Adelaide Crows fans are hoping for a better 2025 season after missing out on the final again this year, but the club is off to a bad start after its new logo was leaked – and immediately rejected.
The Crows have not reached the AFL final since the 2017 grand final, where the club lost to a rampaging Richmond side led by Dustin Martin at his peak.
So Adelaide is looking for a fresh approach heading into its 35th season, with a total rebrand and a move to a new home base at Thebarton Oval at the end of 2026.
The club has used a blue crow head since 2011, but has decided to go back to the past with a new design based on the design used from 1991 and 2009.
However, the image of a diving crow with the club colors flowing from its wings and tail feathers has been given modern adaptations, with sharp, slanted lines and the colors on the wings themselves.
While the leaked image is clearly a work in progress, it has still attracted a lot of attention on social media, most of it negative.
A leaked image of what the new Adelaide logo could look like as part of the club’s rebrand
Adelaide fans hope a rebrand will change the club’s fortunes after missing the AFL finals since 2017
This included Port Adelaide premiership winner Kane Cornes, who spent many years in the rivalry with the Crows.
‘New Crows logo? Hopefully not,” he posted.
Cornes also had a difference of opinion with his father about the new logo.
Graham Cornes played 369 games in the SANFL and coached Adelaide from 1991 to 1994.
“You are the best judge of these things. Thoughts?’ Kane then asked his father on social media platform X.
‘Disappointing… no sense of power or intimidation. It’s not nice the other way around either,” Graham replied.
Former Adelaide coach Graham Cornes, pictured with his children Chad and Kane when they were kids, is not a fan of the new concept art
There were plenty of football fans who agreed with the Cornes family and lined up to condemn the leaked concept art.
“I would rather see Raygun open the batting for the Australian cricket team this summer than the Crows choose this logo,” one fan raged.
“If that’s it, the Crows paid money to a design company when they could have asked any random person to design it in MS Paint,” another added.
Another fan asked, “Was that made on a Commodore 64 in 1982?”
While yet another tagged the club itself for confirmation, asking: ‘@Adelaide_FC please confirm that this hideous monstrosity will not replace our current hideous monstrosity of a logo?’
The concept art aims to put a futuristic spin on the original logo the Crows used
The original Adelaide Crows logo used by the club in the 1990s and into the 2000s
The concept was not without its supporters, however, with one fan saying social media users would have discarded the logo no matter what it looked like.
“It could be the best emblem in the world, but because it’s Adelaide’s there would still be a problem with it,” they said.
‘Much better than their current terrible logo… A bit of a throwback. I don’t mind it, but boy, it gets a lot of criticism!’ another posted.
“It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but it clearly mimics the old design, so why don’t we just go back to the old design?” asked another.
The logo won’t be the only change at the Crows next season as a roster overhaul is underway
Meanwhile, Greater Western Sydney’s Isaac Cumming will join Adelaide, with Port Adelaide conceding defeat in the race for the return.
Cumming, an unrestricted free agent, had told GWS he wanted a trade to South Australia.
After a bidding war between Adelaide and the Power, Cumming nominated the Crows as his destination on Thursday.
Cumming’s decision came as Port’s football manager Chris Davies said his club was not ‘at the front of the queue’ to secure the Giants’ Harry Perryman, who is also being courted by Collingwood.
The Power will work with Gold Coast to complete a deal for Jack Lukosius, who has been told by the Suns to explore his trade options.