Round 2, 2001
Adelaide vs Melbourne
Saturday 7 April
Venue: Football Park
Attendance: 35,653
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Adelaide | 2.3 | 3.7 | 7.11 | 11.14.80 |
| Melbourne | 3.3 | 9.6 | 11.10 | 12.11.83 |
Melbourne win by 3 points
Goalkickers: Russell Robertson 3, Cameron Bruce 2, Andrew Leoncelli 2, David Schwarz 2, Ben Beams 1, David Neitz 1, Adem Yze 1
Brownlow votes:
3 - Andrew Leoncelli
2 - Peter Walsh
Best and Fairest
31 - Andrew Leoncelli
28 - Russell Robertson
26 - Peter Walsh
19 - Jeff White
13 - Anthony McDonald
11 - Nathan Brown
5 - Brent Grgic
Milestones:
First game
Darren Jolly
150 games
Anthony Ingerson (also with Adelaide)
The Dees were back in the winners circle, but it was a close run thing. Melbourne survived constant pressure from the Crows in the early minutes that only led to two behinds, before converting their first two shots. A four goal blast in the second quarter had the visitors as far as 35 in front at half time on a wet night.
Adelaide reduced the margin to 23 at the last change, then kicked 4.3 to 0.1 to take the lead. Ward had done an excellent job nullifying Andrew McLeod before the Crow champion erupted in the second half to help drag his side back into the game, and a Simon Goodwin goal with 30 seconds left put the Crows in front. Adelaide won the centre bounce contest, but Daniel Ward took possession and kicked forward for a boundary throw in. David Schwarz thumped a hitout into the path of an unmarked Andrew Leoncelli, who finished a dominant night with a goal on the run. It was only Melbourne's second score of the quarter. There were just three seconds left when time was stopped, making it one of the latest goals the club has ever kicked to win a game. It would have come as a relief to the punter who'd invested $7000 on Melbourne to win at half time to win just $490.
Leoncelli said he didn't have any idea how much time was left, and the winning moment was not a set play but a spur of the moment decision between he and Schwarz. He realised that there was space goalside, and got a wink from Schwarz that suggested he knew it too. As the ball was thrown in, Leoncelli drifted between two Adelaide players and towards goals and was on the end of perfect delivery from Schwarz.
Neale Daniher said "I thought our first half was really good and then our work rate fell away. The Crows were playing winning footy and we were just hoping the siren would go. We'll learn a good lesson from that."
Melbourne's cheer squad banner read "Adelaide, you are the weakest link - Goodbye" but the win would be Melbourne's last Football Park before it was closed in 2013, and they didn't win another premiership game in South Australia until Round 7, 2014.
Best were Leoncelli, Robertson and Walsh. Luke Williams replaced Brad Green (food poisoning) in the selected side.
Media
AFANA News 2001
Age - 08/04/2001
Sunday Mail - 08/04/2001
Herald Sun - 09/04/2001
Australian - 09/04/2001
Advertiser - 10/04/2001
Age - 10/04/2001
Herald Sun - 11/04/2001