Two-time Premiership Captain Mark Bickley has plenty of never-before-told stories, following a 13-year AFL career spanning across 272 games, and three years within the coaching ranks.

This year, Bicks will be lifting the lid on those stories with us, taking you inside the four walls at West Lakes, with an aim of giving an insight into football life.

Ahead of this weekend’s match against the Hawks, Bicks remembers playing in our first final - against the Hawks - and the craziness that followed.

We’ve certainly had some great battles against Hawthorn, especially in our early days and they were a formidable force in the competition.

One of my favourite games played against them, though, was our very first final in 1993.

We were the underdogs, having only been in the competition for three years and had never featured in the major round - until that year.

The Hawks, on the other hand, were entering their 12th VFL/AFL finals series and had won the Grand Final two years earlier.

To say I was nervous leading into the game was an understatement.

Although we were a young team, I felt like we had the weight of the state on our shoulders and the expectation coupled with the pressure to perform was high.

Before that final, we had only played on the MCG six times and the crowd that day of 55,287 was the largest we had ever played in front of.

I reckon there were about 15-20,000 Crows fans at the ‘G all cheering us on.

Luckily, we didn’t let them down and, against all odds, despite letting the Hawks back into the game at three-quarter-time, we won the game by 15 points.

Pure elation and relief rushed through me.

But the real craziness started once our plane hit the tarmac at Adelaide Airport.

Our match was at 2.30pm, so we caught a plane home that night and, from memory, it arrived back home around 9pm that night.

Upon arrival, an air hostess mentioned over the loudspeaker that the Crows players were not allowed to get off the plane until all other passengers had exited.

I don’t think any of us had any idea what we were about to be greeted by.

Once we got off the steps, I could see the airport was absolutely packed with loyal and adoring Crows fans who were just cheering as we walked in.

The airport staff had to usher people back to let us through, we could hardly move.

There were kids there in their pjs with their parents having brought them to the airport before bedtime, just to see us.

Autograph books were flying at us and it was then we released how big this could get and what it meant to our amazing fans.

It was during a time where AFL footballers were not full-time and it was absolutely crazy to be getting mobbed by fans at the airport that Sunday night, before going to work the next day as a sparky for Mitsubishi.

I’m so lucky to have been a part of that game and such an incredible event in the Club’s history.

Go Crows!