Adelaide Crows have to become a destination club for free agents and trade targets

The Crows have always failed to get local talent back home. That’s something they have to fix, writes Kane Cornes.

Orazio Fantasia of the Bombers marks the ball during the Marsh Community Cup.

Every AFL recruiting chief and list manager has a book filled with “the ones that got away”. Former Adelaide Crows head recruiter Matt Rendell has a library.

During his time at West Lakes, before every AFL season started, Rendell would pick up the phone to start dialling. His mission was to sound out every South Australian who was on an AFL list and gauge their interest in returning home to play for the Crows.

This mission was almost always unsuccessful.

“I used to ring every player manager in the country in February and ask about all the Adelaide players and whether they wanted to come back home,” Rendell said on AFL Trade Radio this week.

Former Adelaide Crows recruiting manager Matt Rendell

“I couldn’t get one bite; I could not get one player who wanted to come back to Adelaide.”

Eight years have passed since Rendell departed the Crows in rather contentious circumstances. And the problem remains – Adelaide is not a destination club not even for those who once called Adelaide, the city, home.

Top of the rather large agenda for Adelaide’s incoming chairman John Olsen should be to find out why the recruiting strike rate is so poor for the Crows.

Adelaide cannot use the location as an excuse when compared with the big commercial cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

In-town rival Port Adelaide has had no major difficulty recruiting players from other AFL clubs.

South Australians Brad Ebert (West Coast), Angus Monfries (Essendon) and Ryan Burton (Hawthorn) have returned home to play for Port Adelaide.

There also is a long line of non-South Australian players including Paddy Ryder (Essendon) and All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon (Gold Coast) who have been convinced to join the Power.

When confronted with similar offers from both South Australian clubs, Jared Polec (Brisbane) and Steven Motlop (Geelong) chose Port Adelaide over the Crows.

Orazio Fantasia during an Essendon training session at Broadbeach Oval.

The recruiting misery is set to continue for Adelaide this year with Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia rejecting Adelaide’s advances and naming Port Adelaide as his club of choice.

Not even the richest deal in the history of the AFL and the lure of a premiership was enough to convince Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin to join the Crows in 2017.

Martin’s manager Ralph Carr revealed on SEN radio that North Melbourne offered his client $11 million over seven years in 2017. Amazingly, Adelaide matched that offer.

“It was Mark Ricciuto who came down to see me and they matched that (North Melbourne) offer,” Carr said.

Martin stayed at Richmond and has rewritten the history books with three Norm Smith Medals in the 2017, 2019 and 2020 AFL grand finals.

No player in Adelaide’s history has been known to have earned more than $1 million in any season.

The Crows were ready to pay Martin $1.5 million a season across seven years – and at the time of this auction was still to include premiership player, Brownlow Medalist or Norm Smith Medalist.

Dustin Martin is presented the Norm Smith Medal by Byron Pickett.

That same year Ricciuto also failed to convince four-time Hawthorn premiership player Luke Hodge to join the Crows. Hodge preferred his sunset seasons at Brisbane. His influence across two seasons as a player was crucial to turning around the fortunes of the underperforming Lions.

Premierships are built by having a sound list management strategy that touches every corner of recruiting. The draft, rookie draft, free agency and trading are the four crucial pillars of building a premiership team.

Besides GWS Giants midfielder Jackson Hately, who has committed to join Adelaide by a trade, the Crows have been forced to solely focus on the draft as the path to rebuilding their list.

Adelaide’s two biggest recruits this decade were Eddie Betts, who came via free agency in 2013 and Bryce Gibbs, who the club paid a hefty price for in the 2017 trade period.

Richmond is the blueprint for every struggling club to follow. At the end of 2016 the Tigers had embarrassingly missed the finals, but were still able to convince ruckman Toby Nakervis, Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy to join the club through trades.

Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt and Tom Lynch with the cup. Picture: Sarah Reed

Two seasons later Gold Coast captain Tom Lynch took the free agency path to Punt Road and two flags.

These players complimented those who Richmond had drafted such as Martin, captain Trent Cotchin, Jack Riewoldt, Shai Bolton and Noah Bolta.

Adelaide suffered its worst season in club history this year by winning only three games and collecting a wooden spoon.

The influx of draft picks will definitely improve the squad in time, but the departures of Brad Crouch, Kyle Hartigan and possibly David McKay as well as the miss on Fantasia means the Crows will be an even weaker team next season.

There needs to be some hard questions asked at West Lakes as to why Port Adelaide is a destination club and the Crows certainly are not.

WINNERS

KING THOMAS

Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas may have departed his post but his legacy will live on for decades. Thomas took over during the club’s darkest hour and turned the things around by prioritising and investing in people. No one in Port Adelaide’s AFL history has had a bigger impact at the than Thomas.

UNDER LIGHTS

The Grand Final atmosphere and entertainment within the stadium is far more memorable than during the day. I get the feeling the night Grand Final is here to stay.

GYM JUNKIE

Adelaide veteran Daniel Talia isn’t required to return to training until January next year but has already been spotted hitting the gyms around Adelaide. Talia is out-of-contract in 2021 and is determined to return to his All Australian best next season.

Adelaide's Daniel Talia leads the team off in his 200th game Picture: Sarah Reed

TRADE WINS

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd believes Bombers forward Orazio Fantasia could be the best pick-up by any club during the 2020 trade period. Lloyd said Fantasia will be the perfect addition to the Power’s already potent front six.

SHORT STUFF

Richmond’s Jayden Short added one of football’s biggest honours to his resume on Monday night, a best and fairest winner in a premiership team. What an achievement Short who was recruited to the Tigers with pick 11 in the 2016 rookie draft.

LOSERS

MAGPIE MISSES

The ink has hardly dried on the five-contract extension Collingwood midfielder Adam Treloar signed at the Magpies in August last year, yet now the club is trying to off-load him. The list management misfires at the Magpies are starting to pile up.

NO DANGER

The games two best players Dustin Martin and Patrick Dangerfield were on opposing sides in Saturday’s Grand Final but both had very different nights. Dangerfield was ineffective managing only 12 possessions, while Martin was again the matchwinner with 21 disposals and four goals.

ON THE OUTER

With Port Adelaide set to welcome in Lachlan Jones through the draft, Riley Bonner must be questioning his place at Alberton. Bonner was dropped for the underdone Ryan Burton in the qualifying final and should be assessing what his future could look like at another club.

Port Adelaide’s Riley Bonner during the AFL Marsh Community Series.

IN LIMBO

Currently there are a 140 players without a contract due to the AFL’s inaction regarding list sizes for next season. It’s not good enough and the AFL Players Association should have demanded an answer months ago.

CONFUSED HAWKS

If I was a Hawthorn fan, I’d be questioning the direction of the club. The Hawks are in desperate need of an influx of youth, yet they continue to make perplexing off-season moves such as signing Adelaide’s Kyle Hartigan.

Originally published as Adelaide Crows have to become a destination club for free agents and trade targets