The Lions were coming off their first Finals appearance in five years while the Crows were probably unlucky not to reach last year’s Preliminary Final.
Fast forward to the eve of Round 9 and both clubs find themselves in precarious positions.
Despite starting the season with four straight wins, the Lions have since suffered four consecutive losses and have slipped outside the top eight.
Meanwhile, Adelaide sit 15th after just one win from their eight games so far this season and are in desperate need of four premiership points to keep their slim Finals hopes alive.
Lions Assistant Coach Jade Rawlings believes facing the Crows at their home ground is a far more daunting task than their current ladder position might suggest.
“Playing Adelaide at Football Park has always been one of the toughest trips you can make in football,” Rawlings said.
“They have shown some really good signs recently in their past two home games against Port Adelaide and Richmond and last week they finished with a flurry with seven goals in the last quarter against North Melbourne.”
“They still have so many good players,” he said.
Rawlings believes the Lions’ main focus remains on themselves and finding a way to arrest a four-game slump which has seen the team fall from second place to 9th over the past month.
“There are a few parts of our game that we have identified, and we’ll confront them with how we train this week and hopefully put them in place on Sunday,” he said.
“We’ve reviewed the game thoroughly from last weekend - and the last four weeks - and we’ve come up with some things that we’ll work on this weekend.”
“Hopefully it leads to us being able to perform better than we have been.”
The Lions will fly to Adelaide on Friday afternoon in the lead-up to Sunday’s crucial clash with the Crows.
