Premiership position: Premiers in 16-team competition (16 wins, 10 losses). End of minor round: Fifth (13 wins, nine losses).

Coach: Malcolm Blight

Captain: Mark Bickley

The parallels between Adelaide’s 1997 and 1998 seasons were uncanny.

The end was identical – a remarkable AFL premiership – and the build-up again included injuries, early season losses including to Port Adelaide, some Malcolm Blight coaching ploys and a winning run at the right time.

There was another second half surge to a second premiership, a second Norm Smith Medal to Andrew McLeod, and a second premiership medal (as Crows) for 16 players.

Then another post-match gathering in the middle of the MCG, celebrations in Melbourne, another huge welcome home at Wayville Showgrounds, a parade through King William Street to the Town Hall, followed by the Club Champion Dinner, and a little later the country tour of the Premiership Cup.

Some things did change. This time Mark Ricciuto and Peter Vardy both collected their first premiership medals. Other teammates missed out, some for the second time, including Tony Modra and original Crows Matthew Liptak and Simon Tregenza.

To win the 1998 Cup, Adelaide played six away games in the last seven weeks. It went to Geelong, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne and back to Melbourne.

After the euphoria of 1997, the AFL world was waiting to see if the Crows could return to the finals and be a challenger.

Adelaide traded for three recruits at the end of 1997 and did not lose any of its premiership players. Nathan Bassett, who had spent a year with Melbourne after being drafted from Norwood as a rookie, returned to South Australia, and Ian Downsborough switched from Port Adelaide. The Crows also swapped Jason McCartney for North Melbourne tall Mark Stevens.

On the back of a pre-season of off-season surgeries and injuries, Adelaide’s premiership defence started slowly. It led Carlton by 27 points in the first half of the opening game at Princes Park but lost by ten points. Draftee Lance Picioane, 17, and Bassett made their AFL debut while Mark Stevens and Norwood 1996 premiership star James Thiessen played their first games for the Club.

The Crows smashed Fremantle by 93 points after unfurling the 1997 premiership flag at Football Park in round two but a sluggish performance the next week against St Kilda prompted Blight to leave Rehn, Ricciuto, Jarman and Smart on the bench for a period during the final quarter.

Another narrow Showdown loss to Port in heavy rain left Adelaide with just one win from the first four games. Blight said: “You feel empty that you haven’t won but you think ‘when is this going to turn?’. It’s not a disaster yet.”

 A home win against Geelong was followed by a rollercoaster ride against North Melbourne at the MCG. The Roos led by 31 points at quarter-time, Adelaide was three goals clear at the last break, but North won by two points with the last goal of the match.  

Adelaide had a late scare against West Coast before winning by eight points and then Blight and his coaching group left the box early to walk around the boundary line to the rooms on the eastern side of Football Park as Richmond completed a stunning last quarter comeback in round eight. Adelaide had won only three of the first eight games.

Wins against Brisbane and Melbourne led to a clash with top side the Western Bulldogs at Princes Park and the depleted Crows lost by 67 points. “This is the first time we have actually been sat back on our bums a bit,” Blight admitted.

But the coach described the next win against Essendon (by two points) as “the most courageous win in the Crows’ history” as it defied a long injury list.

Adelaide continued to climb the ladder (to third) with wins against Collingwood, Sydney and Hawthorn. Rookie Ben Marsh was upgraded to make his AFL debut against the Swans and kicked three goals as a tall forward.

Modra made his return in round 16 after a ten-month recovery from knee surgery and kicked two goals but the Crows lost at home to Carlton by four points. They also lost 1997 premiership forward Troy Bond (fractured and dislocated shoulder) for the rest of the season.

Jarman booted eight goals at Subiaco Oval against Fremantle but his late long-distance shot and a snap by Nigel Smart both failed to score as the Crows lost for the first time to the Dockers, by one point.

Adelaide, now seventh, needed to start winning if it was to make the final eight and it made a strong statement with a 70-point win against St Kilda in round 18. It then dominated Port in the fourth Showdown, adding 15 goals in the second half to win by 74 points. Peter Vardy kicked 7.6 and Ricciuto claimed the three Brownlow Medal votes.

Modra kicked six goals when Adelaide recorded its first win against Geelong (by 74 points) in seven trips to Kardinia Park. But Adelaide remained in a fight for finals spots when it lost to North Melbourne by 13 points and had no answer to Roos champion Wayne Carey (five goals).

The return of Mark Bickley, four goals to Modra and another huge game from Ricciuto set up Adelaide’s first win over West Coast in Perth in the last minor round, when Linden Stevens made his AFL debut. Other results fell the Crows’ way and they finished fifth with a 13-9 record.

This time there was no home final, however, and Adelaide would continue to travel to play for the next month.

It played fourth-placed Melbourne at the MCG in the first qualifying final and had its worst game of the season, losing by eight goals. Adelaide only stayed in the premiership race because lower-ranked sides lost and were eliminated.

Blight responded by dropping Modra and “caning” the rest of the players at training.

“To be absolutely smashed was just a real wake-up call, fortunately the finals eight system the two lowest ranked teams lost which meant we stayed in,” captain Bickley later told The Advertiser.

“It was a tumultuous week, Tony Modra was dropped and then our training was brutal. Malcolm was so angry that we weren’t competitive, we did competitive training every night. That week was the hardest training week we’d had all year and that was leading into a game in Sydney.”

The qualifying final loss was the last game Modra played for Adelaide. The two-time All-Australian, who kicked 440 goals in 118 games for Adelaide, was a month later traded to Fremantle in a move that stunned many fans.

The Crows responded against the Sydney Swans at the SCG in a knock-out second semi-final, winning by 27 points. Vardy, battling a bruised heel, helped keep the Crows on the road to a second AFL premiership. The ground was a sloppy mudheap but on a night when most players struggled to kick the ball accurately over any distance, Vardy’s six goals from 19 disposals (and a game-high seven clearances) lifted Adelaide into a preliminary final.

Starting on a wing, Vardy kicked the opening goal and then another in the second term before a burst of three goals in five minutes midway through the third term stretched Adelaide’s lead from 13 to 32 points. His sixth goal early in the last quarter shut down any hope of a late Swans charge. “Pretty lucky, I guess, and I’m happy with that,” was Vardy’s post-match reaction.

Adelaide returned to the MCG to face the Western Bulldogs, who had beaten the Crows by 67 points in June and were seeking to play in their first grand final since 1961 by avenging the 1997 preliminary final loss.

But Adelaide jumped the Dogs in the first quarter and did not let up. Matthew Robran kicked six goals from centre half-forward and Andrew McLeod ignored knee soreness to boot seven in the 68-point win to send the Crows into their second grand final.

Robran’s first three shots on goal were points but his strong-marking start was ominous. A series of opponents had turns trying to quieten the Crow, who kicked 6.3 from 20 disposals and ten marks. Five of his goals were kicked from outside the 50 metres line.

Minor premiers North Melbourne entered the grand final on September 26 as hot favourites after 11 consecutive wins. And the Roos looked like they were on the way to another win when they led by 24 points at half-time, despite wasting chances to score 2.11 in the second term.

But then it was Adelaide’s turn to dominate a half. Spurred on by another Norm Smith Medal worthy performance from McLeod, Adelaide trailed by only two points at three-quarter-time. The Crows then held the Kangaroos goalless in the fourth term and added six goals of their own to surge to a 35-point win – and a second AFL premiership – in front of 94,431 spectators.

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Ricciuto’s outstanding season was rewarded with his first Club Champion award. He was named in the All-Australian team alongside McLeod (who missed seven games during the season), Rehn and Club Champion runner-up Nigel Smart.

Smart won the inaugural Members’ Most Valuable Player award.

Rehn and Ricciuto finished in the Brownlow Medal count’s top five, with Rehn (22 votes) pipping his teammate by one vote to finish fourth.

Darren Jarman’s five goals in the grand final lifted him to 45 goals for the season, one more than Vardy. Simon Goodwin, who won his second premiership medal in his second AFL season, clinched the Coach’s Award and Peter Caven was named Best Team Man.

Bassett was one of the unluckiest players to miss the premiership. The full back only played 13 games and finished tenth in the club champion votes, but his debut season was disrupted by shoulder and leg injuries.

Other news:

• A fourth interchange player was introduced for the season, lifting the number of players on a team to 22.
• Adelaide’s State-of-Origin representatives in 1998 were Bickley, Goodwin, Robran, Hart, James, Jarman, Rehn (captain) and Smart. Robran kicked five goals in South Australia’s six-goal win over Western Australia at Football Park. It was the first State-of-Origin game for Goodwin and James.
• Bickley, Smart and Hart became the Club’s first 150-game players.
• Boxing champion and sporting icon Muhammed Ali was a guest at the AFL grand final and was driven around the ground as part of the pre-match entertainment.
• Adelaide’s games continued to dominate the TV ratings, well ahead of the leading primetime shows of 1998, Friends and Blue Heelers.
• Ricciuto, Smart, Rehn and Hart represented Australia in the International Series in Ireland.
• Ross Dillon – nominated by a ballot of Adelaide’s members – was appointed to the AFC Board at the end of 1997. Dillon, a former Melbourne and Norwood player, replaced inaugural director Bob Lee.
• Adelaide’s total revenue for 1998 was $11.16 million. The surplus (after paying the AFL licence fee of $400,000) was $1.47m, with $1,053,000 distributed to the SANFL.
• A new two-storey administration facility and club shop was built on the eastern side of Football Park, next to the football facility.
• A party of 40 Crows players and officials travelled to South Africa for two weeks in October.
• The first video screen at Football Park, measuring 11 metres wide by 6m high, was a welcome addition for fans at the stadium.
• Simon Tregenza and Trent Ormond-Allen played in Port Adelaide’s 1998 SANFL premiership.

Awards and Achievements

All Australian: Andrew McLeod, Shaun Rehn, Mark Ricciuto, Nigel Smart

Best Team Man: Peter Caven

Coach’s Award: Simon Goodwin

Emerging Talent: Andrew Eccles

Leading goalkicker: Darren Jarman

Members Most Valuable Player award: Nigel Smart

Norm Smith Medal: Andrew McLeod

Jock McHale Medal: Malcolm Blight

AFC Life Membership: –

List changes

In: Mark Stevens (North Melbourne), Nathan Bassett (Melbourne), Ian Downsborough (Port), Lance Picioane (Western U18), Ian Perrie (East Perth), James Thiessen (Norwood), Linden Stevens (Sturt). Rookies: Sudjai Cook (Norwood), Tim Davis (North Adelaide), Steven Hall (Woodville-West Torrens), Ben Marsh (West Adelaide)

Out: Brett Chalmers (Port), Jason McCartney (North Melbourne), Mark Viska, Sean Tasker, Ben Parker, Adam Ugrinic, Brent Williams (Melbourne), Matthew Collins (Melbourne), Tom Gilligan (mid-season), Nick Laidlaw (mid-season)

First game players

Nathan Bassett, v Carlton at Optus Oval, 28/3/98 (player debut order 87)

Lance Picioane, v Carlton at Optus Oval, 28/3/98 (88)

Mark Stevens, v Carlton at Optus Oval, 28/3/98 (89)

James Thiessen, v Carlton at Optus Oval, 28/3/98 (90)

Andrew Eccles, v Fremantle at Football Park, 5/4/98 (91)

Ian Downsborough, v St Kilda at Waverley Park, 12/4/98 (92)

Sudjai Cook, v Brisbane at the Gabba, 23/5/98 (93)

Ian Perrie, v Collingwood at the MCG, 20/6/98 (94)

Ben Marsh, v Sydney at the SCG, 28/6/98 (95)

Linden Stevens, v West Coast at Subiaco Oval, 29/8/98 (96)

Related links

Season gallery