for the MCG.
But Adelaide lost their ruckman Rhett Biglands to an ACL injury in the second quarter, allowing the likes of Chris Judd, Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr and Andrew Embley to gain first use of the footy from West Coast big man Dean Cox.
In scenes eerily reminiscent of the previous year, the Eagles stormed home in the second half to win by ten points, breaking the hearts of Crows supporters again.
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Their narrow loss to Hawthorn in 2012 mirrored some of their exits from previous series: secure a qualifying final then lose. Win a semi-final then lose in heart-breaking fashion in the preliminary a week later.
The last five minutes of the game was heart-in-your-mouth viewing, the Crows with opportunities to snatch victory and cause a huge upset, but history was doomed to repeat and they fell short.
Along with a string of finals defeats, Adelaide have frequently dealt with adversity since 2010.
A raft of high-profile players have left the club, including Patrick Dangerfield, Kurt Tippett, Phil Davis, Bernie Vince and Jack Gunston. The Crows suffered their worst season ever in 2011, with coach Neil Craig resigning mid-way through as the team finished 14th.
At the end of 2012, the club was fined $300,000 and lost its first two picks in the 2013 draft after being found guilty of breaching the salary cap and draft tampering in the Kurt Tippett trade.
The tragic death of Phil Walsh in 2015 shook the whole game to its core. It was nothing short of extraordinary that the side played finals that year, let alone won another game of footy after suffering such tragedy and pain. The emotional scenes after Adelaide’s first game back against West Coast reminded us all that there are much bigger things in life than footy.
It would be understandable for Crows supporters to be a little nervous heading into this weekend considering their club’s finals record, but Adelaide are the form side of the final, easily accounting for the Giants and Geelong, which is something they haven’t been able to accomplish in past years.
Their forward line is the best in the league, a well-structured unit stacked with talent that averages a league-high 108.9 points a game and is also ranked number one for marks inside 50, goal assists and goals.
Their midfield is tough, wins inside ball, and provides their forwards with plenty of scoring opportunities after topping the league for contested possessions, inside 50s and coming second for tackles.
Their defence is ranked fourth best in the league for scores against, only allowing teams to score 80.7 points on them.
By reaching this year’s grand final, Adelaide finally defeated their preliminary final demons. If they come to the MCG on Saturday with the same intensity and pressure as they did when they last faced Richmond in Round 6, the Crows will be celebrating their third premiership, lifting their September curse.
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