AFL 2021: All the latest Adelaide Crows news ahead of Round 9
With two key areas in mind, Adelaide is considering taking two players in the AFL mid-season draft. Here are 5 prospects the Crows could look at.
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The mid-season rookie draft is coming at an opportune time for a Crows side searching for small forward depth and speed.
Adelaide has three available list spots and is considering taking two players on June 2, in part due to Lachlan Murphy’s long-term ankle problem.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said on Thursday the club was already planning to target a small forward or midfield speed, even before Murphy’s eight-to-10-week injury in the Showdown on Saturday night.
Adelaide, sitting 14th with a 3-5 record, has just James Rowe, Shane McAdam and Tariek Newchurch available as genuine small forward options to face West Coast in Perth on Sunday.
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Ned McHenry was ruled out with concussion and Adelaide cut ties with Tyson Stengle in March because of off-field indiscretions.
“We’d like to add a couple, possibly,” Nicks said.
“We want to have a look at that forward area – a little bit more zip and a bit more polish in our forward half.
“You can find midfielders that are sort of in the same mould.”
Here are five players the Crows may consider targeting:
Eamon Wilkinson (South Adelaide)
Could he be the Beau McCreery of this year’s mid-season draft?
Five months after Collingwood drafted tackling machine McCreery, his former Panthers teammate Wilkinson might appeal to clubs searching for similar traits.
He ranks first in the SANFL for forward-50 tackles after six rounds and is the youngest member of this year’s state team.
Wilkinson, 20, has AFL qualities and has seven majors to his name this season.
Hayden Sampson (South Adelaide)
Sampson joining the Crows would be fitting – his dad Clay was in the club’s 1997 premiership team.
The 20-year-old is classy, quick and can play as an outside midfielder who can run and carry the footy.
Overlooked in the 2018 drafts, Sampson has been in form this season and is also in the state squad.
Zane Williams (Woodville-West Torrens)
AFL recruiters have inquired to the Eagles about the 182cm small forward, who is averaging 12.4 disposals, 1.4 goals and 3.2 tackles this season.
Williams showed his wares against the Crows in their SANFL clash last month, booting four majors in an 83-point Woodville-West Torrens victory.
Eligible to be drafted since 2019, he is quick and aggressive.
Corey Preston (Eastern Ranges)
Preston is a Victorian forward/midfielder who boasts attributes Adelaide seems to be looking for.
The 18-year-old was a draft bolter last season and trained with Western Bulldogs over summer in the hope of earning a spot via the Supplemental Selection Period.
Preston is a strong overhead mark for his size, a neat kick and is quick, clocking 3.03 secs in the 20m sprint at last year’s combine testing.
In his NAB League debut this season, Preston shone, kicking four goals and registering 18 disposals in an eye-catching performance.
Oliver Davis (Crows SANFL)
Davis is not a small forward or quick.
But the Tasmanian 18-year-old is on the Crows’ radar as an inside midfielder who has been training with the club and aligned to its SANFL side.
Considered unlucky not to be drafted last year after winning Clarence’s best-and-fairest and the state league’s rising star award, Davis made his debut for Adelaide’s reserves on Saturday.
He registered 13 touches, six tackles and six clearances.
It is believed he looms as more of an outside chance to be taken.
REASON FOR TEX REST, MORE CROUCH CONCERNS
Adelaide is resting veteran spearhead Taylor Walker for Sunday’s away clash with West Coast and is concerned about Matt Crouch’s groin injury.
Walker, who sits second in the Coleman Medal race with 27 goals but has kicked just two in the past fortnight, will sit out for the first time this season as part of a management plan.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said the decision was not injury-related.
Billy Frampton, Shane McAdam and Chayce Jones are in the frame to replace Walker, Lachlan Murphy (ankle) and Ned McHenry (concussion).
Adelaide will name its team on Saturday night but has revealed 191cm midfielder Ronin O’Connor will debut.
The 20-year-old, taken at pick 42 in the 2019 national draft, registered 24 disposals, seven clearances and six tackles to be among the Crows’ best in the SANFL against Port Adelaide on Saturday.
“We’ve had plans to manage Tex right throughout the year and we’ll do that this week,” Nicks said.
“It’s our furthest trip away so we’ve looked at this weekend and had it in the calendar as a possibility.
“By no means is it about performance – this is pre-planned.
“This one was in the diary.”
Nicks said Walker should be ready to return for the Round 10 home game against Melbourne.
He said the club had a management plan for the 30-year-old for the second half of the season “but that will change, that’s very fluid”.
“He feels good and … he’s performing well for us but there was always a conversation around at what point are we going to make sure you can perform at your best when we get to that latter part of the season,” he said.
Crouch was on track to make his season debut - in the SANFL - within a fortnight before pulling up sore from training on Tuesday, when he ran more than 5km with the main group.
The 26-year-old midfielder sat out Thursday’s session at West Lakes and was set to consult a specialist.
Nicks was hopeful the 2017 best-and-fairest winner’s next step was not surgery.
“He pulled up quite sore from Tuesday, which is quite concerning,” he said.
“He’s going to have another conversation with the specialist and we want to make sure we’re still on the right track here.
“We were expecting Matty maybe getting half a game at SANFL level in the next one or two weeks and his progression was going really well up until Tuesday.
“He worked really hard, was moving quite well and he felt good ... but we’re going to have a look at that.
“It’s another conversation, I hope it’s not other action – other action is an operation.
“It’ll be one we keep an eye on from here.”
Crouch, an All-Australian in 2017, had an arthroscopy on his right hip during the off-season and an associated groin issue flared in March.
He is out of contract at the end of the season.
Nicks said key forward/ruckman Frampton, who had booted 12 goals and averaged 16 disposals in the SANFL since being dropped last month, was a contender to return.
“He’s a stand and deliver for us in the forward line, he’s a pack mark sort of player and we’re going up against a team that are very good in the air,” he said.
Hybrid forward Shane McAdam is in line to fill the void left by the absences of Lachlan Murphy (ankle) and Ned McHenry (concussion).
“Shane went out not through lack of effort playing for the team, it was really just trying to find some form for him,” Nicks said.
“He wasn’t impacting games … and sometimes that small jolt or reset can help a player.
“He’s a WA boy so he’s really keen to play and he’s let me know in no uncertain terms.”
Nicks said Jones might come in as part of a reshuffle and play in his new half-back role.
“You don’t want to throw him back in and lose the momentum he’s built,” he said.
“But he looks like he’s fantastic nick … and he’s confident.”
Nicks said rookie speedster Tariek Newchurch had been discussed at selection but the club did not “want to throw him in the deep end just yet”.
McHenry jogged on the sidelines at training on Thursday, while Murphy was on crutches and his right foot was in a moon boot.
Nicks said McHenry had recovered well and was on track to return next week.
It was Nicks’s 46th birthday on Thursday and when asked what he wanted for it, he replied: a win.
Adelaide last beat West Coast in Perth in June 2016.
“They’re in good nick and it’s a great challenge for us,” Nicks said.
YOUNG GUN CROW RE-SIGNS
Adelaide young gun Lachie Sholl says he couldn’t ink a contract extension quick enough after the Crows approached him about an early renewal.
Despite being signed to the end of next year, Sholl has put pen to paper on a two-year extension that will take the dual Rising Star nominee to 2024.
He is the 10th Crows player to pen a new contract this season, and Sholl said it was just a matter of where he needed to sign his signature after the club approached him.
“The club just came to me and I was just very happy to put pen to paper,” he said.
“It was something that came out of the blue a little bit but it was very pleasing, a very easy decision to stay here for longer.
“(It was surprising) a little bit, there are obviously negotiations going on with players out of contract this year so I was a little bit surprised but in a good way of course.
“When they came to me it was a no-brainer, it was a matter of where do I sign really.”
There are still 16 Crows out of contract at the end of the year, including Taylor Walker, Tom Doedee, Matt Crouch, Daniel Talia and Darcy Fogarty.
Sholl said he had no preference as to who would sign up next.
“Everyone, I love the group so just everyone,” he said. .
First round draftee Luke Pedlar is also set to return next week after having groin soreness last week.
Riley Thilthorpe (knee hyperextension) and Jordon Butts (finger) have been cleared of significant damage from the Crows loss to Port Adelaide in Showdown 49 and are set to take on West Coast on Sunday.
The Crows will be without Lachie Murphy (syndesmosis) and Ned McHenry, who was concussed after a tackle by Power ruckman Scott Lycett.
Sholl said McHenry, who just did running as part of the AFL’s concussion protocols, was fine while the playing group was flat for Murphy who is set to spend eight to 10 weeks on the sidelines
“We are very flat for him, he is a very important player and what he brings is something we really value in pressure and contest,” he said.
The two injuries are testing the Crows small forward stocks.
Shane McAdam was dropped to the SANFL but should get a recall while excitement machine Tariek Newchurch has showed flashes at state league level but there are questions over his endurance.
The two were alongside Walker, Thilthorpe and James Rowe in some of the Crows match simulation on Tuesday.
Sholl said the injuries gave a younger player a chance to push for senior selection.
“That’s the beauty of it, it can create opportunity for younger guys,” he said.
“There are guys putting their hand up.”
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Originally published as AFL 2021: All the latest Adelaide Crows news ahead of Round 9
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