The 1997 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 1997. It was the 101st annual grand final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the premiers for the 1997 AFL season. The match, attended by 99,645 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 31 points, marking that club's first premiership victory. Background The Saints were playing in their first premiership decider since losing the 1971 VFL Grand Final, and looking to win just their second premiership after their famous one-point win against in 1966, while the Crows were appearing in their first Grand final since entering the competition in 1991. It had been a very even home and away season, with St Kilda finishing on top of the AFL ladder after 22 rounds, winning the McClelland Trophy. Their record of 15 wins and 7 losses was the lowest season tally to win the award in the modern era. The Saints had won their last seven matches to overtake and claim top spot by percentage. Adelaide, who had brought in Malcolm Blight as coach and future coach Neil Craig as fitness advisor, had finished fourth with 13 wins and 9 losses. They had made the finals for only the second time in their club history, after losing in a preliminary final in 1993 to eventual premiers Essendon. Tony Modra was the club's leading goalkicker for the fifth straight season with a total of 84. The finals series was contested using the McIntyre final eight system. Adelaide won their qualifying final encounter against West Coast at Football Park by 33 points. They won their second final, also at Football Park, by 8 points against Geelong, in a game perhaps best remembered for a crucial mark not being paid to Geelong's Leigh Colbert during a critical period in the third quarter. The Crows then progressed to a preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, in which they trailed for most of the match. The Bulldogs' Tony Liberatore famously celebrated what he thought was a winning goal early in the last quarter, but it was a behind; Adelaide then scored the last four goals of the match to snatch victory by 2 points. However, in this game, Adelaide lost