Adelaide and Port Adelaide to clash in pre-season match at Mount Barker

The Adelaide Hills are set to host the biggest match on the South Australian footy calendar with a crucial game between Adelaide and Port Adelaide headed to Mount Barker.

Matt Turner

@mattturner1986

less than 2 min read

December 12, 2024 - 8:27PM

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ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 02: Jason Horne-Francis of the Power is tackled by Matt Crouch and Mark Keane of the Crows during the 2024 AFL Round 08 match between the Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide Power at Adelaide Oval on May 02, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

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The summer Showdown is heading to the Adelaide Hills.

Mount Barker’s Gather Round venue will host a pre-season clash between the Crows and Port Adelaide next year.

A “match simulation” will be held at Summit Sport and Recreation Park at twilight on Friday, February 21.

This masthead revealed in October that the Crows were poised to have a trial game at the oval after it missed out on hosting Gather Round for a third consecutive season.

The Crows and Port will clash in the summer Showdown.

While the footy festival has headed to the Barossa Valley for 2025, Mount Barker has been rewarded for its stellar job the past two years by luring the two SA clubs to the region.

Summit Sport and Recreation Park is tipped to have a capacity of up to 7000 people for the trial game, which will start at 5pm and be the venue’s first top-level twilight AFL match.

Fans at the Sydney-West Coast match at Mount Barker.

More than 9000 spectators were at both of this year’s Gather Round fixtures in Mount Barker – Sydney-West Coast and Gold Coast-GWS.

A little over 7000 attended the Brisbane-North Melbourne clash there in 2023.

The Crows and Power both play their only official pre-season matches interstate.

Adelaide takes on Brisbane in Ipswich on Friday, February 27 and Port tackles St Kilda at Moorabbin on Saturday, March 1.

The two South Australian clubs have faced off in pre-season games all over the state during the past decade.

They played at Alberton this year and in 2018, at Richmond Oval in 2022, while Noarlunga (2021), Port Pirie (2019) and Football Park (2015) had also hosted summer Showdowns.