Adelaide hopeful of re-signing defender Max Michalanney before start of next season, plus other Crows unsigned beyond 2026
Adelaide has a string of key players entering the last year of their contracts in 2026, but the club is hoping to lock up one of their most important young stars before round 1.
Adelaide is hopeful of re-signing defender Max Michalanney before the start of next season.
The 21-year-old father-son product is one of the key Crows without contracts beyond 2026.
Michalanney, who has played 66 of a possible 71 games since being selected at pick 17 in the 2022 national draft, looms as a future leadership group member at the club.
Crows list boss Justin Reid told this masthead that he’d had quite positive conversations with Michalanney’s manager, Players Ink’s Ben Williams.
“I’d never put a timeline on it because things could change, but it’s certainly heading in that direction (of re-signing before the season starts in March),” Reid said.
“We had finals, then the b&f (best and fairest) then Max went away to South America.
“It (talks) have probably just been (on hold) more because of the trade period and the draft for myself, Ben Williams and Max.
“That’s something we’ll pick up again between now and Christmas.”
Veterans Taylor Walker and Rory Laird, half-back Mitch Hinge, midfielders Sam Berry and Zac Taylor, hard nut Luke Pedlar and key defender Jordon Butts are other AFL regulars entering the last year of their deals at the Crows.
Adelaide was determined to keep Butts this past trade period despite interest from clubs in his home state of Victoria.
Walker signed a 12-month extension last month, Laird’s deal was for five seasons and inked in 2021, while Hinge was on a two-year contract.
Berry is also on a two-year deal from 2024, Taylor extended for 12 months in September, and Pedlar and Butts’s contracts stem from 2023.
The other Adelaide players unsigned beyond next season are off-season recruit Finnbar Maley, midfielder Billy Dowling, backman James Borlase, half-forward Brayden Cook, wingmen Chayce Jones and Lachie Sholl, untried 2023 draftees Charlie Edwards and Oscar Ryan, and father-son forward Tyler Welsh.
Adelaide has recruited dual Brisbane premiership player Callum Ah Chee, ex-North Melbourne forward/ruck Maley, draftee forwards Mitch Marsh and Archie Ludowyke, and basketball convert Indy Cotton since the club’s straight-sets finals exit.
Reid said although the club was in acquisition mode, it would not trade for the sake of it, so retention was an important part of trying to have sustained success.
“It’s the cohesion and keeping the collective together, and wherever we can add pieces, we will,” he said.
“It’s never a finished product.”
Originally published as Adelaide hopeful of re-signing defender Max Michalanney before start of next season, plus other Crows unsigned beyond 2026
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