AFL 2022: Keep up to date with the latest Adelaide Crows pre-season news
Adelaide and the SANFL could have new homes as talks ramp up. But the SANFL is understood to be frustrated with the Crows. Here is the latest.
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Adelaide Football Club could have Thebarton Oval as a stand-alone new AFL home.
The Crows are ramping up talks with West Torrens Council and the SANFL over a move to the ground, where the state league holds the lease.
A range of options are being discussed by the parties, including a swap of headquarters, which will pave the way for the SANFL to return to its former home at West Lakes.
Sources told The Advertiser the SANFL would need to receive a massive commercial offer to give up its lease at Thebarton and move elsewhere.
Although there is no official proposal tabled, it is understood the Crows prefer to have Thebarton to themselves, rather than share it with the SANFL and Adelaide Footy League, which has a sublease.
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Thebarton’s lack of space complicates a possible co-sharing arrangement.
The North-South Corridor project is set to require the adjacent Kings Reserve for storage for about five years from the end of 2023, leaving the precinct with just one oval.
Crows chairman John Olsen said a scenario where the club moved to Thebarton, the SANFL to West Lakes and Adelaide Footy League to Campbelltown Oval would work for it.
“But of course this has got to be a process whereby, as best we can, it’s a win-win for all the parties concerned,” Olsen told SEN.
“With a lot of goodwill and an approach to looking after the interests of all groups, then I think there is a journey that can meet that.
“That’ll be the basis of extensive discussions and negotiations over the next few weeks or months.”
Adelaide has zeroed in on Thebarton since having its bid to build at its preferred option, Brompton Gasworks, rejected last month.
The Crows’ moves to establish a base at Adelaide Aquatic Centre and in the parklands also fell over in the past two years.
Adelaide needs to have committed its $15m in Federal Government funding for a new headquarters by June 30.
On Tuesday, Olsen told the Crows’ members meeting the search was complex, exciting and at times terribly frustrating.
“Each site has its advantages and its challenges, and you have to weigh up the pros and the cons and come to a landing over … what is the best option for the Adelaide Football Club,” he said.
The SANFL is understood to be frustrated at the Crows having yet to commit to Thebarton as they stalled to focus on other options.
SANFL chief executive Darren Chandler said the league remained committed and focused on redeveloping Thebarton, which would create a second home of football in Adelaide, provide a hub for emerging talent and be a matchday venue.
The SANFLW grand final was held there last season.
Chandler said the SANFL agreed to Adelaide’s December 2020 request to assess the viability of co-locating at Thebarton and had undertaken an immense amount of work on the project.
“SANFL has remained open to the idea of the AFC joining SANFL at Thebarton Oval,” Chandler said in a statement to The Advertiser.
“Following AFC’s unsuccessful bid to secure the Brompton site, discussions with the AFC and the City of West Torrens have recommenced in recent weeks.”
Chandler said there were many operational elements to work through, including identifying a second oval to cope with training and match requirements, calling it crucial and a priority.
Potentially complicating talks over Thebarton is a clause that prevents the SANFL from handing over its lease without the Adelaide Footy League agreeing.
Adelaide Footy League was the ground’s major tenant until 2019.
League chief executive John Kernahan said though his organisation was frustrated with the process, it looked forward to seeing how the Crows could accommodate them.
“It’s hard to see how this works with too many cats in the sack (three tenants), but the Adelaide Footy League will be very disappointed should it become collateral damage,” Kernahan said in a statement.
“Whilst the Adelaide Football Club may be viewed as the prettiest at the dance, the Adelaide Footy League has over 100 years of tradition and a valued social footprint all decision makers should be aware of”.
West Torrens Council would also have to agree if the SANFL wanted to assign its lease to the Crows or give it up, but would be unlikely to stand in the way.
“We see the huge benefit to both the residents and business community of such a move, but ultimately it remains a matter to be resolved between the SANFL and the Crows,” West Torrens Mayor Michael Coxon told The Advertiser.
Labor has pledged to review the criteria used by State Government land agency Renewal SA to award Melbourne’s MAB Corporation the Brompton contract ahead of the Crows.
Olsen, a former Liberal Premier now the party’s federal president, said on Tuesday the club would work through that option again if it was on the table after the March 19 election.
Staying at West Lakes, where Adelaide has been based since its inception in 1990 and holds a lease until 2048, remains a possibility, albeit a last resort.
Crow’s comeback ‘Hinged’ on big hit
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson and Matt Turner
Mitch Hinge’s year-long wait to play his second AFL game for the Crows is on track to end in Round 1 after passing a crunching test against his former side.
Sidelined since the 2021 season-opener due to shoulder surgery, the ex-Brisbane utility was in the thick of the action in Friday’s practice match versus the Lions, including tackling a charging Joe Daniher and winning a holding-the-ball free kick.
Hinge, one of the Crows’ best in the 89-point defeat, said his body was feeling good and he did not think about his shoulder when he stood up to the 201cm, 96kg forward.
The 23-year-old said the ball was now in his court regarding Round-1 selection.
“The work I was able to put into my body … it’s held me in good stead now and I feel really, really confident in how my body’s feeling,” Hinge said.
“(The Daniher tackle) was a good test for it.
“But nothing really ran through my head other than ‘I’m just going to have to stand here and cop the full brunt of Joey’s body’.
“It (the game) was good for me to help find my feet and it was quite fitting it was against the old boys.”
Hinge dislocated his right shoulder twice after coming on as the medical substitute against Geelong in Round 1 last March.
The Mundulla product, who joined the Crows as a delisted free agent in November 2020, spent the rest of the season in the club’s rehabilitation group.
Adelaide took a cautious approach late last season, opting not to rush him back.
“It started as a very, very exciting day and it ended obviously quite disappointing,” Hinge said of his Adelaide debut.
“The hardest part was to adjust and understand what the best thing for me to get my body in the best nick.”
Hinge hoped his versatility in being able to play on taller or smaller opponents at halfback and push up to a wing would help his selection case.
If he does feature in the tricolours for a second time, he will pass his brother, John, a one-game Crow from 2007.
“I’ll get myself locked in the team, play a few more … then I might start chirping up to him,” Hinge said with a laugh.
Adelaide fielded a raw side and had only 28 players available against the Lions due largely to Covid protocols.
Only Jordan Dawson (calf soreness), Shane McAdam (sore adductor), Paul Seedsman (concussion) and Lachlan Murphy (neck) were likely to be sidelined for the SANFL and AFL practice matches this Saturday.
Hinge said the Crows wanted to improve their ball movement, defence and strength around the contest against Port Adelaide.
Here are our other observations from training:
■ Lachlan Murphy’s teammates are excited to see him take a big step in his recovery from neck surgery.
Two months after having the procedure, the 23-year-old small forward was back involved in match simulation on Wednesday and had an immediate influence.
Murphy sprinted to space inside 50 to mark a neat Taylor Walker pass then kicked truly from about 35m.
Teammates on both sides rushed to celebrate with him.
Murphy wore a fluoro hat to indicate no-contact training, but it was a good sign.
He started and finished the session with sprints, doing grappling practice in between.
A Round-1 return is a possibility for Murphy but it will depend on how he progresses over the next fortnight, including when he gets a doctor’s clearance to resume contact training.
■ Adelaide had close to a dozen guys on the track that were unavailable to play last week.
Tom Doedee returned on Wednesday, while the likes of Rory Sloane, Wayne Milera and Brodie Smith were also training.
Dawson was not on the track, McAdam ran along the sideline before heading inside early and Seedsman jogged with his now customary sunglasses.
Hinge said Dawson pulled up a little sore after training and his issue lingered but the club was not worried.
“There’s no real reason to risk it this week,” Hinge said. “He’s in incredible nick so he’s not going to be held back by having a couple of weeks off and he’ll be very primed for Round 1.”
■ In a potential further selection clue ahead of Saturday’s practice match against the Power, Milera, Sam Berry, James Rowe, Billy Frampton, Jackson Hately, Josh Worrell, Brayden Cook were on the weaker team during match simulation.
Draftee Jake Soligo, who impressed assistant Scott Burns with his efforts against the Lions, was again on the stronger side, along with Lachlan Gollant.
CROWS IN ‘TRANSITION’, BUT DUNSTALL LIKES WHAT HE SEES
The man who led the 2019 external review into Adelaide is confident the Crows are on the “right track” as the third year of the rebuild begins.
Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall was on the four-person panel that assessed the Crows football department following the club’s dramatic slide after the 2017 Grand Final.
The review led to widescale changes at the Crows with then head of football Brett Burton and senior assistant coach Scott Camporeale losing their jobs, while senior coach Don Pyke resigned while still under contract.
The Crows are now set to embark on their third year of the rebuild under senior coach Matthew Nicks.
Dunstall told The Advertiser at the Fox Footy season launch in Melbourne on Wednesday that he was hopeful the Crows were on the right path.
“I don’t have expectations, more so hopes for Adelaide that we start to see them find their way back towards finals football,” he said.
“I’m not expecting them to play finals footy but you’d want to see some improvement.
“They still have to add some depth to the list, that’s one of their biggest issues. but we need a strong Adelaide in the competition, it makes for a better game.
“It was always going to be a while for them to get back when they needed to be, you can’t fix things overnight.
“That’ the problem in the competition, you identify what the problems are but to fix them is harder.
“That can take a few years, they are in transition, you need a little bit of luck for that to happen and if you get some bad luck it can take a little bit longer.
“So we keep our fingers crossed that they are on track.”
While there has been widescale changes both in and outside of the football department at West Lakes since 2019, Dunstall said it wasn’t the Crows acting on the recommendations he and his fellow panel members made.
“I think we pretty much confirmed what they already knew,” he said.
“But I think they have conviction in their decisions to see it through which is very much required when you are a club in transition.”
After claiming the first ever wooden spoon in the club’s history in 2020 the Crows gave their fans some glimpses of optimism in 2021 with wins over Geelong and Melbourne among their seven for the season.
Dunstall said he hoped Crows fans continued to be patient with the developing side.
“I very much hope so, I can’t speak for the fans, they are a parochial mob but hopefully they can see where it is going and that it will take time,” he said.
“What they needed fundamentally was a lot of change, and they have done that
you need to bring in a breath of fresh air, a new outlook and a new culture and I think they are well on the way to doing that.
“They have some good young players and we need to see them develop and they will have to make some decisions on some of them but they need to keep recruiting quality players and draft picks.”
The Crows were able to lure Jordan Dawson from Sydney and have said they are approaching a point where they target free agents – with SA duo Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine out of contract at Gold Coast at the end of this season.
Dunstall said the Crows should still be targeting the draft.
“I would think you keep building the talent pool through the draft effectively, I think it is too early for them to go for the established stars,” he said.
“I think Jordan Dawson for them is a fantastic pick up, they have to get the players who have plenty of football ahead of them and then maybe in a year or two pounce on a big name.”
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said the Crows were still “trying to find their identity”.
“They are still trying to find their identity on the field and how they want to go about it,” he said.
“They would have a really clear idea now I reckon about where their strengths are and aren’t
but they need to put a block of six or eight games together where it is evident, they don’t need to be winning all the time.
“I think the early stages of the season is a great opportunity for them to put their stake in the ground.”
Back in black: Crows turn profit in Covid rebound
Adelaide is back in the black as the Crows start to plan a “road map” to success on and off the field.
After the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the Crows posting their first deficit since 2014 – a statutory loss of $2.8 million – for the 2020 season, the club announced at its annual members meeting on Tuesday that for the 2021 year it had recorded a statutory operating profit of $1.24 million.
The Crows also announced a cash operating profit of $3.59 million, compared to a loss of $411,675 in 2020.
This was on the back of revenue rising by 25 per cent, to $48.11 million.
Crows chairman John Olsen said this was an excellent result for the club.
“Hard work and commitment from everyone involved in the club resulted in a sizeable increase in revenue,” he said.
“It is a big turnaround from the previous year … this can be attributed to careful management of operating costs as well as some members and corporate partners continuing to stand by us in the pandemic.”
The Crows debt is still at $4.5 million but Olsen said the board and senior management had established a plan to eliminate it by 2025.
Olsen said that having a strong balance sheet “had never been more important” with the Crows hoping to establish a new training and administration facility.
The Crows are in discussions with the West Torrens Council and SANFL over a potential move to Thebarton Oval.
The Crows had hoped to establish their new headquarters at the old Brompton Gasworks site, putting in a formal bid, but the State Government decided to award Melbourne property developer MAB Corporation the contract to transform the site.
If they win government this month Labor has pledged to review the criteria used by state government land agency Renewal SA to choose MAB Corporation ahead of the Crows, which could give Adelaide a glimmer of hope for its Brompton plans.
Olsen, who is the Federal president of the Liberal Party, said the Crows would work with anyone to get the right result for the club.
“If on the 20th of March for example there are two options on the table (Thebarton and Brompton) we will continue the process of working through those sites,” he said.
“We will work with anybody, everybody to get the result for this football club that will last for 50 to 100 years.”
Crows chief executive Tim Silvers said a new headquarters was a key priority.
“Along with winning games of football it will be central to the new strategic plan which we have begun formulating for 2023 and beyond,” he said.
“This will be a road map as Covid impacts starts to diminish and we can plan and execute with greater certainty.”
Silvers also said the Crows would ramp up its community programs in 2022 after they were hit hard in 2020 and 2021.
It was also announced that former Seven newsreader Graeme Goodings has won a spot on the Crows board.
Goodings and Rod Jameson, who has been on the board since 2015, won the two member-elected positions in a vote.
Injury-cursed Crow eyes Round 1 audition
—Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Gun Adelaide recruit Jordan Dawson won’t play in the Community Series Showdown against Port Adelaide this weekend because of calf soreness.
It means the star Crow won’t have any pre-season games under his belt, after he was caught up in the Covid-19 outbreak at West Lakes, but Adelaide says the decision for this weekend is to make sure he is right to go.
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Dawson made the move back to South Australia from Sydney in the off-season and the former Swan has already established himself as a key part of the Crows.
But Crows fans are yet to see him in action in a match yet, and they will have to wait until Round 1 against Fremantle.
Dawson was one of a number of Crows who was caught up in Covid protocols and could not take on Brisbane on the Gold Coast in Adelaide’s practice match last Friday.
He will sit out a second straight game due to a calf complaint.
Crows high performance manager Darren Burgess said the 24-year-old had been on light training duties and the club would take a conservative approach with him.
“Ideally Jordan would have been able to get a game under his belt this weekend but our eye is on Round One and making sure he is right to go,” Burgess said.
“He has done the work over pre-season and has put himself in a good position so we don’t expect this setback to be significant.”
While Dawson won’t feature, Wayne Milera and Elliott Himmelberg are expected to play at either AFL or SANFL level this weekend.
Milera missed the entire 2021 campaign after tearing his patella tendon in pre-season while Himmelberg has recently had a hamstring injury.
Lachie Murphy is on track to return to contact training in the next fortnight after neck surgery in December.
Paul Seedsman “is still rebuilding his training loads” due to lingering concussion symptoms from an incident pre-Christmas.
Seedsman copped a knee to the back of the head in a marking contest and symptoms from the concussion have lingered significantly longer than expected.
Seedsman has required sunglasses while running outside at West Lakes and a potential return date is unclear.
Crows to call up cavalry for final pre-season test
Adelaide will be at close to full strength for its pre-season Showdown against Port Adelaide this weekend.
The Crows fielded just five players with more than 50 games to their names in their heavy loss to Brisbane on the Gold Coast in Friday’s practice match.
The defeat came after the Crows were hit hard by a Covid-19 outbreak that, along with injuries, significantly dented the playing list.
Rory Sloane, Brodie Smith, Taylor Walker, Paul Seedsman, Tom Doedee, Jordan Dawson and Wayne Milera were among the Crows players who did not play against the Lions on Friday.
The Crows had up to eight players who could have been available for the Lions clash if they were under the Victorian rules for close contacts rather than stricter South Australian ones – which are set to pose significant problems for Adelaide and the Power this season.
Most of the players who didn’t travel to Brisbane trained on Saturday at West Lakes.
Conditioning after isolation might impact which players take on the Power at Richmond Oval on Saturday but the Crows are expecting to be close to full strength with only Seedsman (concussion), Lachie Murphy (neck) and Elliott Himmelberg (hamstring) on the injury list.
Walker has been at training and is fit but the Crows decided to leave him in Adelaide to work on how Riley Thilthorpe and Darcy Fogarty lead the forward line in the absence of the former captain, who still has three games to serve on his AFL ban.
It is likely Walker isn’t used this weekend again against the Power.
Port Adelaide should find out the extent of a hamstring injury to Sam Powell-Pepper sustained in the Power’s disappointing loss to Gold Coast – also on Friday – while they are waiting to see how Scott Lycett’s ankle settles.
Lycett rolled his ankle and the Power’s no-risk approach with their No. 1 ruckman is set to result in Sam Hayes getting a huge chance to push his case for a AFL debut.
Powell-Pepper grabbed at his hamstring after a bump from Gold Coast’s Alex Davies.
Power midfield coach Brett Montgomery said after the game it looked like a “reasonable hamstring” injury for a player who had been a standout in Port’s pre-season to date.
Connor Rozee played half of the game but his ankle complaint is considered to be only minor.
Charlie Dixon could ramp up his recovery this week after having surgery on his ankle as he seeks to return to action for Round 1 against Brisbane.
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