Eddie Betts says Bryce Gibbs will prove the icing on the cake for Adelaide’s AFL premiership tilt
LAST year Adelaide fell at the final hurdle but Eddie Betts, himself approaching a special milestone, believes former Blues teammate Bryce Gibbs can propel the Crows a step further.
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EDDIE Betts believes Bryce Gibbs will prove the missing link in Adelaide’s premiership puzzle while vice-captain Rory Sloane will remain at West Lakes in a 2018 quest for redemption.
Betts says 231-game star Gibbs’ true value will be showcased at Adelaide, unshackled from perennial AFL struggler Carlton.
“Gibbsy will be great for us, (he) has that experience, a No.1 draft pick with great confidence in his ability,” Betts told The Advertiser.
“Coming to the Crows it will take a lot of pressure off him. At Carlton he is the one who would get locked down all the time. Gibbsy comes to a midfield that has Rory Sloane, Matt and Brad Crouch. I think he will play freely and enjoy his footy.”
Betts lauded the silver service Gibbs, 28, will provide for Adelaide’s league leading attack.
“It is great to have Gibbsy, a top player,” said triple All-Australian Betts.
“We eventually got him back. He has been hitting me up in training out of the middle and I said ‘I want them like that all year!’”
Betts said losing defender Jake Lever to Melbourne and Charlie Cameron to Brisbane from the side crushed by Richmond in last year’s AFL grand final was a blow. However, Betts noted the quality coming in.
“We lose Jake and Charlie but we didn’t have Mitch McGovern who will play forward. Brodie Smith can play a halfback role and we gain Bryce Gibbs on top of that,” said 277-game favourite Betts.
“Gibbs can push forward. When I mark around 45 metres he will get that hand pass.”
Sloane, 27, will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end and subject of multi-million go home deals from suitors headlined by Collingwood and St Kilda.
Betts can’t contemplate a future without dual club champion Sloane at West Lakes, saying: “Sloaney will stay, will be good, he’ll be all right. Sloaney is the face of Adelaide, a great man.”
Betts is relishing Adelaide’s 2018 season launch on Monday where an official line is drawn through the grand final heartache against Richmond. Adelaide’s forwards managed just three goals against the Tigers at the MCG and Taylor Walker’s men are fixed on collective atonement.
“It will hurt for a long time until you win one. I haven’t watched the game over and will focus on 2018 and what we can do differently to win,” Betts said.
“It was disappointing how it ended. We have to move past that and achieve something great this year.”
Betts said the Crows were humming in preparation for the “fast and flowing” seven a side AFLX opener against Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong, Port Adelaide and West Coast at Hindmarsh Stadium on February 15.
“We’re looking pretty good, I am pretty excited for what this year brings,” said Betts.
EDDIE EYES SPECIAL MILESTONE
Betts says joining a select band of indigenous wonders in the AFL’s exclsuive 300-game club would mean he’s on track to end Adelaide’s flag drought this season.
Adelaide’s 277-game superstar will have to remain fit and firing to reach a special milestone Betts never envisaged growing up Port Lincoln.
Betts would be “humbled” to join Adam Goodes (372), Shaun Burgoyne (347), Andrew McLeod (340), Michael O’Loughlin (303), and Gavin Wanganeen (300) in reaching AFL’s 300 suite.
“It would be pretty special. Look at those guys - it is an elite group, it would be pretty unbelievable,” said Betts, who debuted for Carlton in 2005.
“I will have to play every game and stay injury-free which would be great.
“Leaving Carlton and playing five years at Adelaide in the best form of my career, I am really enjoying it.”
Betts, 31, believes he has plenty more to give for Adelaide but concedes a gruelling pre-season and game-day battering “takes it toll”.
“It is more the recovery because when it comes to games I am loving it,” said Betts ahead of Adelaide’s season launch, open to the public from 4pm at West Lakes on Monday.
“I am enjoying watching the young kids develop at Adelaide. Next season I will be playing with kids born in the 2000s, that’s crazy and showing how old I am.”
Betts says he would have been lost without an AFL career which highlighted the importance of education for his people.
“I started from a fair way back. I didn’t have the right education, couldn’t read or write, so to play 300 games, the journey I have taken, I am one of the lucky ones,” said Betts, who can’t wait to welcome another milestone - twins with wife Anna - this year.
“I am so glad I had AFL footy.”
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