Jordan Dawson leads his team off after the semi-final between Adelaide and Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on September 12, 2025. Picture: Getty Images
IT TOOK the Adelaide faithful all of 13 seconds to lose their voice. This after they’d spent most of the previous week trying their best to be heard.
There was the overwhelming love they’d showered their beloved local players with on every platform available. That while going to different lengths to embellish their adoration. From naming their kids and dogs — in some cases, both — after Taylor Walker to wearing fake beards to look like Riley Thilthorpe.
All while the local media had indulged equally in the euphoria of the Crows’ first AFL stint in September since 2017. Ranging from exploring back stories about Jordan Dawson, Darcy Fogarty and others to finding Crows fans spread far and wide around the globe.
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All in a bid to unearth the deep-rooted connection that the Crows are projected as having in this part of the world. Along with how the state, and more so the city, lives and revels in their team’s success.
It is different to when Port Adelaide make it to this far in the season. There’s coverage and there’s attention, but nowhere close to the way a Crows’ campaign engulfs the everyday lives of the people here.
Their song may suggest that the Crows are the pride of South Australia. If anything, they’re more the pulse of Adelaide — or most of it anyway. You could feel it too from the guttural roar that firstly welcomed Dawson and his team to the ground, before returning for the first bounce of the footy.
So, when on Friday night in front of a packed Adelaide Oval, the plug was pulled on Adelaide’s hopes of a Grand Final push, both prematurely and dismissively, it was only understandable that their fans’ collective voice was the first to evaporate. And it happened very quickly as Jack Gunston kicked the first of many holes he would create in the Crows’ beating heart, literally from the first centre clearance.
Though the Adelaide Oval did find its voice again, mainly in patches, it never seemed to recover from that early Hawthorn onslaught, which saw three goals notched up before the Crows fans had even spotted Jack Ginnivan in order to boo him.
If Gunston’s first of five majors came within 21 seconds of the first term, the Hawks’ first entry into their opponents’ 50-metre arc took just 13 seconds, on the back of Jai Newcombe.
It would take 13 minutes – ironically – after the opening siren for the Crows to finally hit the scoreboard in a meaningful way. Yes, they would subsequently level the score briefly from there, with the crowd reacting with understandable enthusiasm. But that raw energy that the Crows and their fans had brought to the contest was never quite replicated at the same level once the Hawks had silenced them in the opening exchanges.
As star key forward Mabior Chol would tell AFL.com.au later, that was exactly what the visitors had planned to do.
“That’s something we spoke about before the game. We had to come out here and create our own energy and try and silence the Crows fans. We started really well and kept talking about momentum and keeping it. We handled the occasion really well,” Chol said.
The Hawks’ success at silencing the home crowd aside, there could be myriad reasons why the minor premier couldn’t quite find their early season mojo at the business end of a largely successful season for a team that finished 15th last year. Maybe it was the lack of finals experience for a critical mass in their squad list. Or the inability to cope with the overriding expectation from a team that hasn’t come this far in nearly a decade. Or even sporting karma, as some of their own fans have suggested ever since the Izak Rankine affair.
If the March-August home and away season is all about building towards the big moment, September is all about creating big moments that stand out, from players who stand up.
As it turned out, the Hawks had plenty of those who did. The Crows had plenty of those who didn’t.
If Gunston was the runaway star of the show in the big action sequences, Jai Newcombe was the character player setting up the game defining scenes, with Josh Weddle chipping in ever so often with his high-flying cameos. All of whom benefited from the engine room of the Hawks’ outfit, the rapid turnover-generating handball machine of a midfield who scythed through the Crows’ attempts at stopping them over and over again.
Whereas for the home team, Walker and Fogarty barely saw the ball alongside Thilthorpe, who was at his best only in patches. Not to forget the many untidy disposals both off foot and fist, which allowed the Hawks to keep the pressure up.
This was built up to be their moment, but the Crows’ players simply didn’t seem ready or adept at seizing them. It was the complete opposite for the victorious Hawks, who have already done one better than last season by making the preliminary final.
“Last year when we were playing in finals, we were just happy to be there, especially where we were in the second half of the year. This year was more about believing that we belong here. And the rest will take care of itself. We are more mature now and are thriving,” is how Chol puts it.
Despite their magic run into September, the Crows on the basis of their last two defeats have neither looked happy to be here nor like they belong here – for now.
There were a couple of late goals for the Crows to bring their otherwise memorable season to an end. But by then in most parts of the Adelaide Oval, there weren’t enough Crows fans to respond with any real gusto or exuberance. They’d left in droves long before then.
And those who did remain sat either with their heads in their hands or with their faces buried deep into their beer cups. Their voices long muted, their spirits long crushed, and their hopes long evaporated.