“The lid is obviously not on, is it?” Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said late on Saturday night. He was talking about the town, not the team. It was the third-biggest crowd at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval, topped only by the opening day of an Ashes Test match and an Adele concert. It was the most important game Adelaide has played since the 2017 grand final. It was a game that mirrored the respective seasons of the two teams – Collingwood flew the gates, and the Crows overhauled them. It was a strange game that went into neutral for about an hour, and then into overdrive in the final 10 minutes.
It was a game that made no sense on the stat sheet; a game that demanded a rematch – most likely again in Adelaide, hopefully in better conditions, and maybe even at the MCG on the final Saturday in September.
Hawthorn knocked the stuffing out of Collingwood the week before but there was much to admire about their response. Their backline in particular was often fighting out of its weight and class division but they were resolute and on their toes all night. The Pies had 25 inside 50s to six in the opening term, and so many of those entries were low altitude torps, scrubbers and end-on-enders. It was a clear plan and it confused what is an organised, diligent Adelaide defence.
But the more it hosed down, and the more Collingwood extended the inside 50s count, the less likely they looked like converting them. It was many of Adelaide’s unheralded players, especially their defenders, who almost never got out-marked and who thwarted dozens of attacks. Meteorological and tactical intervention altered the tempo of the game several times. For long periods, it was a slog. “If it’s going to be hard for us to score, we’ll make it impossible for them,” Craig McRae said. But the Crows were the more patient and efficient team.
The final few minutes had the lot. It had Riley Thilthorpe, with his civil war beard and his bung neck, out-marking three of the biggest Collingwood players. It had some Nick Daicos magic. It had some highly contentious umpiring. It had bodies flailing. It had Scott Pendlebury just ambling and pointing his way through the mayhem like he was out for a post-downpour Saturday evening stroll.
Adelaide has played some excellent football against Collingwood in the Nicks era, but they just haven’t been able to get the win. They played a classic at the Adelaide Oval in Collingwood’s premiership year when the Crows skipped away to a big early lead, and the follow up game at the MCG was also close. Last year, they were closing in on the Pies when Izak Rankine was pinged for running too far. Normally so even-tempered, Nicks was filthy that day. “We’re sick of learning,” he said.
Earlier this year at the MCG, they ran them close, but didn’t seize their chances. Rankine sent two set shots sailing out on the full and Dan Curtin also missed a sitter. Nicks said they were a good team that’d been beaten by a great team. They were not yet ready. Once they could win a game like that, he said, they will have graduated as a serious team. That’s indisputable now. They’ve locked in two home finals. They’ve broken a hoodoo stretching back to 2016. If Rankine is suspended for allegedly making a homophobic slur, it makes their task considerably harder, but they remain a worthy premiership favourite.
It was interesting to compare the way Adelaide handled the home hype with how Fremantle did. Unlike the Crows, the Dockers didn’t meet the occasion. They were wasteful up forward, gave away too many free kicks down back and were out of whack right across their lines. In short, they were totally outclassed. Every time they’d make a meal of a seemingly certain goal, the ball would trampoline up the other end and Brisbane would score. They were pinned in their back half like an Aussie batsman facing Jasprit Bumrah.
In contrast, the Lions still look the most likely to match it with Adelaide. As they flew across the country, they could still finish top two, and they could still miss the eight. But they travel particularly well, and you can usually tell within about two minutes whether Good Brisbane has made the trip. You could tell straight away against Geelong and Collingwood and so it proved again on Friday night. Every time a Lion had the ball, his eyes would shift slightly off centre. He’d give the international sporting sign for “come at me” and he’d successfully bite off the kick. They were so sharp, so precise, so methodical. This is the game they seek, the game that won them a premiership. It’s chip, chip, chip football but it’s far from boring. And it’s so draining for the opposition. Normally backing their ability to mow down teams in the last quarter, the Dockers were chasing backsides, dragging their heels, and contemplating a mini-elimination-final date with Messrs Bontempelli, Darcy and Naughton.
