Brodie Smith

Brook “Boris” Kilpatrick reporting from Adelaide Oval

The Adelaide Crows have strengthened their claim on premiership favoritism with a dominating 36 point victory over a disappointing Greater Western Sydney Giants in the first qualifying final at Adelaide Oval on Thursday evening.

The win takes Adelaide into a preliminary final against the winner of next weekend’s Geelong vs Sydney Swans clash at the MCG. It will be the first time Adelaide has appeared in a preliminary final since 2012 when they went down narrowly to Hawthorn.

Brook “Boris” Kilpatrick reporting from Adelaide Oval for AFANA

A slick Adelaide Crows unit has sent North Melbourne packing for season 2016 with a dominant second half blitz at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night. Livewire Crows forward Eddie Betts stole the show kicking six goals to snuff out any chance of a North Melbourne challenge, a result in keeping with two teams at the opposite end of the form line.

Rick Browner reporting for AFANA from Domain Stadium, Perth

Returning to the football field after the murder of their coach Phil Walsh, the Adelaide Crows came to Perth for a Round 15 encounter with a West Coast team that also had strong connections with Walsh, an assistant coach under John Worsfold from 2009-2013. The wounds were still raw and emotions close to the surface for both teams as they stood together arm in arm for a moment’s silence in memory of Walsh before the start of play.

Adelaide players were a little sluggish at the start of the match after a fast start by West Coast,

Jamie Kloeden reporting for AFANA from Australia

After two long weeks of matches, Round 18 was finally coming to a close as Collingwood hosted Adelaide in an immensely important Sunday game. Following the Gold Coast Suns' thrashing by crosstown rivals Brisbane, a win for Adelaide would see them enter the Top Eight for the first time this year, leapfrogging both the Suns and their opponents Collingwood. On the flip side, a Collingwood win would have them sitting two games clear of the Crows and a strong chance for Finals' action.

Jamie Kloeden reporting for AFANA from Adelaide Oval, Australia

Adelaide players have referred to their season thus far as "a roller coaster" with the last five rounds alternating between wins and losses. Players have stated publicly that their aim is to find some consistency and start stringing the wins together or risk playing themselves out of Finals' contention. North Melbourne on the other hand is currently in the Top Eight but is a team still fighting for consistency as players try to live up to big preseason expectations.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

This round's milestones include:

250 games: Brent Guerra (HAW)
200 games: Justin Koschitzke (StK)
150 games: Brent Staker (BRIS)
50 games: Luke Parker (SYD)
50 games: Brodie Smith (ADE)
50 games: Daniel Talia (ADE)

 Jamie Kloeden reporting for AFANA

With their season well and truly on the line, the Adelaide Crows traveled north to tackle the Gold Coast Suns knowing that a loss would pretty much rule them out of Finals contention. On the flip side, the young Suns have shown great signs this year and are certainly no easy beats with five wins already on the season.

Early action saw the home side jump out of the blocks and register the first three scoring shots of the game including the first goal through superstar captain Gary Ablett. Brodie Smith, known his his long kicks out of defense, managed to use his right foot as an offensive weapon as he kicked a long goal to get the first for the Crows. It was a long 14 minutes before the next goal but it was worth the wait. Ablett once again was the man of the moment as he stole the ball out of a pack, ran away from goals then circled around and kicked truly from outside 50 meters. He was starting to show exactly why he is once again the favorite for this year's Brownlow Medal and still widely regarded as the best player in the League. Gold Coast added one more goal before quarter time through a great snap from Daniel Gorringe as they once again looked like a team very much at home at AFL level.

Jamie Kloeden reporting for AFANA from AAMI Stadium, Adelaide, Australia

With a win, either Adelaide or Fremantle would be heading to the hallowed turf of the MCG to meet the high flying Hawks in a Preliminary Final. A loss would mean a disappointing end to the season where getting so close would be no consolation. With the end of each season come retirements and Crows’ veteran and their oldest listed player Michael Doughty, has already announced that this is his last season. He certainly played this game like a man who wasn’t ready to finish up. The other old hand back in the Adelaide defense, Ben Rutten, has earned his fair share of criticism for not being the player that he was in past seasons and he too looked like he had a point to prove while going head to head with the Dockers’ in form superstar Matthew Pavlich.

 Jamie Kloeden reporting for AFANA from AAMI Stadium, Australia

Adelaide was abuzz all week as the hometown Crows returned to the Finals. 2011 was a season to forget so with a young, exciting team that sat second on the ladder at the completion of the minor round, Crows' fans around town saw a chance for some genuine success. The Swans were heading to Adelaide having spent most of the latter part of the season sitting in top spot but a drop down to third gave them the tough task of starting their Finals campaign on the road.

Jarrad McVeigh won the toss for Sydney and chose to kick