The opening term was one to savour, as both teams put on a scintillating display of positive, attacking football with the first seven goals of the match coming inside the first 12 minutes of football.
Nigel Lappin and Michael Voss were dangerous for the Lions while Mark Ricciuto and Kane Johnson provided terrific drive for the Crows.
The umpires seemed to be enjoying the spectacle as much as the 47,000 plus crowd as they allowed the frenetic pace to go unstopped for the most part, with only three free kicks awarded in the first quarter.
The scoring slowed up as the second term progressed but the pace certainly didn’t as the Crows began to gain the upper hand around the stoppages.
And when Scott Welsh grabbed his second after Nigel Smart turned back the clock to stream down the ground and turn provider, Adelaide had opened up a 17-point lead and had the momentum.
The Crows maintained their momentum as the second half got underway with the first six scoring shots of the quarter, but failed to put the Lions away, converting only two of them.
A sickening collision at the 18-minute mark between Mark Bickley and Brad Scott saw play held up for five minutes while Scott was stretchered from the ground in obvious distress.
But the stoppage allowed Brisbane to regroup and put on the next three goals and hold the Crows scoreless for the remainder of the term.
A Tim Notting goal as the siren sounded for three-quarter time saw the Crows’ lead by a mere 15 points and set up a titanic final term.
A Brett Burton goal in the opening minutes tipped the scales in Adelaide’s favour but the Lions weren’t finished yet and when Alastair Lynch pulled down a screamer and converted from 35 out, the lead was cut to two straight kicks with less than ten minutes left on the clock.
The crowd had their hearts in their mouths as Aaron Shattock marked and goaled at the 28-minute mark to put the Lions one goal behind Adelaide with 90 seconds remaining in the game.
However, soon after Mark Stevens took a mark inside the Crows’ 50 and scored a crucial point that ended the scoring and saw the Crows win by seven points, taking them to equal top with Brisbane.
After the match Adelaide coach Gary Ayres described the match as “purely and simply a great game of football” and paid tribute to his side’s ability to soak up the pressure applied to them by Brisbane.
“I’m just really proud of the way we hung in there and toughed it out,” he said.
“The resolve from every player that played here tonight was first-class against an excellent side like the Lions.”
“We just tried in every facet of the game whether it was scoreboard pressure, whether it was defensive pressure in the forward 50 or whether it was our (overall) skills to just pressure Brisbane as much as we could.”
Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews agreed the game was played in a manner that provided a great spectacle for fans. “The football purists have got a bit of value out of us playing but we’ve come away without the win,” he said.
“The fighting spirit of our blokes is just fantastic, I’m really proud of them. It was very similar to the Collingwood game tonight, I just thought the opposition were playing better than we did, but somehow or other we almost were able to engineer a win.”
ADELAIDE: 6.2, 9.5, 11.9, 15.11 (101)
BRISBANE: 5.3, 6.5, 9.6, 14.10 (94)
GOALS: Adelaide: Schell 4, Welsh 2, Burton 2, Stevens 2, Bode 2, McLeod 2, Johncock. Brisbane: Lynch 4, Black 2, Power, Pike, Voss, McRae, Notting, Akermanis, Shattock, Keating.
BEST: Adelaide: Ricciuto, Johnson, Bode, Smart, Hart, Stevens, Schell. Brisbane: Lappin, Voss, Black, Lynch, Pike, Hart.
INJURIES: Adelaide: Bickley (cut head)
Brisbane: B. Scott (cut head, concussion), Ashcroft (cut head), Charman (shoulder)
CHANGES: Nil
REPORTS: Nil
UMPIRES: Humphery-Smith, McKenzie, Avon.
CROWD: 47,279 at Football Park
