The Footy Boss: An in-depth look at all aspects of the Adelaide Football Club
Under the watch of Justin Reid and Hamish Ogilvie, many questioned the direction of Adelaide’s list rebuild – but, now, as one footy insider says, there aren’t many teams better placed.
The Crows may have hinted at life after Taylor Walker this off-season by bringing in two potential key forwards through the draft.
They have also brought in an extra tall in the trade period.
It is always a delicate balance when working with a champion like Walker on whether to play on into another year and the Crows would have weighed up a few factors.
And Adelaide will be hoping its wellbeing focus for star Izak Rankine during his September suspension this year can help him bounce back into his best form.
LIFE AFTER ‘TEX’
Taylor Walker hit 300 games late this year and despite being a player of that ilk, he is going to go into the next season with no guarantees.
Adelaide would have had some open conversations with him, which you need with someone of that stature.
He still brings a bit on field and they like his leadership around the club so he ticks a couple boxes if he has the passion to keep going.
Without all three of those things, you are probably done.
While ‘Tex’ is a club champion, calls like this always fall back on to list management.
Sometimes there are really hard calls and other times there is enough there to go again.
With Adelaide finishing on top of the ladder, if they had fallen away this year it may have forced a decision for Tex to retire.
The fact they are now competing with top teams helps those older players continue on because they add value and the window is wide open.
The Crows drafted two key forwards (Mitch Marsh and Archie Ludowyke) and traded for another in Finnbar Maley so are potentially looking at life after Tex.
History shows most of the gun key forwards are taken with top five picks.
Fortunately they have Riley Thilthorpe, a former No. 2 pick, on their books as that potential superstar key forward.
Elite forwards are hard to come by and you need early picks and it seems that Adelaide are not going to draft in that area in coming years.
You really need to fill those key pieces, particularly tall forwards, when you are towards the bottom of the ladder and have those high-end picks, otherwise you might miss the boat.
You always like to have enough developing talls on your list because you will have the top-end draftees who will come on fairly quickly but the rest will take time.
They all won’t make it, even the top 10 picks don’t all come on.
It is a fine line because when you have top 10 picks it is a safer option to take midfielders but if you really like a tall who is around your pick you have to go when the opportunity is there.
Callum Ah Chee was a two-time premiership player for Brisbane and the Lions wanted a return for him.
It's official, Callum Ah Chee is a Crow 😠pic.twitter.com/yvEvT7u2lQ
— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) November 21, 2025
At the same time I thought Adelaide’s offer was a pretty sound, including a future second and a future third.
What was most interesting was the post-trade press conference, to see both Crows list manager Justin Reid and Ah Chee’s manager Ben Williams get up together was a pretty assertive move.
The pre-season draft became the next option once the trade fell through, I think Justin put his old player manager hat on and did his best to make it clear no clubs would do a medical with him to snuff out any last sign of a pulse for other clubs.
Ah Chee gives them some flexibility and can play forward and back for the Crows.
In theory other clubs could grab someone like Ah Chee for free before Adelaide can in the pre-season draft, given the Crows would have picked quite low there if other clubs used their choices.
But he has a pretty experienced agent and a lot of it is about agents holding their line when the heat comes on.
If the agent buckles it might open things up for other clubs but the agent and club were locked in so he was always going to get to Adelaide.
With the pre-season draft in the background, Adelaide didn’t need to go too over the top with their offer.
All clubs want to do a fair and reasonable deal and they are never one-off deals. If you are burning people it will come back to get you at some stage.
Clubs will put in a reasonable offer and try and get the deal done and have a win-win for all parties but it didn’t quite meet up to Brisbane’s expectations.
There is some risk with the pre-season draft and clubs don’t force it but they know it is a pretty healthy alternative, given Adelaide now keeps the picks it offered for Ah Chee.
Credit should go to the list management team at Adelaide, led by Reid and Hamish Ogilvie.
They have weathered the storm over a number of years as the club has rebuilt into a stage of contention, with plenty of doubters questioning the direction of the list along the way and calling for change.
To finish as minor premier this year with plenty of growth ahead leaves the club well placed over this next period.
RANKINE’S RETURN
Getting that full season into Izak Rankine will be really important after his 2025 campaign was ended through suspension.
Once the penalty has been handed out, in those situations nobody would be more disappointed than the player himself.
As a club, you have to come from a position of support, whether that is giving them time away or keeping involved in the program.
Teammates are really good, they would have got around him and made a really challenging situation as comfortable as possible.
Clubs are pretty forgiving places. He is a competitor so it would be burning up inside to have a big pre-season and show everyone what he can do.
There was plenty of external criticism about Rankine heading to Europe in the early part of his suspension.
The hard thing for a club is that yes, there is the media messaging, but there is also the wellbeing side of it.
You are conscious sometimes that things aren’t rolling out perfectly media wise but they are in the best interests of the player.
Maybe he needed time away before he was in the best place to front the media, that part is always tricky unless you are inside the club with it.
LIST OVERVIEW
IN: Finnbar Maley (North Melbourne), Callum Ah Chee (pre-season draft), Mitchell Marsh (draft No. 22), Archie Ludowyke (draft No. 50), Indy Cotton (Category B signing)
OUT:Matt Crouch, Brodie Smith (retired), Chris Burgess, Karl Gallagher, Lachlan Murphy, Harry Schoenberg, Kieran Strachan (delisted)
LIST GAPS
The Crows ended up as runners-up to the Lions in the hunt for free agent Sam Draper, who would have provided some ruck support for Reilly O’Brien.
The Crows seem like they have been pretty particular and sound and not reaching at just anything.
They are doing a bit of fine tuning of their list and obviously have seen they need to fill that gap but weren’t able to do it.
Having finished on top of the ladder, some externally may have wanted the Crows to go hard at an elite player to complete their side but I think Adelaide have been really disciplined at the moment and they are just adding the pieces when they are in front of them and not being reckless at the same time, it is sound decision making.
They had a little look in the Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca market.
Petracca seemed to go a bit further with him going to Adelaide but it never really moved into a situation where the Crows got into a full pitching mode.
LIST STRENGTHS
As mentioned above, the Crows now have a bit of depth in their key forward stocks after playing Walker, Thilthorpe and Fogarty together for much of 2025.
Fogarty is one they will be hoping will have a break out year after Thilthorpe took a big step in 2025.
DRAFT RESULT
Adelaide had a fair crack at trying to land Dyson Sharp by trying to strike a deal with Essendon, including offering two first round picks.
Crows recruiter Hamish Ogilvie is one of the more experienced operators on the recruiting circuit, he knows what he likes and will go after it.
They went really aggressively to try and get that done which would have been a good, strong move for them.
The Bombers are in that period now where they are trying to load up on high-end players so weren’t prepared to relinquish the chance to get Sharp but it was worth having a go at for the Crows.
Most of those possible draft night moves are actually floated pre-draft.
They might have been discussed in the lead up, particularly the ones early in the draft because you know who is going to drop early.
Potentially clubs will push you to draft night to see what will pan out before making any moves but most don’t really want to be surprised on the clock with a first-round deal on draft night.
The Crows were keen to get the pick in time for Sharp but in those pick trade talks you are not normally revealing the player you are targeting, you are trying to get the selection you will get them with.
Often if the club you are dealing with has another pick around there, they may want intelligence on who you might be taking so it is not impacting their plans.
It could be part of the discussion to give a bit of information and make sure it is confidential, and that will be up to the Crows whether they give that information away.
Essendon wanted the same player so it wasn’t going to happen for Adelaide, which may have turned out well for Sharp himself being an Essendon supporter.
In the end Adelaide settled on Mitch Marsh, who is the son of premiership player Ben.
Adelaide are excited to get him in, they love his attitude and running ability for his size.
And they took another key forward in Archie Ludowyke – a Sandringham Dragons forward with a good leap on him and some good speed.
SALARY CAP
Being in the running for Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera before he re-signed at St Kilda showed Adelaide has an eye on the market for a high-end player.
They have their targets but if it doesn’t come off they will bank that money and look to next time so they seem to be in a pretty good position in the TPP (total player payment) space.
Much like the two WA sides, the Crows are often against their cross-town rivals the Power when trying to lure South Australian talent back home.
The West Australian teams focus on getting back the West Australians and it is no different in South Australia.
You are rivals with the other team in your town on that front but at the same time there is enough in the market for players from those states that some years – Port might go in one direction with their recruits and Adelaide go in another.
When there is a really high-end player it is different because they don’t come around as often.
Both clubs know the other will be keen for that star if he hits the market, and both SA clubs were jostling for Nasiah during this year, so it can be competitive.
HIGH PERFORMANCE CHECK-IN
Adelaide farewelled Darren Burgess from the job as high performance boss after the season as he headed to European soccer powerhouse Juventus.
His replacement, Ian McKeown, has some experience in the AFL with Port Adelaide but most recently has been with NHL team Philadelphia Flyers.
Ice hockey may seem like a long way away from an AFL pre-season but the high performance side of footy seems to be the only real group that does cross codes.
That is something you don’t see happen in coaching or recruiting and list management.
Australians in the high performance, medical and physio space are very, very highly regarded across the world.
When you go over to the United States, a lot of the questions you get asked are to do with high performance.
We are considered world class in those areas.
A lot of these experts had a grounding in AFL and have been able to cross over.
AFL is such a demanding game across speed, endurance and strength so it probably holds our high performance staff in good stead to cross over.
The Crows had a great year on the injury front in 2025.
I have written about some of the sides that struggled with injuries but a good run is a combination of good management and a bit of luck.
What you are looking for with injuries is what can be managed and what is unlucky.
Some of the knee and collision injuries are unlucky but soft tissue injuries are monitored a lot more closely.
This year Adelaide had some good luck and also some good management and if you can have a year where you have a durable list it also sets up the following year because you are compounding healthy bodies.
If you have a couple of rough years you suddenly start tallying up players who haven’t had continuity, so a good run holds them in pretty good shape for next year too.
THE COACH’S BOX
Murray Davis is a very experienced person who has worked in good programs and he came from Brisbane to Adelaide last off-season as a coaching director.
The coaching director is a broad title and the main part would be to play a support role to the senior coach.
The coaching team is the biggest team in the football department so the coaching director can take some responsibility to help support the line and development coaches.
There is a game model that has been planned out and delivered on and there is the way players are educated and developed.
The coaching director would have a hand in those things and take a bit of a weight off the senior coach.
With soft caps being tight these days, some clubs will go with three line coaches, plus a fourth line coach, or you might have a senior assistant or a director of coaching.
FRONT OFFICE
It felt like no coincidence that with Neil Balme joining the club board, the Crows played in their first finals series in eight years.
He has the Midas touch, wherever he goes the club he goes to seems to hit their straps.
He did it with Geelong, he did it at Richmond and turned up at the Crows and had the same result again.
He is the type of person that brings so much common sense and wisdom to the club.
Geelong and Richmond have spoken often about that sense of peace and calm he brings to organisations.
In a two-team town like Adelaide and the pressure that is always on, he is a smart choice to have on board.
James Gallagher is another who joined the club board, who was a previous list manager at St Kilda so he brings good experience to help the football department.
From time to time there is some grumbling from other clubs about the Crows and Power hosting a ‘bonus’ home match each season due to Gather Round.
Both teams are hard to beat in Adelaide and it is certainly helpful for them but the industry understands what a great round of footy Gather Round has become.
It is an initiative that has taken off and it is really putting Adelaide on the map as well from a football point of view and helps them become more of a destination for non-SA players.
Originally published as The Footy Boss: An in-depth look at all aspects of the Adelaide Football Club
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