The Adelaide Crows left Greater Western Sydney completely spooked in their AFL qualifying final — and a footy legend says it was because of a ‘weird’ illusion

ADELAIDE left GWS completely spooked in their AFL qualifying final — and a footy legend says it was because of a “weird illusion”.

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ADELAIDE left GWS completely spooked in their AFL qualifying final — and a footy legend says it was because of a “weird” illusion.

The Crows’ unusual decision not to link arms for the national anthem before the qualifying final was labelled a genius move by footy legend Dermott Brereton.

And this was only 14 of them ... Crows players stand like warriors during the national anthem. Picture: Sarah Reed

The Crows stood with plenty of space between each player as they stared down GWS players across the centre square, while the Giants linked arms as is standard among AFL teams.

Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton described the move from Adelaide as a masterstroke because it gave the appearance that there were more Crows players on the ground because they stretched out over a much greater distance across the Adelaide Oval before the game.

There’s so many of them.

“I don’t know if they were trying for a visual illusion,” Brereton told Fox Footy.

“If you have a half a metre between each one of them compared to a team that are linking arms, you spread the line from the boundary to the centre square with the way they line up.

Gallery: Crows slay the Giants

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“Perhaps they want the optical illusion that, ‘There are so many of us out here’.

“It’s the old Muhammad Ali, ‘I’m hitting him from everywhere and he’s going to think he’s surrounded’. It’s a little game, but I tell you what, it’s working at the moment.”

Demons star Jordan Lewis described the Adelaide move as “bizarre” and “weird”.

Crows midfielder Richard Douglas said the tactic wasn’t planned in advance.

“(It was) just a bit of gamesmanship,” he told ABC radio.

“It was a bit spontaneous, just the way it panned out. I’m not sure if we’ll do it next time, I think it worked ... the crowd enjoyed it.”

An emotional Sam Jacobs after the Crows’ win.

That shot of Sam Jacobs breaks my heart. What an incredibly brave effort.

— Neroli Meadows (@Neroli_M_FOX) September 7, 2017

Originally published as The Adelaide Crows left Greater Western Sydney completely spooked in their AFL qualifying final — and a footy legend says it was because of a ‘weird’ illusion