Adelaide list boss Justin Reid must provide ‘solutions’ following the exit of head coach Don Pyke
Crows list manager Justin Reid must pick up the pieces of a fractured list after coach Don Pyke’s exit and one of his first tasks will be what to do with forward Josh Jenkins.
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Don Pyke’s dignified exit has appeased player tensions but Josh Jenkins remains in limbo as list guru Justin Reid is left to plot Adelaide’s next premiership list.
Overlooked for the last month of the Crows’ disappointing season, Jenkins remains on the outer at West Lakes. There is currently little clamour from rivals to prise Jenkins away — commanding big money until 2021.
The man who presided over Jenkins’ five-year Crows deal in 2016 — list manager Reid — would have to work a way out of Adelaide for the power forward. If respected Pyke couldn’t provide ‘solutions’ for a fractured playing group then Reid will have to.
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Should no trade be arranged for 147-game utility Jenkins, 30, that suits Adelaide’s draft regeneration then its next coach could be left with a million-dollar SANFL castaway. Darcy Fogarty and Taylor Walker finished as Adelaide’s first choice forwards this season while 198cm Elliott Himmelberg, 21, is also in the queue.
There is a leadership vacuum at Adelaide with Pyke gone, chairman Rob Chapman stepping down in the imminent future and head of football Brett Burton under pressure through dual external and internal club reviews.
Reid will chart a strategic course through the two-week review then crucial trade period as the Crows search for a ninth senior coach that can break a 21-year flag drought.
Rory Laird, Brodie Smith and Wayne Milera are regarded as linchpins in Adelaide’s next premiership tilt. A new era at Adelaide and fresh voice should dispel doubts over contracted All Australian Laird’s commitment to the long haul despite linked to a Geelong move.
Hugh Greenwood’s future at Adelaide is linked to what it could gain in any trade for Brad Crouch, a restricted free agent next year. If Crouch, 25, did depart home to Melbourne after a career-best campaign in exchange for a first-round draft pick it would free up salary cap space. Former basketballer Greenwood covets a three-year deal with a trigger for a fourth but Adelaide is offering two years.
Greenwood’s management dismissed a reported $750,000 per season move to Gold Coast — when asked by The Advertiser — explaining the midfielder genuinely “wants to remain at Adelaide”.
The Crows are finally abandoning their stubborn stance against bottoming out which reflects letting Alex Keath undergo medicals in Melbourne. St Kilda and Western Bulldogs are scrapping for the crack defender’s $600,000 signature.
Late AFL converts Keath and Greenwood desire the security of long term contracts entering their late twenties but don’t fit Adelaide’s youth agenda. Extended contracts handed to Eddie Betts and Bryce Gibbs have come back to bite the Crows.
Betts has not submitted a request to leave Adelaide but that move would be accommodated — if like Jenkins — a suitor will take on the bulk of a $550,000 wage. Betts’s preferred destination club is Carlton while Gold Coast remains an option — though unpalatable — for the 316 game goalsneak. Adelaide broke convention in January 2017 offering then 30-year-old Betts a three-year contract extension.
Adelaide maintains any narrative around a player ‘exodus’ shouldn’t be confused with its pursuit of list regeneration as the club reviews unfold.