Adelaide’s first finals appearance was a stunning success.
In only their third season in the AFL, the Crows secured a spot in the final six with a win over Collingwood at Football Park in the last minor round of 1993 but then were matched against the finals hardened Hawthorn at the MCG in the first elimination final.
Winning away from home had been an issue for Adelaide in the early years but more than 20,000 Crows fans travelled to Melbourne, even though the team was given little chance against a Hawks side which had qualified for its 12th consecutive finals series.
Wayne Weidemann flattened Hawthorn’s Darren Jarman seconds after the opening bounce and Adelaide settled quickly, booting the first three goals through Randall Bone, Nigel Smart and Tony Modra before Hawthorn levelled the scores by quarter-time.
The Crows then broke the game open in the second term, kicking seven goals to three to lead by 24 points at half-time.
Hawthorn lifted again after the break, reducing the gap to seven points when Jason Dunstall kicked his fifth goal on the siren and then taking the leading early in the final term. A series of misses kept the Crows in the game, however, and then Matthew Liptak’s third goal, Nigel Smart’s third and fourth goals - split by a 60m bomb by Stuart Wigney - secured the win.
The players return to a fan frenzy, with about 5000 supporters packing into the old Adelaide airport terminal. Andrew Jarman recalled: “When we arrived back at the airport it was like we were the Beatles. We had people chasing us to our cars, it was scary.”
This first final success put the Crows within one win of their first grand final.
But Adelaide lost to Carlton six days later at Waverley Park and then crashed out of the preliminary final against Essendon, despite leading by seven goals at half-time.
Elimination final, MCG, September 5 1993
Adelaide 16.14 (110) d Hawthorn 13.17 (95)
Goals: Smart 4, Liptak, Wigney 3, Modra, Bone 2, Weidemann, Bickley 1.
Best: Bickley, Rehn, Liptak, Anderson, McGuinness, Weidemann, McDermott
