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Footy can be a painful business. For all the optimism that pervades clubs at the start of every season, only one can have the ultimate success on grand final day — for everyone else, loss is the bottom line.
But while the overwhelming focus this week is on Tigerland and the end of 35 years in the footballing wilderness for Richmond since the club's last grand final, it is easy to overlook the pain and loss that is never far from the surface at the Adelaide Crows.
It is 19 years since the Crows last played a grand final, although since 1998 they have played in four losing prelims, the most recent in 2012.
This is three more appearances in the penultimate weekend of football since their last decider than the Tigers they face this weekend.
There is more than one form of loss in football, however.
Player drain from West Lakes a sore point
Beyond the loss of a particular game, there is the frustration of having a valued player at the club decide his future lies elsewhere.
The Crows know that sting all too well.
Key defender Phil Davis, now the co-captain of Greater Western Sydney. Jack Gunston, the promising young forward who waved goodbye to West Lakes in order to switch to the premiership factory at Hawthorn.
Kurt Tippett, who signalled his desire to return to the Gold Coast, before a switcheroo saw the ruck-forward scald hearts in Adelaide by landing at the Sydney Swans.
And then Patrick Dangerfield. Before the man who put Moggs Creek on the map secured his shift to Geelong, he was seen as the key to the elusive third Crows flag.
There have been some vital trades bringing players into the City of Churches, however — none bigger than Eddie Betts.
The former Carlton goal sneak came to Adelaide for the 2014 season, and he has become a hero for the Crows' faithful, his electric play securing naming rights on his own pocket at Adelaide Oval.
His love of the game, his trademark smile and interactions with Adelaide fans after some of his amazing goals have provided an outlet for some positive emotion at Crows' games.
A bit of joy may not win football games, but it surely can't hurt — particularly when there have been too many times in recent years when the Adelaide Football Club was left heartsore from events outside its control.
Crows grieve for Bailey and Walsh
The death of former assistant coach Dean Bailey in 2014 united South Australia's AFL rivals in grief.
Bailey, a former assistant to Mark Williams who was part of the Power's premiership in 2004, was also part of the set-up at West Lakes as a strategy and innovation coach under Brenton Sanderson.
Bailey's cancer diagnosis in 2013 curtailed his time at the club, but he was a very popular figure at West Lakes, and his death in 2014 brought a deep, deep sadness to South Australian football.
There was more to come, however. The tragic events of July 3, 2015 — when Adelaide woke up to learn of the fatal stabbing of coach Phil Walsh by his son Cy at their Somerton Park home — left the game of football as an afterthought.
Walsh had been the coach for just 12 games, but there was already an air of excitement about him and his Crows, after they won seven of those dozen games to sit in seventh spot.
Walsh had an almost old-fashioned love of the game, typified by his call to put Patrick Dangerfield head-to-head with Fremantle's Nat Fyfe on a memorable night at Adelaide Oval.
He had driven within them the need for physical and mental toughness, to hunt the ball on the ground — the jargon of "ground ball gets" became a non-negotiable part of Walsh's philosophy.
The manner of his passing was uncharted territory in football, and the news left everyone in shock, and grief.
The Crows went down to West Coast by 56 points at Subiaco Oval in their return to football in round 14, but the score line was irrelevant.
When the siren went, the raw emotions on display showed how deeply affected the players were.
Pyke the man to steer Crows through
The Crows players still held Bailey and Walsh in their hearts, but there was a new man in charge — Don Pyke, who knew the Crows from his time as an assistant under Neil Craig and knew grand finals from his four games as a player for West Coast in the 1990s.
Pyke had been at West Coast advising on strategy, before coming back to the Crows.
His team-first focus was reassuring to the playing group, and his calm demeanour, positivity and man management skills have been just what the Crows needed.
In his first full season in 2016, Pyke led the Crows to a 15-7 record and a place in the finals.
It seemed clear the club was definitely on the way up, but the end of their season showed there was still some way to go.
Crows respond to Swans finals loss
The final impetus for the Crows came with a horror opening quarter of the 2016 semi-final at the SCG where Sydney kicked seven goals to three to set up a finals exit for Adelaide.
"We got back to the preseason and we were made to watch that first quarter … we saw some pretty raw vision of how Sydney beat us up around the ball," defender Daniel Talia told ABC this week.
"I think a lot of guys seeing that vision were almost scarred by it, and that's what's driven us all year."
How did they respond? By doubling down on being faster and fiercer, beating their opponents to the ball at every contest, and overwhelming sides with their attacking ability.
The Crows in 2017 were best at stopping teams taking marks, and fourth-best at keeping their opponents from entering forward 50 and from scoring.
Take all that, and add in the most powerful scoring unit in the AFL (by nearly 10 points a game) and the in-built advantage of the atmosphere at a packed Adelaide Oval for home games, and you can see why 2017 has been a special time for "the pride of South Australia".
A sad September for Smith, Jacobs
When it came to finals, the Crows showed no signs of stopping.
They disposed of the Giants by 36 points in the qualifying final, and then had far too much in reserve for the Cats to win by 61 points.
But even as momentum built, and the Crows moved into the finals, there were echoes of previous finals to endure.
When Adelaide won its first flag in 1997, star forward Tony Modra did his knee in the preliminary final win over the Western Bulldogs, and was left to watch as a figure in the crowd as the Crows made history with their grand final win over St Kilda.
This time it was defender Brodie Smith, who tore his ACL in an innocuous-looking contest against GWS in week one of the finals, and was a sad sight on crutches in the rooms after both games.
There was also one more reason to grieve.
The week of the bye before the first final, ruckman Sam Jacobs's older brother Aaron died, aged just 31.
Jacobs took bereavement leave before returning to the club and producing a great performance in the qualifying final, backing up with 16 possessions and 35 hit-outs against the Cats in the prelim.
When you tally the wins and losses, both on and off the field, it almost guarantees that whatever the final result on Saturday, the level of emotion for the Crows at the siren will be incredible.
Topics: sport, australian-football-league, adelaide-5000, sa, richmond-3121, melbourne-3000, vic, australia
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