Craig McRae came to the Adelaide Oval with a plan.
A plan to defy a horror recent run of form that had left Collingwood hanging to their place in the top four by their fingertips. A plan to storm the fortress of Adelaide, their replacements as ladder-leaders and flag-favourites, the most in-form and imperious opposition in the game.
In front of a record 54,283 screaming spectators filling Australia’s most beautiful stadium to its buttresses – a bigger crowd than any Showdown, or final, that the venue has ever hosted – McRae came within three points of pulling it off.
What he proved instead was that Adelaide aren’t just minor premiers, aren’t just premiership favourites – but are realer than anyone could have expected.
Not just any team could withstand the weight of 71 inside 50s against – only once in recorded history has a side claimed four points having lost that count by more than 34. Not just any team could hold a dangerous Magpies forward line goalless for virtually two full quarters, going on to win a game with just 14 scoring shots.
But especially not an Adelaide team whose weakness before the start of the season, supposedly, was its defence.
This was a victory built on desperation. On grit. On guts and determination. On heart. And when you add those traits to the brilliant skill, brute strength and frenetic speed the Crows already demonstrate on a weekly basis, you have something special.
McRae’s plan to take them down was a simple one: put Adelaide’s defenders under as much pressure as humanly possible.
To execute it took two things: territory domination, and frenetic tackling pressure once inside 50.
The first of those was achieved by a higher than usual defensive press which frequently saw Isaac Quaynor, Brayden Maynard, Harry Perryman and even Billy Frampton push up within 60 metres of the Pies’ goal in order to form a veritable brick wall ahead of the play.
The design? To test out the chink in the Crows’ armour: they rank in the bottom five for percentage of defensive 50 possession chains translated into inside 50s, at a tick over one in five. As a rule, they don’t move the ball end to end with particular success – Matthew Nicks’ one wood with this team is linking up from stoppages further afield and surging the ball to leading forwards, or else forcing turnovers in midfield and pouncing with ferocity.
That’s despite scoring a league-best 24 points per game from the ‘defensive midfield’ zone – that is, the space between the centre circle and defensive 50. If the Crows get the ball in that space, they’re lethal – so to get the ball over it and inside 50 at all costs, then fill that space with black and white numbers, was a sound strategy to curb Adelaide’s strengths.
The next step was to add a sprinkle of chaos to the Pies’ entries – especially in the first half, it was noticeable to see torpedo punts, scrappy snaps and other junk float inside the Collingwood forward 50. Unless a target could be hit on the lead – something the Magpies did three times in the first quarter – the plan was, seemingly, to make it as difficult as possible for Adelaide’s star intercept markers in Mark Keane and Josh Worrell to repel.
Take this kick from Jordan De Goey – it’s a hack, but one directed at open space rather than at any opponent. Worrell is likely to mark if he aims at Jamie Elliott, so the natural solution is to take it away from that match-up.
Then, when the ball hit the ground, tackle like men possessed.
Up to quarter time, the Pies had a staggering 11 tackles to 0 inside 50, harassing the Crows to within an inch of their lives and forcing repeat entry after repeat entry as the Crows hacked the ball straight back to Magpie counterparts over again, only buying themselves seconds before being forced to defend again.
Their 24 inside 50s for the quarter was the most in any term for 2025, while the Crows’ differential of -18 was, naturally, their worst for the year.
By its end, the Magpies had five goals to one on the board, were 25 points to the good, and it looked for all the world like McRae’s tactical masterpiece would bring about a famous win.
But the Crows are no strangers to needing to wrest momentum back – they did it two weeks ago against Hawthorn, after all.
Thanks to a remarkable uplift in the pressure stakes – the went from a 164 pressure factor in the first term to 231 for the first 15 minutes of the second quarter – Adelaide wrested things back into their preferred territory of higher up the ground.
Suddenly, the game was being played not from deep in their defensive 50 against a manic Magpie forward line, but further up the ground, where the Crows’ dangerous midfield and array of crafty small forwards – and Izak Rankine, who manages to be both – could turn the tables on the Pies.
In a stroke, the Pies’ lead had been erased, and McRae’s plan, so successful to quarter time, was proving an impediment to actually scoring.
That trend continued in the second half, with the Crows having retaken the lead and the Pies needing to find a way back. The inside 50 count read 9-18 for the third term, yet time and again the Crows held them at bay in a manner they couldn’t in the first term.
This was a whole-team effort from Adelaide to clog up space: knowing full well the Pies’ plan to get the ball in as fast as possible when in possession, the Crows fought fire with fire. They flooded back in remarkable numbers, pushed their talls right up to the edge of defensive 50 to match the Pies’ interceptors, and bided their time.
After taking five marks inside 50 for the first quarter, the Pies managed just one – and in the final minute – in the third. Two of the most entertaining teams in footy were lock in what was, effectively, a stalemate.
When the opportunity came for a fast break, look where the Crows’ numbers are – and look who’s ahead of the ball.
The Pies have pushed up so far that they’re left facing an outnumber in their own defensive 50 – meanwhile, for Adelaide, Darcy Fogarty is the only one of their ‘three-headed monster’ in their half when the play begins.
It’s Isaac Cumming, Alex Neal-Bullen and Ben Keays at ground level against Darcy Moore and Billy Frampton – the former and the latter combine for a Crows goal that, in the end, proves utterly crucial.
That continued in the final quarter, with the Pies once again dominating territory yet unable to yield results on the scoreboard.
Fifteen minutes passed with not a score between them until the Crows at last broke the deadlock – but two fortuitous kicks inside 50 yielded two marks for the Magpies, and with them a pair of goals to ensure the visitors kept yapping at the heels, setting up a grandstand final four minutes in which all semblance of strategy went out the window.
This is as close as 2025 has yet come to a final.
From here, it was all moments. Ben Keays sprinting into the middle to mark a despairing Wayne Milera kick out of defence, knowing full well to spill it was to invite an almost certain turnover. Lachie Schultz flying into a marking contest with barely a minute on the clock but only managing to take down Nick Daicos and leave three Crows free at the drop to rebound. Keane’s desperation to twice foil at the death Magpie attempts to first mark and then snap for the winning goal. Milera again hacking clear in the final seconds and somehow finding the chest of Jordan Dawson.
None of it made sense. None of it was beautiful, or slick, or scintillating, or anything you’d usually say about Adelaide. This was pure slog. And it was glorious to behold.
Adelaide players celebrate their win over Collingwood. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
It was the type of scrap this Adelaide team have typically come out of as the losing side. How many times have they been left to rue a narrow loss in a game like this against a contender, against Collingwood as much as anyone?
The difference here? The Crows held their nerve at the finish, and had the advantage of that second-quarter onslaught that gave them a lead they never relinquished, no matter how many times the Magpies remained in touch.
This was a win of heart. And in pulling it off, Adelaide confirmed themselves as worthy ladder-leaders.
It’s going to take something special to knock them off in September if this is a string they have added to their bow – a string perfectly suited for finals footy.
For which this gritty epic serves as a perfect dress rehearsal for a team who has never made it this far before.