Cheers turn to tears for Crows faithful at Adelaide Oval and pubs around South Australia
AT Adelaide Oval and in pubs and loungerooms around the state, they gathered in droves to celebrate a premiership. Only it didn’t quite turn out that way...
- Crows fans in Melbourne: Fans despondent but heads held high
- Gallery: A not so Grand Final for Crows fans
- Match report: Dream ends in tears
- Rucci’s verdict: They froze on the big stage
- Player ratings: Which Adelaide stars didn’t perform
SUNDAY
IT’S not the premiership celebration they all hoped for, but more than 3000 diehard Crows fans have flocked to Adelaide Oval to welcome their team home.
The Grand Final wake was delayed for hours by airport turmoil but captain Taylor Walker and the rest of the team finally faced the fans at the Oval at 4.30pm.
Read our full report of the Crows’ return to Adelaide here
SATURDAY
THEY gathered in their thousands with the promise of replicating the atmosphere of the MCG.
Off the back of a dream season that delivered so much joy, Crows supporters created a sea of blue, red and gold outside Adelaide Oval, hoping for a fairytale finish.
Premiership glory was clearly on the minds of an estimated 3500 fans that came to the venue that had been such a happy hunting ground all season.
A mix of members who had missed out on the ballot for Grand Final tickets, interstate travellers, locals and the odd Richmond fan filled the Telstra Plaza between the southern stand and the Torrens.
With the bronze statue of Barrie Robran looming over them, the supporters were there to worship their modern day heroes of Walker, Betts, Cameron, Jacobs and Sloane.
Crows fan Jay Dennis, 34, from Bendigo, was there with wife Britt, who was going for Richmond, and their two children Jax, 5, and Violet, 2.
Mr Dennis was sure he knew what would happen.
“Adelaide are going to win,” he said confidently.
“I am not sure by how much but I will say by four goals.”
The crowd roared at the first glimpse of their team on the two large screens, as the Crows ran on to the MCG.
The sight of superstar Eddie Betts, and then captain Taylor Walker, who they hoped would hoist the premiership cup by the end of the day, drew enthusiastic applause.
A quick start for the Crows, with Rory Sloane slotting a goal at the four minute mark, calmed some nerves. But the brilliance of Dustin Martin, who had by the end of the day won the Brownlow, Norm Smith and premiership trifecta, worried even the most confident Crows supporter.
Three missed shots in the first quarter by Tigers spearhead Jack Riewoldt delighted the crowd.
But as the Tigers poured on four goals in a row before half- time there was a sense of nervousness flowing through the throng.
A tug on the arm of Eddie Betts in the goal square with less than two minutes to go in the half, without the reward of a free kick, drew great ire.
There was precious little to celebrate in the third and fourth quarters as the Tigers bulldozed the Crows.
Lifelong Crows supporter Les Anfiteatro, 49, of Golden Grove, expressed the view of many fellow fans.
“Adelaide have had such a good year, for it to end like this is just so disappointing,” Mr Anfiteatro said.
“Richmond brought their A Game and we didn’t.”
The result was bittersweet for Michael Tropeano, 37, of Brighton, a Crows fan who could not help but feel happy for his son Vincent, 11, who was one of only a handful of Richmond supporters in the crowd.
“It is disappointing but at the same time I am happy for him,” Mr Tropeano said.
“He was a Crows supporter but he changed when he was five years old.
“I told him he was in for a lifetime of disappointment when he started barracking for Richmond but here we are today. Richmond just beat us with their pressure.”
All but a few stayed until the very end, despite the Crows needing to defy history with a record last quarter comeback. It wasn’t to be.
Grand Final allegiances a test of new love
By Jade Gailberger and Mitch Mott
FOOTBALL rivalries can break relationships, and after just six weeks together Sam Travers and Rachael White’s was put to the test on Grand Final day at Norwood’s Alma Tavern.
Crows supporter Mr Travers, 35, who grew up in SA and lives in Melbourne, was “that confident we were going to win” that he persuaded his Richmond-supporting girlfriend to come to Adelaide for the weekend, convinced it would be a party town last night.
“One of us was going to go home on the plane with a pillow wall up and we know who it will be now,” Ms White said.
“I’ve never seen a premiership in my lifetime and I can’t believe that (Richmond) won.
“I had a massive cry of happy tears.”
Mr Travers knew at the beginning of the third quarter his Crows were “in trouble”, and started to feel guilty.
“Her whole family is at the game and I feel so bad. I was excited and now I’m gutted,” he said. Ms White, 31, said his punishment would be “wearing the Richmond guernsey for a week”.
More than 500 people packed the Alma — a pub co-owned by Mark Ricciuto, Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker — where Crows fans were shocked to have the result shoved in their faces by dozens of Richmond fans, many visiting from Victoria on end of season footy and netball trips.
But Laura May, 26, from Prospect, said she had “come to terms” with the loss.
“I’m not sure about some of the umpiring but in the end I think Richmond deserve it,” she said.
In the hour after the game, CBD bars and clubs which had been full to capacity emptied out and the streets were bare as night fell.
One bar worker said it was the quietest he had seen the start of any Saturday night.
Paramedics who had braced themselves for a big night looking after thousands of revellers, found they had little to do, at least early in the evening.
Crows fans Dan, who had enjoyed the atmosphere watching the match on big screens at Adelaide Oval, said: “Anyone who was at Adelaide Oval for the game went home afterwards. But I can imagine what the streets of Melbourne will be like.”
Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne said the hospitality industry had benefited from the Adelaide Crows’ finals run, but it had “all gone pretty flat last night” and it would be no busier than a normal Saturday night.
Tex’s hometown mates see the big picture
By Bernard Humphreys
THERE’S a spot on a North Broken Hill Football Club wall for favourite son Taylor Walker’s premiership portrait and while it will stay empty for now, Tex’s biggest fans think he’ll get there one day soon.
In the NSW mining town that has become an interstate Crows’ heartland, the mood was sombre yesterday as Walker’s team was overrun by Richmond, but they’re still proud of their boy and will reserve his spot, next to other flag-winning former players Bob Troughton (Geelong, 1931) and Dean Solomon (Essendon, 2000).
Not everyone at Norths is a Crows’ fan, but most were cheering for Walker yesterday, especially as he kicked goals that kept his team in the hunt. “He’s done us proud,” was a quote heard often in the Silver St clubrooms, even as Adelaide’s hopes slipped away.
Club president Justin Hoskins, a mate who grew up with Walker, said after the match that he was “a kid who made all of Broken Hill proud”.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Taylor, what he’s achieved, the standard he sets for other players and for the kids that come out of Broken Hill,” he said.
“He’s the same person as when he left. When he left town, we all knew that Taylor was never going to change and he never has.
“He has had exceptional successes. He is the captain of the team he grew up loving and he is still the same bloke who we grew up with.”
As for Walker’s own game yesterday, “there’s only so much you can do when the ball’s not bouncing your way”. Mr Hoskins, also a passionate Crows’ fan, is looking forward to the club being “bigger and better next year”.