Adelaide FC (AFL)

Adelaide is an existing club that plays in the Australian Football League, and has not played in any other competition. The club was formed in 1990 and has won two premierships.
== Formation ==
The club was formed out of necessity. In mid 1990, SANFL club Port Adelaide had indicated that they were preparing to join the AFL. Prior to this the SANFL had refused to follow the lead of the WAFL and form a state based club. But to prevent Port Adelaide from leaving the competition, the SANFL were forced to form the club. On September 19, 1990 the AFL approved the admission for the 1991 season for the Adelaide Football Club.
== First season ==
The Crows played their first game at home at Football Park against Hawthorn, and in an auspicious debut handed the Hawks an 86 point hiding before 44,902 adoring fans. Chris McDermott became the first Crow to pay a visit to the AFL tribunal after this game, as a witness after being flattened by Hawthorn bad boy Dermott Brereton. In their first season the Crows remained competitive but ten wins only left them in ninth position on the ladder. Their first round victims Hawthorn would go on to win the premiership that year.
== 1992-1999 ==
In 1992 the Crows repeated their inaugural season effort with a ninth place finish winning ten games. But it would be 1993 that the Crows would come into their own. Making the top six, they won their first final over Hawthorn to progress to the second semi final only to be defeated by Carlton. They dropped back to the preliminary final against Essendon where they held a 42 point lead at half time only to squander it and suffer an 11 point loss to the team that would go on to win the flag. The Crows reacted badly to that, dropping to eleventh in 1994 despite nine wins. Their inaugural coach Graham Cornes was replaced by Robert Shaw but things didn't improve with the Crows eleventh again in 1995 with nine wins and twelfth in 1996 with eight wins.
Robert Shaw was then replaced by Malcolm Blight as coach, and the result was the biggest turnaround in VFL/AFL history. In 1997, the Crows finished the home and away season back in the finals in fourth spot. They played their first final against West Coast at Football Park, hosting a final for the first time. They won and progressed to the semi finals against Blight's former coaching subjects Geelong where they won again to get to the preliminary finals against the Western Bulldogs. This time it was Adelaide with the fightback from a deficit, and getting the win by just two points to go into their first AFL grand final against St Kilda. Again behind, the Crows fought back thanks partly to a five goal final term by Darren Jarman and Adelaide won their first AFL premiership by 31 points.
In 1998 the Crows finished fifth at the end of the home and away season, and in the first final were defeated by Melbourne. But they had the double chance under that version of the final eight, and took on Sydney and won that first semi final. In the preliminary final the Crows again faced the Western Bulldogs, but this time they beat them soundly to again enter the grand final - this time against North Melbourne. And again after trailing at half time the Crows took advantage of the poor conversion by the Kangaroos and won their second flag in a row by 35 points.
But in a big fall from grace, 1999 was a season to forget for the Crows as they sank to thirteenth place with just eight wins, their equal lowest return in their history to this point with 1996 and biggest fall after a premiership in VFL/AFL history. Malcolm Blight ended his term as coach.
== 2000's ==
Adelaide's new coach was Gary Ayres, the same person who had also replaced Blight at Geelong. In 2000, the Crows only won one more game than 1999 but rose to eleventh on the ladder. This was followed by three years in a row of finals football. In 2001 Adelaide finished eighth, locking their spot with a win over Hawthorn in the second last round. In the last round with nothing to play for, they dropped the game against bottom side Fremantle and that proved to a poor lead in as they were eliminated by Carlton convincingly by 68 points. In 2002 however the Crows had a fine season finishing third with 15 wins. But they were thrashed in the qualifying final by the team that would go on to win the premiership - Brisbane. Adelaide should have hosted their semi final at Football Park, but crosstown rivals and minor premiers Port Adelaide also lost their qualifying final and as the MCG had to host at least one final, the Crows were forced to play Melbourne there. But they managed the win by 12 points to progress to the preliminary final, only to be beaten by Collingwood. In 2003 Adelaide won 13 games to finish sixth, and hosted the elimination final against West Coast scoring a strong 56 point victory. But then they ran into Brisbane again losing by 42 points with the Lions again premiership bound.
In 2004 the Crows dropped their bundle not winning their first game until Round 5. After four wins from thirteen games, Gary Ayres quit when he was told his contract would not be renewed. Neil Craig became the caretaker coach and four more wins from nine games and twelfth was enough for Craig to be given the job. In nothing flat Adelaide were back in the finals every year for the rest of the decade. In 2005 they won the minor premiership and faced St Kilda at Football Park, only to be defeated by 8 points. But that set up the first ever Showdown against Port Adelaide in a final. It fizzed as the Crows won easily by 83 points, but they went no further as West Coast were too good at Subiaco in the preliminary final by 16 points. In 2006, Adelaide finished second and again hosted their final this time against Fremantle. The 30 point win meant the week off and the preliminary final at Football Park. They faced West Coast, but the Eagles again defeated them on their way to the flag this time - by 10 points. In 2007 Adelaide slipped again, slipping into the finals in eighth place half a game ahead of St Kilda with a final round 19 point win over Collingwood. But the season ended in heartbreaking fashion at Docklands Stadium with Hawthorn pipping them by 3 points.
In 2008 the Crows just missed sneaking into the top four on percentage after St Kilda boosted their percentage in the final round. It meant hosting an elimination final against Collingwood at Football Park, but Adelaide were defeated by 31 points. In 2009 Adelaide again finished fifth and again hosted an elimination final. This time there would be no disappointment as the Crows thrashed Essendon by 96 points. But it was Collingwood again who ended Adelaide's season with a narrow 5 point win.
== 2010's ==
The new decade began with the Crows missing the finals for the first time since 2004, finishing eleventh. They then dropped to fourteenth in 2011 in their worst season finish to date. But that seemed to galvanise Adelaide and they were back in 2012 finishing second. A poor qualifying final though led to defeat at the hands of Sydney. The Crows bounced back with victory over Fremantle but Hawthorn put the brakes on the season in preliminary final by just 5 points. A drop back to eleventh followed in 2013.
In 2014 Adelaide were in with a chance on playing finals with a round to go. They were tenth but if West Coast and Richmond both lost they could sneak in. But the Tigers caused a boilover knocking off Sydney to lock the eight and the Crows stayed in tenth spot.
2015 would be a year of turmoil out of the Crows control. In the finals hunt at the end of June, the football world was rocked when their new coach Phil Walsh was stabbed to death by his son Cy. Adelaide's game against Geelong that weekend was abandoned. Port Adelaide's game may have been as well but they had already played their game the night before. Two rounds later, Showdown took place and the Showdown medal for the best player on the ground was named the Phil Walsh Medal for this one night. The Crows won the game and sucked it up to made the finals finishing seventh. Public sympathy ballooned when Adelaide won the elimination final over the Bulldogs, but Hawthorn - en route to their third flag in a row - ended their season.
Many predicted the Crows would drop again in 2016, but the Crows defied expectations finishing fifth. A strong win over North Melbourne in the elimination final though was followed by a six goal defeat at the hands of Sydney. An even better season followed in 2017 with Adelaide finishing on top of the ladder. They took on West Sydney in the qualifying and won well to get the week off. The preliminary final was against Geelong with the Crows winning easily - and they were in the grand final for the first time since 1998. But after a good start, Adelaide ended up experiencing their first loss in a grand final, to Richmond.
This led to a drop to twelfth in 2018, although the club was only a game outside the eight. In 2019 the Crows finished eleventh.
== 2020 ==
Season 2020 would be one to forget for Adelaide. The COVID-19 pandemic had already caused their round 1 match against Sydney at the Adelaide Oval to have no fans. The Crows lost, and then the season was curtailed until mid June. The first game back was a Showdown before a limited crowd of just over 2,000 and the Crows were thrashed. As the season progressed, it was clear that Adelaide were coping badly with the new environment. The losses mounted up and by round 14 when the Crows had a round off it looked likely that they would win their first ever wooden spoon, and may even struggle to win a game.
But the bye seemed to help and Adelaide got onto a roll, winning three games in a row over Hawthorn, West Sydney and Carlton to get on equal terms with North Melbourne with a round to go. But the task was big. In order for the Crows to avoid the wooden spoon they had to defeat reigning premiers Richmond and hope that North didn't upset West Coast. North lost to raise the small hope but it was dashed as Adelaide didn't get close losing by 44 points. Their first wooden spoon was confirmed.
== 2021 ==
Seeking to make up for the poor season in 2020, the Crows started ominously with a two goal win over reigning grand finalist Geelong. A loss to Sydney set them back but this was followed by wins over Gold Coast and North Melbourne and Adelaide held fifth spot on the ladder. However this was followed by five straight losses sending the Crows plummeting to fifteenth. Adelaide though redeemed themselves at home with an upset 1 point victory over the previously undefeated Melbourne, although the euphoria of that result was flattened by two more losses. A win over St Kilda going in to the bye provided some hope after what happened in 2020.
But it didn't happen. After the bye came another four losses leaving the club sixteenth and well out of the finals race. A 19 point win over Hawthorn ensured that there would be no wooden spoon, but after that the Crows would only win one more game - over North Melbourne to finish 2021 in fifteenth place.
== 2022 ==
The Crows got off to a fair start in the first six rounds winning three and losing three, with the wins including a showdown victory and the defeat of 2020 premiers Richmond. But then the rot set in with five losses on the trot starting with a 59 point hiding at the hands of West Sydney. This caused Adelaide to fall five places on the ladder to fifteenth before they arrested that slide with a badly needed win over West Coast going into the bye.
Like 2021 the bye didn't help. A win over North Melbourne was the only positive over the following six rounds. Three wins on the trot ensured that the Crows were nowhere near the bottom of the ladder, but in the last round Port Adelaide won Showdown to leave Adelaide in fourteenth place for the season.
== 2023 ==
Adelaide's season got off to a tardy start losing the first two games before a win the Showdown set off three more to have the Crows in the eight in fifth spot. This however was followed by a spasmodic period of wins and losses which had the club hovering over the border of the eight leading into the mid season bye.
A one point loss to Collingwood coming out of the bye was followed by a big win over North Melbourne. But then three straight losses caused the Crows to fall to thirteenth. They managed to stay in touch with the eight with good wins over Port Adelaide in the return Showdown and Gold Coast. But poor conversion against Brisbane left Adelaide twelfth with two rounds to go, but only a game outside the eight. A heartbreaking but controversial loss to Sydney in the second last round ended their finals aspirations, but if the goal umpire had reviewed a behind (which was in fact a goal) matters may have been different. The goal umpire concerned was stood down. A final round win had the Crows finishing tenth.
== Reserves ==
For the majority of their existence, the Crows spread the players who didn't make their senior team throughout the SANFL. This changed in 2014 when Adelaide decided to end that arrangement and opted to field a reserves team in the competition instead. The Crows do not have a home venue, playing all their matches away except for the SANFL Showdown. This has mostly been played at country South Australian venues. The first was played in Clare in the state's mid north in 2014. Since then the game has been hosted in Balaklava, Mannum, Kadina and Port Pirie. In 2017 the Showdown was played at Woodville Oval. The only other home game for the Crows was in 2016 at Thebarton Oval with the Crows hosting Sturt. The Crows did not field their reserves team in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 Showdown was played at the Adelaide Oval as a double header with the AFL Showdown.
The team is yet to win a premiership or even make a grand final. The closest they have gone is the preliminary final in 2016, 2019 and 2023.
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