Adelaide to stand by Brett Burton and Matt Hass after sliding from grand finalist to missing the finals

ADELAIDE is backing in its key football department staff with Brett Burton and Matt Hass both staying on in their current roles next year despite the club’s shock slide this season.

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ADELAIDE is backing in its key football department staff with Brett Burton and Matt Hass both set to remain in their current roles next year despite the club’s shock slide this season.

As the Crows continue their internal review into what led them going from grand finalist to missing the finals this year, it’s understood management will resist making wholesale changes to fitness staff and key decision makers.

There have been public calls for heads to roll at Adelaide but both chairman Rob Chapman and chief executive Andrew Fagan are expected to confirm the club wants stability and will stand by its men when the Crows play their final home game of the year against North Melbourne on Sunday.

The game coincides with the club celebrating the 20th anniversary of its last premiership in 1998 and former players are gathering for a reunion at Adelaide Oval.

Head of football Burton and high performance manager Hass - who is contracted for next year - both started in their current roles in November, 2016, and the Crows are taking a big-picture view of their results after the team had a dream run with injury and made last year’s grand final.

But they endured a horror injury toll this year which was triggered by a revamped pre-season which backfired with a spate of hamstring injuries to key players including Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts and Matt Crouch.

The club also abandoned its partnership with Collective Mind mid-year after a pre-season mind training camp upset some players and was becoming an ongoing distraction.

Burton and Pyke in June when the club confirmed it had parted ways with Collective Mind. Picture: Calum Robertson.

But the club has however been buoyed by a spate of key re-signings this season led by Rory Sloane who resisted big money offers to return to Victoria and signed a five-year deal to remain a Crow for life.

Just as significant was retaining key trio Tom Lynch and All-Australian defenders Rory Laird and Brodie Smith who all re-signed until 2021, as well as gun youngsters Darcy Fogarty, Jordan Gallucci and veterans Richard Douglas and David Mackay who committed to new deals.

Contract: David Mackay has signed a one-year extension https://t.co/oxu4TB6tw7 #weflyasone pic.twitter.com/MkYEyIlekv

— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) August 16, 2018

Senior coach Don Pyke also re-signed until 2021 but there are expected to be some changes to his coaching panel for next year.

Ryan O’Keefe is expected to leave after being told his contract will not be renewed while Ben Hart and Tate Kaesler are out of contract but a decision is yet to be made on their roles.

Josh Francou, Scott Camporeale and Matthew Clarke - who will combine his ruck coaching with coaching Adelaide’s AFLW side - are all signed for 2019.

Adelaide’s Mitch McGovern marks against the Demons. Picture: Sarah Reed

Emerging key forward Mitch McGovern re-signed last year until 2020 but there has been speculation he may ask for a trade to a Victorian-based club.

McGovern’s manager Colin Young strongly denied that suggestion in June but if McGovern decides he wants out it could help the Crows become a major player in the off-season as they look to load up on early draft picks to target home-grown stars Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine.

Pyke this week confirmed the club’s hierarchy had started reviewing the season and planning for next year.

“That process is starting, we’re facing two weeks left then exiting players around off-season programs so we’ll start to think ‘what have we learnt this year?’ ‘how do we want to structure our pre-season next year?’ there is an extra week at Christmas to consider and our lead into JLT.

“What we learnt from this year’s training to make sure we give ourselves the very best chance next year to bounce back to play the sort of footy consistently that we haven’t been able to this year.”

Adelaide may also target a ruckman in the trade period with Sam Jacobs’ body beginning to show signs of fatigue after an enormous workload in the past eight years and back-up big-man Reilly O’Brien is yet to be proven at AFL level.

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