Adelaide Crows deep dive into a disappointing straight sets exit from finals after finishing as minor premiers
Adelaide's dream season has ended in nightmare fashion as the minor premiers crashed out of finals without winning a quarter, leaving players ‘embarrassed' by the collapse.
Choking is an overused term in sport but it is hard to argue against it being apt to describe the Crows’ finals exit.
Adelaide did not just lose both major-round matches at home, it failed to win any of its eight quarters.
No side in VFL/AFL history has played at least two finals and not won a term.
The third-highest scoring team in the competition during the minor round kicked a total of just 18 goals.
Matthew Nicks’s side had a 12-1 record at Adelaide Oval this year before the finals, then looked a shell of the outfit that finished as minor premier.
Mostly gritty and exciting all year in big games for four points – not just at home – the Crows were largely jittery and boring in September action.
“Tonight some of our fundamentals were at a level we just can’t explain – dropping marks, missing kicks, execution,” Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said after his side’s 34-point home loss to Hawthorn on Friday night.
“We weren’t quite able to handle that pressure or environment.
“It’s a number of things – what your opposition are bringing, maybe some of the expectation that lands on you when you are minor premier.
“We get a great lesson.”
Life comes at you fast.
Crows gold memberships guaranteeing a grand final ticket if Adelaide qualified sold out after the home win over Hawthorn six weeks ago.
The Crows secured the minor premiership three games later as fans dared to dream.
Now, a fortnight into their first September appearance in eight years, Adelaide’s season is over in ignominious fashion as the first top-placed side since 1983 to exit the finals in straight sets.
PLAYER RATINGS: WHO FAILED ON THE BIG STAGE – AGAIN
“It’s disappointing and a little bit embarrassing after a good year,” defender Max Michalanney told this masthead.
“I’m a bit lost for words.
“It is what it is.
“It’s a good learning experience for us.
“It obviously stings, but it’s going to make us hungry to attack the off-season and come back bigger and better.”
On the surface, Adelaide looks to be building towards sustained success.
All-Australian forward Riley Thilthorpe (23), should-have-been all-Australian defender Josh Worrell (24), spark plug Izak Rankine (25), reliable backman Michalanney (21), Rising Star contender Dan Curtin (20) and best mates Jake Soligo and Josh Rachele (22) are all 25 or under.
Last year’s pick 4, exciting midfielder Sid Draper, is waiting in the wings.
So is Rankine after being suspended from these finals for a homophobic slur.
But the most experienced Crows will know only too well that there are no guarantees for teams that fall short.
This year, the club twice played two of the bottom three (West Coast, North Melbourne) as well as the worst Port Adelaide side since 2012, so the minor premiership might have given a false sense of how good the 18-5 ladder leaders were.
Same for the nine-game winning streak entering September.
During that run, Adelaide scraped over the wooden-spooner Eagles by nine points, the 16th-placed Kangaroos by 13, lost inside 50s by 34 in a three-point win over Collingwood and coughed up five-goal-to-one starts against the Magpies and Hawks.
The Crows’ performances entering the major round might have been down, but Michalanney said they came into finals with great confidence.
“I felt like we had the list to go the whole journey,” he said.
“Obviously we didn’t quite bring it in the two games but Collingwood and Hawthorn are two clubs we’ve beaten in the last month or so.
“I suppose you could say we weren’t quite ready for it (finals),
“It’s obviously a level up.
“Credit to both Collingwood and Hawthorn, their contest, especially in the midfield, they brought it, stuck their tackles and had the confidence to back their skills in.”
The Crows spent all season not wanting to discuss finals publicly, concentrating on the next game after getting ahead of themselves last year and missing the top eight.
But then September rolled around and it was as if compartmentalising and narrowing the focus left a team with just seven players with finals experience unsure how to cope with the extra heat and attention.
“Finishing top of the ladder at the end of the year would be great if it was the English Premier League, but it’s not,” Nicks said.
“We’ve got to find our best in September.”
Australian Football Hall of Famer David Parkin forecasted to this masthead in July that Adelaide would have to have finals disappointment before winning a flag because of their major-round inexperience.
Parkin was captain of the most recent side to win a premiership after a finals drought of at least seven years – Hawthorn, in 1971.
“This is an experience that hopefully in a year’s time we’ll look back on and say ‘this made us who we are’ and hopefully we can say we’re premiers,” Michalanney said.
Adelaide’s rebuilding strategy was similar to reigning premier Brisbane, even luring long-time Lions assistant Murray Davis to be Nicks’s right-hand man this season as coaching director.
Brisbane ended a long finals drought in 2019 by climbing from 15th to second on the ladder.
The Crows made history with the VFL/AFL’s biggest 12-month rise of 15th to first this year.
Brisbane, like Adelaide, went out in straight sets in 2019, but had fallen no lower than fifth since, winning a flag last season and making a grand final in 2023.
“Maybe it’s part of what we need in our journey,” Nicks said of the consecutive defeats.
He would not weigh in on whether the campaign had been a success, saying only that the climb showed the team had done things right and it was confident in what it was building.
“We’ll organically grow and improve again next year, but, like every side, with our list management … we continue to be very active,” Nicks said.
Asked what he would like to add most, the sixth-season coach started by saying speed and power in the midfield before turning it into a bit of a gag by mentioning a bunch of other positions.
“It’s across the board,” he said.
The engine room clearly needs another gun.
Silky South Australian Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera could have been the panacea before re-signing at St Kilda.
Adelaide lost clearances by a combined 37 over its past six games, including by six on Friday night.
Without Rankine and ball-winner Matt Crouch, who retired a fortnight ago due to persistent hip problems, the Crows struggled at the source.
James Peatling (26 touches across the two finals) and Sam Berry (24) were neither prolific nor damaging.
Dawson was the only Crows midfielder to reach 20 disposals, finishing with 21, six tackles and four clearances.
Soligo was quiet with 15 touches.
Rankine’s zip and cleverness undoubtedly would have made him a handful match-up on the ball and in attack.
How much difference he makes to the scorelines is impossible to quantify.
Nicks mentioned what-ifs during his post-game press conference.
While he did not expand, Rankine’s ban would have to be up there, given his ability to turn a game like few others.
Adelaide was the bookies’ favourite to win the flag until his suspension three weeks ago.
Hawthorn was missing arguably its best player though in West Adelaide product Will Day.
Recruiting Brisbane premiership forward Callum Ah Chee, who kicked four goals in the Lions’ grand final win last year, would provide much-needed class and big-game experience.
Taylor Walker has both of those attributes but is uncertain to play on.
If the 35-year-old does, Adelaide will consider fielding three key forwards together less often.
The Crows not only struggled to score this past fortnight, but they registered a total of just 11 tackles inside 50.
“We did some stuff this year that showed that it really can work but in finals footy …” Nicks said.
“We’ll go back and have a really good look at it.
“Maybe there is a need for a little bit more speed and defence going the other way, but we didn’t give our forwards a chance tonight (losing inside 50s 64-43).”
Veteran defender Brodie Smith is the other major contract call Adelaide needs to make.
The 33-year-old exemplifies that you never know what is around the corner in footy after rupturing his ACL in the 2017 qualifying final, missing the rest of that September, enduring a long rebuild to finally get back to the major round eight years on, only for his team to bow out in straight sets.
Friday night’s 34-point margin flattered when you factored the Crows booted the match’s last two goals in junk time and were on the receiving end of massive statistical discrepancies.
Hawthorn being +31 in contested possessions was the club’s largest differential in a final, while being +21 in inside 50s was the club’s fourth-largest ever in a major-round match.
“One thing I’ve gained from it is these opportunities don’t come around too often so when they do, you’ve got to make the most of them,” Michalanney said.
Adelaide’s change rooms were quiet post-match, as expected, and not all that busy.
You struggled to get past the doorman after the thrilling round 23 win over Collingwood, such was the crowd size.
This time, the families waited about 20 minutes for players to emerge from a long team meeting, many Crows walking straight into hugs from supportive loved ones.
When the dust settled and disappointment subsided, Adelaide should still be very proud of its rise, even though it would be kicking itself for blowing the opportunity.
Michalanney tried to remain optimistic.
“I’m extremely proud of the boys from where we’ve come from,” he said.
“I never thought in a million years we’d be minor premiers.
“I know that means nothing when you’re going out in straight sets … but if we continue to grow what if is a huge question and we believe.
“I guess it (losing in straight sets) makes us super hungry to come back next year and get the job done.”
Originally published as Adelaide Crows deep dive into a disappointing straight sets exit from finals after finishing as minor premiers
‘It was a shock’: Cox still seeking answers after Pies blindside
