AFL Gather Round live updates: Adelaide vs Carlton at Adelaide Oval — blog, scores and stats

Where has this come from?

The Blues were dominating, and suddenly the game has turned around again!

Josh Rachele is lighting up Adelaide Oval every time he touches it, and he’s grabbed his second.

Then to raise the stakes, the ball went forward again, and Taylor Walker got in behind the Carlton defence to mark.

He got crunched after, and earned a 50, and as the Crows fans go wild in the stands, Tex boots Adelaide’s fifth of the night.

We’re just into time on, this is shaping as a high-scoring one.

Crows lead by 11!

Well, that’s a response!

The home side have just bagged a brace of goals in a couple of minutes, with Alex Neal-Bullen kicking one and then Josh Rachele snapping another one from close range.

It’s back to a point, halfway through the opening quarter.

The big concern is still clearances, with Carlton leading 11-3.

This is a brilliant start from the Blues!

Carlton’s midfield are dominating, and especially at clearances.

First off, a stoppage inside forward 50 saw Adam Cerra react quickest, darting forward and taking possession – he whirled and snapped a beauty before anyone could get to him.

Then another clearance, and Ben Ainsworth kicked Carlton’s third. Time for Adelaide to respond!

Carlton may have dropped its leading possession-getter in George Hewett, but it hasn’t made a difference with clearances.

The Blues have won the first four, and although Harry McKay drops a mark inside 50, it spills out to Ben Ainsworth, and the former Sun slots it to quiet the crowd!

Solid start here at Adelaide Oval!

All right, that was better from the Crows.

They burst off half-back, and a great ball from Alex Neal-Bullen out the back to Izak Rankine, who marks, kicks and goals!

The crowd is up and about at Adelaide Oval, and the Crows lead!

That was an interesting start, with Carlton into attack early.

There were a few contests in the ruck between Marc Pittonet and Lachlan McAndrew.

Pittonet is the bigger man, and he forced a free kick with a hold from McAndrew.

Pittonet gets the set shot – but it skews off the side of the boot and misses everything.

Here we go, folks!

Gather Round number four is off and running, and there is a big, vocal crowd in position at Adelaide Oval ready to roar.

Normally we ask who will get the jump – but maybe, given certain issues the question really is: who will win the second half?

First things first, let’s see who can get the ball moving early.

• R9, 2025: Adelaide by 60 (Adelaide Oval)

• R6, 2024: Adelaide by 2 (Docklands)

• R5, 2023: Adelaide by 56 (Adelaide Oval)

• R20, 2022: Adelaide by 29 (Adelaide Oval)

• R8, 2022: Carlton by 48 (Docklands)

• R15, 2021: Carlton by 10 (Docklands)

The Crows have had the edge over Carlton in recent times, with four wins out of the last six matches — although a late goal from Sam Berry gave Adelaide a two-point victory in 2024 at Docklands.

Going back further, the Crows have won 10 out of the last 13 encounters.

This will be the fifth time the two teams have met at Adelaide Oval since the Crows moved here from Football Park in 2014.

So far the Blues are yet to beat them at the ground.

Phillip,

Carlton have the 15th best attack and 16th best defence in the AFL.

The Crows have the 12th best attack but the fifth best defence.

Not just on the numbers but the season’s evidence so far, I would think that Adelaide has more chance of scoring, and more chance of shutting down the opposition.

So as things stand, I reckon the Crows should get the chocolates – but come back to me after a half (or three quarters) of footy, and I might have changed my mind!

When you’re the opening act of a big festival, there’s plenty of pressure to perform — and this certainly is the case for the Crows and the Blues.

Both teams are 1-3 going into this round, and another defeat would be a big blow to either club’s season.

Talk is already flying about Michael Voss’s future at Carlton — a bad loss in front of a national audience would not be good.

Matthew Nicks is not quite under the same pressure (yet), but the Crows can’t afford to be left adrift in the lower reaches of the ladder.

They also need to get the balance right with Gather Round.

As one of two home sides, they are close to the headline act of the round. The first year, 2023, they beat Carlton by 56 points to get the whole process off to a banging start.

Since then, however, it’s been more of a struggle. Adelaide lost to Melbourne in 2024, and last year they went down to Geelong by 19 points.

A win tonight would serve a dual purpose — kicking off Gather Round with a positive result for the team and settling things down at the start of an interesting few weeks.

The Crows have St Kilda at Adelaide Oval next week, followed by a trip to the Gabba to face Brisbane, and then back home for a Showdown against Port Adelaide.

Cricket journalist and author, footy tragic – and Adelaide resident – Bharat Sundaresan has given the AFL his tips for visitors to Adelaide for Gather Round, and they’re pretty spot-on.

To which I would only add, check out the “boulevard”, otherwise known as North Terrace in the city (walking distance from Adelaide Oval), with the State Library, SA Museum and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

Or if you want to while away an hour or two away from Footy Central, hop on the tram to check out Glenelg.

There is one thing I would recommend this weekend for footy fans – check out the Footy Festival at Elder Park, and in particular for those who fancy themselves a superboot, try Torp the Torrens, which will be happening between 3 and 6pm each day.

There are no late changes to either side for this big game.

That might be because there were plenty of changes named when the initial sides came out last night.

The Crows have made four changes from the team that lost to Fremantle last week.

The dual ruck experiment has apparently ended, with Reilly O’Brien omitted along with Chayce Jones and Hugh Bond.

Luke Pedlar (concussion) also misses the game. Into the line-up comes Rory Laird, Isaac Cumming, Mitchell Hinge and Luke Nankervis.

The big news on the Carlton side is the omission of reigning club best-and-fairest George Hewett. Also missing are key defender Jacob Weitering (concussion) and Will Hayward, who was suspended for his strike to North Melbourne’s George Wardlaw.

That’s an important set of outs. Into the side come Nick Haynes and Zac Williams, along with ruck Hudson O’Keeffe.

This time of year Adelaide, post the Mad March period with all the arts festivals is a beautiful place to be.

But it seems this year SA might be importing some weather from across the border for Gather Round.

Cooler, damp conditions are expected – so far in Adelaide there has been 11.6mm of rain since 9am, although the skies have cleared for a lovely sunset.

“Whilst the opening siren might be relatively dry, we could start to see some increasing showers during the game as that cold front does approach and cross. So, could be a little bit wet and there might be some moderate … winds as well,” according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Ellie Mathews.

Let’s get things in perspective — we’re not talking about downpours or heavy conditions, but it will be a bit cooler than previous Gather Rounds if the forecast is right – although things are expected to calm down for Saturday and Sunday.

You can read more about it in the story below:

The crowd is building nicely, and the fans are coming in their throngs over the footbridge to Adelaide Oval.

Hello, good evening and welcome to ABC’s live online coverage of AFL’s Gather Round.

This four-day festival of footy gets bigger and better every year, and once again all roads (and flights) lead to Adelaide.

The players, coaches and fans are descending on the City of Churches for nine games split between the city centre, the suburbs and the Barossa.

To kick things off, we have a fascinating encounter in prospect between a pair of 1-3 teams — Adelaide and Carlton — desperate to get back on track.

I’m Andrew McGarry and I’ll be bringing you all the action tonight.

It should be a great start to the round, so let’s jump in!