Adelaide Crows’ count for Malcolm Blight Medal will have greater focus on AFL club’s future than 2017 season

RORY Sloane is favoured to win his third Malcolm Blight Medal on Friday night, but his future is still the topic of the moment.

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RORY Sloane will win his third Malcolm Blight Medal — or, as the 2016 club champion, drape fellow Crows midfielder Matt Crouch with his first gold jacket tonight.

But it will be what Sloane says about his future — rather than his reflections on Adelaide’s season — that will echo most from the Adelaide Convention Centre this evening.

Sloane, 27, is out of contract next season. He also is a free agent. And — as his wife Belinda builds her television career in Melbourne — there is the question of whether the Crows vice-captain is to be the next high-profile Adelaide player to make a go-home move.

If Sloane adds a third Malcolm Blight Medal to his resume — after winning the club champion in 2013 and last season — his acceptance speech will be the most scrutinised of the 27 since the first by Mark Mickan in 1991.

Rory Sloane is one of the favourites for a third Malcolm Blight Medal. Picture: Mark Stewart

Matt Crouch is expected to be Sloane’s main contender for the gold jacket. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Adelaide’s club champion count is heavily tinged by the events of the past week, starting with the grand final loss to Richmond on Saturday and young defender Jake Lever’s exit on Tuesday. And the night will carry more interest about the club’s future rather than the season past — such as Sloane, club chairman Rob Chapman and the inevitable contract extension for coach Don Pyke.

Sloane starts the count as the favourite based on his polling in the Brownlow Medal — and, more significantly, the AFL Coaches Association award that highlights how Pyke rated his players this season.

Sloane was Adelaide’s lead votegetter in the Brownlow Medal with 20 — nine more than Crouch, who had his best season as noted with his first-up All-Australian selection. Sloane did not get the nod from the All-Australian selectors this year when he was subjected to extreme tagging as opposition coaches noted how he was the clutch to the Crows game.

Sloane ranked third in the coaches’ award (behind winner Dustin Martin and 2016 Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield). Sloane polled 78 votes, 10 more than Crouch who ranked eighth across the 18-team competition.

The coaches’ vote is based on a 5-4-3-2-1 from each senior coach in each AFL game. But the Crows club champion count has every player scored on a 0-4 rating in each of Adelaide’s 25 games this season, increasing the prospect of Crouch outpolling Sloane.

Adelaide’s count should highlight the rise of defender Rory Laird, another player falling out of contract next season — along with Sloane and Crouch.

Laird earned his first All-Australian selection this season. He was not on the top-10 leaderboard last year, but should be in the top five in tonight’s count.

Lever’s manager Ned Guy has declared the 21-year-old defender intends to take up his seat at tonight’s count despite the heavy remarks from the club’s administration since Lever asked to be traded to Melbourne next week.

Lever was one of Adelaide’s club-record eight nominees for All-Australian honours this season, highlighting how his name will be repeatedly called in the rundown of votes. The reception this draws makes the Crows’ club champion count carry more attention than in recent seasons.

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