When Alex Neal-Bullen arrived at Adelaide he underestimated his new teammates.
Neal-Bullen admits some uncertainty when he joined the Crows after being traded from Melbourne at the end of last season.
Then, the Crows hadn't played finals since 2017. Now, they enter the playoffs as minor premiers.
Neal-Bullen expected his assessment of his new club to take months. Instead, it was almost instant.
"Straight away, I saw how competitive they are," he told reporters on Thursday.
"I probably underestimated how skilful and how much growth we would have in the one season."
Neal-Bullen, a 2021 premiership player with the Demons, is the sole flag-winner on the current list of the Crows, who have made the biggest ladder climb in AFL history.
Adelaide jumped 14 spots, from finishing 15th last year to first - the previous biggest rise was Brisbane's climb from 16th to third in 1998-99.
"It has now given ourselves an opportunity to be seed one, position one, in the final series and really showcase that we belong in finals," Neal-Bullen said.
"It's something as the year has gone on, I have grown confident in what this group is capable of.
"We've just stuck to our process and that, for us now, is looking forward to the challenge against the team who we've watched for the last few years ... they've been to the top of the mountain."
The Crows host 2023 premiers Collingwood in a qualifying final at Adelaide Oval next Thursday amid massive hype in the South Australian capital.
The fixture is being billed as a grudge match, given the controversial fall-out from Adelaide's three-point win over the Magpies on August 16.
In the aftermath, Crows star Izak Rankine was banned four games for a homophobic slur directed at a Collingwood opponent.
During the Rankine saga, the Pies' taunting of Rankine during the encounter was raised as a factor in his mindset.
But any bitterness between the clubs was dismissed by Neal-Bullen, who will play his 200th AFL game in the clash.
"I can only speak for us as a footy club: we're not buying into that," he said.
"For us, it's around ... getting to the start line with the mindset that you're ready to perform.
"We're not buying into any of that - that's for the media to talk about, or the fans and supporters to create an atmosphere for us.
"It's just about us getting to that Thursday night in the mindset that we're ready to perform.
"And understand that we've earnt this right to be in the first qualifying final against an opposition who have been to the top of mountain just recently.
"We're really keen to showcase to the AFL world that this is where we want to be."
