The Adelaide Crows’ inaugural AFL premiership victory against St Kilda a true football fairytale

OVER the next fortnight, The Advertiser is counting down the five best Crows and Power finals. Today we revisit that memorable 1997 day when an SA club returned from Victoria with the premiership cup.

Finals Flashback 1997 Grand Final

THERE will only ever be one ‘first’.

Adelaide would go on to win back-to-back flags but it was the inaugural one in 1997 that will hold a special spot in history.

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The South Australian invasion of the MCG actually started a week earlier when Crows supporters flooded across Western Highway to see them beat the Western Bulldogs in the preliminary final.

The front page of the Sunday Mail after the Adelaide Crows’ inaugural grand final win.

Poster that appeared in The Advertiser.

A week later they were back for the grand final and this time they went home with the premiership cup.

The significance of what happened on September 20, 1997, wasn’t lost on supporters at the time but it did happen relatively quickly.

The scorecard from the grand final.

Considering that at the time clubs like St Kilda, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne had gone nearly 40 years since their last premiership, the fact it took Adelaide just six years since its inception to claim the Holy Grail was somewhat of a surprise.

It came out of the blue in a sense that Malcolm Blight was in his first year as coach, there had been significant turnover of the list after his arrival and the two previous seasons they’d finished 12th both times.

David Pittman consoles Saints star Nicky Winmar as the siren sounds. Nicky's father had died the previous day.

But they had also been building. Graham Cornes had them into a preliminary final in 1993 and had they not choked in the second half would have been in a grand final in just their third season in the competition.

Still, 1997 was simply destined to be their time and after starting the season 2-4, the fairytale began to unfold.

Darren Jarman kicked six goals in Adelaide’s inaugural 1997 premiership.

The grand final itself — a 31-point win over St Kilda — will be remembered for three main things.

Darren Jarman’s heroics. He kicked six goals for the game and five of them came in the final quarter which was stunning.

The souvenir wraparound in The Advertiser following the Crows’ victory.

ADELAIDE CROWS BEST FINALS TEAR SHEETS 1997 Grand Final Adelaide v St Kilda The Advertiser 29/09/1997

Then there was Blight’s coaching masterstroke to play Shane Ellen forward. Ellen had kicked just three goals in 37 games to date in his career yet stunned everyone with five in the grand final.

And lastly there was Andrew McLeod’s Norm Smith Medal-winning brilliance. It was the first of his two Norm Smith Medals and came in just his third season of AFL footy when he had 31 disposals.

Andrew McLeod with the premiership cup and Norm Smith Medal.

As much as the crowning moment in the club’s history was celebrated, it was tempered somewhat by the fact that two of its biggest ever names weren’t there.

Mark Ricciuto and Tony Modra both missed the grand final due to injury and while Roo would get his chance the following year, Modra would forever be denied an AFL flag.

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Adelaide’s match stats.

Troy Bond celebrates after kicking a goal during the grand final.