Securing Rory Sloane for five more years is as big for the Crows as making last year’s grand final
The re-signing of Adelaide Crows vice-captain Rory Sloane to a long-term contract with the finals now looking unlikely is as significant as making last year’s grand final.
RORY Sloane’s decision to sign a five-year contract extension with Adelaide and resist the lure of returning to Victoria is a massive show of faith in the club but says more about the person.
Who would have blamed him if at season’s end, after 170-odd games in 10 years with a club he has bled for, he decided that it was time to come home.
Sloane is from Victoria, his pregnant wife is from Victoria and there were Victorian clubs lining up to bring him back to Melbourne, presumably with big-money offers.
A man of no fuss and who shies away from attention, Sloane never wanted his contract situation to linger through the whole season but the longer it went the more nervous Crows fans grew and more sceptical the media became that he would stay.
So when the mid-season bye round passed and there was still no answer, anxiety among the fan base grew even higher.
And who could blame them after watching Jake Lever, Charlie Cameron, Patrick Dangerfield, Jack Gunston and Kurt Tippett wait until after the final round of the season to say ‘thanks, but I’m off’.
But there is something different about Sloane. Of course no two players’ personal situations are the same and that has to be noted, particularly Dangerfield’s want to go home to start a family surrounded by his own.
But maybe the appeal of being a one-club player meant more to Sloane than the others? Maybe he has felt more of a connection to the footy club than the rest? Or maybe after all this club has been through in recent years and the situation the team finds itself in now, he thought ‘how could I possibly leave?’.
“As loyal as they come,” teammate Brodie Smith Tweeted after the news this morning.
That was bang on the money.
A five-year contract for a 28-year-old coming back from a lisfranc injury is a huge show of faith from the club but if you’re the Crows and you’re not willing to throw everything you have behind a player like Sloane, Adelaide’s vice-captain. then who and when will you?
At times this season it must have felt as though the walls were falling in at West Lakes.
A painful grand final defeat, more high-profile player departures, a controversial mind-training camp that caused angst among the playing group, a horror injury list that claimed Sloane himself for 10 weeks, and now seemingly out of finals contention going into Thursday night’s clash with Geelong.
Sloane’s signature is the brightest ray of sunshine at the football club for a long time.
It’s important not to underestimate the impact Tom Lynch’s signature last month had at the Crows either. Not on Sloane’s decision but the message it sent to a supporter base that has grown increasingly concerned by what it had seen and heard this season.
But Sloane is the big one. He clearly likes living in Adelaide, believes in the club and believes in coach Don Pyke who has faced his fair share of questions this year.
The crowd at Adelaide Oval cheered the first time Sloane got the footy when he returned from injury against West Coast a fortnight ago.
Imagine what they will be like when he gets his hand on the pill against Dangerfield’s Cats on Thursday night.
Regardless of how this season ends for Adelaide - and finals now look unlikely - Sloane’s decision to put a flag in the ground and commit to the club long-term is as significant as making last year’s grand final.
Now the challenge is to get back there and finish the job.
reece.homfray@news.com.au