The history-making Adelaide Crows AFLW side caps off unforgettable season with Team of the Year honour

THE inaugural AFLW champions’ unforgettable season has ended with another accolade — Team of the Year at the SA Sports Awards.

The Crows celebrate after winning the inaugural AFLW Premiership. Picture: Michael Willson/Getty Images

IT WAS the fairytale upset that will be remembered as one of the great moments in SA sporting history as the Adelaide Crows won the inaugural AFLW premiership.

As the national women’s league was formally announced by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, there had not even been any guarantees there would be a South Australian team.

McLachlan said there were concerns over the depth of female football talent in the state, which traditionally hadn’t fared well in interstate representative matches.

But a marriage with the Northern Territory was enough to push the Crows over the line in an eight-team competition.

Now that side is the state’s Team of the Year.

Coach Bec Goddard promised the side — made up of squads that stuck to identical training schedules on opposite sides of the country — would be a benefit rather than an obstacle.

And she was right: they met for training camps and became close, used social media to stay in regular contact and took no time to gel as a team.

The Crows opened the season with a win against Greater Western Sydney with a bang: an easy six-goal win in front of an impressive crowd of 9289 at Thebarton Oval. They would win the next three matches to firm as a premiership favourite and finished the season second to qualify for the grand final against Brisbane.

The historic grand final was meant to be given to the highest-placed team, but because the Gabba’s surface wasn’t up to standard it was moved to the Gold Coast.

On Saturday, March 25, the Crows made history by becoming the first national women’s football league champions after beating Brisbane 4.11 (35) to 4.5 (29) in a thriller.

Olympic basketballer Erin Phillips, whose father Greg was a multiple premiership player with the Port Adelaide Magpies, was the standout and was duly named best on ground for the grand final, the league best and fairest and the AFL players’ association MVP.