Adelaide Crows’ stirring win over reigning premier Brisbane Lions a reward for patience, writes Matt Turner
Adelaide’s inspired win over Brisbane came a year to the day since one of its most miserable losses of the modern era. Matt Turner looks into what’s changed since that fateful day.
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Adelaide’s most significant win of the Matthew Nicks era came exactly 12 months after one of its worst losses.
Friday night’s gutsy, come-from-behind triumph over reigning premier Brisbane was a year to the day since the Crows’ miserable home defeat to wooden-spooner Richmond.
Same ground, totally different stakes and the starkest of contrasts in emotions among Adelaide people.
After the Crows slumped to a 4-1-8 record with the loss to the Tigers on June 6, 2024, Nicks said his team was in a “pretty dark spot” post-game and did not have any confidence.
Adelaide chief executive Tim Silvers did the radio rounds to back the coach amid a wave of media and fan criticism.
Skipper Jordan Dawson urged fans not to desert the club.
During what felt like the darkest moment of the Nicks era, given the Crows’ expectations for last season, they also maintained the faith.
“In terms of the overall strategy, we are still on the right path,” Silvers told FIVEaa 12 months ago, in the wake of the Richmond game.
“I have been in footy for a long time and I do know that these rebuilds take time.
“These last couple of weeks and our start to the season has been really disappointing but it is not always linear.
“I believe Matthew Nicks is the right coach for the footy club.”
A despondent Nicks told reporters post-match: “We’re not good enough at this point … (but) the (team) connection is strong.”
Dawson, the only Crow to front the press in a grim change rooms aftermath, added: “While it is disappointing, it can change quickly.”
Those words ring true right now.
The Crows are well on track to end an eight-year finals drought on the back of the five-point win against the Lions.
This time in the change rooms, the deflation from that Richmond loss was replaced by elation.
The frustration by hope.
And the impatience by vindication.
Adelaide stuck fat when the pressure mounted, resisting widespread calls to axe key officials. They did a few renovations, rather than bulldozed the house.
Nicks entered the season needing to make finals to guarantee his job.
The 50-year-old gave an insight into how Friday night’s result had the third-placed club feeling while remaining measured, knowing 10 minor-round games remained.
“It was big,” Nicks told Fox Footy.
“It was probably (the most significant win during his time), just to reinforce to our players we are a good side.
“We love where we’re at but know we’ve got so much work to do.
“We know we’ve got so much more improvement if we want to compete.”
Nicks was appointed at the end of 2019 for the start of the rebuild.
Ben Keays arrived that same off-season as a discard from Brisbane.
The Lions were fresh from ending a decade in the finals wilderness after a patient regeneration that influenced Adelaide’s.
Keays went from a team on the rise to the Crows’ ground zero in 2020, as his new side collected its first wooden spoon, winning just three of 17 games.
Brisbane, which he grew up supporting, would go on to make the finals every year after his delisting, claiming a premiership last campaign.
On Friday night, Keays was instrumental to toppling the Lions.
He booted three goals, including two during the last-term surge, registered 20 disposals and covered the second-most distance on the ground (15.4km).
“To play the boyhood team is always special,” Keays, who played 30 games in four seasons for Brisbane, told this masthead.
“There’s so many great players, so many champions playing for that club, and you always want to test yourself against the best.
“To come through that journey with Adelaide has been really rewarding, but there’s obviously a long way to go.
“It’s nice to look back on where we came from, see guys we drafted or traded for walk through the door and develop.
“We’re building something special.”
Adelaide won seven of 22 games in Nicks and Keays’ second season in 2021, eight the next year, then 11 and eight of 23 the past two campaigns.
The Crows are up to nine victories now from 13 matches with clashes against bottom-three teams Richmond, West Coast and North Melbourne (all away) on the run home.
While Adelaide fans would be starting to clear their September calendars, Keays would not be drawn on whether finally beating a scalp legitimised his side’s credentials.
“To play the best team in the comp and come out on top, of course we’ll take some belief,” he said.
“But it’s a long season and the tests keep coming.”
Keays is one of the biggest recruiting success stories from the rebuild..
Dawson sits atop that list.
From receiving the captaincy a year after they lured the Robe product home to South Australia from Sydney at the end of 2021, to winning two best-and-fairests and earning All-Australian honours in 2023, he has been a pillar of consistency.
The versatile left-footer is cementing himself among the best skippers in the competition this year by leading from the front when his team needs.
Quiet with 12 disposals to three-quarter time against the Lions, Dawson “reset” himself and felt like he “needed to have some big moments”.
A massive pack mark and goal six minutes into the final term to put the Crows ahead was on cue.
“It’s as good a performance in a quarter when we needed someone to take hold,” Nicks said of Dawson, who ranked third in AFL Coaches Association voting before the round.
“He’s the ultimate team player but knows when it’s time to step up and impact games.
“He’s got his priorities right – he’s an incredibly gifted footballer but the team is number one.”
Dawson and Keays featured in that disappointing defeat to Richmond this time last year, among only 12 Crows from Friday night to do so.
The others were: Sam Berry, Jordon Butts, Darcy Fogarty, Mitch Hinge, Mark Keane, Rory Laird, Max Michalanney, Josh Rachele, Brodie Smith and Jake Soligo.
Taylor Walker, Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Wayne Milera, Josh Worrell and Matt Crouch were sidelined, Nick Murray was a week away from returning from his long-term knee injury and Reilly O’Brien was dropped.
The now-delisted Ned McHenry and Will Hamill played.
So too James Borlase (two AFL games this season), Billy Dowling (none), Chris Burgess (none), Chayce Jones (none), Lachie Murphy (one), Kieran Strachan (none) and Harry Schoenberg (none).
The ins and outs should not excuse Adelaide – Richmond was 1-11 with a string of notable absentees.
But they highlight the Crows’ line-up difference from then to now.
Increased depth has covered Murray and Crouch’s latest injuries.
Recruits Alex Neal-Bullen, Isaac Cumming and James Peatling have pushed the likes of Dowling, Jones, Schoenberg and Murphy to the SANFL.
Silvers said in that FIVEaa interview 12 months ago that the club felt Thilthorpe, Soligo, Rachele and Michalanney could take it to another level, but topping up with elite talent was required “to take that next step”.
Thilthorpe is having a breakout season, booting 28 goals from his 13 games.
His neat finish in the last quarter on Friday night fired the Crows’ comeback from 17 points down – and the crowd.
Soligo had a team-high 124 ranking points and match-best 13 tackles.
Rachele has responded brilliantly and maturely from his final-round axing last season to become an integral player for Adelaide.
The small forward booted three majors against Brisbane, including one from outside the boundary at the southern end when the Crows desperately needed a spark, down five goals to one 21 minutes into the second term.
Michalanney’s two-on-one win to stop what looked a certain goal in the third quarter typified the Crows’ grit.
Neal-Bullen, Cumming and Peatling have added much-needed experience in big games, which was something the squad lacked.
Ex-Melbourne forward Neal-Bullen is the Crows’ only flag winner.
He got his premiership medal in 2021, the year Adelaide beat his Demons in a home thriller as well as a Geelong team that was coming off a grand final and would make a prelim.
The Crows defeated preliminary finalists Carlton and Brisbane (2023), and Port Adelaide (2024) these past two seasons.
But this latest win felt different.
Adelaide was not an underdog nor was it early in the season.
The football world was watching in prime time to see if the Crows were legitimate.
They had lost so many games – often gallantly – against the best teams, were 1-4 versus top-eight sides this year and the question would have been ‘how good are they?’ if they fell short again.
Perhaps Adelaide got lucky, but, as Nicks suggested, they were due for some.
His club had been on the receiving end of four AFL concessions that umpires had made potentially game-deciding errors in the dying stages over the past three seasons.
Friday night’s crowd of 42,921 – a fantastic attendance in wet, wintry conditions on a long weekend against a lower-drawing side to SA – roared as one when the final siren sounded.
Many of those same Crows fans would have been shell-shocked by the Richmond result a year earlier.
They’d also had their patience tested many times with the rebuild.
Like their team, they were now being rewarded.
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