Adelaide excitement machine Izak Rankine celebrates one of his five goals on Sunday against Melbourne. Picture: AFL MEDIA
After another win on the weekend, Adelaide is starting to be viewed as a legitimate premiership contender by many.
Struggling Melbourne certainly gave the Crows a fright on Sunday, when five consecutive goals gave it a shock 28-point lead in the second quarter at Adelaide Oval.
But it didn’t take long for Izak Rankine and co. to take back control of the contest with six majors in a row, and the result rarely looked to be in doubt from that point on.
Adelaide wants for very little these days. Up forward it has numerous attacking threats such as Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Darcy Fogarty and Taylor Walker, down back it’s got one of the best defensive groups in the league, featuring Josh Worrell, Mark Keane, Jordon Butts and Max Michalanney and its midfield unit contains superstar Jordan Dawson, Jake Soligo, James Peatling and, again, Rankine.
It’s largely because of those reasons that the third-ranked Crows have one of the most balanced teams in the competition as they are third for points scored, second for points conceded and boast the second-best percentage in the league.
Adelaide also sits in the top six of 26 out of 38 statistical categories. On differentials, they are No.1 for contested marks, hitouts and metres gained, second for marks and third for tackles, marks inside 50, turnovers and intercepts.
The Crows are also No.4 for contested possessions, fifth for disposals, inside 50s and tackles inside 50, while coming in at sixth for centre clearances and uncontested possessions.
Not too shabby at all, and neither is their formline which features seven wins from their past nine games. The only losses for them in that period were narrow ones to premiership favourite Collingwood and top-four hopeful Hawthorn.
But can Matthew Nicks’ men really go all the way and win the premiership this year?
Well, their record against the top nine teams suggests not at an unconvincing 2-5, and upon further inspection the only really noteworthy victory was the one against Brisbane a month ago.
However, when that result is also picked apart, the Crows were probably lucky to get away with one as well.
The Lions lost by five points, despite finishing the game with five more scoring shots, after kicking an atrocious 0.8 in the final quarter, as well as a couple of other shots that didn’t score.
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Any reasonable person would agree that Brisbane probably lost that game more than Adelaide won it.
While the Crows might be sparkling in the numerous aforementioned KPIs, the fact is that in their five losses to the top nine, and win over Brisbane, they had fewer inside 50s four times, while on three occasions they fell short in clearances, disposals, contested possessions and tackles.
Something clearly goes amiss when they face the cream of the crop. It’s almost as if they can’t get all aspects of their game fully in sync up against such teams.
Well, the good news for Nicks’ team is that it will have plenty of opportunities to improve that record in the lead-up to the finals with engagements against Collingwood, Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast in what will be a run of matches that will determine beyond doubt whether it truly does deserve to be considered one of the league heavyweights.
Thrown in amongst the Crows’ run home for good measure is also a Showdown against arch rival Port Adelaide, which is hardly ever a walk in the park, no matter the ladder positions of the respective sides.
The other thing that is against Adelaide in its quest for premiership glory this year is history.
It’s extremely rare for a side to come out of the blue and go all the way first up after a lengthy period of time away from the finals.
The last team to do so, coincidentally, was Adelaide back in 1997 when it saluted four years after its previous September campaign. This iteration of the Crows has been starved of finals action for a club record eight seasons.
It’s the same reason why that despite Gold Coast looking as good as it’s ever looked in its 15-year existence, it would be a big ask to expect it to lift the cup in its first ever finals appearance, should it qualify.
Indeed, Collingwood, Geelong, Brisbane and, this writer’s pre-season pick, the Bulldogs all loom as the frontrunners at this juncture of the season.
But season 2025 could very well end up being the springboard for greater things in the immediate future for both Adelaide and Gold Coast.
