The Brisbane Lions will put their standing as the No.1 ‘away’ team in the AFL on the line as they confront a possible record crowd at Adelaide Oval tonight (Friday).

Such is the build-up to the clash between the second-placed Lions and the third-placed Adelaide Crows that local officials are tipping the ground’s record attendance of 53,817 will fall.

Oddly, that figure was set in the Crows’ 2017 preliminary final win over Geelong when now Brisbane tearaway Charlie Cameron kicked five goals in his last home game for his former club.

It’s going to take something special, given the official Adelaide Oval capacity is listed at 53,583 on the website of Austadiums.

Regardless, the Lions can expect a hostile welcome from a home crowd convinced the Crows are on track for their first finals appearance since 2017, when they lost by eight goals to Richmond in the grand final in Cameron’s last game in red and blue.

The Crows have a 6-1 record at Adelaide Oval this year, losing only to Geelong while beating St.Kilda, North, GWS, Carlton, Port Adelaide and West Coast, and are 2-3 away, with wins over Essendon and Sydney and losses to Gold Coast, Collingwood and Fremantle.

They are the highest-scoring team in the League, averaging 103.75 points, and have the best percentage at 139.3%. Brisbane are ranked 7^th in scoring at 88.75 points per game, and are 6^th in percentages at 114.0%.

But a hot reception in Adelaide won’t be anything new for a Brisbane side which, without any sort of recognition across the competition, has built a phenomenal 13-1-1 record on the road since Round 15 last year.

It’s a run that began at Adelaide Oval in Round 15 last year when the Lions beat Port Adelaide by 79 points in Harris Andrews’ 200^th game.

Since then their only away loss was by a solitary point to Collingwood at the MCG in Round 23 last year, when then led by 18 points 12 minutes from full-time.

The loss to the Pies in the 2023 grand final re-match came after Brisbane had beaten West Coast in Perth by 13 points, Gold Coast at Carrara by 28 points and St.Kilda at Marvel Stadium by 85 points, and before three ‘away’ finals wins against GWS by four points in Sydney, Geelong by 10 points at the MCG and Sydney by 60 points at the MCG in the grand final.

This year the Lions’ away record sees a four-point SCG win over Sydney, a 28-point MCG win over Richmond, a 21-point Gather Round win over the Bulldogs at Norwood, a 45-point Marvel win over St.Kilda, a draw with North Melbourne in Hobart and 33-point win over Hawthorn at the MCG.

Brisbane’s 13-1-1 record in their last 15 ‘away’ games is two wins and a draw better than the next best in the League over 15 travel games – Geelong’s 10-5 – and three wins better than Collingwood’s 9-1-5.

Noting that for most Victorian-based clubs, 15 ‘travel’ games stretches back to 2023, Carlton, Gold Coast, GWS and Hawthorn are 8-7, followed by Fremantle, Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Sydney at 7-8, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs at 6-9, Adelaide and St.Kilda at 5-10, Richmond at 4-11 and North Melbourne 2-1-12.

After the Lions started 2-9 and 3-8 away under Fagan in 2017-18, they’ve gone 6-5, 5-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-7, 10-1-4 and 5-1-0 from 2019-25 in what has been a huge part of the club’s resurrection under the veteran coach.

More definitively, after a 5-17 start (22.7%) under Fagan the Lions have gone 45-1-32 (58.3%).

A scouting report on the Crows says they have six players who will play tonight averaging more than 20 possessions a game – Rory Laird and captain Jordan Dawson (24.2), Izak Rankine (22.5), Jake Soligo (21.5), James Peatling (20.4) and Josh Worrell (20.3).

Plus, they have six players averaging better than a goal a game through 12 games – Darcy Fogarty (28), Riley Thilthorpe (27), ex-Lion Ben Keays and Josh Rachele (20), Taylor Walker (19) and Rankine (15).

Dawson is third in voting for the Coaches Association Player of the Year Award with 54 votes, behind only Geelong’s Bailey Smith (59) and Gold Coast’s Noah Anderson (55), and ahead of Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage and North’s Tristan Xerri (49), Melbourne’s Max Gawn (47, Collingwood’s Nick Daicos and Fremantle’s Caleb Serong (45), Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom (43), Bulldogs’ Ed Richards (41), Essendon’s Zach Merrett and Brisbane’s Lachie Neale (40).

Brisbane have gone 4-1-5 at Adelaide Oval under Fagan, and are 3-1-6 against the Crows through the same period. But after taking the points in their only meetings in 2017-18 at the Gabba they’ve gone LLLLWLDL in their last eight meetings.

Lachie Neale, set for his 150^th game in Brisbane colours, holds not only the Brisbane possession record at Adelaide Oval but also the ground record for his 46 in a 2021 qualifying loss to Melbourne.

Eric Hipwood and Charlie Cameron share the club goals record at the ground with five - Hipwood against Port Adelaide there last year after Cameron in the final against Melbourne.

Dayne Zorko heads the club Brownlow Medal votes at Adelaide Oval, having polled five times for nine votes, while Darwin-born Zac Bailey, who finished in schooling in Adelaide and played for SANFL club Norwood, has polled twice for five votes.

Jarryd Lyons, ranked #7 in possession and #4 in clearances in the SANFL this year playing at Glenelg with younger brother and fellow ex-Lion Corey, also has five votes for Brisbane at Adelaide Oval, while Neale (3), Stefan Martin (3), Oscar McInerney (2), Cameron (1), Lincoln McCarthy (1), Hipwood (1), McCluggage (1) and Mitch Robinson (1) have each polled there once.

Tonight’s game will be a special one for Zorko and brother-in-law Ryan Lester. It will be Zorko’s 290^th game, Lester’s 220^th and the 200^th in which they have played together.

Levi Ashcroft will play his first AFL game at Adelaide Oval, and brother Will be looking for his first win there, having started 0-2 in the City of Churches.