Straight-sets finals exits have become more common in recent years, after rarely being seen at the start of the century

Adelaide players leave the ground after their semi-final loss to Hawthorn on September 12, 2025. Picture: Getty Images

ANOTHER year, another straight-sets finals exit.

With its loss to Hawthorn on Friday night, Adelaide became the 14th team since the current finals format was introduced in 2000 to exit in straight sets.

But the Crows are the 12th side since 2014 to lose two straight finals after finishing in the top four after only two teams suffered that fate in the 14 seasons prior.

The introduction of the pre-finals bye in 2016 is likely a contributing factor to the increase in top-four teams losing two consecutive finals.

In the nine campaigns to have featured the bye (excluding 2021 when it was scrapped due to COVID), seven different seasons have now seen a club exit in straight sets.

The end of Adelaide’s season comes as the AFL is reviewing the merits of the pre-finals bye for next season among a range of potential fixture changes.

Greg Swann, the AFL’s new Executive General Manager of Football Performance, acknowledged critics of the pre-finals bye say it does not appropriately advantage teams that finish in the top four.

“There’s a little bit of that,” Swann told the AFL Record earlier this month.

“But Sydney and Brisbane played in a Grand Final (in 2024) and we had a chat about it. It’s more to do with somebody getting concussed (in the preliminary final) and not being able to play (in the Grand Final).

“That’s why we think that bye would be better off before the Grand Final.

“There’s a couple of other things that might come in as well. My personal view is I’d like everybody to have the same bye. A bye for the whole industry after Round 15 or something. Then we come back and go again.

“That might temper what happens later in the season for that pre-finals bye or whether there’s a wildcard round. We’re looking at all of it. That’s a watch this space.”

It was a disappointing end to the season for the Crows, who made unwanted history by becoming the first minor premiers since 1983 to make a straight-sets finals exit.

And if history is any guide, the Crows’ wait for a first flag since 1998 will extend beyond 2026.

Of the previous 13 teams to go out in straight sets, none have won the flag the following year.

Only one (Sydney in 2016) made it to the Grand Final the year after, with five of the 13 meeting the top eight entirely.

Straight-sets exits since 2000

2001: Port Adelaide (3rd)
2007: West Coast (3rd)
2014: Fremantle (4th)
2014: Geelong (3rd)
2015: Sydney (4th)
2016: Hawthorn (3rd)
2018: Hawthorn (4th)
2019: Brisbane (2nd)
2021: Brisbane (4th)
2022: Melbourne (2nd)
2023: Port Adelaide (3rd)
2023: Melbourne (4th)
2024: Greater Western Sydney (4th)
2025: Adelaide (1st)