The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, are a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 1991, and a women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition since 2017. The club's offices and training facilities are located in the western Adelaide suburb of West Lakes, at the site of the club's former home ground Football Park. Since 2014 Adelaide have played home matches at the Adelaide Oval, a 53,500-seat stadium located a few hundred metres north of the Adelaide CBD.
The Crows were formed in 1990 as the de facto state team representing South Australia in the AFL. They were originally owned by the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), though they gained administrative independence in 2014. They played their first season in 1991 and finished in 9th place, the highest ranking of any expansion club in the AFL in a debut year. The men's team won both the 1997 and 1998 Grand Finals, and have appeared in 15 finals series in their 29-year history. Adelaide is the most successful team in the AFL Women's competition, being the only club to have won multiple premierships; in 2017, 2019 and 2022 (S6). It also fields a reserves team in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), along with the other South Australian football team in the Port Adelaide Football Club.
The men's team is currently coached by Matthew Nicks and captained by Jordan Dawson.
History
1990s: Foundation and back-to-back triumph
After the VFL was renamed the AFL for the 1990 season, the SANFL clubs unanimously resolved, in 1990, that a team would not be entered into the AFL until 1992. The AFL refused to accept this, and revised negotiations with individual clubs Port Adelaide and Norwood. Two months later, the Port Adelaide Football Club reached terms of agreement with the AFL to enter a team into its competition in season 1991. The other nine SANFL clubs reacted strongly and entered into litigation in an endeavour to halt Port's bid. As the terms offered were more favourable than previously offered, talks were resumed. On 19 September 1990, the AFL approved the bid for a new South Australian club to enter into the league rather than a single existing SANFL club.
The Adelaide Crows played their first season in the AFL in 1991. Inaugural coach Graham Cornes and captain Chris McDermott led Adelaide to a respectable ninth place out of 15 in the league, with 10 wins and 12 losses and a percentage of 89.44. Adelaide's first AFL game was against on Friday 22 March at their then home ground, Football Park. The Crows defeated the eventual premiers by a hefty 86-point margin, winning 24.11 (155) to 9.15 (69). The club reached its first finals series in the 1993 AFL season, eventually losing to Essendon in the preliminary final.
Premiership glory in 1997 and 1998
The year 1997 marked the entry of a second South Australian club, . The Crows finished fourth to qualify for its first finals series since 1993, and hosted fifth-placed in the First Elimination Final. In the first final ever to be played at Football Park, the Crows won 14.15 (99) to 9.12 (66). The next week, Adelaide benefited from the finals system in use at the time and hosted the higher ranked , who had finished two places above the Crows but were forced to play away due to losing the previous week to . The Crows won narrowly in a controversial match, where a clear forward 50 mark to Geelong's Leigh Colbert during a critical stage of the third quarter was not awarded by field umpire Grant Vernon. Final scores: Adelaide 11.10 (76) to Geelong 9.14 (68). This set up an away Preliminary Final against the at the MCG. Despite losing Coleman Medallist Tony Modra, who had kicked 84 goals for the season, to an ACL injury in the first quarter and trailing by 31 points at half time, the Crows kicked four unanswered goals in the last quarter to record a two-point victory, 12.21 (93) to 13.13 (91), with Darren Jarman kicking a goal to put Adelaide in front with less than two minutes remaining. This allowed the Crows to qualify for their first AFL Grand Final, to be played against at the MCG a week later.