The Crows players’ unusual decision to stand a foot apart from each other with their arms by their sides rather than link them in the traditional manner at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night was labelled a genius move by football great Dermott Brereton.

And it led to coach Don Pyke’s side securing a home preliminary final for the first time since 2006 and moving to within one win of its first grand final appearance since 1998.

Five-times Hawthorn premiership forward Brereton said the sight of the Adelaide players standing wider than their Giants counterparts would have created an “optical illusion’’ that “there are so many of us out here’’.

“It’s the old Muhammad Ali, ‘I’m hitting him from everywhere and he’s going to think he’s surrounded’,’’ Brereton told Fox Footy.

“But it worked.’’

Pyke and assistant coach Scott Camporeale tried to play down the significance of their team's pre-game stance.

Asked if there was any reason behind it, Pyke, who stood at the top of the Crows line of players in a similarly strong manner, simply said: “No, not really’’.

Camporeale also played a straight bat when asked about the show of strength.

“I must admit I was concentrating on some other things but obviously they didn’t go arm-in-arm and there’s been a bit of talk about it,’’ he said.

“It wasn’t pre-planned, the players just sorted it out and did it themselves on the ground.’’

It is understood the club’s player leadership group, led by captain Taylor Walker, suggested the powerful show of force after all the club has been through in the past three years.

This included losing assistant coach Dean Bailey to cancer, former senior coach Phil Walsh’s shock death and lead ruckman Sam Jacobs last week losing his older brother Aaron to illness.

Aaron’s funeral was held on the Yorke Peninsula on Friday.

“I’m not exactly sure happened there, it was just a bit of gamesmanship, a bit of fun,’’ Douglas said of the bizarre pre-game build-up.

“It was a bit spontaneous with the way it panned out. Whether we do it next time (in the preliminary final), I’m not sure, but maybe it worked.’’

Camporeale said that everything the club had been through in recent years — as devastating as it had been — had galvanised the group.

“It’s been emotionally very tough but on the flip side it has built a club of real resilience,’’ he said.

“Whatever gets thrown at us the boys just keep responding and that’s great in finals because they aren’t always going to go your way and there are going to be ups and downs.

“But the ability for them to be able to draw on those (tough) situations and have the ability that they can do it.is important.

“We’ve been knocked around a fair bit but with the disappointment comes belief and resilience and that’s what we’ve been able to draw on.’’

andrew.capel@news.com.au