Rory Sloane will be Adelaide’s solo skipper next year, and three names should join him in the leadership group
Everything points to Rory Sloane as Crows captain next year, but there are three new names who should join him in the leadership group, including a vice-captain from left-field, writes Reece Homfray.
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Everything points to Rory Sloane as Adelaide’s solo skipper next year, but if the club goes all-in with its regeneration there will be significant change to its leadership group and a new vice-captain appointed from left-field.
At his first press conference as Crows coach in October, Matthew Nicks mentioned Sloane as a leader because of the way he plays.
“He likes to put his head in a hole and enjoys the fight, and we have a lot of kids who are already learning from him,” Nicks said.
Then in his first extensive interview with The Advertiser in November, Nicks mentioned Sloane because of what he stands for off the field as well.
“I had Rory Sloane come in and sit with me, and we’ve spent more time together than most, obviously, and Sloaney’s first question to me was ‘what do you need from me?’” Nicks said.
“I said ‘you be you, you’ve got what we need, we need to bring more along and encourage that in others’.
“His strength is about team.”
Adelaide is yet to nail down an exact process for selecting its captain for 2020 after Taylor Walker announced he was stepping down from Sloane’s side this year, but a decision is not expected until January at the earliest.
In previous years players have voted on their leadership group and the captain has been chosen by the coach, then endorsed by the board and that is not expected to change.
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This year’s group included Sloane and Walker, supported by Richard Douglas, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch, Daniel Talia and Matt Crouch without naming a vice-captain.
Douglas is now retired, Jenkins - who wasn’t attending leadership meetings in the second half of the season - was traded to Geelong and Tom Lynch and Daniel Talia both turn 30 and 29 respectively next year.
Crouch should be retained given he turns 25 in April, has been in the leadership group since 2017 and is entering the prime of his career.
But if Adelaide’s eye to the future extends beyond just its playing list and to its next generation of leaders, then three names in particular should be strongly considered and one of them as Sloane’s vice-captain.
Tom Doedee is 22 and has played just 21 games because of a knee reconstruction, but his standing at the club is unquestioned.
A first-round draft pick, he had to earn his spot in the SANFL and when he got it in 2018 he finished second in the AFL’s rising star.
But it’s his level of maturity, his leadership off the field (he won the Crows’ community leadership award this season), the way he plays like a defensive general and the way he speaks that screams he is a leader in waiting.
If Sloane - who turns 30 before the start of next season and is contracted until 2023 - continues in the top job for at least the next three seasons, then Doedee will be 25 and primed to take over by then.
Doedee was already contracted for 2019 when he inked a two-year extension in a show of intent in 2018, keeping him on the books at West Lakes until 2021 at least.
If the Crows want to go full ‘new coach, new start, new look’ then Doedee should be elevated to the leadership group and even named as Sloane’s right-hand man.
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Then there is Brodie Smith whose influence on the group, experience after some dramatic highs and crushing lows in 167 games and importance to the team as an All-Australian defender who should see more midfield time in 2020 is another who should be elevated to a new-look leadership panel.
At 27, he has plenty of good footy in him and is a perfect conduit between the old guard and the new kids on the block at Adelaide.
The other player who should be considered for the same reasons as Smith is his defensive cohort Luke Brown.
Brown, also 27, is one of the most respected players on Adelaide’s list and no longer goes under the radar from the opposition or footy public having earned the nickname ‘the glove’.
He is softly spoken, but demonstrates everything Nicks is preaching at Adelaide about team-first in the way he plays and his time as a leader may now have arrived.
That’s not to say Talia or Lynch shouldn’t form part of it, but there is a common theme emanating from Adelaide this summer and it’s young and fresh.
The captaincy is not always a fait accompli.
When Phil Walsh arrived at Adelaide for the 2015 season most expected Sloane or Patrick Dangerfield to replace Nathan van Berlo as skipper.
Instead, Walsh went with gut instinct and appointed Walker, which proved a very good move.
This time, however, is different.
Sloane is an incumbent having been co-captain last year, is absolutely about the team before the individual, signed a five-year deal when he could have taken more money to return to Victoria and plays the way a captain should.
Adelaide’s only premiership captain Mark Bickley expects that to be rubber-stamped whenever the club is ready.
The bigger question is: who will be joining him, and who will be groomed to eventually take over?
It might be time to take a calculated punt on Tom.
reece.homfray@news.com.au