“The lid is obviously not on, is it?” Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said late on Saturday night. He was talking about the town, not the team. It was the third-biggest crowd at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval, topped only by the opening day of an Ashes Test match and an Adele concert. It was the most important game Adelaide has played since the 2017 grand final. It was a game that mirrored the respective seasons of the two teams – Collingwood flew the gates, and the Crows overhauled them. It was a strange game that went into neutral for about an hour, and then into overdrive in the final 10 minutes.
It was a game that made no sense on the stat sheet; a game that demanded a rematch – most likely again in Adelaide, hopefully in better conditions, and maybe even at the MCG on the final Saturday in September.
