ADELAIDE — Most Melburnians could tell you about the energy and gravitas of AFL Grand Final week.
Gather Round in Adelaide, though, is on a different level.
In fact one AFL insider dubbed the weekend “Grand Final week on steroids”. For while the premiership cup isn’t on the line – although the trophy has been doing the rounds as part of the promotion – there’s 18 teams, rather than two, in one city.
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Every AFL club and a legion of travelling fans have descended on Adelaide this week for the inaugural Gather Round, which sees nine games played in South Australia across four days.
And from the moment you step off the plane at Adelaide airport, the branding is unapologetically in your face.
Banners with pictures of club captains, like Marcus Bontempelli, Patrick Cripps and Touk Miller, greet you as you exit your flight’s gate. There are scarfs everywhere – both on passengers proudly parading them as well as at a striking AFL display near the terminal’s main hub.
Just before baggage claim – the only exit out of the terminal, so you can’t miss it – you walk past large pictures of 18 AFL club skippers, plus a sizeable Gather Round sticker on the ground. It feels blasphemous if you don’t take at least one photo.
Then after driving past dozens of posters on lampposts down Sir Donald Bradman Drive, you hit Rundle Mall where footy fever is front and centre. Scarfs and jumpers are everywhere – lots of Swans and Dockers colours, by the way, when this writer walked through Rundle Mall to buy groceries on Thursday night – while there’s a pop-up AFL Store next to a ridiculously large blow-up Sherrin footy. Again, it feels wrong to pass by the footy without taking a photo.
The walk across the Adelaide Oval footbridge – a landmark that has helped revolutionise the city over the past decade – as the sun set on Friday night for the Crows-Blues clash was spine-tinglingly magical. The sense of anticipation in the air was infectious as the significance of the occasion sunk in.
One local Adelaidean was talking up his city and pointing out all the landmarks to his two Carlton-supporting guests.
“What do you think of Adelaide?” he proudly asked. They loved it.
While much has been made of the Mt Barker clash between Brisbane and North Melbourne in Adelaide Hills, as well as the opportunity to show off Norwood Oval for two other matches, Adelaide Oval is ultimately central to Gather Round and its success. The venue – which combines high, modern grandstands with the famous Oval hill, trees and heritage-listed scoreboard – is hosting six of the nine matches across the long weekend, including double-headers on Saturday and Sunday.
Just over 47,000 fans created an electric atmosphere during Thursday night’s match – an energy Crows ruck Reilly O’Brien said his team fed off.
“We were pretty excited for tonight. We haven’t been on the big stage for a while,” O’Brien told foxfooty.com.au post-game.
“Adelaide Oval, I think it’s the best ground in the country and South Australia is a great footy state. It’s absolutely awesome to be able to showcase footy here for the weekend. I think it’s the perfect place to have it, so hopefully it can be here every year.”
Crows smash Carlton to open Gather Round | 02:33
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan seemed to concur the morning after, telling 3AW: ““If I’m direct, we anticipated moving it next year if it worked … but Adelaide just feels the right spot.
“I think there’s a pretty strong case to support that probably it’s got its roots down here and needs to be here for a while.”
With first-placed St Kilda and flag fancies Collingwood scheduled to play at Adelaide Oval, there were some suggestions in recent weeks for the game to be moved back to the MCG so the league could capitalise on the two teams’ hot form and the venue’s increased capacity.
But it’s clear the purpose of Gather Round — to bring fans from all over the country together to celebrate the game — supersedes any party’s desire for a few extra thousand bums on seats. Denying two in-form teams the opportunity to clash in Adelaide — the centre of the footy universe for the week — would’ve felt so wrong. It might end up being an even better spectacle than if it was played in Melbourne.
The AFL, for what it’s worth, never gave any thought to relocating the game.
There’s a pop-up AFL live site on either side of the Adelaide footbridge: One at Elder Park on the southern side of The River Torrens and another at Pinky Flat, just outside Adelaide Oval’s southern gate. If you’re keen, there’s a 150m long zip line where fans can race each other over the river.
There’s live music, entertainment and food trucks at Elder Park. But what stands out most is the site is full of families and kids, who are bouncing footballs and practising their marks. It’s a joyous site for McLachlan, who conceded on Friday morning “I’m not sure we anticipated this” level of excitement around the event.
“I think what we saw in it … it’s delivering on that and the numbers speak for themselves,” he said.
Conditions were perfect on Thursday night for both players and spectators – and that should again be the case for Friday night’s matches between Fremantle and Gold Coast at Norwood then Richmond and Sydney at Adelaide Oval.
However the weather does threaten to literally rain on the Gather Round parade for the weekend, with rain forecast late on Friday night into Saturday.
But even after one game, the AFL has a right to say its bold venture is already a success.
Perhaps Crows coach Matthew Nicks said it best with this punchy declaration at the end of his press conference: “Adelaide is rocking.”
