Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions have met 29 times. The Lions hold the overall advantage, 15 – 14.
The Crows have won the past four clashes between the teams by an average margin of 56 points.
This will be only the second time the Brisbane Lions have played the Crows at Adelaide Oval following an 87-point defeat in Round 21 last season. It will the Lions' second trip to the venue this season having played Port Adelaide in Round Seven. They are yet to taste victory at Adelaide Oval in three attempts.
On that occasion, Crows captain Taylor Walker kicked seven goals, while Tom Lynch collected a career-high 32 possessions.
Walker, who is hopeful of returning from an ankle injury this weekend, needs one more goal to move into outright second in the Club’s all-time goalkicking. He’s currently level with Crows and AFL great Mark Ricciuto on 292 goals.
Adelaide’s highest-ever score against Brisbane (Lions/Bears) was 25.18 (168) at the GABBA in Round 20, 2014. The 105-point win was also the Club’s biggest-ever over Brisbane.
Promising midfielder Jarryd Lyons will play his 50th AFL game at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The biggest-ever crowd for a match between Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions was 47,279 at Football Park back in Round 10, 2002.
The Crows are closing in on Collingwood for the highest average home game attendance this season. The Magpies have averaged 50,610 fans at 10 home matches, while Adelaide has averaged a crowd of 47,004 in nine home games with night fixtures against the Lions and West Coast to come.
*Based on the official attendance figures provided by the AFL
The Lions average the third-highest percentage of contested possessions (40.4%) of any team.
Lions captain Tom Rockliff is averaging 28.8 possessions per game – ranked 13th in the AFL this season.
Rockliff has also averaged 6.8 tackles per game – ranked 14th – one spot behind Crows midfielder Brad Crouch, who is averaging 6.9 tackles.
Younger brother Matt is 12th overall for hard ball-gets (95) despite having missed two matches
Long-kicking Lion Daniel Rich is 14th in the League for forward 50m entries on average (4.6).
In-form Crow Rory Sloane is fifth for loose ball-gets with 75, and second in total tackles (132) behind West Coast Brownlow Medallist Matt Priddis (148).
Sloane could be shadowed by Lions negating midfielder Mitch Robinson on Saturday night. The physical former Blue leads his club in contested possessions (177) and clearances (89).
In the absence of lead ruckman Stefan Martin, Archie Smith starred on debut against Port Adelaide last weekend. The athletic 21-year-old chalked up 30 hit-outs, 19 possessions, nine clearances and five tackles in his team’s defeat.
The ruck battle is shrouded in mystery this week with Adelaide star Sam Jacobs (ankle) under an injury cloud, and Martin in the mix to return after being rested against the Power. Martin is ranked second in total disposals (287) among all ruckmen and fifth in clearances by ruckmen (58).
If Jacobs fails to recover in time, his streak of 93 consecutive games – the second-longest active streak in the AFL – will be broken.
Line-breaking defender Brodie Smith is equal-11th for inside 50ms (83) and also rebound 50ms (71). Lions playmaker Rich is 17th with 79 forward 50m entries.
Smith’s dashing Lions counterpart, Pearce Hanley, leads the club for metres gained (7,314) in 2016.
The Lions have kicked 36 goals from centre bounces – ranked fifth overall and the highest of any team outside the top eight.
Skilful forward Dayne Zorko has been involved in 103 Brisbane scores, which equates to 24 per cent of the club’s overall scores this season. Zorko also leads the Lions goalkicking with 19 for the season.
