There were 20 seconds left on the clock, the Crows were in front against Brisbane – a team they hadn’t beaten in seven encounters – with the Lions mounting a frantic late comeback.
Brisbane had kicked two goals in less than two minutes and were suddenly kicking forward again, the Crows desperately chasing.
As precious seconds ticked down, Lions’ tall defender Jenn Dunne kicked the ball toward the goal square for another attack at goal.
In this moment, Crow Grace Kelly looked to the sky and knew she had only one thing she needed to do: mark it.
She leapt in front of a pack of players and took an excellent defensive mark, helping Adelaide hold on for a hard-earned victory on the road.
It was also the Crows’ first win against Brisbane in more than four years.
“The game was so chaotic and I saw the ball and I thought: ‘I have to get this one’ and luckily I did,” Kelly said of that match-winning moment.
“I knew there were only a few seconds left, so I was like: ‘I have to go for this’. And I had the girls helping me, because they were roaring saying, take it, take it, take it’, so that really helped me get the confidence to go for it as well.
“I knew we just needed to get a mark or something to slow the game down a bit, Brisbane just kept coming in and in and in.
“So luckily, the ball fell into my arms, and I took all the seconds I could then and kicked it long down the line to finish off the play.”
Kelly – who finished the game with 18 disposals, a game-high 426 metres gained, three marks and a goal – described the team’s win as “sweet”.
“It had been more than 1700 days since we last beat them, so that was a sweet one,” she said.
“Brisbane are always such a good competitive team. It was a scrap at times and the pressure was enormous, but everyone played their role and it was a brilliant win.”
And given the four years, five seasons and seven games between Crows victories against their rivals, it also meant that the majority of the side had never experienced a win against Brisbane.
Only nine Crows on the field on Sunday had ever beaten Brisbane - Ebony Marinoff, Sarah Allan, Eloise Jones, Caitlin Gould, Teah Charlton, Hannah Munyard, Chelsea Biddell, Grace Kelly (while playing for St Kilda) and Grace Egan (while playing for Carlton and Richmond).
But Kelly said despite the odds, the side went into the game knowing the win was possible, led by new Senior Coach Ryan Davis.
“Ryan has such belief in our group and he just instilled that in us in the week leading up to the game,” Kelly said.
“He told us to forget about the past; this is a new era for this team and we can beat anyone.”
And as the Crows now turn their attention to Fremantle at Unley Oval in Round Seven on Sunday, it’s with a belief that even as seconds tick down, this team will do all it can to win.
The Crows face the Dockers at Unley Oval on Sunday at 12.35pm.
Tickets here.
