How Adelaide’s rebuild compares to Brisbane ahead of Friday night clash
The Brisbane Lions have had a massive influence on Adelaide’s rebuild from struggler to top-four contender. Matt Turner compares the regeneration of both clubs.
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Adelaide’s opponent in Friday night’s blockbuster has strongly influenced the team’s trajectory from struggler to top-four contender.
Brisbane’s regeneration from cellar-dweller to flag threat helped reassure impatient Crows officials in 2023 and during their last campaign when they looked across the AFL at other rebuilds, seeking answers if theirs was on the right track or an outlier taking too long.
The Crows’ performances this year are providing their own evidence.
Five seasons on from bottoming out and claiming the wooden spoon, Adelaide sits third on the ladder with an 8-4 record, well on track to end an eight-year finals drought.
Brisbane had to wait a decade between major-round appearances from 2009 to 2019.
It also finished last along the way – during Chris Fagan’s debut as coach in 2017.
Since returning to the top eight six years ago, the Lions have been fifth, fourth, fifth, fourth, runner-up and won a premiership.
From Fagan’s second to third seasons, Brisbane climbed from 15th to fifth, in a jump similar to what Adelaide is heading towards this year.
“We’ve watched a lot of what they’ve done from afar,” said Nicks, whose team placed 18th, 15th, 14th, 10th and 15th across his first five campaigns.
“We’ve been incredibly impressed with the way they’ve built it and their patience.
“They’re a club that should be proud of the way they went about it and they’re going to have sustained success off the back of that.
“We look at a lot of clubs across the league at what we think we should implement and what we shouldn’t, and Brisbane’s definitely right up near the top.”
RECRUITING SIMILARITIES
Adelaide’s review into other rebuilds started by looking at how other clubs regenerated their squads.
Top draft picks, key trades and delisted free agents helped to rejuvenate the Lions’ squad over a crucial four-year period.
The Crows have followed a similar path.
Brisbane added seven top-20 draft selections from 2015-2017, including premiership players Cam Rayner (pick 1), Hugh McCluggage (3), Eric Hipwood (14), Zac Bailey (15), Jarrod Berry (17) and Brandon Starcevich (18).
Adelaide’s haul from 2020 to 2024 could prove similarly fruitful.
It had six top-20 picks during that stretch: Riley Thilthorpe (2), Sid Draper (4), Josh Rachele (6), Dan Curtin (8), Luke Pedlar (11) and Max Michalanney (17).
On the back of Brisbane’s bottom-placed finish in Fagan’s first season in 2017, the Lions boosted their young squad by trading late picks for Hawthorn premiership captain Luke Hodge and selection 12 for Adelaide small forward Charlie Cameron.
Twelve months on, Brisbane struck gold, landing Lachie Neale from Fremantle.
Neale has won two Brownlow Medals, four best-and-fairests and co-captained a premiership with the Lions.
That same off-season, the Lions traded late picks for Geelong small forward Lincoln McCarthy and Western Bulldogs defender Marcus Adams.
They also signed ex-Adelaide and Gold Coast midfielder Jarryd Lyons as a delisted free agent.
Bringing Neale, McCarthy, Adams and Lyons into the club helped Brisbane end its 10-season finals drought the following campaign.
McCarthy and Lyons played a combined 21 finals for the club over the next five years, becoming important to the Lions’ return to the major round in 2019 and featuring in the 2023 premiership decider defeat to Collingwood.
Adams bolstered Brisbane’s backline for two finals series, before retiring because of concussion last season.
Once the Lions established themselves in two September campaigns, they became even more attractive for stars at rival clubs and nabbed Joe Daniher (from Essendon in 2020) and Josh Dunkley (Western Bulldogs, 2022).
Expect the Crows, who are chasing South Australian St Kilda star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Essendon ruckman Sam Draper, to be the same because of their surge up the ladder.
Arguably Adelaide’s most pivotal player acquisition during its rebuild was Jordan Dawson from Sydney at the end of 2021 for a future first-round pick.
Dawson had weighed staying at the Swans versus joining either South Australian club and after one season at West Lakes was installed as captain.
Getting Gold Coast forward/midfielder Izak Rankine a year after Dawson for pick 5 and two late selections was another coup.
After narrowly missing finals in 2023, the Crows had a quiet trade period, adding only fringe forward Chris Burgess.
They went hard last year, securing Melbourne premiership forward Alex Neal-Bullen, GWS wingman/half-back Isaac Cumming and Giants hard nut James Peatling.
Whereas Dawson and Rankine helped improve the Crows’ star power, that trio strengthened their best 23, helping take the team to the next level.
Having recruiting wins outside of early picks and trades are crucial to any list build.
Brisbane brought in Lyons, drafted premiership defender Jack Payne from its academy with a late selection in 2017 and chose flag-winning utility Noah Answerth from Oakleigh Chargers at pick 55 in 2018.
Two of Adelaide’s biggest recruiting success stories over the past five years were Lions discards: 2024 best-and-fairest winner Ben Keays and reliable defender Mitch Hinge.
Taking Victorian midfielder Jake Soligo at pick 36 in 2021 was a steal.
Drafting country Victorian players (McCluggage, Jarrod Berry, Sam Berry, Rachele) is another similarity between the clubs.
Interstate teams often see those draftees as less likely to be lost to the go-home factor.
LIONS INSIDER ARRIVES
Murray Davis joining the Crows from a club they have admired is a happy coincidence.
Being part of Brisbane’s rise from last to first stood out when Adelaide went searching for its first coaching director, but was more an added bonus than the reason he was appointed over other candidates.
Davis was at the Lions for 13 seasons, including as forwards coach during its premiership last year.
His influence has perhaps gone a little under the radar externally after a busy off-season and the arrivals of recruits Neal-Bullen, Peatling, Cumming, draftee Sid Draper and Neil Balme and James Gallagher onto the board.
But Davis is spoken about glowingly inside the club.
The most important thing he has done is taken some of the workload off Nicks.
That has allowed the sixth-year coach to have more contact with players because he has more time.
A mature, experienced voice, Davis leads some meetings, is often a conduit between coaches and players and, according to Adelaide, has fit into the club and football department like a hand in a glove.
The club describes Davis as an outstanding character and believes his addition has allowed Nicks to have his best coaching year.
His experience in helping the Lions climb the ladder has been invaluable for the Crows and Nicks, who has sought his colleague’s advice about Brisbane’s journey.
“We couldn’t have got a better person for what we needed,” Nicks said.
“Just a balance of incredible experience, he’s worked through the process that we’re going through of building and continuing to improve and he went through that with Brisbane.
“He’s got experience with things that you do, don’t do, the things you put at the top of the important list.
“He’s been fantastic for us.
“A really balanced human being and a very, very good coach.”
Nine months after playing his part in Brisbane’s drought-breaking flag, Davis has been a crucial figure this week as Adelaide plots to bring down the Lions on Friday night and enhance their own top-four chances.
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Originally published as How Adelaide’s rebuild compares to Brisbane ahead of Friday night clash
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